Hello, world.
This post will be talking about a few of my favorite things: Karaoke albums.I still collect karaoke albums (either it's on LD. VCD, or DVD, but not anymore on VHS.) until now.
I've done a little analysis about this kind of thing. The things I analyze is not about the albums itself, but:
What karaoke albums that people have?
Yes. That's it. Some people definitely have at least one karaoke album when they were very young, including me. I was a fan of these back then. Since I live in Indonesia, technically, most of the karaoke series albums that I have are in Mandarin Chinese or English. Not Taiwanese. Since Taiwanese is not very known to Indonesians here. I somehow am little amazed by this analysis that I made. I was born in the 1990s, so I was raised on the LaserDisc era. I never watched any VHS tapes before, so I don't know.
The reason I made this analysis because:
One, people like to sing, definitely.
Two, people like to karaoke. Of course. This point must be the same with the first.
Three, people like to choose their favorite in one disc so that they don't need to buy everything else.
Four, according to my parents, LDs are very very expensive, which is why people are selective in buying LDs back then, and having only a few-but-the-songs-are-very-very-great collection. Which is why, back then in the 2000s here in Jakarta, Indonesia, LDs are transferred to zillions of pirated VCDs so that people have access to karaoke at home with a cheap price. Besides, LDs are in the end of its era anyway. Sometimes, I felt a little embarrassed by it. Like, come on. Why is Indonesia famous for the piracy thing? But, oh well, it happened.
By the way, if you are reading this, you will think that this post is useless, boring, meaningless and pointless. SO WHAT? I'm just trying to bring back my childhood memories alive. Like, come on. This is also a part of the nineties generation. A part of my childhood too.
Since there are lots and lots of them, so I'll make only 5 nominees for the "karaoke albums that most people have" category, each for Mandarin Chinese and English.
(Click on the picture for a larger size.)
Let's discuss about Mandarin songs first. Back then, all of the nominees for the Mandarin Songs albums have Roman Spelling in the lyrics, since some people here can't read Mandarin characters. Only a few people can read the characters without any pinyin or Roman Spelling. (I apologize for underestimating, but that's the fact back then.)
This karaoke series has 9 volumes, with a total of 252 songs, each volumes has 28 songs, 14 in each sides. Well, it's actually 251 songs. Since there's a double song: The song Qian Yan Wan Yu (千言萬語) is put in 2 volumes, with different versions. All of the songs in the series are just Mandarin oldies songs. The songs in this series are some hit oldies songs like Shui Chang Liu (水長流), Gao Shan Qing (高山青), Yue Liang Dai Biao Wo De Xin (月亮代表我的心), Tian Mi Mi (甜蜜蜜), Yi Jian Mei (一翦梅), Gei Wo Yi Ge Wen (給我一個吻), You Shi Xi Yu (又是細雨), Bu Ru Gui Qu (不如歸去) and Lu Bian De Ye Hua Bu Yao Cai (路邊的野花不要採).
Ever since this series has been released, this was a big hit in Indonesia, until now. Not only because the songs listed in this series are oldies but goodies. Because that time, these LDs were transferred into VCDs with only 20 tracks and 8 tracks are omitted. And people bought them. Plus, since Indonesia is famous for its piracy, this series is still being mass-produced until now. The "pirates" also made the 10th volume which actually does NOT exist. The first four volumes of this series are a big hit to all oldies songs lovers. But for me, all songs in this series are good except the 7th volume. It's just not too appealing.
Here's a little preview to the series. The first one is from the 1st volume, and the second one is from the 3rd volume.
If you want to see the full list of this series, click on this link.
 |
| 鑽石金曲 10 Front cover |
 |
| 鑽石金曲 10 Back cover |
Let's talk about volume 1 first. This album made it. Even though this Amelia series only has 2 volumes, but it seems like that the first volume of this series is the most popular album in the Amelia series (and also the Mandarin Songs lovers). This karaoke LD was one of the most popular ones back then. The publisher is unknown, but no one cares about the publisher since the songs listed in this album are great anyway. The songs in this karaoke LD are Ai Qing De Gu Shi (愛情的故事), Lai Sheng Yuan (來生緣), Ai Shang Yi Ge Bu Hui Jia De Ren (愛上一個不回家的人), Ku Sha (哭砂), Ni Zen Me Shuo (你怎麼說), Xiao Sa Zou Yi Hui (瀟灑走一回), etc. There are 26 songs in total. If you want to see the full list of this album, click on this link.
Watch the video below to have a preview.
Since I mentioned the second one, click here to see the tracklisting and watch the video below to have a preview of the second volume of the Amelia series.
3. Top Hits Mandarin & Taiwanese Songs Roman Spelling Singing (Supreme)
This is one of the best karaoke album that people have, including me. I'm not sure if the second volume of this really exists or not since the cover writes "1". The publisher is unknown, again. But, who cares. People care only about "what's in it". Whatever the company is, it succeed. Since the songs are a big hits in that time, Supreme had succeed putting all of them in one disc. There are two Hokkien songs in here. Songs listed here are, Hua Xin (花心), Ciu Au E Sim Shia (酒後的心聲), Ming Yue Xin (明月心), Yi Tian Yi Dian Ai Lian (一天一點愛戀) etc. If you want to see the full list of this album, click on this link.
Watch the video below to have a preview.
2. Beautiful Mandarin Songs With Roman Spelling (莉莉精選輯)
This is literally like one of the best selection of songs. No wonder people bought this album, especially volume 1. I don't know how many volumes are there in this series, but however I got three so far. The publisher name is still unknown. Still though people decided to buy this because the songs are really, really good. I admit, this series is really a good combination between oldies and modern songs back then. Songs in this series are like Ye Lai Xiang (夜來香), Wo De Yan Jing Zai Xia Yu (我的眼睛在下雨), Da Hai (大海), Meng Li Qing Ren (夢裡情人), Xin Yuan Yang Hu Die Meng (新鴛鴦蝴蝶夢), Jiu Bai Jiu Shi Jiu Duo Mei Gui (九百九十九朵玫瑰) etc. If you want to see the full list of this series, click on this link.
Watch the video below to have a preview.
I admit, the songs in this series are super super great, which makes me interested in this series even more. At first, I don't really like this series, but after I grew up and listened to many many many more songs, I started to realize that the songs in this series were actually great, without even noticed by people carefully. Some people in that time think, okay, this song is great, without knowing the song titles.
I remember that there are lots of pirated VCDs transferred from the whole series. That's where I first knew this series and the fact that my family also have the LDs at home. After so many years, I finally got some money and bought the other volumes since my family only have volume 1, 2, 5, and 9. Back then, only volume 1 survived, with only side B is playable, since I often broke the LDs when I was still a baby (oops). And now even though I finally catch up buying the other volumes, I'm still having trouble finding the other volumes.
The songs in this series are popular Mandarin and Hokkien songs like Tan Bo Lang (等無人), Wang Shi Zhi Neng Hui Wei (往事只能回味), Yue Yuan Hua Hao (月圓花好), Xin Yu (心雨), Ai Qing De Gu Shi (愛情的故事), Ni Zen Me She De Wo Nan Guo (你怎麼捨得我難過), Pei Jiu (陪酒), Ai Pia Cia E Yia (愛拼才會贏) etc.
This series is still a favorite to people out there, without even noticing what is the title name of this album, and also without noticing that this series has two different covers for the first 5 volumes. The original cover is by Jient Ya Trading Co., Ltd. and the other one is by Best-Digital Corporation.
If you want to see the full tracklisting of this series, click on this link.
(P.S. Volume 11 is an English karaoke album.)
And click on this link to see all the front covers.
Watch the videos below to have a preview.
Now, here are the "nominees" for the English songs.
5. Melovision Karaoke (whatever the title of the LD is, it's just released by Melovision.)
 |
| Melovision English Karaoke Laserdiscs - volume 1 to 6 of 13 |
This karaoke series were very very popular when I was a baby. Many people bought at least one or two volumes of this series. Even my dad bought all 5 LDs of this series. But this karaoke series is not that popular now. Not only that the songs listed in this series are great, the videos are appealing. But actually the videos are not related with the song. Whatever the songs are, it's just a female model wearing bikini doing whatsoever activities, either she's playing with her silk scarf, playing the water, walking beautifully on the beach and many more. (It's noticeable in the covers.) Or basically, back in the 90s, all karaoke videos are like that, only people (mostly girls) walking here and there enjoying scenery.
After I discovered, the women shot for this series are actually celebrities from Taiwan, now became actresses. Two of these 5 karaoke albums series are actually parts of a yearly swimsuit photoshoot of a weekly magazine at Taiwan. Now I knew who the models are, since two of the reality shows at Taiwan discussed about this before. But I don't want to list out their names to respect their privacy, since now, people used to laugh-with-a-mixture-of-embarrassment at it when they saw "the-20-years-ago-version-of-these-models" and their activities in the videos. Besides, the back cover of the LDs credited their names anyway. Once again, they're celebrities. Like, come on. Celebrities are also a human. A part of the entertainment. It's not that embarrassing. But that's the fact. Now the models are about 40-50 years old since this was shot in about 1990-1992. If you Google their names or find their names on YouTube, these videos will come out. In my opinion, this series is made based on shooting locations. You can notice "The Romance of Malaysia", "The Romance of Srilanka & Maldives' and more. Maybe, this company is focusing on the models and the songs listed here.
After I discovered, the women shot for this series are actually celebrities from Taiwan, now became actresses. Two of these 5 karaoke albums series are actually parts of a yearly swimsuit photoshoot of a weekly magazine at Taiwan. Now I knew who the models are, since two of the reality shows at Taiwan discussed about this before. But I don't want to list out their names to respect their privacy, since now, people used to laugh-with-a-mixture-of-embarrassment at it when they saw "the-20-years-ago-version-of-these-models" and their activities in the videos. Besides, the back cover of the LDs credited their names anyway. Once again, they're celebrities. Like, come on. Celebrities are also a human. A part of the entertainment. It's not that embarrassing. But that's the fact. Now the models are about 40-50 years old since this was shot in about 1990-1992. If you Google their names or find their names on YouTube, these videos will come out. In my opinion, this series is made based on shooting locations. You can notice "The Romance of Malaysia", "The Romance of Srilanka & Maldives' and more. Maybe, this company is focusing on the models and the songs listed here.
There are 10 volumes of this English karaoke series, with the 5 volumes of Videofashion English Karaoke albums continuing the series, so there are 15 volumes in total. But it seems like the first 5 volumes (which are in the picture above) are totally popular. This company also released the series with Mandarin and Taiwanese songs. Oh, and by the way, there'ss a DVD release of this series containing all ten volumes and three Videofashion volumes. I bought all of them when I went on my vacation to Taiwan.
 |
| Melovision English Karaoke DVDs |
I remember when I was little, here in Jakarta, the official VCD of this series are also on sale. All sides were separated in each VCDs (for example: In volume 1 were in the first two volumes, volume 2 were in volume 3 and 4 and so on.) but oddly enough, I only noticed there are only 6 volumes. I still wonder if there's a seventh volume or more in the VCD series, but that's alright, now that I've got the whole set on DVDs, I don't need to worry more.
Songs listed in this series are songs like Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head, Killing Me Softly, Moon River, Only You, Hey Jude, Love Me Tender, Beautiful Sunday, Rhythm Of The Rain, Sailing, Green Green Grass of Home etc.
If you want to see the full tracklisting of this series, click on this link.
If you want to see the full tracklisting of this series, click on this link.
These are several videos of the series.
4. Greatest Love Song
Yep, this was one of the popular karaoke albums back then. The songs listed here are great. In my opinion, the fifth volume is the greatest selection of this series. I don't have much comments about this series though, since this is basically just same with other English karaokes, having the same songs with others. But however, several songs in this karaoke series were actually not in the others, such as Words Don't Come Easy, On My Own, Something's Gotten Hold On My Heart, I've Had The Time of My Life etc. Since now this series is also released on DVD, I bought all 6 DVDs of this series. There is also the seventh until the tenth volume but those volumes are made by a different company named Holysound, still distributed from the same company named Gull-Audio. The first six volumes are produced by Alpha/Nan Hsing Video.
If you want to see the full tracklisting of this series, click on this link.
Yup, this series is definitely on the list. Most people bought the first three volumes, since the songs in there are much much greater such as Casablanca, You Don't Have To Say You Love Me, I Don't Like To Sleep Alone, Green Fields etc. I first noticed this series since my dad bought the third volume which has Ben, Sealed With A Kiss, All I Have To Do Is Dream, Where Have All The Flowers Gone, and many more. We actually also have the 7th and 11th volume of this series, but the 11th volume is broken. Now that I grew up, I finally catch up and bought everything else but now I'm still missing volume 14.
But there are still many volumes left. There are 22 volumes, with the other 2 volumes as "Top Hits English Songs", and along with the other 25 volumes of Top Hits English Songs continuing this series (the songs starting from volume 23 are mostly remakes of the songs in the "Top Hit English Old Songs" series) so there are 47 volumes in total. I didn't consider those remakes are in the series, so I just put this series to the list. This series have many many great songs but way too rare. Even until now, I'm still missing just ONE volume. The first three volumes were bought by most people back then.
The songs listed are many more, mostly from the 60s and 70s, like Don't Forget To Remember, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, I Won't Last A Day Without You, Dancing Queen, I Want To Hold Your Hand, Hello Goodbye, When Will I See You Again, Sugar Sugar etc. This series also has the hits from the 80s like Hard To Say I'm Sorry, I Just Called To Say I Love You, Alone, Straight From The Heart, Just The Way You Are, Somewhere Out There, Saving All My Love For You and Like A Virgin.
Some of these karaoke videos in the series were shot in the U.S.A., which are in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami, Washington D.C., Florida, San Diego, New York, and Utah. Including The Nevada Desert, Caribbean Sea, and Grand Canyon.
If you want to see the full list of this series, click on this link.
(P.S. If you want to search volume 19 and 20, just change the "hit" word to "hits". Volume 21, 23 and above has a different title named "Top Hits English Songs".)
The video below is from the 18th volume.
2. Fitto Karaoke (LAV 8011 and 8014)
These two karaoke albums from Fitto were really, really a hit back then. Because yes, the songs listed here are the songs that people really want to buy in a disc. Such as: Killing Me Softly With His Song, Greatest Love of All, Diana, Over The Rainbow, Careless Whisper, I Just Called To Say I Love You, The End Of The World, Unchained Melody etc. I also love these two albums.
Fitto is actually famous for the Chinese and Cantonese Karaoke, but here in Indonesia, these two albums were a hit. Many karaoke places have these two LDs when I was little.
The video below is from LAV 8011, but the version in the LAV 8011 LD has no Chinese writing above. The video below is just representing that this "Killing Me Softly" song has another version sang in Cantonese.
The winner of the "Favorite English Karaoke albums" category is this. No surprise. Of course. Obviously. This is really, really obvious. Who didn't know this album? Who didn't have this album? Who didn't spend their childhood with this karaoke? Many people have this album. Here, people usually have volume 1, 3 and 6, since the songs in these three volumes are totally great. Besides, some people admitted that this karaoke album are lots of people's childhood memories. I also found out that some people here bought all 6 volumes of this series together. After I discovered, there's a seventh until the tenth volume of this series, which the songs are still the hits. I always thought that there are only six volumes, but that's alright, the songs in these other four volumes are also great anyway. This series is TOO popular here in Jakarta, Indonesia, until it makes me bored, but still, it's a legend. This karaoke album was also a part of my childhood memories.
Since this karaoke album has too many typos in the lyrics, the series have been re-released again on VCD and DVD. Which means, the re-released version is the most perfect released, though the lyrics are superimposed and sometimes it still has mistakes after being fixed. However, since back in the 1990s people used to have LDs, so yes, people just have LDs of this series, and after the LaserDisc era is gone, this karaoke series still exists and is still a hit because it brings back people's childhood memories. I'm not sure when was this karaoke series made, but I guess it's around 1991 or 1992.
I also have some of these on VCDs when I was little. My dad bought three of the albums on VCDs, that time the official VCDs of these were also booming. And I still saved those VCDs that my daddy bought until now. They were volume 2, 8 and 10. I also bought volume 5, 18 and 20 when I went on my vacation to Singapore. I found these VCDs at People's Park Center on the Chinatown, about ten years ago. I'm trying to find the store again now, but it seems like the store is closed. I also bought all volumes (from 1 until 12) in a different VCD cover, distributed by an Indonesian company. There are also pirated VCDs of this series here, with mostly 20-something songs were fit on a single VCD (about 3 or 4 last tracks of the album are omitted depending on the length of the songs).
There are 2 versions of the DVD edition of this album. One is 13 songs-on-1-DVD (sampling the VCDs) and another one is the 26 songs-in-1 DVD (sampling the LDs). I finally have all 20 volumes of the 13-songs-DVDs, and now I am finding the 26-songs-DVDs of this series at eBay but nobody sells them. I only found volume 1, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9 and 10 on DVDs so far.
The songs listed here are like, I Can't Stop Loving You, Blame It on the Bossanova, Seven Lonely Days, Release Me, How Deep Is Your Love, My Way, Torn Between Two Lovers, Do You Know Where You're Going To, The Yellow Rose on Texas, Sunshine On My Shoulders etc. If you want to see the full tracklisting of this series, click on this link.
The videos are the preview of this series. I guess you don't need to watch the video, you knew it already.
Others:
Laser Karaoke Demonstration - Disc 1
Of course. Besides the Old Style Love Songs series, people bought this LD too. Maybe because the "Kokoronotomo" song is in this LD, and in the nineties, this song was also one of the super [popular songs. Based on my discovery, there are 3 volumes of the "Laser Karaoke Demonstration" discs, but no need to ask. The first volume, which is this one, was one of the booming karaoke LDs back then. The songs listed here are in Indonesian and in English. There are 10 songs on each sides, and 20 songs in total. It has many hits songs back then in the nineties like Bintang Kehidupan, Isabella, A Shoulder to Cry On, Sealed with a Kiss, Woman In Love, etc. It even included Jingle Bells and Silent Night (in Indonesian).
Click here to see the tracklisting of this album.
I apologize that this post contained a lot and lots of mistakes and inappropriate. Once again, if you have another albums that is out of this list, just put the suggestions in the comments below.
And by the way, if you have any of these discs that I mention below, PLEASE comment below. Because if you're not using them, I DO! I still can't find these discs since they are SUPER rare... Below are the discs I want to find until now but still finding them. Consider that this is my wishlist for karaoke LDs:
Chinese / Mandarin Songs:
- Top Hits Mandarin & Taiwanese Songs Roman Spelling Singing vol. 3 - JRM-003 - Best-Digital Corporation
- Top Hits Mandarin & Taiwanese Songs Roman Spelling Singing vol. 4 - JRM-004 - Best-Digital Corporation
- Top Hits Mandarin & Taiwanese Songs Roman Spelling Singing vol. 7 - JRM-007
- Top Hits Mandarin & Taiwanese Songs Roman Spelling Singing vol. 11 - JRM-011
- 國語流行歌曲精選 1 - WNC-001 - Diamond Entertainment Co., Ltd.
- 國語流行歌曲精選 2 - WNC-002 - Diamond Entertainment Co., Ltd.
- 國語流行歌曲精選 3 - WNC-003 - Diamond Entertainment Co., Ltd.
- 國語流行歌曲精選 4 - WNC-004 - Diamond Entertainment Co., Ltd.
- 國語流行歌曲精選 5 - WNC-005 - Diamond Entertainment Co., Ltd.
- 華勝金曲精選 2 - HS-002 - Jient Ya Trading Co., Ltd.
- 華勝金曲精選 3 - HS-003 - Jient Ya Trading Co., Ltd.
- 華勝金曲精選 5 - HS-005 - Jient Ya Trading Co., Ltd.
- 華勝金曲精選 6 - HS-006 - Jient Ya Trading Co., Ltd.
- 華勝金曲精選 7 - HS-007 - Jient Ya Trading Co., Ltd.
- 華勝金曲精選 8 - HS-008 - Jient Ya Trading Co., Ltd.
- 華勝金曲精選 9 - HS-009 - Jient Ya Trading Co., Ltd.
- 華勝金曲精選 10 - HS-010 - Jient Ya Trading Co., Ltd.
- 華勝金曲精選 11 - HS-011 - Jient Ya Trading Co., Ltd.
- 華勝金曲精選 12 - HS-012 - Jient Ya Trading Co., Ltd.
- 華勝金曲精選 13 - HS-013 - Jient Ya Trading Co., Ltd.
- 華勝金曲精選 14 - HS-014 - Jient Ya Trading Co., Ltd.
- 華勝金曲精選 15 - HS-015 - Jient Ya Trading Co., Ltd.
- 華勝金曲精選 16 - HS-016 - Jient Ya Trading Co., Ltd. (I don't know if the 16th or more volume exists or not.)
- 國語懷念老歌精華 Top Hit Chinese Old Songs 5 - JLD-024 - Jient Ya Trading Co., Ltd.
- 國語懷念歌曲精華 Top Hit Chinese Old Songs 15 - JLD-040 - Jient Ya Trading Co., Ltd.
- 國語歌曲精華 Top Hits Chinese Songs 43 - JLD-118 - Jient Ya Trading Co., Ltd.
- 國語歌曲精華 Top Hits Chinese Songs 54 - JLD-161 - Jient Ya Trading Co., Ltd.
- 國語歌曲精華 Top Hits Chinese Songs 55 - JLD-168 - Jient Ya Trading Co., Ltd.
- 國語歌曲精華 Top Hits Chinese Songs 60 - JLD-196 - Jient Ya Trading Co., Ltd.
- 鑽石舞曲精選 Diamond International Ballroom Dancing vol. 3 – Diamond Entertainment Co., Ltd. - JDG-004
- 西洋懷念老歌精華 Top Hit English Old Songs 14 - JLD-034 - Jient Ya Trading Co., Ltd.
- 西洋懷念老歌精華 Top Hit English Old Songs 16 - JLD-039 - Jient Ya Trading Co., Ltd.
- Top Hits English Songs 25 - JLD-090 - Jient Ya Trading Co., Ltd.
- Diamond Hit 1 - DH-001 - Diamond Entertainment Co., Ltd.
- Diamond Hit 4 - DH-004 - Diamond Entertainment Co., Ltd. (I don't know if the 4th or more volume exists or not.)
- The Greatest Hits 2 - WN-002 - Diamond Entertainment Co., Ltd.
- The Greatest Hits 3 - WN-003 - Diamond Entertainment Co., Ltd.
- The Greatest Hits 4 - WN-004 - Diamond Entertainment Co., Ltd.
- 紅寶福建精選 (Ruby) vol. 2 - RUBY-002 - Diamond Entertainment Co., Ltd.
- 紅寶福建精選 (Ruby) vol. 4 - RUBY-005 - Diamond Entertainment Co., Ltd. (I don't know if the 5th volume exists or not.)
- 台灣懷念歌曲精華 Top Hits Taiwanese Old Songs 2 - JLD-003A - Jient Ya Trading Co., Ltd.
- 台灣流行歌曲精華 Top Hits Taiwanese Pop Songs 19 - JLD-174 - Jient Ya Trading Co., Ltd.
- 台灣流行歌曲精華 Top Hits Taiwanese Pop Songs 20 - JLD-183 - Jient Ya Trading Co., Ltd.
- 台灣流行歌曲精華 Top Hits Taiwanese Pop Songs 21 - JLD-185 - Jient Ya Trading Co., Ltd.
- 台灣流行歌曲精華 Top Hits Taiwanese Pop Songs 23 - JLD-197 - Jient Ya Trading Co., Ltd.
- 台灣流行歌曲精華 Top Hits Taiwanese Songs 26 - JLD-203 - Jient Ya Trading Co., Ltd.
Enjoy! And thank you for reading my long long post.
Credits:
(Video uploads credits goes to these YouTube users: MANDARINTHEAHUI, huangfaben, erinpilla, angelmayorjiang, 22222twotwo, te lin, Teresa Elektra Tempest, yfook ng, Joey Leoman, James Dean, vmc62. Thank you so much for putting these videos up.)
(Several of the photos are took from my own collection. For the karaoke albums that I don't have, they are credited in the photos itself. If you want to use these photos, please credit me.)
