Destination Hong Kong - Dim Sum Rock 'n' Roll Collection

2024

12 page booklet; 26 tracks. Total playing time approx. 70 min.

    Let's sail with this exotic CD compilation - full of rarities from the 1950s - on Bear Family Records into the harbor of Hong Kong, the British crown colony in the south of the Middle Kingdom.
    Our CD from the Land of Dawn in our 'Destination' series is all about music, lifestyle, myths and Far Eastern food and drink.
    And there's a little detour to Fujiyama mountain in Japan!
    Musical travel companions include Webb Pierce, Jerry Lee Lewis, Moon Kim, the Five Keys, Jackie Lee, Jimmy Bryant and Melvin Smith.
    The playlist from the 1950s and early '60s features Oriental Hop, Chinese Boogie, Shanghied, Hot Sake, Ching Ching Wong, Hong Kong Blues and other musical highlights.
    4 tracks are available on CD for the first time!
    Entertaining and well-founded liner notes and information on the individual artists written by Roland Heinrich and careful re-mastering round off this special project.

If you romanticize the idea of making your way through the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong's harbor on a junk, rock & roll songs are unlikely to come to mind first and foremost.

But the Far East, inaccessible China and its centuries-old culture as well as Hong Kong's special status became a popular musical theme in the 1950s and early '60s, not least because the USA had become a new home for millions of Chinese immigrants since the 19th century.

Hong Kong itself was an enclave of the British Empire. Far Eastern and European lifestyles came together here. With its culinary specialties, the Chinese gongs or the weird sounds of the Chinese zither, the fascination of big cities like Hong Kong or Shanghai - a variety of themes were reflected in the rock 'n' roll and country music of the '50s and early '60s.

Jerry Lee Lewis sings the classic Hong Kong Blues written by Hoagy Carmichael, Webb Pierce comes to Hong Kong unwillingly, and Annisteen Allen is about to explode and makes it clear to her guy that if he carries on like this, the atom bomb will be nothing against her wrath.

Enjoy this musical journey through an exotic world of sound and a fascinating and distant Eastern world! Perhaps you won't want to go home at all afterwards.