2008/07/19

Elizabeth & Marilyn

Elizabeth and Marilyn, recorded their first EP with The Dukes, featuring titles like My Drummer Boy, Dream Up A Dream, Without You and L'edera. The two lovely ladies were also very well known as the voices behind the wonderful chorus on Keith Locke & The Quests' greatest hit, "Don't Play That Song (You Lied)", sometimes called the "whoa-woo" song. To this date, the song is still often requested by fans during live performances by members of The Quests.

Lara Tan

Lara Tan aka Ying-Ying was among the top few female Mandarin pop singers during the 60s. Most of her recordings were accompanied by The Trailers that included tracks like Love Potion No. 9, This Is My Song, Mrs. Applebee, Downtown, You Only Live Twice, Please Don't Talk To The Lifeguard, Single Girl, Dream Girl, Visions, Sugar Town, Puppet On A String and Run For Your Life. In some ways, she was Cosdel's answer to EMI's Lam Leng, Rita Chao and Sakura.

The Strollers

The Strollers, featuring Michael Magness, Hussein Idris, Nand Kumar, Hassan Idris and Billy Chang. They were one of the hottest group in East Malaysia during the 60s. Their first LP titled "Waiting is..." included tracks like You're Gonna Make It, Silly Jokes, Bus Ride, Children, Fire, Please Don't Let Me Down, You, N.W.K., Maybe Tomorrow, My Girl, Do What You Gonna Do/Just As I Am. Some of their hits are available in a CD compilation released in Malaysia.

Rose Iwanaga & The Avengers

Rose Iwanaga & The Avengers, featuring Peter Ho, Jimmy Ho, James Ong, Jalek Zula. The EP recordings of this East Malaysia group included tracks like Please Tell Terry, Will You Love Me Tomorrow, Too Young, Say You'll Be Mine, I'll Pretend, You Belong To Me, Why ?, I'd Never Find Another You, Take Me Back Again, I Hope You Won't, Oh Handsome Boy and True Love Will Come To You.

Western Union Band

The Western Union Band, featuring Chris Vadham, Danny Lim, Abel Gan, Peter Mangkok and Daniel Wee. Their first LP, produced by Reggie Verghese, included tracks like Howzat, Slipping Away, Movie Star, Wise Man, We All Fall In Love Sometimes, Needles & Pins, Come Together, Living Next Door To Alice, Nights Are Forever, First Cut Is The Deepest, Paper Roses Paper Dreams, Did You Boogie, Stand By Me & Sausolito. The second LP, managed by Jap Chong, offered tracks like Yesterday's Sorrow, When You Walk In The Room, You Keep Me Running, Free Me, Ain't Nothing Gonna Keep Me From You, Takin' Care Of Business, I've Got Love, You Are The Woman, Every Kinda Of People, How Can This Be Love, I Will Still Love You, I Can't Hold On & Dust In The Wind.

The Sundowners

The Sundowners, featuring Tony Seow, Lawrence Seow and George Lim were accompanied by The Tornados when they recorded Malaysia Wonderful and That's The One For Me. Members of the Tornados were Freddie Koh, Derek McCully, Stanley Lee and Lennie Lee. Earlier in 1963, The Sundowners also recorded another SP under the Warner label, featuring the popular folk song Bangawan Solo and Cotton Fields, accompanied by the All Star Quintet.

Tony & Terry with Spencer

Tony, Terry with Spencer released their first LP album in 1978, produced by Reggie Verghese. The track listing included The Prisoner, The Chosen One, I Just Want To Be Your Everything, I Won't Move Over, Falling, Bad To Me, It's A Heartache, You've Got Your Troubles, Somethings Don't Come Easy, Best Of My Love, Bye Bye Love and Just A Song Before I Go.

Katherine & The Firebyrds

Katherine & The Fyrebyrds, featuring Wilson Paul Khoo, Andrew Tan, Royston Jansen and Peter Ong. Their first EP included songs like He's Sure To Remember Me, You Better Move On, Yes, I've Fallen and Baby Don't.

Lam Leng

Lam Leng was the first female Mandarin song singer that had the pleasure of The Quests as her accompanying group. Her first EP included four English songs sang in Mandarin, "Under The Boardwalk", "How Do You Do It", "Boys" and "I Feel Fine". Her second EP was also accompanied by The Quests. In some ways, she was the pioneer among the likes of Sakura and Rita Chao.

Rita Chao

Rita Chao, aka "Seow Mei-Mei", the A-G0-Go Queen of the 60s. Recorded her first EP with The Quests that included one of her greatest hits during that period, "Shake, Shake, Shake" or "Yeow, Yeow, Yeow" in Mandarin. Like Sakura, she sang in Mandarin, English and Japanese. Most of her recordings were accompanied by The Quests. "Sixteen Candles" was one of her most popular English songs.

Sakura Teng

Sakura Teng aka Ying Hua was one of the more popular female Mandarin song singers from the 60s era. She sang in a variety of languages, from Mandarin to Bahasa Malaysia, English and even Japanese. Many of her recordings were accompanied by The Quests. A household name in RTS' Chinese Variety Show in the evenings.

Eunice Sim

Eunice Sim, Radio & Television Talentime Winner for 1968. She subsequently recorded an EP, accompanied by the RTS Orchestra, lead by well-known veteran musician, Ahmad Jaffar. The four tracks included Alfie, Hello Dolly, Windows Of The World and Something Bad On My Mind.

Elaine Kang

Elaine Kang was one of the most popular female singer in Malaysia during yesterdays. In 1991, a compilation of hits was released on CD that included tracks like To Sir With Love, Do Run Run, Outsider, Shakin' All Over, Rain And Tears, Let's Dance, Never In A Million Years, Bobby's Girl, Halfway To Paradise and Same Old Song.

The New Topnotes

The New Topnotes, featuring Elisa Chan, Danny Chung, Majid Rahman, Johnny Yip, Andrew Oh and Carlos Mendoza. Their first LP included tracks like Here Comes Love, We Do It, I Really Love To See You Tonight, Mr. Melody, Muskrat Love, If I Ever Lose This Heaven, Kiss & Say Goodbye, You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine, Sophisticated Lady, If You Walked Away & I Need To Be In Love.

A follow up album offered Do You Wanna Make Love, This Girl Has Turned Into A Woman, Evergreen, Sam, You Don't Have To Be A Star, Don't Leave Me This Way, I Wish, Here Comes Love, Windflowers, Harmour Love, Walking In Rhythm, We Do It, I Feel A Song, One Man Woman, Mandy & All By Myself.

The Xperiment & The Idaly Sisters

The Xperiment featuring Mervyn Nonis, Tony Shotam, Frisco Lim, Kenny Barket, Joe Chandran and Siva Choy with The Idaly Sisters, Linda, Lolly and Elsie.
Their first LP included tracks like Unchained Melody, Micro-Mini, Don't Fight It, You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'/Soul and Inspiration, I Second That Emotion, A Place In The Sun, To Love Somebody, Soul Sister Brown Sugar, Everyday Will Be Like A Holiday, I Lost Someone and Funky Broadway.
Over the years, The Xperiment also released a second LP with titles like Chinatown Rock, Here Comes That Feeling Again, Come And Rest On Love, Living In The Past, Fun Fun Fun, Different Sound, Waiting, Hedonism Is Fun, Geraldine and Baila.

Bobby Lambert & The Dukes

Bobby Lambert & the Dukes, featuring Ahmad Murad Bin Sulaiman, Zainal Abidin Bin Sulaiman, Richard Young and Zainal Abidin Bin Akib. Their first record release included titles like First Bend In The River, Rave On, False Alarm and Day Dream, the last two being instrumentals.

Subsequent releases included Lonesome Town, Empty Heartaches, Thinking About You and Trying To Get To You, Selina, Rhumba De Havana. A compilation of most of their recordings were relased on CD some years back.

The Checkmates

The Checkmates, featuring Benny Chan, Hann Hussein, Lawrence Lee and Amir Samsudin. Their first EP recording included four original instrumental compositions - 45 RPM, Galaxy, Sylvia and Lady In White. The Checkmates also accompanied The Cyclones and Bryan Neale in their recordings.

The Jets

The Jets, featuring Edward Tan, Herald Chiang, Alan Poh and Richard Tan. Their first EP release included four original instrumentals, Aurora, Fantasy, The Meteor & Escapee, composed jointly by Alan Poh and Edward Tan. They followed up with a second original EP that included titles like Blues Away, Express Train, The Big Band Beat & Alice In Dreamland.

Subsequent recordings included When I Was Young, 500 Miles, Fever, Unchained Melody, Lonely Time, Yesterday, Walk Away.

Naomi & The Boys

Naomi Suriya & The Boys, with the original members featuring Robert Suriya, Peter Richards, Moses Tay, Henry Richards and Joe Ahmad. Their first great hit, "It's All Over" was composed by Robert Suriya.

Over the years, their successful recordings included Happy Happy Birthday Baby, I Know, Please Baby Please, Poncho, I'm The Loser, I'd Like To Know, As Life Goes On, Blue Mist, How was I To Know, It Doesn't Matter, Old Photographs, Why I'm Walking, I'm Crying Inside, Happy Birthday Sweetheart, If You Change Your Mind, A Woman's World, Bad Loser, I'll Never Be The Same, Don't Be Surprised, Today, He's Mine, Life I Wanna Lead, among others. A compilation of most of their recordings were released on CD some years ago.

The Trailers

The Trailers, featuring Benny Koh, Victor Woo, Edmund Tan, Eric Tan, Tony Zee and Michael Teo . Their first hit success was "Do It Right" followed by "Don't Laugh, You'll Cry", "The Phoenix Theme". Others included Thunderball, Lucille, Quiver, Run Away-Hide, Irene Goodnight, Mohair Sam, I'm Ready Now, Peter Gunn, Raise Your Hand, Gimme Little Sign, Lara's Song, Ding Dong Song, Ali San, Girl Of My Dreams, You Only Live Twice, Come Back My Love andBe Faithful Be True. A compilation of all their recordings was released on CD a few years ago.

2008/07/18

Susan Lim & The Crescendos

he Crescendos, featuring Susan Lim, Leslie Chia, John Chee and Raymond Ho. Their first recording "Mr. Twister" sold more than 10,000 copies in the local market. Other recordings over the years included Frankie, In The Good Old Summertime, Just A Closer Walk With Thee, Waktu Fajar, Bengawan Solo, The Boy Next Door, Besame Mucho, Rinky Tinky Twist, The Other Side Of Town, Hey Big Boy, My Bonnie, Everybody Loves A Lover, Long Tall Sally, Silver Threads & Golden Needle, He's The Boy, Lenggang Kangkong, Has Anybody Seen My Boyfriend, Walk On By, Are You Getting Tired Of Your Little Toy, Lemon Tree and A Lover's Concerto. A compilation of all their recordings was released on CD in 1994. Towards the end of her singing career, Susan also recorded a solo EP with The Thunderbirds that included songs With Every Little Tear, Another Morning, The Ballad Of Bonnie & Clyde and Baby, Now That I've Found You.

Keith Locke & The Quests

Keith Locke was popular enough to front The Quests in one of their greatest hits, Don't Play That Song (You Lied). Although his association with the group was relatively short, Keith managed to churn out several original recordings with them. They recorded 10 songs together, starting with Don't Play That Song (You Lied), Be My Girl, Push-Push, That You Are Mine, I'm on Top of The World, I Want A Home, Mockingbird Hill, Earth Angel, You Talk Too Much and Lonely Street.

When Keith met The Quests for the first time during a gig, he was a guest singer and belted out Runaway and A Hundred Pounds Of Clay. The boys were impressed....and the rest is history.

The Sound Of The Quests

The last LP from The Quests before they disbanded. Trasklist included Hawaii Five-O, Don't Forget To Remember, Soul Finger, Time Is Tight, I'd Wait A Million Years, Sound Of Silence, Sunshine Of Your Love, The Good, The Bad & The Ugly, Love Is Blue, Jesamine, Don't Play That Song (You Lied), Be My Girl. Jap Chong came of age as a vocalist with his fine renditions of Don't Forget To Remember and I'd Wait A Million Years.

Questing

The first LP album released by The Quests. Tracklist included Instrumentally Western, You're Tellin' Lies , Look In My Eyes, Lengang Kangkong, She's The One, Drivin' Me Mad, Shadow Of Your Smile, Shanty, In A World Of Our Own, Honey House, Yang Di-Mana Satu, All My Sorrows, Please Try And Understand, My Favourite Things.

Two original compositions by S.A. Vinton of The Antartics - You're Tellin' Lies and In A World Of Our Own. The Quests tried abit of Country & Western with Reggie's Instrumentally Western.

The Best Of The Quests

A compilation of some of the greatest hits of the group, the tracklist included Pop Inn Theme, Mustapha, Gallopin' Hava Nagila, Sound of Music, Lenggang Kangkong, Tea Break, Ding Dong Twist, Man From Madrid, Shanty, Champagne, Hur Pi Tzu Shau Hsiang. New arrangements given to Pop Inn Theme, Gallopin' Tea Break & Shanty, thanks to keyboard maestro Jimmy Chan and the guitar guru Reggie Verghese.

The 33rd Revolution

The 33rd Revolution, released by The Quests before their conquest of Hong Kong. The tracks included Hava Nagila, Come on Down To My Boat, Hur Pi Tzu Shau Hsiang, Never Ever, Mr Rainbow, Guantaramera, Georgy Girl, 26 Miles, What's Wrong With The Way I Live, This Nearly Was Mine, I'll Never Fall In Love Again, A World Of Tomorrows. Mr Rainbow became a great hit in Hong Kong, while Never Ever also hit the charts there. A World Of Tomorrows was an original composition by Reggie Verghese.