In September 1958 Piaf was involved in a serious car crash, which weakened her declining health still further. Just a few months after the accident Piaf would collapse halfway through a concert in New York and had to be rushed to the hospital for an emergency operation.
Ignoring the advice of her doctors and her closest friends, Piaf still refused to abandon her singing career. In spite of the fact that she would frequently relive her New York disaster, collapsing on stage several times in mid-performance, Piaf could not imagine life without her music. In 1960 Piaf began working with the young French songwriter Charles Dumont who would offer the singer the most famous song of her entire career, "Non je ne regrette rien" (No Regrets). Piaf was totally bowled over by the song and promised to premiere it at her next major concert, which happened to be L'Olympia. (Piaf had promised Bruno Coquatrix that she would appear at L'Olympia at the beginning of 1961, to help the director save the famous Paris venue from bankruptcy). Piaf threw herself into the lyrics of "Non je ne regrette rien" body and soul, and her performance at the Olympia that night would go down in music history as one of the most legendary concerts of all time.