A Song a day: March 2012

Saturday, March 31, 2012

31st Mar 2012 (That’s Why (you go away) - Michael Learns to Rock)

The song for today is “That’s Why (you go away)” By Michael Learns to Rock. A song with beautiful melody.

Everyone have their past, and what make us differ from each others are the things that had happened in our life. There could be times that we are hurt, times that we were happy, time that we were sad. It is all these little things that happened in our day-to-day life that built up our personality and it is all these things that make us different from each other. So when there are bad thing happened in our life, don’t get too upset, move on and let it become part of yourself. One day when you look back, you might be able to view it from a whole new perspective. Hope you enjoy the song that I chose for today.

That’s Why (you go away) – Michael Learns to Rock

Friday, March 30, 2012

30th Mar 2012 (Goodbye to Love – The Carpenters)

Today’s song is “Goodbye to Love” by The Carpenters. This song is rather sad, as it talks about a person isn’t able to find love and decided that she is going to give up on searching and start preparing to live her life alone. She realised that she could be wrong that she isn’t able to find the special one, but yet she is all exhausted and tired of searching.

If you are ever in this situation, please don’t give up. I believe that everyone is born in a pair, there is always a perfect match somewhere waiting for you. So all you need to do is to find that special one. If you ever feel lonely, your family and friends are always there for you. Or you can talk to me or others by leaving comment below :) Hope you will enjoy the song.

Goodbye to Love – The Carpenters

Thursday, March 29, 2012

29th Mar 2012 (單車- Eason Chan)

Today’s song is “單車” by Eason Chan. This is one of my favourite songs. This song came out in 2001, in an album called “Shall We Dance? Shall We Talk!” If you have read my other article on Eason before (25th Mar2012 (Shall We Talk - Eason Chan)), you would probably realised that this song “單車” come from the same album as Shall We Talk. The album “Shall We Dance? Shall We Talk!” is one of my all-time favourite albums, if I got the chance, I will introduce more songs from this album to you.

For those of you who don’t understand Chinese, 單車 means bicycle. This song is about the relationship between father and son. Typically, fathers wouldn’t show that they love their kids even though they love their kids a lot. And this song is questioning about this. It started off saying “Don’t assume I know that everything that you have done is for me. Why being so great, but so hard to feel it. How good can love be without words? I only remember I have felt it once, when I was leaning on you back on the bicycle.” Then in the second part, the son have grown up, and realised that it is so hard to be dad. “You already have given (your love) to me, but why can’t I see it. Now I am acting in your role, why should I just stand on the side instead of give (my son) a hug? How can I believe in your style of teaching, love me so much but not letting me know. I miss the time when we were on the bicycle, the only time we were so close.”

The original lyrics is 100 times better than my poor translation. Almost every time I read the lyrics, I can feel that tears are coming out from my eyes. Not sure why the song is so touching, maybe because this song was dedicated to Eason’s father, and he had put in his true feeling when he sing the song. Not sure whether it was a coincident or was it done on purpose, when this song came out, Eason’s father was actually in a lawsuit (his dad lost at the end and went into jail). So I guess you could say the song sort of came out at the right time.

Hope you will be touched by this song as much as I do.

Other songs in the father and son series:
25th May 2013 (負親 – Terence Chui/說不出的 – Rico Long)

14th Apr 2012 (追憶 –George Lam)

15th Apr 2012 (空凳 –Danny Summer)

13th Jun 2012 (重口味 – EasonChan)

29th Apr 2012 (七百年後 – EasonChan)

21st Apr 2012 (路...一直都在 –Eason Chan)

6th Apr 2012 (最冷一天 - Eason Chan/Leslie Cheung)

3rd Apr 2012 (夕陽無限好 – EasonChan)

27th Mar 2012 (What a wonderful world - Eason Chan)

25th Mar 2012 (Shall We Talk - Eason Chan)

單車- Eason Chan (managed to found a version with English subtitle, hope they have done a better translation than me)

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

28th Mar 2012 (Nature Boy - Nat King Cole)

The song for today is “Nature Boy” by Nat King Cole. This is the original version of the song and it is a very old song. It came out in 1948. Of cause I am not that old to hear this song when it first came out :) I heard this song the first time around a few months ago on a TV show. I was amazed by the intro, it have a very strong orchestra feel. Apart from the music, I also like the lyrics. It is very simple, the main message is repeated two times in the song and it is very direct. The message is “"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return". This is very true. To be honest, I am going through one of the lowest points in my life, and it is because of incident I feel the unconditional love from my family. So hope you enjoy this song as much as I do.

Nature Boy - Nat King Cole

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

27th Mar 2012 (What a wonderful world - Eason Chan)

The song of the day is “What a wonderful world” by Eason Chan. Like I said the other day (25th Mar 2012 (Shall We Talk - Eason Chan)) I will try to introduce some English song that is sung by Eason. It was actually quit hard to find, as he doesn’t produce that many English songs, most of the time he just sing them in concert. Here is one that I like. The original was sung by Louis Armstrong.

To be honest, this is not one of my favourite songs, but I racon that Eason’s version is better than the original. At least I think his voice is a better match to the song. Tell me what you think about Eason’s version. Hope you will enjoy the song of the day.

13th Jun 2012 (重口味 – EasonChan)

29th Apr 2012 (七百年後 – EasonChan)

21st Apr 2012 (路...一直都在 –Eason Chan)

6th Apr 2012 (最冷一天 - Eason Chan/Leslie Cheung)

3rd Apr 2012 (夕陽無限好 – EasonChan)

29th Mar 2012 (單車- Eason Chan)

25th Mar 2012 (Shall We Talk - Eason Chan)

What a wonderful world – Eason Chan

Monday, March 26, 2012

26th Mar 2012 (Please - Janice Vidal)

Today’s song is “Please” by Janice Vidal. She is a singer from Hong Kong, but she is a mix (half Korean, half Pilipino). This is one of my favourite songs of her, from her only English album. Different to many other Chinese singers, she actually has a fair number of English songs even though her target audience are Chinese. Sadly she is not making that many songs these days due to the news that she was involved in (partly because of the fact that her sister got caught taking drugs).

This song is from the album “Morning”, which came out in 2009. It is very rarely that a Hong Kong singer would take the risk of producing a complete English album. Sales were quite good as well. I particularly love this song. Again, I don’t know why, but since the first time I listen to this song, I have looped it over and over for many times. Hope you will enjoy this song.

19th May 2012 (Goodbye - Janice Vidal/Air Supply)

17th May 2012 (離家出走 –Janice Vidal)

16th May 2012 (Do you know where you're going to – JaniceVidal/Diana Ross)

20th Apr 2012 (My Love My Fate – Janice Vidal)

Please – Janice Vidal

Sunday, March 25, 2012

25th Mar 2012 (Shall We Talk - Eason Chan)

Today the song that I chose is “Shall we talk” by EasonChan. Eason is a very famous Chinese singer and he is also one of my favourite singer. This song is a Chinese song (in fact Cantonese song). Hopefully in the near future, if I got the mood, I will introduce you to some of the English songs that Eason sing.

Since this song is in Chinese, I am going to give a brief description of the lyrics so that you get a feel of it. This song revolves around life and communication. It started of talking about a kid who loves to play, but he is worry about his parents’ expectation. So looking to mother’s eyes feels like as if he has to stay after school. (It is very typical of Chinese that their kids are usually very scare about their parents; I guess non-asian is a bit hard to understand this situation). This part discuss why grownup don’t understand kids, they they have to force them to study and have high expectation of them. If they can chat with each other maybe the situation could be better. Then the second part of the song makes a jump in time, now it talks about the kid have become a grownup and is in love. Now at this age, the now grownup kid only cares about his gain from work, but his lover only care about promises; why the two of they can’t understand each other. If they can open their heart to each other, they could have better understand each other and maybe it wouldn’t have led to a breakup. In the third part, the saddest part of all, the kid is now an old man. He realised that time have gone by, but yet nothing had change. He is still alone and lonely, so lonely that he can hear the sound of leaf falling.

If you feel that this song is reflecting your life, it is not too late to change it. Hope you would be touched by this song as much as I do.

13th Jun 2012 (重口味 – EasonChan)

29th Apr 2012 (七百年後 – EasonChan)

21st Apr 2012 (路...一直都在 –Eason Chan)

6th Apr 2012 (最冷一天 - Eason Chan/Leslie Cheung)

3rd Apr 2012 (夕陽無限好 – EasonChan)

29th Mar 2012 (單車- Eason Chan)

27th Mar 2012 (What a wonderful world - Eason Chan)

Shall We Talk – Eason Chan

24th Mar 2012 (The Closest thing to Crazy - Katie Melua)

The song of the day is “The closest thing to crazy” by Katie Melua. I love this song, and it brings back lot of memories.

I remember when this song first came out, I was still in high school, in fact the last year of high school. It was the time when I was so busy preparing for my final exam. One day when I was having dinner, I heard this song on TV in an ad. I instantly fall in love with it. I don’t know what about the song that I love, but it just stuck in my head. Back then, internet wasn’t that fast so it was also hard to track down more info on the song. So when I heard the song the second time on TV, I quickly grabbed my pen and paper and copied down the song name and the artist. It was the first time I heard the name Katie Melua, but her voice have already stuck in my head. Each day I quite look forward to dinner as I know that sometime during dinner I would hear some part of this song (in the ad, of cause). I remember I promise myself, after my final exam, I am going to buy myself this CD. And 2 months later, I got this CD overseas during my vocation. It was the first ever English CD that I got. I remember the first thing that I do was to play this song and then play it again and again. I think after a few days it already became the most played song in my iTune play list. So here you go today, hope you will enjoy this song as much as I do.

23rd May 2012 (What I Miss About You – Katie Melua)

The Closest thing to Crazy – Katie Melua

Friday, March 23, 2012

23rd Mar 2012 (Seeing you again - Dan Fogelberg)

The song for today is “Seeing you again” by Dan Fogelberg. I learn of this song through the cover song “再度重遇你” by Jacky Cheung. Both versions are fantastic.

Following from yesterday story (22th Mar 2012 (Only you –Trademark)), I think it is only fair if I also dedicate a song to my female friend. So I chose “Seeing you again”. I hope that through this song she could understand the consequences of her decision, not just to her ex-boyfriend, but also to herself.

Seeing you again – Dan Fogelberg

22th Mar 2012 (Only you –Trademark)

Thursday, March 22, 2012

22nd Mar 2012 (Only Love - Trademark)

Today’s pick is “Only love” by Trademark. I know I know, I just chose a cover song of “Only Love” a few days ago (see 19th Mar 2012(Something only love can do – Jacky Cheung)). This song is chosen for my friend.

The story goes like this, I know the couple for a few years now. They love each other and all their friends thought that one day the two of them is going to get married. But all of a sudden, the girl decided to breakup with her boyfriend. She told us that she think her boyfriend is very childish and annoying. She have told us that she have been thinking about this for over a month before making this decision. My male friend is of cause upset. But she doesn’t seem to be much better. Her family all thinking that she make the wrong decision and stop talking to her ever since they found out.

I don’t have the right to judge who is right or wrong, as no one would understand the whole story and the feeling attached like the couple themselves. But to my understanding, the whole story just seems to revolve around wrong timing, and it is sad that the story is the way that it is. I hope this is not the end of their story. So today, I would like to dedicate this song to my male friend. Hope you will find an answer to your question through this song.

Related posts:
19th Dec 2012 (Miss you finally - Trademark)

Only Love - Trademark

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

21st Mar 2012 (Yesterday Once More - The Carpenters)

The song of the day is “Yesterday Once More” by Carpenters. This song came out in 1973.

I guess most people would know the first lines of this song “When I was young I'd listen to the radio, waitin' for my favourite songs”. Not sure how deeply people feel about this line when the song first came out (as I wasn’t born yet), but I can feel it deeply nowadays. I mean, many of us would probably download songs from the internet as it is quick and easy. There is no longer the need to wait for a song to be played by a radio host or the need to wait for the CD to come out. Playing a song that we want is just simply a few clicks away. I think it is the ease of this make us less likely to enjoy a song, and it is also this ease that make us forget the time and effort musician put in for the layout and the order of the songs in an album. I guess I am one of the odd one these day that still buy albums from a shop. I have to say mp3 really make it easy to carry many songs with us, but to really get a taste of the songs, CD is still the unbeatable way because you are getting a complete package that are custom made for the theme. By listening to the whole album, it also widens our music sense. Enough nonsense from me :p hope you will enjoy the song for today.

Yesterday Once More – The Carpenters

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

20th Mar 2012 (Invisible Wings - Olivia Ong)

The song of the day is “Invisible Wings” by Olivia Ong. Olivia is a singer from Singapore and this is one of her many English songs. Like many other Chinese singers from Singapore, she made her name overseas first, but differently she started off in Japan. I think Olivia got a lovely voice, and this song is one of the songs that I have been keep looping over and over.

I especially love the lyrics of this song. It tells us that when we are unhappy, we should think about our hopes and dreams. One day we could fly up high with our invisible wing to reach our goals. (I have probably made the song sounds a bit stupid with my bad writing skill, but please try out the song, it is really a beautiful piece). Hope all of us can have a pair of invisible wing.

(Just for your information, this is a cover song from a Chinese song call “隐形的翅膀” (meaning “invisible wing”) by Angela Chang. But I think the English version by Olivia is a lot better)

Related posts:
17th Jun 2012 (I’ll move on – Olivia Ong)

20th May 2012 (我願意 –Olivia Ong/Faye Wong)

18th Apr 2012 (True Colours – Olivia Ong)

5th Apr 2012 (Sometime When We Touch – Olivia Ong)

Invisible Wings – Olivia Ong

Monday, March 19, 2012

19th Mar 2012 (Something only love can do – Jacky Cheung)

Today I choose “Something only love can do” by Jacky Cheung. Jacky is a very famous and popular singer from Hong Kong. He had been referred as one of the 4 kings of canton pop. (A wiki link for Jacky Cheung) The song chosen today is one of his English songs.

This song is the same one as Treadmark’s Only Love, but with different lyrics. While the original talks about the love between a couple, this one talk about how love (not just between lover, but also including love from family and friends) can help you overcome difficulties. To a certain degree, I think this song is a bit more meaningful than the original, as it teach us not to give up, as long as we have love we can overcome difficulties. Hope you will enjoy this song.

Just in case you are interested, Jack also have a Cantonese and Mandarin version of this song. The Cantonese version is call “愛下去” (in English it means “Keep on loving”) and the Mandarin version is call “當我想起你” (in English it means “When I think of you”)

25th Jul 2012 (她來聽我的演唱會 – Jacky Cheung)

27th Jun 2012 (日與夜 – Jacky Cheung and Sandy Lam)

22th Mar 2012 (Only Love - Trademark)

Something only love can do – Jacky Cheung

Sunday, March 18, 2012

18th Mar 2012 (Killing me softly with his song - Roberta Flack)

Today’s pick is “Killing me softly with his song”. The original was sung by Lori Lieberman, but I like the version by Roberta Flack because I think her voice and singing style is a better match for the song. Though, if you like the version below, I encourage you to listen to the original as well, as that is also a good song.

This song is about a person who went to see a male singer performance and founds herself being deeply touched by his voice. I wonder whether you have similar experience, when you meet a person and he/she remind you about you past. I guess most of us feel this way when the person reminds us of some deeply hurt experience and we wanted to have someone to share the pain, to feel less painful. But as we grow up, it is harder and harder to found someone to share the pain. I hope by listening to this song, you can feel that there is always someone there that you can talk to, to share your pain through life. Feel free to share your story with me by posting a comment below.

Learn more about "Killing me softly with his song" from wiki

Killing me softly with his song – Roberta Flack

Saturday, March 17, 2012

17th Mar 2012 (Honesty - Billy Joel)

Today's song is “Honesty” by Billy Joel. The first time I heard this song was last year, by a different singer. After that I search and search and found this original sung by Billy Joel. I love the melody of this song.

This song was written in the 70’s, but it lyrics still seems to apply to our society today. Majority of us go to work or school with a mask on, hiding our true feeling, whether that is for good or for bad or just to try to please different people such as your bosses, you teachers, your fellow students or even your family. But maybe the world don’t need to be this complicated, maybe all we need is just to be honest and truthful to others. Hope you enjoy my pick for today.

16th Mar 2012 (The Truth Is Like A Lie - Angela Aki)

Today's pick is "The Truth Is Like A Lie" by Angela Aki. Angela is a Japanese singer, but she is a mix and this is one of her English song. (More info on Angela Aki)

6th Aug 2012 (夜明け前の祈り – Angela Aki)

The Truth Is Like A Lie - Angela Aki.

Beginning

Hi everyone, this is my new blog. I am planning to post a song onto this blog everyday (will be a like from youTube). Hope you will enjoy my picks.

Head over to my first post:

16th Mar 2012 (The Truth Is Like A Lie - Angela Aki)