1990: Starting from Baojia Street

When Zhou Yan and Jabeur arrived at the recording studio, Sam Hui and Kwok-wing Cheung had already arrived, and it seemed that they had been waiting for a while.

They had already told Zhou Yan last night that Zhang Guorong wanted to come and watch the recording, and Zhou Yan agreed.

For Zhou Yan, it doesn’t matter who comes to watch, as long as Xu Guanjie agrees.

Given the relationship between Sam Hui and Leslie Cheung, it was natural for Sam Hui to be willing to let Leslie Cheung come to the scene to watch the recording.

They were both surprised to see a foreigner following Zhou Yan.

"Who is this……"

Zhou Yan smiled and explained to them, "This is Jabeur, a musical director from the United States. We are working together on a project recently, and we want to record a piece of music for him, so we brought him here."

After hearing what Zhou Yan said, Xu Guanjie and the others didn't say anything else.

Although this is Hong Kong and the recording studios were all contacted by Sam Hui, Zhou Yan is the leader in recording the songs and they all have to listen to Zhou Yan.

Xu Guanjie could understand that Zhou Yan had other work, after all, Zhou Yan was taking time out of his schedule to help him record the song.

"I'll give you the lyrics to 'The Trouble Song'. You can figure it out on your own while I record the music to show to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar."

"No problem." Sam Hui made an OK gesture.

Even if Zhou Yan didn't say it, after Xu Guanjie got the lyrics, he would have to think about it for a while. It was impossible for him to record it directly.

Zhou Yan nodded and directly gave the lyrics of "Trouble Song" to Sam Hui. Then he asked Jabeur to sit outside for a while and he went into the studio alone.

The conditions in their recording studio are pretty good, with basic musical instruments, synthesizers, effects and so on.

There is a piano in recording studio No. 2, and Zhou Yan also asked for a violin and a cello. Next, he will record a song for Jabeur, and he plans to present it in the form of a piano trio.

After getting the instruments, Zhou Yan started recording the sound of the piano first, followed by the violin and cello.

After the sounds of the three instruments were recorded, Zhou Yan began post-production.

Normally, this kind of separate performance of multiple instruments definitely requires post-production work, the most important of which are issues of rhythm and timing, which require more adjustments.

However, the sounds of the three instruments recorded by Zhou Yan require almost no adjustment, because Zhou Yan's control of rhythm and timing is very accurate, and there will basically be no errors.

All he had to do was put the three pieces of music together. The work was very simple and could not even be considered a process, because when the sounds of the instruments were recorded separately before, the sounds of the three instruments were recorded directly and combined together, and no other work was required.

From the time Zhou Yan started recording to the final completion of post-production work, the entire process took no more than fifteen minutes.

After recording the song, Zhou Yan called Jabeur in.

"Listen."

Jabeur quickly put on his headphones. He also wanted to know what Zhou Yan could come up with in such a short time.

After Jabbar put on his headphones, Zhou Yan started playing music.

The first sound that came out was the piano, with ordinary chord accompaniment, and then soon the sound of the cello came.

When the sound of the cello comes, it feels like a gentle whisper.

Although there were no lyrics, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar heard a sense of painful vulnerability and deep helplessness in the cello's narration.

But as the sound of the violin came in, the emotion of the whole piece became more and more intense, gradually reaching its climax.

At the climax, the original sense of fragility completely disappeared, replaced by the courage and confidence embedded in every note.

The sounds of the piano, violin and cello were competing with each other, and the music became more and more passionate, making Jabbar want to go out for a run.

While Jabbar was listening to the song, Zhou Yan had already run out to discuss the recording of "Troublesome Song" with Sam Hui.

Sam Hui likes the lyrics of "Song of Trouble" very much. When Zhou Yan went to the studio just now, he tried to sing it many times and felt it was pretty good, but he always felt that it was still missing something.

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "It's okay. When I finish my work here, we will go to the studio. I will listen to your singing carefully, and then we can study what needs to be adjusted."

Xu Guanjie nodded, "Well, okay, I'm not in a hurry, you should take care of your business first."

"It's okay, it should be almost done."

In order to achieve a quick victory, Zhou Yan directly recorded "this is me", the most popular theme song from "The Greatest Showman".

Although it's just a pure music version, there will definitely be no problem in dealing with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

As it turned out, Zhou Yan's expectation was correct, and the song "This Is Me" completely conquered Jabbar.

Just this one song made Jabbar feel relieved.

When Zhou Yan returned to the recording studio, Jabbar said excitedly, "I think I already know where this song will be placed."

"Don't worry. I have written more than a dozen songs for this musical. Most of the lyrics have been completed. You will see them later."

"Have you written the lyrics for the song just now?" Jabbar asked.

"Well, it's done." Zhou Yan took out a piece of paper with lyrics written on it and handed it to Jabbar. "The song is called "This Is Me". Here are the lyrics. It's just that we can't find a suitable singer today. Otherwise, we could record the singing live."

Because they decided to record "this is me" for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar last night, Zhou Yan wrote down the lyrics of the song yesterday and gave them directly to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar today.

Jabbar quickly looked over the lyrics in his hand, then smiled and said, "The feeling of these lyrics is similar to the feeling that the song just gave me."

"Now you can think about who to get to perform in this musical."

Speaking of actors, Jabbar has a headache.

There are many special characters in "The Greatest Showman", including a fat woman with a beard, conjoined twins, and dwarfs. It is not easy to find suitable actors.

The easiest person to find here is a fat woman with a beard, because the beard can be glued on. It is definitely impossible to find a real person to play a conjoined person, but it can be portrayed by simply having two people wearing jumpsuits on stage.

Dwarfs are the most difficult to deal with. Although there are many dwarfs in the world, it is quite difficult to find one who can go on stage.

The most important thing is that the actors must be able to present the songs written by Zhou Yan well.

However, although these tasks are difficult, Jabbar is very confident.

He believed that as long as the script and music were fine, even if the actors' issues were a little difficult, they would definitely be solved. Just like building a house, Zhou Yan had already laid the foundation, and he only needed to build the house upwards according to the foundation. Even if it was difficult, there was always a goal that could drive him forward.

"After I return, I will start selecting actors and try to choose the right ones as soon as possible. Don't worry, I will seek your opinion every time I choose a main actor."

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "There's no need to ask for my opinion one by one. I'll take a look after you've made your selection."

"That's okay too."

……

The two chatted for a while and then left the shed.

Zhou Yan asked Jabeur to wait outside for a while, and he took Sam Hui and others inside to record "Song of Trouble".

After entering the studio, Zhou Yan asked Sam Hui to sing "Song of Trouble" first.

I have to say that Sam Hui has a strong ability to digest songs. He got the music last night and the lyrics half an hour ago, but now he is able to sing the song very well.

That’s right, in Zhou Yan’s opinion, Xu Guanjie’s performance was already very good.

Previously, Zhou Yan thought that Sam Hui was more suitable for the song "Trouble Song". Now it seems that his intuition was correct, and Sam Hui can indeed sing this song with ease.

It's hard to say which one is better, Sam Hui's version or Zhang Xueyou's version. They are two completely different styles. Compared with Zhang Xueyou's version, Sam Hui's version is more funny and relaxed.

After listening, Zhou Yan smiled and said, "It's pretty good to be able to sing like this in such a short time. The rhythm is a little bit off, but it doesn't matter, we can sing it a few more times and it will be fine. And we didn't come here today to record the song. I'll be in Hong Kong for a few more days, so we have enough time."

There are indeed some problems with Sam Hui’s singing, but many of them are issues of proficiency and can be solved by just singing more.

"My time is no problem, I'm just worried that you're too busy in Hong Kong and I've been staying in the recording studio all the time, which has delayed your time," said Sam Hui with a smile.

"Haha, it's okay. When you practice singing, you can just practice here by yourself. I can go and do my own things. I'll come find you when I'm done."

Xu Guanjie smiled and nodded, "That's fine, as long as it doesn't interfere with your work."

Zhang Guorong next to him smiled and said, "Ayan, don't worry, he won't be recording here alone. I will always be here with him and won't let him be lonely."

"Are you okay these two days?" Zhou Yan asked.

"I have nothing to do during this period of time, so it's nice to listen to the God of Songs singing here."

Zhou Yan didn't expect Zhang Guorong to be so idle recently.

Zhang Guorong had also quit the music industry before.

Although he retired from the music industry, he continued to sing in movies, such as "Pray to God" in "A Happy Time in Flower Field" and "Golden Branches and Jade Leaves" in "Midnight Song".

Two years ago, he made a comeback with the Rolling Stones and released the album "Beloved".

After the release of "Love", sales in Asia exceeded 200 million copies that year, and sales in Korea exceeded copies, setting a new record for the highest sales of Chinese albums in Korea.

Of course, "Love" broke the record of Chinese-language records, not the sales volume of Chinese-language albums, because the highest sales volume of Chinese-language albums in Korea was "Mysterious Country", which sold 270 million copies.

Last year, Leslie Cheung released his album "Red", which once again set off a sensation in the Hong Kong music scene. From the end of last year to the beginning of this year, Leslie Cheung held 97 concerts "Spanning 24" at the Hung Hom Coliseum.

Since his comeback, he has held 60 world tour concerts, 6 of which were held in Neon, breaking the record for the number of concerts held by Hong Kong singers in Neon.

Of course, he broke the record of singers’ concerts, but he couldn’t break the record of concerts.

The record for concerts was not set by Zhou Yan, but by Qingyinfang, which held 48 concerts.

Qingyinfang has developed very well in Neon and performs very frequently.

In the beginning, Qingyinfang only performed in various universities, but as its popularity grew, Qingyinfang began to perform in some large concert halls and even held several performances in the Budokan.

These 48 records were all performed in large venues, and this record is constantly being broken because Qingyinfang has been holding concerts in Neon on a regular basis.

Anyway, Zhang Guorong has been quite active in the past two years, so Zhou Yan was quite surprised to hear him say that he was relatively idle.

"Do you have any new songs recently? If so, let's practice together." Sam Hui said with a smile.

"No, I don't have any new songs this year." Zhang Guorong shook his head.

"That's a shame. I'm making a comeback this year and I was counting on you to sing my new songs at my concert."

Zhang Guorong said with a smile, "If I don't have new songs, I can't sing at your concert?"

"That's not the case, but it would be fun to sing a new song together." Xu Guanjie looked at Zhou Yan and said, "Why don't you ask A Yan to help write a song for you as well."

Zhang Guorong curled his lips, "I think you are really worried that A-Yan is not busy enough. He has to take time out to help you record a song he writes for you, so how can he have time to write songs for others?"

In fact, Zhang Guorong had thought about asking Zhou Yan to write a song for him a long time ago. After all, he and Zhou Yan were the first to know each other among their group.

It’s just that Zhang Guorong had retired from the music industry at that time and didn’t need Zhou Yan to help him write songs.

Later, when he made a comeback, the Rolling Stones actually mentioned this matter, but Zhang Guorong himself was embarrassed and did not allow the Rolling Stones to ask Tang Chen to invite him to sing a song.

Zhang Guorong felt that they had a good relationship, and if he asked Zhou Yan to invite him to sing a song, this relationship might change.

Before, Xu Guanjie wrote songs for Zhang Guorong. It was something they suddenly talked about when they were chatting. It was not Zhang Guorong who took the initiative to ask Xu Guanjie to write songs for him.

The original agreement was for the two to collaborate, with Sam Hui composing the music and Leslie Cheung writing the lyrics.

But later the situation was reversed, with Leslie Cheung composing the music and Sam Hui writing the lyrics for the song "Silence Is Golden".

When Zhou Yan heard Zhang Guorong's words, he smiled and said, "I am indeed very busy, but I am not so busy that I don't even have time to write a song for my good friend."

"Are you really going to write to me?" Zhang Guorong asked in surprise.

Zhou Yan nodded. "Write it. I'll write it for you now. Once I finish writing it, it just so happens that you've been practicing with Xu Geshen these two days. I'll try to record both of your songs in these two days. But you've signed with a company, and the Rolling Stones..."

When Zhang Guorong heard that Zhou Yan wanted to write a song for him, he was in a good mood and waved his hand, "Don't worry about them, just listen to me."

Zhou Yan smiled and nodded. With Zhang Guorong's status, he did have the capital to say such things. In Rolling Stone, they definitely worshipped Zhang Guorong.

Besides, he wanted to write a song for Zhang Guorong. Unless the Rolling Stones were crazy, there was no way they would have any objection. (End of this chapter)