how EMI made the best Malay music

A female voice is singing in Malay, the music soft and sentimental. Then she stops, as a vigorous drum roll introduces brass and strings. They take us to a dance floor, where a chorus of voices belts the familiar refrain of “Rasa Sayang Eh.” You may cringe if you’ve known this melody for years, canonised as one of several “folk” songs taught and performed on National Day. A staple of school celebration singalongs, “Rasa Sayang Eh” now evokes cheesy patriotic rituals. But this version of “Rasa Sayang Eh” is different. The arrangement is upbeat and pop-like; the recording is sharp; it sounds like it was meant to be enjoyed.

This is the opening track of an album of the same name, produced in 1974 by Electric and Musical Industries, or EMI. The British company was one of the world’s biggest and most successful recording companies of the 20th century until its acquisition by Universal Music in 2012. It was behind The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, and Pink Floyd. From the 1920s, EMI was also Singapore’s leading music producer. It set up Singapore’s first purpose-built recording studio in 1951, on the fourth floor of MacDonald House along Orchard Road. Local performers were plugged into a corporation with tremendous resources and advanced infrastructure. And so the Singapore pop craze of the 1960s was born.

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