Remarks:
My favourite Yvonne Elliman song, though “If I Can’t Have You” (1978) is a close second. This was her first hit song, reaching #28 on the American pop chart in 1971. Helen Reddy’s cover version was out at the same time, reaching #13. Elliman, though, is the one who sang the “Jesus Christ Superstar” version – on stage, on film (shown above) and on the album. She played the part of Mary Magdalene.
Lyrics:
I Don’t Know How To Love Him
What to do how to move him
I’ve been changed yes really changed
In these past few days when I’ve seen myself
I seem like someone else
I don’t know how to take this
I don’t see why he moves me
He’s a man he’s just a man
And I’ve had so many men before
In very many ways
He’s just one more
Should I bring him down should I scream and shout
Should I speak of love let my feelings out
I never thought I’d come to this — what’s it all about
Don’t you think it’s rather funny
I should be in this position
I’m the one who’s always been
So calm so cool, no lover’s fool
Running every show
He scares me so
I never thought I’d come to this — what’s it all about
Yet if he said he loved me
I’d be lost I’d be frightened
I couldn’t cope just couldn’t cope
I’d turn my head I’d back away
I wouldn’t want to know
He scares me so
I want him so
I love him so
Where is she now ? So many actors & actresses from the 60’s & 70’s are either pursuing careers in real estate or some such, or they went back to college to get a degree, or some just fell off the radar, & hopefully not into a giant cocktail of alcohol & drugs.
Carl Anderson – Judas in both the play & movie, died. I thought his Judas was very close to excellent. A very conflicted, remorseful character.
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I loved this song from the the soundtrack of the broadway show “Jesus Christ Superstar.”
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I liked ” ( Too Much ) Heaven on their Mind “. It revealed Judas’ inner conflict & doubts brilliantly. & ” Could We start Again, Please ? “. Great material !
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I forgot what a wonderful song that is sung by a wonderful songstress.
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I remember going to see Jesus Christ Superstar live when I was a child. I learned that Yvonne Elliman did the original song in the early 70s.
Did any Asian American have a top 40 hit before her? I have to look at the records from the 50s and 60s.
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i mean i did not learn who the singer was until the 1990s
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..I remember that play to as a child in the 80’s-and it has always been riveting, and still remains so to me!
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Such a haunting song.
@Jefe, didn’t Don Ho have a hit with Tiny Bubbles in the 1960s? And his version of Mele Kalikimaka is, in my opinion, the definitive one. Also, the original cast recording of Flower Drum Song had over a million dollars in sales.
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^ Just checked.
Don Ho’s “Tiny Bubbles” charted in the US billboard 100 and I cannot confirm what level it reached in 1966 (I found #66, #8 and #57 respectively). I couldn’t find any charting record of any song from “Flower Drum Song” and not all of the most popular versions of the songs were sung by Asian-Americans either.
So maybe Yvonne Elliman was the first person who was at least half Asian that had the first top 40 hit and #1 hit? She must definitely be the first won to his #1 on the Billboard 100.
Of course we have “Sukiyaki” from 1963, but that was a Japanese song from a Japanese artist in Japan that happened to be popular in the USA.
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@ Jefe
I realize that it is Asian Americans in the US charts that you and grin and bear it wanted to refer to, therefore, I thought it best to wait and see what your US-centred answers might be.
I think Yvonne Elliman probably had the first number One.
However, if we could widen the net a little: Cliff Richard hit number 30 in the US Billboard charts in 1959, with “Living Doll”.
The second showing probably came in 1967 with Engelbert Humperdinck’s “Release Me”. That reached number 7 in the US charts.
Engelbert with Elvis Presley:
Cliff Richard, its seems has alwasy been classed himself as a 100% white Anglo-Indian. He and his family have denied any Asian ancestry, instead saying that his darkish, “exotic” looks are attributable to a great-grandmother who was part-Spanish, etc. He is not alone in inventing “covers” like this.
Those denials were (are?) common among Anglo-Indian / Eurasians,
and it’s only recently, and only among some* that India’s mix-race sub-population of Anglo-Indians are being revealed.
Many simply remain silent, invisible, mis-taken or mis-appropriated to another “dark-but-white” ethnicity, or simply ignored.
*A report about the UK’s Anglo-Indians, the Eurasian community that Cliff Richard, Engelbert Humperdinck, Holly Johnson (lead singer, Frankie Goes To Hollywood), John Mayer (Jazz musician), Nicollete Sheridan (the actress), among others, belong to: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-20857969
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contd
The effect of that “dark-white” classification for both Cliff and Engelbert of course helped them to enter the US market of late 1950s and throughout the 1960s. I also feel that as numbers of South Asians were relatively small in the US at the time, and rarely recognized as a non-white ethnity by many at the time(?), their Asian-ness simply went undetected, and fell under the race-radar. That’s just a guess, though.
In England, I’d heard Asians and Indo-Caribbeans speak of an even earlier popstar of Asian descent: Tony Brent.
Apparently he had hits from as early as 1952, and was always referred to as Anglo-Indian, as far as I know:
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Jefe, I’ve a comment in moderation, but there are couple more thoughts that come to mind about this point about England’s Asians and their impact, or showing, on American pop music.
The first one has to be Jay Sean’s “Down”. That reached number One in the US.
Jay was born to Sikhs from Punjab, and his full name Kamaljit Singh Jhooti, but he gets to strut a studly image on his videos! LOL!
And…now that I think about, do you remember “Kung Fu Fighting”, the Carl Douglas song? It was a 1970s song. Carl Douglas is a Jamaican of African descent, I believe. It was a huge, huge hit.
Of the many things that made it unique, was that it produced by an English Asian, Biddu, and I recollect it had musical phrase here and there which are usually recognised as associated with Chinese culture.
I always thought the songe was more referential to Sino-Jamaica rather than anything or anywhere, else, as the Chinese of Jamaica had long been part of that country’s music scene.
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@Bulanik
I don’t think so. Yvonne Elliman’s “If I Can’t Have You” hit #1 in 1977. Jay Sean wasn’t even born yet. Also, even though Jay is of Asian descent, I am not sure I would say he is Asian-American either (but I know I did not necessarily specify Asian-American above, but if we only say Asian, and not Asian-American, then Kyu Sakamoto beat out all of them in 1963).
I do know that The Far East Movement was the first all Asian-American *GROUP* to have a hit #1 in with “Like a G6” in 2010.
Now, the Association had a couple of #1 hits in the 60s, and they had Filipino-American Larry Ramos, but it wasn’t an all Asian-American group.
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What? I fear you have completely misunderstood what I said, Jefe.
Don’t I AGREE about Yvonne Elliman? I say this: “I think Yvonne Elliman probably had the first number One”, in my first paragraph.
I am not sure if you are reading what I say.
And, in my 3rd post I say:
…but there are couple more thoughts that come to mind about this point about England’s Asians and their impact, or showing, on American pop music.
The first one has to be Jay Sean’s “Down”. That reached number One in the US.
I do not say, nor do I believe Jay Sean is Americian. LOL!
In fact, I know he isn’t, because he’s from Southall, not too far from Ealing in Southwest London…a place, and scene, I know fairly well.
And, I thought your conversation with grin was specific to the US and Asian American because that’s what you both talk about.
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I take quite a bit of care (in my dyslexic way) to understand and be understood.
I don’t try to “beat” the Americans by coming here…
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Sorry, maybe I misunderstood. Or maybe it is because some of your comments were still in moderation when I commented and I could not see your first post until just now.
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Yes, I know about Engelbert Humperdinck (your post did not show up until later) and Freddie Mercury from the UK. I am not sure about Cliff Richard’s background – is it confirmed? Do you find that most British Asians had to deny their Asian background back then?
Don’t get too upset. I realize some posts don’t always get through. Some of my other ones weren’t even accepted and I don’t know why.
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Cliff Richard was born in India and the official line has been that his parents are “English”, and that he is 100% white.
I think of him as English, but not as white, in fact, that’s what most people I know who’ve talked about him think: that’s he’s definitely Anglo-Indian. Cliff though, used say he no Anglo-Indian blood.
He probably had his reasons.
It turns out that there was a bigamy scandal in Cliff’s family and he used to say this to hide it. Other family members though are more open and say that his mother’s family is Indian “by blood”.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2055932/Bigamy-Raj-scandal-buried-Cliffs-past.html
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@ Jefe, the million dollar sales figure I quoted about Flower Drum Song is of the original cast recording of the Broadway Show, which consisted mostly of Asian American actors. As soundtracks go, it wasn’t as successful as other Rodgers and Hammerstein recordings, but the songs were fairly well-known. From Wikipedia,
That would have been 1959 or 60, I think. Again, not the same as an individual pop-star, like, say Bruno Mars, but it was an achievement nonetheless.
One of my favorite bits of trivia, though, is that Tommy Chong (of Cheech and Chong fame) was part of a Motown group in the 1960s — Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers. They had one top 30 hit single, “Does Your Mama Know About Me,” which Chong also co-wrote and co-produced.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zT_SnwdPZfA)
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@Bulanik, I didn’t know that about Cliff Richard. Thanks for sharing.
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It seems that so many Anglo-Indians felt the need to pass as white to grow their careers in the prior generation.
How do you think it compares between (East, SE and South descendant) Asians in the USA and the UK nowadays?
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@ grin and bear it.
Thank you. I always hope my meaning and info gets across despite the typos errors from my dyslexia.
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One Direction are probably the biggest pop-band at the moment globally.
One of its members, Zayn Malik, is Asian mixed-race.
He seems to be the least favoured if general media coverage is to be believed, even though he is probably one of the most photogenic faces in the pop world.
Perhaps he doesn’t make enough of tweets.
http://usvsth3m.com/post/80254340006/why-does-everyone-in-one-direction-hate-zayn
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