Zhou Feng, Youth Totem of Mainland Pop Music in the 1980s - Record Sharing No. 71

The previous 59th and 67th issues of Che Jiling's "I Thought You Were a Tearful Person" and Zhang Xing's "There Is More Than One Road to Success" received a warm response from many friends, and it seems that the "Old Continent" tape can resonate with everyone more. A friend left a message mentioning Zhou Feng, this issue will share with you, his plate in the 80s is very familiar to everyone - "The Charm of the Eye".

From 1984 to 1985, a new generation of pop singers such as Zhou Feng, Zhang Xing, Zhang Qiang, and Wu Diqing became the favorite and own youth idols of young people on the mainland at that time, and their tapes were also super bestsellers in the domestic audio-visual market that year, and these tapes were the common memories of people in the 80s.

Compared with Zhang Xing, Zhang Qiang, and Wu Diqing, Zhou Feng, who was born in Xiamen, made his debut the earliest. In 1981, he participated with Zhou Yunjuan and the Zhejiang Song and Dance Troupe in the recording of the album "Chinese Film Songs and Three Laughs" by Hong Kong Wenzhi Records.

In this compilation album, he sang the singing segment of the "Grand Duke", although it was only 21 words short, but recorded the first recording of his life. The name of Zhou Feng on the inner page of the lyrics is "Zhou Feng" that everyone used more commonly later, and I also received this cassette tape, sharing the cover, tape and lyrics inner page with everyone.

In 1982, he published a box of "The Sound of Remembrance" in Hong Kong, because it was only distributed in Hong Kong, and few mainland friends knew or collected the tape, so that many media websites later considered his first album to be "The Charm of the Eye".

In 1984, in order to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, CCTV broadcast a TV song called "Kyushu Fangyuan". Before the song meeting, the main creators of the program watched Zhou Feng's performance at the Xiangjiang Restaurant in Shenzhen, and decided to let him sing at the TV song conference, and chose for him the "ホップステップジャンプ" and Wang Xiaoling's filler lyrics for him.

After the TV song meeting was broadcast, Zhou Feng's "Night Shade Shan", which reflected the new style of the special economic zone and had a strong rhythm, immediately swept the land of China and spread throughout the streets and alleys, together with Cheng Lin's "Wind and Rain and Journey", Zhu Mingying's "Wait until next year's day", etc., became the hottest pop songs at that time.

The series of tapes of "Kyushu Fangyuan Song 1984" in 1984, as well as the series of tapes of "Family Fun Song 1985" and "Southern Lantern Song Selection 1985" in the following year were well received by fans in that year, and had a profound impact on the development of popular music in the mainland. Zhou Feng participated in the recording of the first two episodes, of which "Kyushu Fangyuan" has his "Walk with Me" and "Night Shade", and "Family Fun" has his "Fenfei" and "Peacock Village". I have received all three tapes, and I will arrange time to share them with you later.

Because of the popularity of "Night Shade", Zhou Feng was invited to participate in the 1985 CCTV Spring Festival Gala, and that night he sang the dream song and Ma Jinxing's "Heart of the Naked Son", which was later included in the "Ma Li" compilation album published in the same year, but the name of the song was changed to "Wandering Heart". Zhou Feng, Zhang Xing, Zhang Qiang, Wu Diqing and other waves, the new generation of pop singers who began to sweep the country in the mid-1980s, only he appeared on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala.

The box "Ma Li" published in 1985 only has a photo of Zhou Feng on the cover, and the album name is also "Zhou Feng Lead Singer Ma Li", but it is not his personal album, but a compilation album. In addition to him, the singers also include Tian Zhen and Duan Pinzhang, all 14 songs, and Zhou Feng sang half of them.

This cassette tape also sold very well, and it is said that the sales volume exceeded 3 million boxes that year. He sang 7 songs, including Chen Baiqiang, who Chinese covered "Deeply in Love with You", and refilled Chinese lyrics to adapt his brother's "Monica". In addition, "Mary" and "My Eros" are also very popular. "I am a lonely boat" is the theme song of his 1985 musical TV series "Raider Song Soul", which was re-sung by Zhang Qiang, a mainland cover singer, and Li Chen, a disabled singer, after stepping into the 21st century, which shows the breadth of its influence.

In 1986, at the peak of his career, he chose to study in the United Kingdom. It was not until 1988 that he published his last box album "Billion Emperors" at the Shanghai Audio-Visual Company, all 8 songs, including 3 original songs, namely "Friend" and "I Pray" composed by Zang Tianshuo and huang Xiaomao, and "Billion Emperor" composed by Zhang Ping and lyrics by Yu Xiaoyang. "Friends" and "I pray", everyone is very familiar, to choose the top ten golden songs of the original popular songs in the mainland in the 80s, these two songs are likely to be selected.

Compared with Zhang Xing and Wu Diqing, his solo albums published in the mainland are the fewest, strictly speaking, only two boxes of "The Charm of the Eye" in 1984 and "Billion Emperors" in 1988. However, unlike many mainland pop singers in those years, the songs that Zhou Feng sang not only cover songs, but also original songs that he sang first, as well as re-filled words and re-composed adaptations. Looking back now, he not only has a full cover song that is different from others, but also took the lead in stepping out of the innovative road of "original + adaptation", which can be described as the first of the trend. As people who came over in the 80s, we should not forget that including Zhou Feng, these pop singers who accompanied us through our youth, they are our common memories, but also our youth totem, thank them for the touch they have brought us, happiness can be with their contemporaries.

Alas, unconsciously and more written, memories are always unforgettable, let's talk about this box of "Eye Charm" album shared in this issue. The album was released in the second half of 1984, but there are two problems with the release time, I have not been able to determine, I hope to see this article friends, there is something to know can help me add. First, the specific release time of "The Charm of the Eye"? The second is "The Charm of the Eye", Zhang Xing's "More Than One Road to Success", "Kyushu Fangyuan", the release time sequence of these 3 tapes?

The Charm of the Eye was published by China Tourism Audiovisual Publishing House, but the album was produced by Hong Kong Wenzhi Records, and strictly speaking it is an imported tape. The album's arrangement and accompaniment were all hired by Hong Kong musicians, and the post-mixing and mastering processing were still done in the United States. If you have heard this tape of friends, you will definitely remember that the tape equipment and recording are very good, and the sound effect is far better than most of the tapes produced in China at that time.

The tape cover was taken in Zhou Feng's hometown of Xiamen, the cover and song paper, the 1985 calendar card with Zhou Feng's photo, were printed in Hong Kong, the texture is very good, very thick printing paper, the lyrics page is still a pink background, compared with the domestic tape at that time, it is really first-class material, exquisite production.

The album has 12 songs, except for "Wait until next year's day", the others are all adaptations. Considering the length of the article, only the most popular songs of the year were selected to share.

"The Charm of the Eye", adapted from Lionel Ridge's classic song "Hello". After rearranging, Zhou Feng's adapted version is very different from the original song, Soul's taste is less, more Pop, which fits Zhou Feng's voice characteristics, but I still prefer Richie's original version. In addition, the song is filled in by the famous Hong Kong lyricist Gu Qianwen, and her other name "Gu Qianmin" may be more familiar to fans. Jacky Cheung's "Legend of Immortality", "New York Driver Driving Beijing Dream", "Release Yourself", Zheng Zhongji's "Your Eyes Betray Your Heart", Dawn's "Love Shadow Painting Drama", "Blue Street Lamp" and "Send You a Snowflake" are all her works. In addition, the theme song of the popular cartoon "Pleasant Goat and Gray Wolf", "Don't look at me as just a sheep", was also composed and sung by her.

"Monsoon", adapted from the "Self Control" of American female singer Laura Branigan, is filled in by the famous Hong Kong lyricist Pan Weiyuan. This song later had another mainland adaptation, that is, the "Search" in "87 Fever II" shared in the previous 38th issue, which was re-written by Lin Mu and sung by Deng Jieyi. If the two continental adaptations are compared, I will not hesitate to choose Pan Weiyuan's "monsoon" filled in and Zhou Feng's.

"Pear Blossoms Open Again" is adapted from Japanese singer-songwriter Akira Inaba's "Thanks for Summer", filled in by Ding Xiaoqi. The Cantonese adaptation of the original Japanese song is Principal Tam's "Late Spring", included on his 1983 album of the same name. To compare the effects of "pear blossoms blooming again" and "late spring" on the mainland, it is possible to score different regions. The Cantonese-speaking areas dominated by the two Cantons must be "late spring"; the larger number of people in the vast interior, it should be "pear blossoms blooming again".

"There is always you in my heart", adapted from "I Like Chopin" by Italian disco singer Gasebo, is also written by Ding Xiaoqi. Coincidentally, it is another song that Principal Tan has also adapted, and the principal version is "I Love Freckles", which was included in his 1984 classic album "Roots of Love". The rhythm of "Always Have You in My Heart" is a little slower than "I Love Freckles", and compared to the two songs, I like the arrangement and orchestration of "I Love Freckles", which is more stylish.

"Confidants Are Hard to Seek", adapted from the classic "Massachusetts" by the band Bee Gees, which I like very much. I like Yuan Guanglin's filler words, "The end of the world is far away, the sea is wide, who knows the cold and warm." Confidant is hard to find, ah, confidant is hard to seek. ”

"Wait until this day next year" is a domestic original work, and the creators are Wang Xiaoling, Ji Cheng and Xiao Lotus. They were the "Iron Triangle" of the domestic pop music scene at that time, With Ji Cheng and Xiao Lotus responsible for composing music and Wang Xiaoling composing lyrics. In "Kyushu Fangyuan", in addition to Zhou Feng's adapted song "Night Color Shan" is Wang Xiaoling's lyrics, the other 12 songs are created by the three of them.

This song "Wait until this day next year" was also very popular at that time, especially popular with students in school, and once became the graduation song of students on campus that year. The song in "Kyushu Fangyuan" is the chorus version of "Wait until next year" led by Zhu Mingying, which is more suitable for the atmosphere of "graduation song" than Zhou Feng's solo version.

Finally, I have a record version of The Charm of the Eye. Three boxes of tapes were collected, and different manufacturers printed them, namely Wuhan Foreign Electronics Service Center, Foshan South Audio Factory and Shandong Weifang Recording Tape Factory. From this, it can be seen that the hot sales of this cassette tape that year, a tape printing plant can not meet the needs of the market, so there will be multiple manufacturers printed version. It is estimated that there should be more than these 3 manufacturers, there must be others, but I have not received it. If friends have received manufacturers that are different from me, I hope to leave a message in the discussion area to share.

In addition to the 3 cassettes, I also received the 25th anniversary CD that was introduced and published by Guangzhou Audio-Visual Publishing House and issued by Xinjingwen Audio-Visual Co., Ltd. in 2008.

This CD is the first CD of the "Charm of the Eyes" album, authorized by the recording copyright owner Hong Kong Wenzhi Records, the recording master tape to the famous Hong Kong audiophile recording master Leo Weiguo (Leo Feng) for mastering processing, the sound quality has improved a lot, but it is still an old problem that I don't like very much, the sound quality is improved at the same time, the digital flavor is also a lot stronger, I still prefer to listen to the analog sound of the tape.

Remarks: The title of this article and the introduction of Zhou Feng's personal information in the first half mainly refer to the above 2008 replica CD record copy. Here, special thanks to Jia Hongwei and Amin, the two copywriters, for the detailed information provided.