Hong Kong Pop 60s Music - Queen Kong Ling

Monday, May 18, 2009

Kong Ling (image) never looked back when she was the winner in an inter-school singing competition in the early 50s in HongKong. Within three years, she became just as popular in Singapore as she was in HongKong when she became a resident song bird in a local nitespot.

Like many singers in the 60s, Kong Ling gained popularity by covering pop English songs translated into Chinese dialects and Mandarin.

In 1960 she cut her first album, but her second Long Playing record, “Theme from a Dream," made her part of the 60s family when Diamond Records had a full studio orchestra to back her.

Like Sakura Teng, Rita Chao and other Mandarin pop singers, Kong Ling has this distinguishable Cantonese diction and grammatical swings when she sings her English covers, but it's part of the Eastern charm many fans find enduring. She's best singing in Mandarin and dialect. "Roses are red, my love, violets are blue." Off beat and cha-cha-cha! But definitely not off-colour!
(Image: A rare find indeed).

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Hong Kong 60s Music - The Fabulous Echoes

Sunday, May 17, 2009

The Fabulous Echoes were three Filipinos, a Scotsman and Sri Lankan lead singer Cliff Foenander. They were the most successful of these early 60s bands in Hong Kong, appearing on two Diamond Record albums fronted by Kong Ling and on four other albums proving themselves as a rock n roll show band.

The Fabulous Echoes line-up was: Tony Ruivivar (guitar), Bert Sagum (tambourine, vocals), Terry Lucido (piano), Stan Robertson (bass), Danny Ruivivar (drums), and Cliff Foenander (lead vocals). Cliff Foenander, their lead singer, was Sri Lanka's "crooner king" in the late 50s and 60s. He joined them and their first hit, "A Little Bit of Soap" (1964 - Diamond Records) was for 25 weeks at #1 on the Hong Kong Charts and a hit in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, The Philippines and Sri Lanka.

Some of their more familiar hits were: "Dancing on The Moon," "Sukiyaki," "'The Wedding,'" "Skip to My Lou," "Way Back When" and "This Land is My Land." They have also accompanied Hong Kong singer Kong Ling with the Diamond Music Company Studio Orchestra.
The group changed their names in 1968 and called themselves The Society Of Seven. They were contracted to play in Las Vegas and became as familiar as Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald and Pat Boone.

Ed Sullivan signed them up for two shows and when telecast, was seen by an audience of more than 40 million viewers. The group played in Vegas and for more than three decades, kept the pace. Foenander passed away in late 2000 but the group, with a new line-up, are still playing.

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