FROM MALAYSIA, WE PRESENTS.....

We, here in the East may not be the prime movers in any musical revolution but we do have our own bands to keep the flame burning. Unfortunately, we only have one band of some note from Malaysia, The Strollers. There were the pioneers in English songs while their contemporaries were mostly recording in the Malay language. They wrote a few of their singles which were very well received and recorded only one but excellent album .There was one greatest CD of theirs out in the market but it was a miserably packed CD of only ten or twelve songs that totally ignored their one album. I refused to get that CD until they can come up with something more worthwhile of our first and only band of note during the heydays. In the meantime, these few CDs are my only representatives from that era..
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FRANKIE CHEAH : MEMORI HIT. 26 EVERGREEN HITS : I've been browsing through this CD numerous times before I finally bought it. Made up entirely of cover versions, only one song matters to me and that's 'Woman In My Life'. I have this on record and till today after all these years, I can remember the lyrics as clear as day. That's how powerful the song was. A teacher by trade, he was once touted as the Engelbert Humperdick of Malaysia and was quite popular during his time. By all account, Frankie Cheah does not warrant a reflective collection let alone a double CD, but we were sadly lacking any entertainer of note during this time and he'll just have to do to make up the numbers.  Other songs of slight interest are 'One Day', Cheryl Mona Marie', and 'My Name Is The Wind'.  DOP : Unknown.

DATUK SHARIFAH AINI IN DOWN MEMORY LANE : Sharifah Aini is primarily a Malay singer who was hugely popular in the seventies till the present time. Lack of singers of Western songs deemed it necessary for her to record in English for a slice of the English speaking market. Dwindling sales made it less profitable and eventually she went back to recording in Malay. Of the few English albums that she puts out, only one matters to me. Titled "Feeling Of Love ( Feeling Of Love" ), it was the English version of the Malay folk song sung in the style of Boney M. The rest of the album were made up of oldies remade in a more interesting way much in the style of Tracy Huang's "Songs Of The Sixties". I've been waiting since forever for that album to come out but it seems I will really have to wait forever 'cos a Malay artist singing in English here is just not profitable enough to justify its reissued. However "Feelings Of Love" is here along with 'Single Girl', 'All My Love' and 'Don't Play That Song ( You Lied )' from that album. The other songs of interest here are 'Forever And Forever'. 'Woman In Love' which is slight different from the version that we all know so well, 'Groovy Kind Of Love' thankfully is not the Phil Collins' version, 'Goodbye, My Love, Goodbye'. There's an interesting medley of 'Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow / A Little Bit More' and 'I'd Never Find Another You', which initially I thought was the old Seekers' hit but it wasn't and it wasn't a bad song either. On the down side, I really don't know how anyone could mess up a song like 'Without You'. She didn't really but through her singing, the beauty of the song was just not there and it fell flat. The same with 'Fire' which was recorded just too soft. Still, it's a pleasant CD to place in the car for long distance drive or just when you are doing the house work at home. DOP : 03rd February 2013.

GOES INTERNATIONAL DOWN MEMORY LANE : Calling this International is stretching it a bit. Made up of singers from mostly the Asian regions from Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong, if you can call that international. Most of the tracks here were recorded in the late seventies and early eighties when all originality were deemed non profitable so most singers would just opted for the easy way out and just record the most popular songs of the day. Following note for note, it really baffled me as to why they bothers. Sudirman's. arguably the most adventurous and talented of the bunch, version of Michael Jackson's 'One Day In Your Life  ' was followed so closely to the original that you could be forgiven if you thought it was The Gloved One himself. His next offering 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Stars' and 'My Morning Star',  flared slightly better 'cos at least they were originals. Sharifah Aini offered four tune that were already on the other CD, ' Forever And Ever', 'Fire', 'Rasa Sayang' and 'I Don't Want To Lose Your Love'. Same goes for Frankie Cheah with 'Love Story' and 'Solitaire'. D.J Dave whom I believe  released only one English album are represented here with 'I Can't Stop Loving You', 'Dancing In The City', 'Change Of Heart' and 'Do You Believe In Magic' . Teresa Carpio represents the kind of copy cat singers from Hong Kong that were a dime a dozen. Her high key rendition of 'Smoke Gets In Your Eyes' is passable to me. She shared a duet with George Lam on 'Shame, Shame, Shame'. I quite like her version of The Stylistics' 'The Miracle'. Frances Yip gave us the usual pop hits 'Rain', 'Save Your Kisses For Me', 'If You Leave Me Now' and an oldie 'Things'. Gracie Rivera have 'Torn Between Two Lovers' and 'Woman In Love'. Tracy Huang's big 'hit' 'Feelings' are here together with 'There's A Kind Of Hush', 'Rhythm Of The Rain', 'Kiss Me Goodbye' and 'Dancing Queen'.   Anita Sarawak who was quite a dynamite performer are represented here with 'Paloma Blanca', 'Never, Never, Never', 'You To Me Are Everything', 'We're All Alone' and her signature song 'Sophisticated Lady' . Jennifer Yen who have quite a pleasant voice but not as popular as the rest are represented here with two songs, 'Summertime Feeling' and 'All Out Of Love'.  There you are, another two CD worth of easy listening. DOP : 03rd February 2012.