As I just learned that Blogspot was blocked in China, I need to stop updating this blog for the moment until I set up another reliable blog hosted in China. I hope that will be done next month. And I need to fix the storage problems regarding the posted songs. Sorry and stay tuned! : )
It has been a while since my last update here as I was kind of busy over the past days. Anyway, let me take a breath today and do some updating work.
Ekin Cheng (郑伊健)has almost never been a good singer, yet he did have a few hit songs in 1990s when his career was at its peak, especially thanks to his advancement in the movie arena. He had a song titled "离不开" in his second album “撒哈拉" released in 1993, which was covered from Anzen Chitai's この道は何処へ. The original song was in AC's album VII, one of their albums that I like a lot, including its cover design.
Songwriter/singer/producer 刚泽斌 from Taiwan also had a cover of the same original song. The cover is titled "让你走", from his second and last album “爱易收难放”。
I made a breakthrough since the last update here in finding all the cover songs by Anzen Chitai and Koji Tamaki. While stumbing into several Mandarin songs by 潘协庆 and 杨大为 thanks to Jasrac record,I got help from friends in getting the rare song "移情别恋" by Hong Kong DJ singer 陈永业(thanks for minzhang's sharing)。Also, as I don't have all my own Anzen Chitai and Koji Tamaki stuff at hand, I sought help from 日文老歌论坛,where I finally downloaded all the Anzen Chitai albums that I can now use to upload all the originals and make a comparison for each cover song.
I'm thinking about, starting from now, do the posting album by album, which will make the whole project more systematic and orderly. Then let me begin from backward, Anzen Chitai VIII, the last album of theirs that spawned a Cantonese cover song according to my record so far. In this album, the balld song 朝の陽ざしに君がいて was covered twice by Hong Kong singers, respectively, 刘小慧's "我怀念着一片云彩" and 陈永业's "移情别恋".
Among Anzen Chitai's albums, VII is the one which spawns the second most cover songs as I guess, only after V (Maybe I should do some counting some day). "Seaside Go Go" is a sidetrack in VI and was picked by Hacken Lee who covered it as “跳舞波鞋(dance ball shoes)" to add a jolly flavor to his album "破晓时分".
Few would deny the position of Jacky Cheung in the Hong Kong pop music arena. Among his widely welcomed songs in the 1980s and 1990s, one can easily spot a few covers of Anzen Chitai's or Koji Tamaki's originals. Here is a dance beat song “花花公子",based on Koji Tamaki's single "I'm dandy".
Danny Summer has been recognized as one of Hong Kong's few rock n' roll icons in the 1980s that ocassionally crossed the line and established a rather solid presence in the pop music arena. Here is his cover of Anzen Chitai's あなたに..., one of my favorite covers.
Another rare song to share. Its original version with the same title was in Koji Tamaki's solo debut All I Do. Thanks to 乐半湾's help I finally found this cover.
Uploaded a rare song to share: 林叶亭's 吹泡泡等你. A very lovely and even teenagerish song. I'm still trying to find its Cantonese version.
Updated 02/08/09: Finally found the song "未想讲再见"by 区瑞强。It was in his rare album "许愿" in 1987, which was not released in CD. The one shared here was coverted from its original LP. Thanks for 宁's sharing.
The original song was from an OST Anzen Chitai did for a movie titled "プルシアンブルーの肖像".
Priscilla Chan did a fantastic job in covering Anzen Chitai's 碧い瞳のエリス, and the cover song has become a must-have for her fans when they are expected to pick their favorite Priscilla songs.
It took me quite a while to find the cover song of Anzen Chitai's We Are Alive. Accidentally I found a Japanese site that works on finding Chinese covers and Japanese originals and finally solved the problem that troubled me for long.
Hacken Lee of Hong Kong is always a good singer, especially in terms of those killing-me-softly love ballads. The following cover of Koji Tamaki's Melody is a good example.
Updated Feb. 2, 2009: Added another cover by 王开城,a Taiwan singer who contributed a version in Hokkien (Southern Min dialect).
In her 1989 big hit album "Forever your friend", Hong Kong singer Priscilla Chan covered Koji Tamaki's single "冰點" released the same year. Although a quite short song, its melancholic feeling is of as much touching power as her other hit songs.
Whenever asked about my favorite Japanese songs, the one that pops in my mind in the first place is always Anzen Chitai's 悲しみにさよなら (say goodbye to sadness). I don't know why, yet every time I listen to it, I feel there is no need for me to not cheer up. I guess, perhaps out of the same sort of liking, quite a few Chinese artists have covered this song. The following are what I have found so far:
After finding a way today to download a lot of rare songs for this project, I think I can speed up my sharing. Then, as the first song to share in the new year, I've chosen the song "Star" by Koji Tamaki. This song has been covered by the following three artists: