Chinese New Year songs, traditional or otherwise, had earned big bucks for large recording companies like EMI, RCA Victor, Polydor or Philips and smaller ones like Polar Bear, Happy, Corte$ions, CTEP, Sakura and many others (image: Teresa Teng).
In the 60's there were thousands of pressings by artistes from Singapore and around the region that allowed many companies to take home thick ang-pows (red packets filled with money) after sales. Some Chinese records sold as many as 100,000 copies or more around the region for a single top artiste.
From Sakura to Stylers, our local singers and bands, armed with CNY music and lyrics were rushing to studios months before the big day. In the 60's bands that accompany singers had been rumoured to earn as much as $6,000 a month (a lot of money those days), more than their day-time jobs as clerical officers or even a senior officer.
Like the Christmas Albums pressed by international artistes, Chinese New Year albums around our region sold like hot cakes. And these special albums become classics, kept for the sole purpose of playing them years on. And the songs become evergreens.
Could Teresa Teng's CNY vinyl records be just as popular now as Bing Crosby's White Christmas Album? Yes, they do. Her records sell by the thousands because the English educated buy them too. Don't forget that sales get repeated every year, the same CNY songs and music.
Could Teresa Teng's CNY vinyl records be just as popular now as Bing Crosby's White Christmas Album? Yes, they do. Her records sell by the thousands because the English educated buy them too. Don't forget that sales get repeated every year, the same CNY songs and music.
Anyone remember what our local 60's musicians produced for CNY? Do tell.
Image/Original article: Andy Lim Collection.
5 comments:
And they still continue to earn big bucks. I like the eye-catching record covers.
There are so many versions of the popular CNY songs that enthusiasts usually end up buying the music recorded by their favourite bands & singers.
Thanks so much with these Chinese New Year music of the Stylers band, appreciated.
This is one of the best CNY music performed by The Stylers I have heard. Thanks for upload and sharing...
Teresa Teng, Teng Li-Chun or Deng Lijun (January 29, 1953 – May 8, 1995) was a Taiwanese pop singer, known for her folk songs and romantic ballads. Songs were so popular they were standards within weeks of sales during her lifetime. "Mistress" or " Aijin" and "The Moon Represents My Heart" are two of hundreds that she could sing and recorded.
She recorded not only in her native Mandarin but also in Taiwanese Hokkien, Cantonese dialects, Japanese, English and even Indonesian.
An asthmatic from birth she died, at 42 in 1995, from a severe respiratory attack while in Thailand.
Beautiful, talented and a heartbreaker with songs. What a loss.
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