Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Cai Qin's new album release





















The latest new album (爱像一首歌) of Cai Qin (蔡琴) is available in CD+DVD packs in music outlets throughout Klang Valley since last Saturday. The album encompasses the rearranged 'Prayers' (祈祷) that I blogged about sometime in May this year and are offered in 3 different variants and prices – locally pressed CD, Germany pressed CD or Japan pressed 24K gold limited edition CD.

Cai Qin started her singing career circa 1979 after winning a singing competition with her rendition of 恰似你的溫柔 in her unique low pitch during an era that is dominated by female vocals in high pitch and she became an instant icon with audiophiles who are into Mandarin songs since then. This time around, Universal Music must have chosen the theme and the rest of songs for this album to complement 'Prayers' as the songs are from Taiwan's 校园民摇风 era in the 80s where simplicity and nature rule. Such songs were usually accompanied only by either a guitar and/or harmonica in the past.

I bought the 24K gold LE CD which is purportedly pressed in Japan (Hmmm... could this be just a marketing ploy as Hong Kong is known to make excellent sounding 24K gold CDs in the past?) and am of opinion that the particular CD is overly done as it sounds way too smooth and tried to emulate the LPCD sound. I love the 'Prayers' though and find it excellent (clarity and tonal balance are superb) especially the backing vocals and the sheer dynamics of the song peaking. The same, however, could not be said of the rest of the newly rearranged songs as Cai Qin, at her present age, could probably be already 'over the hill' to sing many of them now. Just compare them to those from her older albums and you will get my drift! Some may disagree with me and are definitely entitled to their opinion as "To Each His Own"!

Addendum on 03.10.2009:I may have been quite critical of Cai Qin's latest album; this is not without reason for I have been a fan of her since the early nineties and currently own 2 LPs and 7 CDs of her albums including the latest. I have even attended her concert in 2007 after hearing her self-proclamation to be the Chinese version of Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand and the likes. Perhaps she was but clearly she no longer sound like one in her latest album!
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5 comments:

unker vic said...

Tsai Chin actually sang the title song/track from the movie "The 2nd Spring" way back in the mid '60's. The title song 2nd spring was sung
in mandarin and the english version
was sung as "The Ding Dong Song". That was when I 1st knew about her!
I still have the sp (single play, 45rpm) to proof it!

unker vic said...

Here it is.........


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2eqg8X9bdA

unker vic said...

My Apologies.......don't know if it's......read on......

My Mistake.......apologies.....

The english version.............sang by grace chang

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaREw-4lpvQ&feature=related


And the tsai chin then who sang the title song is not the same cai qin, the famous singer.........
according to information available..................

The spelling on the 45 rpm record clearly spelled as "tsai chin".........will never know unless I ask
tsai chin herself..........

patrickdcyau (4 months ago) Show Hide
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Tsai Chin's real name is Irene Chow (周采芹). Note that she is not the famous Taiwanese singer Choi Kum (蔡琴). Also, this song (Ding Dong Song) has been made into CD now under the label of Karussell, record number 551 125-2.
2947270 (6 months ago) Show Hide
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This song was the second time that a chinese song (Second Spring) was adopted and turned to be a English song by Western Country. The first song was 'Rose rose I love you'.

unker vic said...

ayway.....more info on the ding dong song......


fhlew (11 months ago) Show Hide
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In 1959, Tsai Chin 周采芹 (actress) recorded an English version of Yao Ming's 姚敏 The Second Spring 第二春 , which featured in the London stage musical "The World of Suzie Wong ". With lyrics by Lionel Bart, The Ding Dong Song was released as a single on Decca backed by the original Mandarin version. Although they were not made with Hong Kong audiences in mind The Ding Dong Song became popular local nightclub songs and is well-remembered in Hong Kong.

Y.C. said...

Victor,

Many thanks for info and link provided. The singer Tsai Chin in the specified youtube is a different person altogether. If you read Chinese, here: http://www.chinaqw.com/news/200802/21/107215.shtml

Although their name in English are the same but the characters in Chinese are again different. The different spellings in 蔡琴's name are attributed to differences of pinyin in traditional and simplified Chinese pronunciation which Taiwan (adopts the former) chooses to be different from the rest of countries with Chinese speaking citizens.

Cheers.