Wednesday 25 June 2008

Oldies Song - I Cannot Like Mehh??

Many a time I was questioned about my love for oldies songs. People actually found it weird for a person in his twenties to have great liking for oldies whereby I should be rooting for hip-hop or R&B. And oldies are meant only for oldies...My answer is simply "Why can't I?". My handphone caller tunes contains of Stevie Wonder"I Just Called To Say I Love You", Andy Williams "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" and Shayne Ward "Somewhere Over The Rainbow". My customers thought I was in my forties due to this song choices and my younger colleagues told me to change the tunes for God's sake.

Can't really recall when I started liking those oldies songs. It's probably due to following my parents to many karaoke outings with family frens in my younger days. It's simply because of the originality of the songs & the singers' passion in singing the songs, comparing to the songs today which sounds more or less the same and the singers are almost sound alike. The 60s, 70s and 80s are my top picks for the greatest decades of history of music.

How not to love these evergreen songs which their catchy tunes will keep playing in your head the moment the songs are played. Those will probably be playing on radio for many lifetimes to come. Think of Cliff Richards "Beautiful Sunday", Beatles "Let It Be", Carpenters "Top Of The World", Louis Armstrong "Wonderful World", The Cascades "Rhythm of The Rain", Beach Boys "Kokomo", Bee Gees "Night Fever", Willie Nelson "Always on My Mind" and many others. Push slightly forward to the 80s and we're still enjoying the memorable choruses of songs like Richard Marx "Right Here Waiting", Atlantic Starr "Always", James Ingram "Just Once", Bryan Adams "Everything I Do, I Do It For You", George Michael "Careless Whispers", Whitney Houston "I Will Always Love You", Lionel Ritchie "Say You Say Me" etc.

Cover version songs are considered safe bets for most singers today as they are previous hits which can serve as passports for them to penetrate many different age-groups. Although there's many cover version songs by top singers today, personally only barely few actually sing better than the original singers. Dan Fogelberg "Rhythm of The Rain", Jordan Hill "Too Much Heaven" and Shayne Ward "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" are my top three picks of being better than their predecessors, bringing new breathes & dimensions into the songs. We have many versions of "Unchained Melody" but tell me who can actually sing better than original version by The Righteous Brothers? You may think Air Supply & Mariah Carey's version of "Without You" are the best but wait till you listen to Harry Nilsson, the original singer. Who dare say Jessica Simpson is better at singing "Take My Breath Away" than Berlin.

With this, let not question my love for oldies anymore. Try listen to these songs in YouTube & get to appreciate their uniqueness & originalities. Enjoy !!!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

i think they are not so much oldies a they are EVERGREENS - songs that never go stale and every generation is able to appreciate.

the next time we meet, remind me to show you carol wood's version of "let it be".

Raymond said...

O.O i'll prefer Michael Buble anyday...keke...and where's the blog about the ambush party??