I always knew, in a general way, that “If You Go Away” was based on Jacque Brel’s “Ne me quite pas,” but I had no idea what a pale shadow it was until I was sent down the YouTube rabbit hole by the season finale of The Leftovers, which featured Nina Simone’s brilliant take on the original. (Note that the clip below containing moments of the bloody aftermath of a suicide, so trigger warning.)

That led me to seek out a complete performance of Simone’s version … (more…)