Many of these stories, which are read out over Nino Rota's Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet have a tragic narrative such as illness or death, although not all end on such an unhappy note.
Our Tune continues to be referenced in popular culture, while similar features involving listeners' stories have been employed by other presenters, including Radio 1's Mike Read and Jo Whiley.
According to a programme aired on Smooth Radio in 2013 to celebrate the feature's 33rd anniversary, the most requested song for Our Tune is Whitney Houston's version of I Will Always Love You.
The feature made a brief return in October 2015 as part of a series of programmes about relationships in later life that aired on BBC Local Radio.
[6] Bates had the idea for the feature after reading a letter from one of his listeners who had enjoyed a holiday romance during a two-week trip to Bournemouth which ended after both parties returned home, and her love interest joined the armed forces.
The segment quickly proved to be popular and was extended, soon becoming a regular mid-morning fixture for listeners, with people in offices, factories and schools often stopping work to hear the stories.
[15] After leaving Radio 1 Simon Bates worked for Irish-based long wave station Atlantic 252, where he revived Our Tune, before presenting a daily version of the feature for television, on BBC1's Good Morning with Anne and Nick in 1994–95.
The feature celebrated its 33rd anniversary on 21 July 2013 with a special programme on Smooth Radio in which Bates played the top ten most requested "our tunes".
[26] The idea of reading out listeners' stories about relationships or significant life events is one that has been often used on radio, and there have been a number of similar features following the Our Tune format.
In the 1980s the broadcaster Mike Read presented a similar slot during his tenure as host of The Radio 1 Breakfast Show titled First Love.
[28] While presenting his weeknight programme on Birmingham's BRMB in the early 1990s, Graham Torrington had a similar feature as part of his The Love Zone strand.
[30] In June 2012, Sam Wollaston of The Guardian compared the storyline from an episode of the BBC romantic drama True Love unfavourably with an edition of Our Tune, particularly as it was overlaid with sentimental music.
[31] In September 2012, The Daily Telegraph reported that a track created by users of the Poke website which remixed a speech by British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg had been compared to an edition of Our Tune because of its confessional nature.
The original speech was an apology for Clegg's promise to block an increase in University tuition fees before the 2010 general election, a pledge on which he later reneged as a member of the post-election coalition government.
[32] In his review of the 2013 film Labor Day, which concerns a depressed single mother living in New England, Daily Express columnist Henry Fitzherbert compared the first part of the story to an edition of Our Tune, but adds "What you never heard Bates say, however, was 'and then she met Frank...a convicted killer on the run'".
"[35] The BBC Asian Network presenter Sonia Deol made a tongue-in-cheek reference to the feature while discussing her formative years for a 2006 interview with The Independent.