When The Twist Dance And Movies Were Banned

                  **Crescendos n Susan Lim sings Mr Twister & Frankie Video: eosyeo

UP TO 3,600 VIEWS

     30 COMMENTS    

This previous post [2012] has been updated for content:

Hey, you may not know this. Not only were songs banned in Singapore in 1959 but a dance too. In the early years of Independence, saw the banning of The Twist, a dance fad from Western pop culture. As explained in an another *posting the Helen Shapiro/Billy Fury movie Play It Cool was banned because of its 'undesirable song and dance sequences'.

18 MILLION VIEWERS cannot be wrong.

Mr. Chubby Checker with 'The Twist'

YouTube Official Music Video from

Chubby Checker.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CCgDvUM4TM&t=96s

According to Wiki, The Twist's original inspiration came from the African American plantation dance called 'wringin' and twistin,' tracing back to the 1890s. However, its original aesthetic origins, using pelvic movement and the shuffling foot movement, could be traced to West Africa. Throughout the 20th Century, the dance evolved until it emerged to a mass audience in the 1960s.

So in Singapore, three other films which featured the dance were not allowed screenings. These movies were, Hey, Let's Twist, Twist Around The Clock and The Teenage Millionaire (images 1,2). This was a cinema clean-up because there was a policy that where books or films were detrimental to morals, they would be banned. Even juke boxes and pin-ball machines (image 3) were not allowed in Singapore. So what songs did we miss from all these movies?

As an example, the first movie Hey Let's Twist had a group called Joey Dee and The Starliters perform, Shake Me Baby, Hey Let's Twist, Peppermint Twist, Round and Round, Roly Poly, Let Me Teach You How to Twist, Shout. Also another two songs: Let's Twist by Mama and Shake Me Baby by Jo Ann Campbell were on the sound track. Just wondering if any of them reached our hit parade charts?

Apparently not only were Western movies banned, even Mandarin and Japanese movies were taken off the list as part of the authorities' campaign against yellow culture which had caused the 'moral degeneration of our young'. Censorship by the Culture Ministry was significant between June 1959 and June 1960.

But don't forget dear readers, that this was a season when The Shadows/Ventures were just around the corner and the saxaphone, double-bass, piano and f-hole guitars were still in vogue. It was a season of change. And change we did, when common sense prevailed.

The ban did not last long as Chubby Checker's famous stance and dance movie posters (image 1) crowded the scene afterwards. Tables turned in February 1963 as Singapore's first recording stars **The Crescendos released Mr. Twister fronted by power voice Susan Lim. The group was such a hit that even Singapore's Minister for Culture, Mr. S. Rajaratnam accompanied them on their Malaysian tour a few months later. All's well that ends well.

Do you have similar stories to tell about Singapore's sixties music scene? Write in.

Images: Google.

*Play It Cool Movie: 

http://singapore60smusic.blogspot.com/2011/04/play-it-cool-movie-banned-in-our-local.html

**Crescendos: 

http://singapore60smusic.blogspot.com/2009/06/new-dances-like-twist-made-way-for-pop.html

Song Book From The Past: Personal n Precious: Daisy Koh n Doris Chua

Ms. Doris Chua's Song Book From The 60's 

My schoolmate and good friend, Doris Chua finally sent me photos of her precious song book. This brought back a ton of beautiful memories from the 60s. Quote from Doris herself, “These few days I have been going back to the music from the late 60s and early 70s …and going through my old song book…really made me feel young again.”

The pages may have yellowed and the photos stained but the memories remain for many of us who were teenagers in the 60s and still young at heart today.

Pop star pictures from the newspapers have been 

painstakingly cut out and pasted on the song book.

It was fashionable then to keep a song book. Usually it would be a hard cover exercise book bought from the neighbourhood shop. We would wrap the hard cover with white mahjong paper and embellish it with colourful pictures of our pop idols. With the girls it was either the most heart-throbbing pictures of Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard, The Beatles, Connie Francis…

I remember in secondary school, there were two camps – Elvis fans vs Cliff fans. We argued over the most popular singer and defended any criticism of our idol but actually both singers were highly rated, adored and idolized. We went crazy over their hit songs. I even had my Maths textbook wrapped up with pictures of both Elvis and Cliff – an inspiration when studying became too tedious.

Singing heroes wrapped in plastic sheets that have taken the toll of time. 

But it was fun, great fun to be able to keep them till today, 60 years later.

Keeping a song book was a popular pastime then. Well you can’t sing along if you don’t know the lyrics. Thanks to the request programs on Rediffusion and RTS [Radio & TV Singapore… now Mediacorp or meWatch] the latest hits were played everyday, sometimes more than once a day. 

Teens like me and Doris would always have our scrapbooks on standby, ready to scribble down the lyrics of the latest hits by Elvis, Cliff, Rick Nelson or Connie Francis. We would verify the lyrics with our friends if we missed out a few words here and there. Once the lyrics had been edited, we would painstakingly copy them into our songbooks in our most beautiful handwriting and decorate the pages with pictures of the pop stars. You could forget to bring your textbook to school but you never forget to carry your songbook with you.

A singer that's never missed,

Elvis Presley was the top star those years.

It was always a joy then to get together, sing the latest hits or sing by yourself if you are not allowed to go out. The songbook was a good reference and a source of entertainment and comfort for many a teenager then and a healthy one too. Wish I had kept mine. Hats off to Doris for keeping her precious songbook for 61 years.

This was how we, teenagers survived without the cellphone (you become a prisoner because of this) or social media then.

No matter the time, the lyrics are lovingly penned on the song book with

much care and concern, without mistakes. But mistakes do happen...

Thanks to Ms Doris Chua who supplied the images from her song book and

Mrs. Daisy Koh, who wrote this article.

Article and Images have been copyrighted.

The Cliff Fans vs. Elvis Fans Rivalry.

Love Letters: Elvis Presley

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra [Official Video]

YouTube Video from Elvis Presley.

Connect with another Song Book article below:

https://singapore60smusic.blogspot.com/2020/11/yesterday-once-more-hand-written-song.html

'Gado Gado': Spicy Indonesian Salad And Song

Gado-Gado The Dish

UP TO 6,200 VIEWS, 20 CHATS, COMMENTS

Originally from Indonesia or Betawi, it is a spicy Indonesian salad of raw and also slightly boiled, steamed vegetables and hard-boiled eggs. The boiled potatoes, fried tofu and tempeh, with rice wrapped in a banana leaf, called lontong, are served with a peanut sauce dressing. The sauce can either be poured over the entire dish or dipped according to the diners' wish.

Gado Gado The Song:

It is traditional or folk song that centers around the home and family, is common in Asia. Indonesia is no exception. Gado-gado is a very popular dish from the kitchen tables of the thousands of islands in the Indonesian Archipelago. It is the first song with a food theme that I learnt as a child of the 40s in Singapore.

The other popular one with a similar theme is Rujak Uleg (Indonesian Salad) with lyrics in Javanese. The ingredients for both include fresh and boiled vegetables like long beans, bean sprouts, sliced potatoes, tame-pay (fermented beans), fried tofu and prawn crackers. The gravy is pound fried groundnuts with chilli sauce.

Keroncong Instruments with Indonesian musicians.

https://www.nowjakarta.co.id/kampung-tugu-the-identity-of-keroncong/

Gado Gado The Lyrics [with English interpretation]

Gado-gadonya, Bung, dari Jakarta

(Gado gado brother, is from Jakarta)

Sangat digemari rakyat jelata…

(Loved by citizens in the country)

Satu bungkusnya, Bung, sa-tengah rupiah, Bang Achmad pulang, Bung sudah sedia…

(A packet costs half a rupiah, when husband Achmad comes home his gado2 is ready)

Gado-Gado Jakarta - Orkes Keroncong Rumput

Screen Shot from YouTube Video by: RUMPUT

Jika Mpoh minah, Bung malas ke dapur

(If wife Poh Minah is too lazy to go to the kitchen)

Semua ada: tahu goreng, kerupuk udang,

campur-campur… tahu goreng, kerupuk udang,

(Everything's in: fried tofu, fried prawn-crackers, a good mix,

Bila Mpok Minah, Bung malas belanja

(When wife Minah is too lazy to market)

Beli gado-gado dari Jakarta 

(She buys gado-gado, Jakarta styled).

Gado-Gado Jakarta - Orkes Keroncong Rumput

YouTube Video by: RUMPUT

Lyrics: http://lirik.kapanlagi.com/artis/mus_mulyadi/gado-gado_jakarta

Images: Google.

Interpretation: Andy.

[This article is an expanded re-post from 23rd July, 2011.]

Guitar Echo Units By Singapore 60s Music Maker Jimmy Chng: Part 2

     UP TO 500 VIEWS,   

20+ CHATS, COMMENTS

Hi Andy, 

Looks like there's still some interest in the article as new comments keep trickling in? Thought I'd add some comments regarding the Copicat Echo Unit. 

Vacuum Tubes Or Valves:

1. The electronics in use then was based on vacuum tube technology. This was followed by transistor (solid state) technology. There are several vacuum tubes (also known as "valves") used in the electronic circuit and one of which is the 6BR8A as depicted in the picture below.

2. Due to wear and tear, these tapes would sometimes burst whilst in operation. As replacement tapes were quite costly I had also resorted to make spare ones [like what Cedric Cork, the Vietnam War drummer, did], that is, cutting appropriate lengths from open reeled 1/4" magnetic tapes and splicing them.

3) As for the Schaller, it's true that the magnetic coated drum does get hot as mentioned by Michael Lee. Not only that. The magnetic coating on the drum would get worn out after sometime and a replacement drum is costly. What my dad did was to cut short pieces of open reeled magnetic tape and dissolved them in a solvent (acetone) and brush painted it over the worn part/s of the drum. Another cost saving measure.

Separately, a reader who's close to my heart commented that the article was an interesting read but kind of ended abruptly. I had indeed shortened the article by omitting a small part about DECIBELS' performing at hungry ghost festivals - i.e. Getai. Appended below is the part I omitted.

An example of a getai performance with the

guitar group accompanying a-go-go girls and singer.

https://sites.google.com/site/integrateddeyigrp6304/pop-culture-performers/ge-tai

The Decibels with Jimmy Chng 

on drums in the background.

Getai Performances With 'Decibels':

Getai [歌台] is a Chinese term which literally means, song tower, stage or street concert. It is one of many activities to entertain the Chinese gods, with a related 'officer' from Hell and people who donated funds for the annual Hungry Ghost Festival celebration. It falls during the seventh month of the Chinese lunar year; around August.

From the recesses of my fading memory cells, I could recollect that our very first Getai performance was at Strathmore Avenue. The stage was on the open space between a row of SIT (Singapore Improvement Trust) flats facing the QSTS (Queenstown Secondary Technical School) school field. 

On another occasion, we played somewhere in Kampong Bahru. And on the third occasion I played (as stand-in drummer for the Wong family who were all professional musicians) somewhere off Bencoolen Street. I felt truly honoured to be invited to play alongside them.

Jimmy Chng 

The article is

Ⓒ Copyrights Reserved.

Guitar Echo Units By Singapore 60s Music Maker Jimmy Chng

DECIBELS (L to R - Jimmy, Charles, Patrick, Steven)

Ⓒ Copyrights Reserved.

   UP TO 2,400 VIEWS,   

20 CHATS, COMMENTS. 

My thanks again to Jimmy Chng, one of the best drummers during the Singapore 60s pop music era, for this article:

Hi Andy,

 

A decade back, after contributing the article on DECIBELS pop band to your blog, you had generously invited me to join you as a team writer. I replied that I wasn't up to it but added this comment - “Nevertheless should I recollect any interesting stories pertaining to the 60s pop scene, I’ll let you know.” And to that, your response was - “I shall always be waiting for your next tale pertaining to the 60s pop scene.”

Ten years is a pretty long wait by any measure. However, as the saying goes - " Patience is bitter but the fruit is sweet." And so here's my next tale pertaining to the 60s pop scene. 

With the year of the Rabbit, here's wishing you good health and happiness in the coming lunar new year and the years ahead. Gong Xi Fa Cai.

Best regards,

Jimmy.

With the lunar new year fast approaching, I willed myself to tidy up the little store room of my HDB unit. It has been filled to the brim over the years (think hoarder?). Sifting through the clutter in the tiny storeroom, I was pleasantly surprised to find a remnant of DECIBELS pop band’s musical instruments - a WATKINS COPICAT ECHO unit!

Apart from two Hofner guitars (a bass and a lead) which I had passed to my elder brother a long time back, the rest of the other instruments had either been discarded/damaged or given away. I remember that I sold the drum set to the Foo Chow Methodist Church in Race Course Road through a colleague of mine who’s a member of the church. This was way back in the mid 70s. 

Watkins Copicat Tape Echo

YouTube video from: blondegraemey

In the early years of our local pop band history, the WATKINS COPICAT Echo Unit was a sought after add-on to the basic guitar amplifiers that most aspiring bands could only afford. Before the introduction of echo effects producing equipment, guitar amplifiers had only the tremolo/vibrato effect feature built-in. Guitar amplifiers with built-in reverb feature soon followed.

Arguably, it was the Shadows that popularized the echo effects in pop music with their iconic recording of APACHE although the tape echo unit used by Hank Marvin for the recording wasn’t the Watkins Copicat Echo Unit.

DECIBELS’ first Echo Unit - a pre-owned

 WATKINS COPICAT ECHO UNIT.

Two other brands of echo units were also available in Singapore. One was the Schaller and the other, the Swissecho. I do not remember which of these two brands was more popular but most fledgling bands would start off with the Copicat and later “upgrade” to one of these. So too did DECIBELS, as our band subsequently “upgraded” to a pre-owned Schaller unit like the one pictured below:

Schaller Echo Unit

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/822258844442087368/

SwissEcho 

https://www.vintagehofner.co.uk/gallery/gallery3/gallery6/swis.html

Dunearn Secondary Technical School Concert:

DECIBELS was the main band in attendance for a concert held at the Dunearn Secondary Technical School sometime in the mid 60s. I cannot remember if the concert was held to mark the school’s opening or for some other event. I had received a call from a school teacher by the name of Mr. Lai (can’t remember his full name) asking if our band would like to perform at the concert. Incidentally, he (Mr. Lai) had participated in one of the RTS talentime contests singing his very own rendition of “Isle Of Singapura” to the tune of "Isle Of Capri". 

If there are readers out there who are former students or teachers of DSTS and had attended the concert, hopefully some of them would be able to provide additional information about the concert. 

The guest band for the concert was Willy Jokers. Up to that point in time, our band did not have any echo unit. We only relied on the tremolo and reverb effects that came with the Fender amplifier. The COPICAT Echo unit which the DECIBELS band eventually owned was acquired from Willy Jokers.

As in any article, this post deserves comments. Please...

[Latest: 12 comments within 2 hours of posting. Thanks guys.]

Charles and Jimmy [right] having some fun 

before the DSTS concert. Ⓒ Copyrights Reserved.

Jimmy Chng 

article, photographs.

Ⓒ Copyrights Reserved.

Cruisin Crashin Car Crazy Celebrated In Songs: Formula One Race 2024?

The Beach Boys

This posting has be regenerated from 2022:

Car Crazy:

With the Singapore 2022 Formula 1 Night Race and expensive COEs in the headlines recently, cars were the subject on everyone's lips. Apparently second-hand vehicles were selling better and it didn't stop the richer ones from buying new. 

Although a hot topic in Singapore, cars have never been celebrated in song here as in the US. In fact certain models have been immortalised by American artistes in love with these machines. So how many of the following songs are you familiar with?

Image: https://greatoldies.com/mustang-sally/

Mustang Sally:

Both music and car aficionados are familiar with Mustang Sally as the Mustang has been a symbol of speed among American motorists for many years, helped along by Steve McQueen’s car chase through the streets of San Francisco in a GT 390 Fastback in Bullitt (1968).

In 1966, Wilson Pickett scored a hit with this R&B rocker about a lady who was advised to slow down, because she was moving too fast. Written by Bonny Rice, it has since become known as a Pickett anthem. You’ve been riding all over town, ooh, guess you gotta put your flat feet on the ground. Ride, Sally, ride.

'Mustang Sally' by Wilson Pickett 

YouTube video from: glazer1134

"Mustang Sally" [Mack Rice - 1966]

"Look it here.

I bought you a brand new mustang nineteen sixty five. Huh

Now you come around signifying a woman, you don't wanna let me ride

Mustang Sally, now baby, oh Lord, guess you better slow that mustang down

Huh, oh Lord. Look here

You been running all over the town

Oh! I got to put your flat feet on the ground. Huh, What I said now?"

Little Deuce Coupe:

Drag racing, while illegal, is nonetheless an American tradition. The Beach Boys (image) paid tribute to it in this ode to a ’32 Ford with a big V8. Brian Wilson co-wrote this with a disc jockey named Roger Christian, who was heavily into cars. Also, there’s the suggestion the little deuce coupe can do 140 mph, an exaggeration really. The song reached No. 15 on the U.S. pop charts in 1963.

Hot Rod Lincoln:

Most people know the version by the country and rockabilly band Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen, which was released early in 1972 and rose to No. 9 on the pop charts. One of the more famous lines goes like this: My pappy said, ‘Son, you’re gonna drive me to drinkin’, if you don’t stop driving that Hot Rod Lincoln. There was an earlier version, written in 1955.

409:

The Beach Boys recorded 409 (a Chevrolet) in 1962, and more than a dozen other songs about cars. 409 was released as the B-side of Surfin’ Safari. Most of the lyrics are fairly simple and repetitive, such as Giddy up 409 and She’s real fine my 409. The Beach Boys were infatuated with girls, cars and the beach, often in the same song.

G.T.O:

Ronny and the Daytonas (image) came out of Nashville with dreams of mimicking the Beach Boys’ sound but had mixed success. G.T.O., penned by John Wilkin, was released shortly after the car itself and reached No. 4 on the charts in 1964.

Although they did not have staying power, they did hammer at the car theme and sold more than a million singles of this song as well as a half-million albums.

Naik Kereta Ku: the late Rudyn.

YouTube Video from: nostalgia hassny.

Naik Kereta-ku: [Ride In My Car]

Did Singapore 60s music have songs for cars too? Yes, it's a Malay song, called Naik Kereta Ku by the late Rudyn, who happened to be an old friend. His group was known as the Impian Bateks. The song was a hit in Singapore and Malaysia. Now who says we're not interested in cars?

Comments please?

This post has been revitalised from September, 2010.

[Information, by Michael Ventre (19.3.2007), has been edited for brevity. Website is unavailable now.]

Read DRIVE below:

https://singapore60smusic.blogspot.com/2022/07/latest-coe-prices-singapore-beatles.html

Disclaimer: 

This posting is not advertising cars for sale nor does it encourage speeding on our beautiful roads. 

A National Day Special 2022: Social Harmony In Kampong Amber: Pianist Baba Sam Gan

Renowned pianist Sam Gan at the keyboard with 

Michael Bangar in sunglasses and Horace Wee in black.

UP TO 1,300 VIEWS 

Sam Gan is a baba or peranakan [Straits-born], so the reader might have to go through Malay words in his letter below but they have been carefully explained, so go a little slow to read. Unless you are familiar of course...

Hi Andy,

Bringing back memories of my family and me growing up in Kampong Amber [Amber Village], from 1947 to 1953. Best years of my childhood... Malay, Chinese, Indians, all living in harmony... We played, ran around barefooted, shirtless, in the rain, in the sunshine. 

According to the time of year, playing gasing [top spinning], layang layang [kite-flying] ,keeping fighting spiders in match-boxes, fighting fish in glass jars, rubber-bands competitions, *goli [marbles], catching, rounders [simple baseball] not many arguments, but a lot of fun. 

Playing marbles *[goli] in the 1960s

https://onedollaronly.com.sg/blogs/the-dollar-blog/traditional-games-in-singapore-we-used-to-play

We were very proud of our kampong [village], so when asked, "Tinggal di mana?" [Where do you live?]

We would proudly reply, " Kampong Amber!" I still consider myself a Kampong Boy from Kampong Amber! 

Puasa Time [Fasting Month] was different with the Carbide Cannons made from Bamboo, booming in the evenings; the Kenduris [food social gathering] and kompangs playing at Malay Weddings. 

Then there's the rains that flooded our Kampong every year during the N.E. Monsoon from November to late January; kids selling fresh nasi lemak [coconut rice and fried fish with chilly-paste] and kueh kueh [Malay cakes]. They come in the mornings for ten cents a bungkus [banana-leaf packet] for breakfast. 

The Mee Siam [spicy Thai noodles] from the Javanese lady selling her tikar2 [mats], and the 30 cents takeaway (bring your own duck egg) Mee Goreng [fried noodles] from the Mamak [Indian] provision store , Plain Roti Prata was five cents a piece and a glass of Kopi [coffee] and Teh Susu [tea and milk] costs ten cents from the **Sarabat [Indian drink-hawker] stall next to the Chinese Swimming Club new pool at Amber Road.

**Selling Sarabat Tea [1963]. 

Photo credit: MITA/NAS Geraldine Soh.

Then there was the Pasar Malam [night market], Chinese Wayang [Chinese street opera] during the Chinese 7th month and of course the Orang Minyak [Oily Man] stories to frighten the young girls and ladies to be home before dusk. ..these are just some of my memories of My Kampong Amber!... what a time to grow as a boy in the old days, 75 years ago.

[It took me a bit to edit this one Sam, but it's well worth it. Thank you.]

NB: From what I understand, having read Finance Minister & Future PMs, Lawrence Wong's Facebook posts, his parents lived in Kampong Amber in the 60s.

This article is original and has been copyrighted.

Google image sources have been identified individually.

'Di Tanjong Katong' with ***Sakura Teng. 

YouTube Video by Medan Fan.

***One of the more renowned lady pop singers from Singapore 60's.

'Di Tanjong Katong' is a traditional Malay folk song describing the East Coast seaside. It is close to Kampong Amber where Sam Gan used to live.

Sam Gan: 'I Love You For Sentimental Reasons'

YouTube Video by Sam Gan.

A HAPPY NATIONAL DAY 2022 TO ALL READERS, 

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS, FRIENDS & FAMILY.

ENJOY BUT STAY SAFE.