Oscars Academy Award Winning Songs: 39-59

The 82nd Academy Awards (Oscars 2010) are around the corner and blogger is ready with a list of Oscar winning songs that he loves, remembers and is familiar with:

Year - Academy Award Winning Song - Movie

1939 - Over The Rainbow - The Wizard Of Oz
1940 - When You Wish Upon A Star - Pinnochio
1942 - White Christmas - Holiday Inn
1947 - Zip A Dee Doo Dah - Song Of The South
1948 - Buttons And Bows - Paleface
1949 - Baby It's Cold Outside - Neptune's Daughter
1950 - Mona Lisa - Captain Carey's Daughter
1952 - High Noon - High Noon
1953 - Secret Love - Calamity Jane
1954 -Three Coins In A Fountain - Three Coins In A Fountain
1955 - Love Is A Many Splendoured Thing - Same Name Movie
1956 - Que Sera Sera* - The Man Who Knew Too Much
1957 - All The Way - All The Way
1958 - Gigi - Gigi

Are you familiar with any of these songs? Can you remember the singers? Have some of the songs been recorded by our Singapore 60s bands or sung and played by them on stage?

Well, there are at least 3 that blogger knows. Do you remember which one?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZbKHDPPrrc

Image: *Doris Day sings, Que Sera Sera.

Maurice Patton & The Melodians With Simon Jr

   UP TO 7,800 VIEWS,   

60+ CHATS, COMMENTS

pipa wrote:

Hi Andy,

Have you got any info on Maurice Patton and The Melodians featuring Simon Junior? It seems they were very influential in the 1960's. Nothing much on the internet about them. Can't find much information about them elsewhere.

Thank you.

Andy's Reply:

Yes, it's a challenge indeed. I have been trying to get some information about this group of musicians and hope to compile something in the near future.

.

According to the information gathered from EP vinyls of the 60s, Maurice Patton And The Melodians (image with Choh Ying and Simon Jr. on drums) have recorded many songs in English and Chinese with these companies: Hero Records, Cortersions $, Blue Star Records, Art Sea, Roxy Records, Happy Records and the studio involved was usually the Pearl, Dean & Kinetex Studios. Patton has recordings where he features his own name - MAURICE - and image on the sleeves.

.

Simon Junior, Ling Seow, Wong Chin Yian, Choh Ying, Patrina are some of the Chinese singers backed by Patton and his group. I have also noticed that some of the Chinese songs recorded are covers with English lyrics and sung by Simon Junior.

.

Some titles like Man Lee, My Girl, Wait For Me, Night Dream, Born To Live, Dream Of Spring, Deep Deep Love are popular Chinese tunes available on the market presently. They are for English speaking listeners familiar with the melody but not the language.

.

Other songs by Patton and his boys are 60s US and UK pops. One interesting vinyl I own called 'Let's Dance Soul' has Master Jack, She Wears My Ring, Kiss Me Goodbye and Man Without Love. The other called, A Go Go, Off Beat Cha Cha has Silver Threads & Golden Needles, I Really Don't Want To Know and Where Are You and Mixed Feelings. According to one website, Patton used the echo unit to create a Chinese beat style later emulated by many Chinese bands.

.

The vinyl market is so large that many professional musicians grouped to record guitar instrumentals. The Stylers, The Travellers, The Silverstones, The Tones, Charlie and The White Cloud Orchestra and Patton with The Melodians are some of the successful ones.

.

Anyone familiar with Maurice Patton and The Melodians? Were you in one of these groups? Do write in to tell us. We'd love to hear from you.

Image/Original article: Andy Lim Collection.

Still Searching For The Velvetones Since 2008

The sleeve image on the right was sent in by Steve Farram from Australia and has the name of the band, The Velvetones printed on its cover. Just wondering if it's the same Velvetones from Singapore, or another one from Malaysia or Indonesia with a similar name?

If you are familiar with the vinyl, the recording company, Oriental, the singer S. Azim Tjan and the songs, Khayal Penyaer, Gadis Di-Jendela, Oh Mulsalmah and Puspa Kenchana, please write in.

(On Dec 22, 2008, there was a posting on the Velvetones. Click below.)

Did The Velvetones Record In Minangkabau?

Thank you Steve.

(9) From Dr. Lee, Penang With Russ Hamilton - The Malaysian, UK, Sing60s Music Connection

A note about Russ Hamilton from Dr. Lee Yan San, Medical Practitioner, Penang, Malaysia.

Dr. Lee said...
"Thanks for your nice tribute to Russ Hamilton. Russ is an exceptionally great and friendly gentleman. I am so glad to have met him (image: Russ Hamilton, sister, Dr Lee, family) and done a long interview with him for our Malaysian radio station few years back. We became close friends.

I was so sad when his twin sister contacted me to let me know that Russ had passed away.

He once told me that We Will Make Love was his most successful song and of the songs he wrote, he loved Little One most... a lullaby he wrote for his niece in Canada. He said he wrote and sang Reprieve of Tom Dooley after meeting his friend Lonni Donegan at the studio when he was recording the hit Tom Dooley.

He had also given me his unreleased songs which are now a real treasure to me. I have collected all his released songs and made into a CD to keep. I contributed to his biography at Wikipedia some time ago."

March 3, 2010 4:14 PM

Thank you, Dr. Lee for writing. I must say that Russ Hamilton and his songs will always be with us as we remember 60s music. He's one of the greatest singers really. It would be wonderful to have a copy of his CD with the unreleased songs as a souvenir.

Regards,

Andy Lim

(You can access Dr. Lee's blog by clicking on his name above.)

To Andy Singapore 60s Music: A Note About Russ Hamilton In Passing - From The Original Chevelles, The Echoes, UK.

This comment about Russ Hamilton appeared on my posting:

"Just a note about Russ Hamilton aka Ronald Hulme. He was a good friend to myself and my band and he helped us get into the business.

We were supposed to see Russ last year in November but his nephew called us in October and told us about his passing.

He was a great friend, a mentor and an all around nice guy. He is truly missed but never forgotten, whenever we perform we always do Rainbow and dedicate it to Russ." 

Sincerely,

The Original Chevelles, 

The Echoes. 

Saturday, May 09, 2009. 

British 60s Pop Influence With Russ Hamilton 

(Original Posting)

Thank you for writing. I must apologise for not reading nor replying to your note when you sent it. 

Regards,

Andy 

March 3rd, 2010.

Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard, Ricky Nelson, Matt Monroe Of Ipoh, Malaya (Part V)

During this time in the 60s in small town Ipoh, Malaya, there was also an explosion of singers who really made names for themselves by impersonating and singing songs by Cliff Richard, Elvis Presley, Matt Monroe and Ricky Nelson.

.

In my hometown our well-known *impersonators include: Ho Kok Onn - Cliff Richard, Les Lee - Elvis Presley, Johhny Lee - Matt Monroe, and Richard Ng - Ricky Nelson.

.

Our band The Teenage Fentons, was always the back-up band for all of them when they performed at the movie theatres like the Lido and Rex Theatre.

.

*There are impersonators of western pop singers from all over Malaya in the 60s.

Image/original article: Joseph Chin Collection, Ipoh, Malaysia.

Teenage Fentons - A Falcons Offshoot (Part IV)

The Falcons were happily playing for gigs around Ipoh and were proud and thankful they were the only band with a manager and had instruments provided for. Everything was hunky-dory until the day Robert called the group for a meeting. Things were to change drastically as he told us that his father wanted him to stop as our manager to concentrate on his family business. It came as a shock to us.

.

Together we formed another band called the Teenage Fentons (image). A friend agreed to manage the band and would provide the necessary instruments for us. We started practicing as a new band playing songs mainly by the Shadows as we just had a new Fender Stratocaster. It wasn’t long before we were offered gigs to perform at dances and as guest artistes at talentimes.

.

In the 60s, it was common that a band performed live before the start of a screen musical and we were offered to play at the Shaw Brothers chain of cinemas. The Shaw Brothers are two movie magnates with cinema halls in Malaya, Singapore and parts of South East Asia. We had our fair share of fun and fame although we were only paid $40 for a night’s gig. After a few changes with our band members we decided to call ourselves The Drifters.

.

Image/original article (edited): Joseph Chin Collection, Ipoh, Malaysia.

Donny And Marie: Toothy Grin, Squeaky Clean!

The call to gather round the TV set was, "I'm a little bit country, I'm a little bit rock n roll..." It was around the mid-seventies, when the toothy pair (image) appeared on Singapore's small screen. By then our Singapore 60s musicians and guitar groups had either settled in or quit the scene after the great clamp-down. And to those glued to the home screen, *Donny and Marie were no "yellow culture" pair.

The cliche, "squeaky clean" would clearly describe them and with songs like, Puppy Love and Paper Roses, they became a hit with our local audiences. With strong family backing and brothers *The Osmonds, blogger watched in amazement as they appeared week after week singing oldies and newbies. The Donny And Marie Show was something different to our local couch potatoes.

*Donny Osmond's career as a singer and former teen idol began with his brothers. His best known songs include, Sweet And Innocent (1971), Go Away Little Girl (1971), and Puppy Love (1972). He also popularised Any Dream Will Do written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice for the 1968 musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. It is the opening song of the musical, sung by the title character Joseph.

Blogger can only remember Marie Osmond singing a cover, Paper Roses (1973) made famous by Anita Bryant in 1960. With 142 albums the Osmonds have sold 100 million copies, 51 of which have gone Gold or Platinum. Whatever the formula is, they are still a hit when they sing as a duo or when together as family, even up till today.

The Osmonds appeared in their 50th Anniversary World Tour on 17th June, 2008 at The Singapore Indoor Stadium at Kallang. Do you still remember this family? Would you say they made an influence on Singapore's local music scene? Comments?

Image: Google/flickr

Original article: Andy Lim Collection.

Information: (1) Wikipedia and (2) Uniquely Singapore Event Calendar.