Monday, November 10, 2008

songs by russ hamilton on 33 rpm vinyl record



in my teenage years, there was one singer whose songs i could never get tired of - i would listen to his songs over and over again, not at home but at my neighbour's place as they had this big - almost the size of a piano - hi-fi set which included a radio and a turn-table. it was really a rare item in any kampong house. most houses had, at that time, the box-like rediffusion - mentioned a few times in this blog - set for music and company.

the 33rpm record had a host of wonderful songs such as 'rainbow', 'we will make love', 'little one', 'wedding ring', 'my mother's eyes' and 'i still belong to you'. although they had other records, including some mandarin ones, i could only remember listening to russ hamilton's songs.

i remember when my two girls were little, i used to sing them this song, which russ hamilton wrote for his niece in canada, as a lullaby:

kiss your ma and kiss your pa

then you can pray to him afar

close your eyes, go to sleep, little one

you can dream of fairies, dear

and of nursery rhymes you hear

close your eyes, go to sleep, little one

if you're good from day to day

i'll bring you games to play

and i will come just to see you to sleep

you are mummy's pet you know

and your daddy loves you so

close your eyes, go to sleep, little one.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

There was also a funny song called "Mama who loves Papa....Papa who loves Mama". I used to hear it on the radio on Saturdays when there was a 1/2 hour program called "Calling all hospitals". You can make request to patients and the medical staff. This was how I knew there were so many hospitals/stepped down hospitals in Singapore then...Bushy Home, Trafalgar Home, Woodbridge, Thomson Road GH, Middleton Hospital, Mt Alvernia Hospital.....

ANDY: Pop Music Not Pills. © said...

Hi yg,
I did the same thing as a young person, listening to RH again and again. Never had the LP but some of his singles with the bright blue Oriole Label.
He was one of the greatest.
Cheers,
Andy

Anonymous said...

I have the album and I'm in the process of cleaning it up and uploading it onto Youtube check out my channel Ferrarial

DavidLee said...

I have the LP too, stashed away in my storeroom, including others like
Helen Shapiro, Skeeter Davies, Jim Reeves, and etc. For RH's song I prefer We Will Make Love.

I found myself to like listening to songs (english awa chinese) rather young during the 50s and even transcribing english songs that i liked in my hard cover exercise book when i was in Pri 2.
The 1st 2 songs I remember were April Love and Frauline. Then there was this song called Bernadine. I think this was an older song. I still like it today, but hardly hear it anymore for a very long time now.

cheers