Tuesday, July 23, 2019

热烘烘的太阳 (林黛) (蔡幸娟) Lin Dai, Delphine Tsai: The Hot Hot Sun: A Lost Song, Found

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Lin Dai with The Hot Hot Sun 热烘烘的太阳 (林黛)

I have this Chinese melody stuck in my head for many years and I wanted to find it from YouTube but I didn't know its title. I asked friends and musicians but to no avail. I searched in vain on YouTube without knowing its Chinese title nor its singer.

Then, very recently and out of the blues, a good friend** asked me if I could find a song for him. He whistled it on WhatsApp and sent it to me. Now, that was a good move, whistling it for others to hear.

I was surprised because it was the same song that I was searching for and learned as a child. I circulated it on WhatsApp to about 10 friends, among them a student friend* of mine whose father was familiar with Chinese Mandarin songs. What a revelation. 

Delphine Tsai with The Hot Hot Sun 热烘烘的太阳 (蔡幸娟)

Sung by Lin Dai (林黛), it's a youthful and symbolic song about the sun. Such bliss to be able to listen again to a song I lost and found after 60 years. The title is 热烘烘的太阳 which actually means The Hot Hot Sun. 

Enjoy it, my dear readers and friends. I didn't, for so many years.

I have posted two versions where the second video is a new recording by Delphine Tsai. It is clear and clean, with high definition video and fantastic sound recording.
Beautiful Lin Dai (林黛), whose face appeared on huge posters outside the Capitol Cinema whenever she starred in a new movie for Shaw Brothers. She was the sweetheart of most Chinese fans in Singapore and had acted in more than two dozen Chinese films. 

Born in 1934, her shows like Love Without End and The Kingdom and the Beauty were box office hits. Successful on the screen, her own personal story was a tragedy and she took her own life in 1964.
Delphine Cai Yuxuan (蔡幸娟) was born in March 1966 in Taiwan, became a radio and TV pop star when she was only 14. She was a natural talent and was known to sing at Western restaurants during her younger days. 

She won contests various times with her inimitable singing voice, was recognized by Huang Jixiong, a famous musician who had her record many pop hits. Delphine had performed in Singapore a couple of times and is still popular today.

Please share your views with me.

This post is specially dedicated to 
Joycelyn, Yen and Eddy Eng.

Images: A Private Collection and YouTube.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you very much Andy and am honour to receive your posting dedication. First time ever. :D I must give credit to you and my father for showing me this lovely song. I like it instantly after listening to the song on youtube. Also thanks to the person who uploaded this song. Both singers have beautiful voice, wish i have it too. Keep on posting ya! �� Yen

ANDY: Pop Music Not Pills. © said...

Andy Young
My hunt for old Chinese songs still continues. I found another familiar childhood melody through a friend. :-)

Stephen Han
Lin Dai was so beautiful and popular in the 50s and 60s.Her most memorable movie was “Love Without End”.However, she had a failed marriage and ended her life.

Andy Young
Thank you, Stephen and all the others who LIKE this post. Hey Victor, thanks for sharing. Hope you like the song.

Freda Hanum
ANDY, this song The Hot Hot Sun, such coincidence, a few months ago I was searching for this Lin Dai movie, the story more like a fishing village and when I saw the picture Lin Dai sitting on the boat flickers my mind again to search for it under this title song. Yes, this is a movie which I have seen with my late mum when I am very little I manage to get the short clip of it with the song I am sharing here.

After the late Movie Queen Linda Lin Dai of Hong Kong passed away, the title was replaced by another actress I quite forgot the name; then came Ivy Lin Po who got the title Movie Queen for her excellence in acting too, but no matter what nobody could be the late Lin Dai, and she's my late mum most favorite actress and seen all her movies.

Thank you Andy.

Wow Freda, again thank you. I think you're a born researcher, especially with your music background and expertise. This is truly a surprise. Your interest and passion holds true. Appreciate. 🙏

Richard R. said...

Myparents, FAVOURITE *SB* Stars...
Not forgetting the male co-star..
think it's PETER CHEN HO... Together Also tribute to *LI LiHua*

FL said...

Andy, like you and your older readers here, I heard many old Mandarin oldies but as little kid then you do not bother about the song titles. Many of them through my the courtesy of our neighbour's Redifusion set, this includes this Lin Dai's song. Some of the popular songs I heard as a kid were thru watching the Chinese musical movies in the late 1950s. As young siblings, my mum used to tag us along to watch Chinese movies in an open-air cinema in Tanjong Pagar of the past ! I think I also heard this Lin Dai's song at the movie!

HIROSHI DEGUCHI writes from JAPAN said...


Hiroshi Deguchi
Sorry, I don't know much about the article but one thing I came into my mind was the song "Singapore Pie" I like the lyrics. I don't think I am the only one who likes to look back on the past and cherish.

Thanks, Andy. Liang Wern Fook's one is also good. It's hard for me to express myself well about this. I think I have the same tendency to search for my past. When I do, sometimes I discover something I didn't know.

ANDY: Pop Music Not Pills. © said...

Again thanks to FL, Hiroshi and Unknown for writing in.

This posting is one of the most popular ones written.
Apparently many Seniors know the song presented.

Comments are so much more interesting than Statistical returns.
Cheers.

FACEBOOK CHATBOX said...

Thank you all for the LIKES on this post

HIROSHI DEGUCHI
ROSE KHOO
FREDA HANUM
IRENE YAP
TAN SER KIONG
JALAINI MOHD
PETER CHEONG
HO VICTOR
YEN CHOW
STEPHEN HAN
ANN ROWENA LIM
MARK TAN
DICK YIP

David Mc said...

Hello Andy, David here from Ireland. I'm not sure if you keep up with these comments since the post is from 2019, but I thought I would share a short story you might find amusing.

I was recently in a pub in Tangiers, Morocco and a song came on. I was really liking the melody so I used the Shazam app to find it and it returned the result 雨的旋律 by Delphine Tsai.

When I got home I wanted to find more about the song and artist, as I am not familiar with this music and don't hear it very often in the west coast of Ireland! That is how I discovered your blog by finding out more about Delphine (who is an amazing singer it must be said).

Your story of whistling the song to friends was brilliant and I'm glad it worked for finding the song, posting this blogpost and now me being here. Maybe one day there will be an app that you can hum or whistle into that will give you the name of the song - perhaps AI will introduce this.

Anyway, I will leave it there. Thanks for the bio about Delphine and greetings from an Irish man in his 30s.

ANDY: Pop Music Not Pills. © said...

Hi David,

Glad to know you my friend. And in Tangiers too. Wow!

You made my Dragon year, being a Dragon [7th cycle; born in 1940].

[1] This blog is current and alive, so 2019 is new; I'm still answering mail where readers comment on 2009 postings. So as long as I am still around...

[2] The songs brings memories and I must thank you for the fantastic response. Yes, she is an amazing singer, Delphine.

I would re-live this story and use your letter as a blog post if you don't mind; soon enough. If you could leave your email address and a little portrait of yourself. It isn't a scam; I've done it to many contributing writers. Comments like yours are so encouraging.

Again, thanks David.
Cheers.

David Mc said...

Hi Andy,

Thank you for getting back to me so quickly. Great to see that you are so active on this blog all this time.

It would be an honour to be featured in a post. I have added my profile picture on Blogger and in my profile you can see my email address.

Wishing you many more years of keeping up this fun and interesting blog, and belated Happy Lunar New Year!

Warm regards,

David

ANDY: Pop Music Not Pills. © said...

Hi David,

Apologies for the rather long wait.
I think your note landed somewhere else on the mail.

Perhaps it's best if you send your story, if you wish to, through this channel but I won't publish anything personal.

If there are photographs too, please include them.
Thanks again.

Best regards