More Oldies
I left off in my last blog with “Memories are made of this” and picked up two more vinyl records of oldies which I can’t resist sharing with friends.
The first one was titled “UA 18 Movie Tracks” produced by United Artists Records in 1979, the year I had my first child. I googled for the name and found that the item was available in a vinyl record store – Vinylhk – at HK$120. We had probably acquired it for $30. Side One had The Good, The Bad And the Ugly, Magnificent Seven, Windmills of Your Mind, Moonraker, Everyday With Your Girl, The Pink Panther Strikes Again, Silent Movie, Uncle Joe Shannon, and Last Tango In Paris. The nine tracks on Side Two were A Man And A Woman, You Only Live Twice, Gonna Fly Now, Diamonds Are Forever, Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue, Interlude, Missouri Breaks, Bond ’77 and Love Theme From Phaedra. They were all hits in the 70s, some earlier than others, such as Henry Mancini’s Pink Panther, the first in the series of which was released in 1963; Bernstein’s Magnificent Seven, which was a 1960 American Western film, and which actually was a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 Japanese film Seven Samurai; Francis Lai’s A Man And A Woman, based on the film released in 1966; Timi Yuro’s Interlude, which was the title track for the 1968 film of the same name; and some tracks from Bill Conti (b. 1942, now 83) and John Williams (b. 1932, now 93). Also included were three James Bond movie tracks – two from Shirley Bassey and one from Nancy Sinatra, plus one Bond inspired track, Marvin Hamlisch’s Bond ’77, Noel Harrison’s Windmills Of Your Mind recorded for the 1968 film The Thomas Crown Affair, but which song was first recorded in French by Michel Legrand (1932 – 2019) and released in 1955, but with the English lyrics written by Alan and Marilyn Bergman later. I was an undergrad when many of these songs and their music were always ringing in the campus, which was not conducive to my academic career. Howard Young (b. 1948, now 77), former member of the Hong Kong Legislative Council, was amongst the first graduates of the local Outward Bound School around 1970. When I was a student, one of the instructors told us that he made a video on life in the course – then a 26-day affair – using Windmills Of Your Mind as the background music. Interlude somehow became one of the signature tunes announcing my arrival to some local watering holes those days. Those were the days indeed.
Turning to the second vinyl record, which was a Philips production in the 60s, featuring 20 golden hits of The Platters. The numbers on Face 1 (which was how it was labeled) were: Only you, The great pretender, My prayer, It’s magic, He’s mine, Red sails in the sunset, Mack the Knife, Thanks for the memory, On a slow boat to China and Harbour lights; while the ten songs on Face 2 were: Smoke gets in your eyes, Twilight time, I’m sorry, The magic touch, Song for the lonely, Remember when, Sincerely, You’ll never know, Stormy weather and Ebb tide. I think most people in my age group would not dispute that most if not all of the 20 songs were household names. Indeed, some of the numbers had been around for half a century if not longer. Philips had actually ascribed the year in which most of these songs were released. In chronological order: 1957, two songs, namely He’s mine and I’m sorry; 1959, two namely, Thanks for the memory and Song for the lonely; 1960, seven; 1962, three; 1964, two; and a few not ascribed. But some of these songs actually pre-dated the 60s. Let me single out a few.
Mack the Knife was from a 1928 German music drama by German playwright Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill, and was only first introduced to American audiences in English in 1933. It featured gruesome descriptions, and had been recorded by Bobby Darin in 1959, and performed by Louis Armstrong and Frank Sinatra, and reputedly had brought Sinatra back to stage after he couldn’t remember some lyrics halfway during a performance. Philips attributed the Platters’ version to 1964. Smoke gets in your eye, which Philips ascribed it to 1960, was first recorded and released in 1933 by Ray Sinatra, Frank Sinatra’s second cousin. Little wonder why in my Wah Yan days, our English teacher, the late John Fung, having heard a student humming the tune in the classroom, bellowed that he had known the song for over 30 years. Twilight Time, which Philips said was a 1960 hit, was first released as instrumental recordings in 1944 by The Three Suns, an American pop group active between 1939 and 1966. I am fascinated in particular by the lyrics, “Deepening shadows gather splendour, as day is done, fingers of night will soon surrender, the setting sun…. Here in the afterglow of day, we keep our rendezvous beneath the blue… Here in the sweet and same old way I fall in love again as I did then…” These days it’s difficult to come across pop songs laden with such subtle and clean lyrics. We had a HKU alumnus called Tsim who was Chairman of the Student Council in the 60s. I believe he was an English Major and obviously spoke perfect English. He once ran a programme on RTHK or Commercial Radio teaching young people to learn English by listening to the lyrics of pop songs. I don’t know what he is doing these days.
Meanwhile, we are bracing for some foul weather ahead; and I could be writing a blog on the weather soon.
