When I was a kid, pop songs had already flooded the mainland, and RTHK singers had become the national idols of my classmates. Although I thought that RTHK songs were good, I carefully savored them and felt as if they lacked something.
One night in a certain month of a certain year, I occasionally heard a song in English coming out of the radio, and I suddenly felt that what was missing was here. I was curious to listen to that English song, although the lyrics were not completely understandable, sorry, I should call it completely unintelligible. But just based on the melody, it felt completely overwhelming. So I started to listen to this radio program every night. It was a program called "Universal Music Billboard" on Tianjin Music Channel. And that song, that's the first song I'm going to introduce, "yesterdays once more", yesterdays reappear.
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The song was written and performed by the Carpenters. Brother Richard Carpenter wrote the song and plays keyboards for the band, and sister Karen Carpenter, whose voice is sad and pure, sings lead vocals and plays drums for the band. The song was a standard nostalgia hit, only reaching number two in both the UK and US charts at the time. But now it's a timeless golden oldie around the world.
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Here's another one, with the same drummer on lead vocals, 'desperado', the outlaw. From the second self-titled album by American country-rock legends, the Eagles. Guitarist Glenn Frey and drummer Don Henley teamed up to create the song, which is sung by Don Henley. How's that for not belittling the drummer in the band in the future. The song embodies a strong humanistic message, exhorting a misguided person to hurry to a return to normal life. The song has been widely sung and covered by Karen Carpenter as mentioned above, as well as by Qi Qin, Xiao Jingteng and Wang Jie in China, so it's interesting to compare and contrast.
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The following song, "Scarborough fair", Scarborough fair. This was originally an Irish folk song, which was later unearthed and rearranged by the Paul Simon Art Garfunkel singing group, and became an interlude in the movie The Graduate. At the end of the movie, when Dustin Hoffman fled by dragging his girlfriend with him, the song rang out, poignant and touching. But the song is best known as the cover version by Sarah Brightman, the goddess of moonlight, which makes people feel that this song should only be sung in heaven. There's also a Chinese version of the song called "The Past is Like the Past" that you can listen to as well.
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One more song, "The rose". It's a theme song written by Amanda McBroom for the movie Trail of Tears in Song. Bette Midler won a Grammy that year for Best Female Vocalist for her performance of the song, and an Oscar for Best Actress and Best Newcomer for her starring role in the movie. However, my personal favorite is the version sung by Amanda McBroo herself. Deep, ethereal, yet powerful.
The songs I've shared with you above are just a handful from my personal library. We recommend that you just listen to them and not take them too seriously. Otherwise, once you get into it, you'll feel that many Chinese songs are just for square dancing.