SINGAPORE 60's: ANDY's POP MUSIC INFLUENCE IS A PERSONAL MUSIC, MEMORY TRAIL. BLOGGER DOES NOT OWN THE RIGHTS TO VIDEOS, AUDIO TRACKS AND IMAGES. THEY ARE UPLOADED FOR FUN, EDUCATIONAL, ILLUSTRATIVE PURPOSES AND HAVE BEEN CREDITED. BLOG IS NOT SPONSORED NOR ADVERTORIAL IN ANY WAY WHATSOEVER. INFORM BLOGGER OF COPYRIGHT ISSUES AND POST WILL BE DELETED IMMEDIATELY. DO NOT COPY THE POSTS; GET PERMISSION N CREDIT ME IF YOU DO. ANDY LIM LA (NOVEMBER, 2008) -
(新加坡六十年代安迪的流行音乐影响力), SUDI MAMPIR !
For 2 years (1964 - 1966), I fronted Singapore guitar groups, recording artistes: The Velvetones, Swallows and Silver Strings. Enjoyed fun and excitement those years. Since I took an academic path afterward this blog serves as a coffee-stop and written to:
(a) relive my missing music years, (b) keep seniors posted about our local music, (c) encourage music stories from readers, (d) keep our younger generation, especially my 3J's, aware of our heritage and (e) help students with term papers or information regarding popular culture and local music history in the 60's.
Although I have lived the age and participated in the music I am neither a music guru nor historian. No showing off past glories. Completed a Diploma in TESL (Victoria U., New Zealand); Cert. Eng Lit (U. of Aberdeen, Scotland); BA English Language/Literature (U. of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) and MA Applied Linguistics (Macquarie, Sydney, Australia). I welcome mail from readers with similar interest. This blog is neither sponsored nor advertorial and not done for financial gains. Most articles, images are acknowledged. Any infringement, please inform for immediate deletion. IF YOU HAVE ARTICLES TO SHARE, PLEASE WRITE TO ME. Sudi mampir. 欢迎. Huangying. Andy Young
(3) MORE CLIFF & SHADOWS: August 30th, 2006: YouTube Video: ZeKRuLe. Comments:
1. Maxld: Solo is always the best part of The Shadows performances. That's when the real Marvin magic starts to kick in, and the song just gets from "great" to "freaking awesome" towards the end.
2. Revelonray: there's only one Hank Marvin. He's just great! Best sounding by a mile.
3. Talldark77: Many people mock Hank as the oldies, but the fact remains he's an awesome guitarist who inspired most of the greats. He's one of the originals and one of the best.
4. MusicBravo: Mark Knopfler, Mike Oldfield and many more subjects copied The Shadows, undoubtedly. Already wrote this page in history - congratulations Shadows.
5. Hittheskins: To be fair to The Ventures, The Shadows deserve to be in the Hall of Fame. I think the difference was always the Hank Marvin Factor. He's simply one of the greatest guitarists ever and backed up by one of the greatest drummers and rhythm guitarists of all time. Special mention to Jet Harris and Tony Meehan - two more greats. Best instrumental band ever!
6. Gorgeous stuff. Hank Marvin has always had such a rich, melodic style. He's picking single notes but they always sounds grand in size. And that grand sound is the one thing all great British guitarists have in common - from Townshend to Marr, Jimmy Scott to Jeff Beck. Now you know where it all started. With this guy. Hank Marvin...
7. Hittheskins: The highest accolade I can say about this fantastic group is that within the first note plucked you just know its HANK MARVIN; 50 years of the greatest instrumental group ever. I just love that sound. It's sublime. Reference: Quotes from You Tube for Moonlight Shadows. Image: http://www.4.bp.blogspot.com/
This Long Play costs me S$10.00 and it's worth every dollar I paid. Can you guess where this group Ming comes from and who the members are? The 70s fans should know them better.
Born in Berkeley, California, U.S.A. of Swedish & American parentage Anders Nelsson brought this group together. The original line-up consisted: Ronald Chan, bass, Mario Bernardo, guitar and vocals, Maria Wu, drums and vocals, Anders Nelsson, guitar. Nelsson was supposed to plan, write and produce but resulted in him fronting the group.
They had several hits in Hongkong and Asia, most in Thailand with Reason Why and Malaysia with This Time Tomorrow between 1973 and 1976. When the group disbanded after three years, there were some changes and Hardy Li joined with keyboards. Mario Bernardo left the group and was replaced by Johnson Tang with guitar and vocals.
Nelsson wrote his first published song, I Still Love You and it was recorded as the second single by his first recording group The Kontinentals on Orbit Records in 1965. It spent a couple of months in the Hongkong charts in late 1965 and early 1966. It was recorded in Cantonese too.
Recorded in 1974, the above EMI/Columbia vinyl (image) is S 33ESX-221 with Reasons Why, It Doesn't Matter Anymore, Missing You Did Ya, Peace Of Mind, Merry-Go-Love on Side One.
Ming: Never Comin' Home.
YouTube Video by: sai kit hon
Side Two has: White Eagle, Never Coming Home, Another Morning, 13 Down And 8 To Go, Aren't You Satisfied and Wiseman. Except for It Doesn't Matter Any More by Paul Anka, the others are by Anders Nelsson. MING not only had local/original English compositions but adopted harder guitar-based styles and emphasised instrumentation over singing.
His company, The Melody Bank produced a large number of jingles for advertising, film soundtracks for Hongkong films, and songs for local artistes that included George Lam, Alan Tam, Rowena Cortes and Kenny B. According to his biography, he 'spearheaded the successful promotion of Kenny G to superstar status in Asia.'
(2)MORE CLIFF & SHADOWS: There are many websites about Hank Marvin and information available is incredible and Blogger thinks it's the best time to write about Hank Marvin because he remembers he has an instrumental version of Georgia On My Mind when he posted Ray Charles earlier. A quick search reveals the record on the right.
The image shows the cover of Hank Marvin's 1969 LP, the year after he left the Shadows and went solo. They had reined unchallenged as Britain's top guitar group.
So with a view to future security, positive or otherwise, they began to pursue their own activities best suited to their individual talents. "And if there is one consolation to be found in the break-up of this polished group, it is the emergence of Hank Marvin as an accomplished solo performer (Derek Johnson - sleeve back cover)."
According to Johnson, the Shadows sound is the Marvin sound and together with Brian Bennett as drummer and musical director, their dexterity, creativity and sensitivity show in this album.
Blogger bought it for S$10.00 ten years ago. From the Internet shops he finds that it costs just about double today. The reason for buying? Although some of the songs are familiar, blogger finds the compositions different and perhaps intriguing?
Side One: 1. Aquarius 2. Born Free 3. This Guy's In Love With You 4. Tokyo Guitar (Marvin) 5. Chameleon (Bennett) and 6. Lara's Theme.
Side Two has: 7. The Big Country 8. Love And Occasional Rain (Bennett) 9. Georgia On My Mind 10. The Windmills Of Your Mind 11. *Sacha (Lordan/Greenaway/Cook) and 12. High Sierra (Marvin/Lordan).
The record is produced by Norrie Paramor, the man who featured in many of Cliff & Shadows pressings. Hank MARVIN has an instrumental piece in his own name entitled, NIVRAM. Got it? Is he still living in Perth, Australia?
Reference: Derek Johnson - sleeve cover. (EMI/Columbia/SCX 6352 HANK MARVIN)
If you still don't know about Cliff Richard after all these years then it's time to buy this book. I have a 1996 copy of The Ultimate Cliff. Bought from a bookshop at a university I wondered why it was sold there? It must have been recommended by one of the professors but I wasn't too sure if NIE offers pop music culture as an elective.
Unknown facts about Richard that might interest you, the 400 page book is divided into 6 parts and they include his childhood, the people he works with, his music (very detailed) and his performances.
There is also a memorabilia section that includes prices of his singles, EPs and LPs. This book is interspersed with published and unpublished photographs that any fan of Sir Cliff might want to keep. Oh and the Shadows too!
According to the short blurb about writers Peter Lewry and Nigel Goodall, they have "probably listened to more of Cliff Richard's recorded music... than any other person." There's also a foreword by Bruch Welch. A good read on a rainy night. Very detailed.
Remark from a friend: "Eh! Why you waste time... reading this book? Better read Bertrand Russell."
It's the best time to discuss Bing Crosby's White Christmas single which has sold 50 million copies worldwide and it's the most by any release. And it is still selling now.
The Guinness Book of World Records lists the song as a 100-million seller and this figure encompasses all versions of the song, including albums. It's the number one Christmas song on ItsRanked Top 40 Christmas Songs of all time.
Crosby's holiday collection Merry Christmas was first released as an LP in 1949, and has never been out-of-print since. Nearly 200 other singers have covered this particular Christmas song written by Irving Berlin. Name any pop singer and he or she would have covered it.
In Singapore, blogger heard it for the first time in a church somewhere in North Bridge Road. But that was a long, long time ago... But Singapore's Christmas will always be wet but green!
"I really love this Album by Bing Crosby. I grew up in Singapore in the 1950's and 1960's, and this is the ONE Christmas Album that went around the world with us (Literally) through the years!!!I still have the Album, By The Way!!!" (Rosalie, Newark, DE)
White Christmas: Bing Crosby.
Official Video YouTube: Bing Crosby.
Written by Irving Berlin it was for the movie musical, 'Holiday Inn', sung by Crosby on Christmas Day in 1941, it stayed on the Billboard Charts for 11 weeks until 1963 with more than 500 covers. It is so popular because it does not have a Christian theme. Wow!
First aired on Radio Singapore in the weekly pop chart programme, Lagu Pujaan Minggu Ini, the composite wordkugiran (kumpulan gitar rancak) was used by the first Malay DJ, Mohd Ismail Abdullah or M.I.A. It was rumoured that the word was coined by a subtitling officer, Daud Abdul Rahman. It was also P. Ramlee who used it to differentiate the combo-styled Malay bands of earlier times from the guitar groups.
The golden age of pop yeh-yeh started its demise in 1971. It's a pity because the formation and development of these guitar groups encouraged the establishment and existence of various recording companies in Singapore in the 60's and a lot of these songs were recorded on vinyl and sold well commercially. But there were bootleg records too. Plenty.
Some of the singers who have established themselves during this period included, M Osman, A Ramlie (OhFatimah), Jeffrydin, Roziah Latiff n The Jayhawkers, Adnan Othman, Halim 'Jandaku' Yatim, Afidah Es, J Kamisah, Siti Zaiton, J. Sham, A Rahman Onn, Hasnah Haron, Fatimah M Amin, Asmah Atan and Orkid Abdullah.
There were also A. Remie, Zamzam, Salim I, Kassim Selamat, M Rahmat, A Karim Jais, M Ishak, Hussien Ismail, Jaafor O, A Halim, Azizah Mohamed, S Jibeng and L Ramlee.
Manny Said was an original member of 'The Rhythm Boys'
Above pix was taken from his Facebook.[3.4.2023]
Other popular rock and pop bands of the period include The Rhythm Boys, The Siglap Five, The Hooks which featured A Romzi as lead vocalist, Siglap Boys, Les Kafilas (image), Cliffters featuring Rikieno Bajuri, Impian Bateks featuring Rudyn Al-Haj with his popular number Naik Kereta Ku and cappella like Oh Posmen, Gadis Sekolah and Zam Zam and the Twilights.
The Swallows EP featuring La Aube, Angkut Angkut Bilis and vocalist Kassim Selamat were featured in a radio station in Germany. There, La Aube was in the German pop chart. Most of the artistes mentioned are Singaporeans.
(Some of the bands mentioned have postings on this blog. Check them out.)
