EMI Records.

When Zhou Hexuan walked into the recording studio, the backing band and backing singing group had already arrived.

Nie Er enthusiastically introduced: "Mr. Zhou, these are all friends of the Symphony Band of the Ministry of Industry of the British Concession, the chief conductor Mr. Chen Lie, the cellist Mr. Zhang Gong, the drummer Mr. Jiang Tao, and the trombonist Mr. Tan Guangyou......"

"Hello!"

"Hello!"

Zhou Hexuan walked over and shook hands one by one, although it was the Symphony Band of the Ministry of Industry of the British Concession, the members were all Chinese, and the chief conductor of the band was an overseas Chinese in the Philippines.

After a few words of greeting with the accompaniment band, Nie Er introduced: "Mr. Zhou, this is the little sister of Zhou Xuan, the leader of the children's accompaniment group, and these are the children of the Children's Choir of the British Concession Ministry of Industry. ”

"Hello little sister." Zhou Hexuan said with a smile.

"Hello Mr. Zhou." Zhou Xuan looked up at Zhou Hexuan, his eyes were curious and a little admired.

The little girl in front of her, Zhou Xuan, is the "golden voice" Zhou Xuan, but she is not yet 14 years old at this time. And the other choir little guys, about 10 to 13 years old, are dressed in full band uniforms.

Nie Er took the full score of the song and said, "Mr. Zhou, you can sing the opening paragraph." When it came to the sentence '918, 918', Zhou Xuan's little sister led the singing, and 'from that miserable time' was changed to a children's chorus. Let's not officially record first, you can rehearse with the band and backing singer first. ”

Zhou Hexuan thought for a while and suggested, "Mr. Nie, what do you think of this?" Before I officially started singing, another paragraph was added to the prelude, and Zhou Xuan repeatedly chanted 'My home is on the Songhua River in Northeast China' three times, the second time was more emotional than the first, and the third time it turned depressed and sad. ”

Nie Er pondered carefully for a moment, nodded and smiled: "Mr. Zhou's idea is very good, I need to revise the arrangement of the prelude." ”

"No problem." Zhou Hexuan just made suggestions, and the specific operation had to be handed over to professionals. Just like when he wrote the song "My Heart Is Forever" in London, he just came up with ideas, and the details were all done by the musicians.

Nie Er's movements were fast, and he could do it in minutes. He asked the orchestra to play the prelude several times, and as if he felt that something was wrong, he immediately started to revise it, and it took him nearly an hour to be satisfied.

The next thing is rehearsal, because it is a temporary recording team, Zhou Hexuan's cooperation with the band and choir has no tacit understanding at all. During the rehearsal, all kinds of mistakes were made, and Nie Er stood up to correct them from time to time, and before he knew it, it was already noon.

continued to rehearse and run in in the afternoon, and Zhou Hexuan made the most mistakes, after all, he is not a professional singer. Fortunately, everyone is very patient, and they have accompanied Zhou Hexuan to practice repeatedly, and no one has complained about anything.

The first day of recording passed like this, there was no official recording at all, and all the time was consumed in rehearsals.

The next morning, after everyone rehearsed a few times again, Nie Er felt that the heat was almost over, and announced that the recording engineer should turn on.

The orchestra conductor Chen Lie suddenly raised his hand, and the pianist immediately began to play the prelude, followed by the violinist, and Zhou Xuan's little sister sang an ethereal song with children's voices: "My home is on the Songhua River in the Northeast, my home is on the Songhua River in the Northeast, and my home is on the Songhua River in the Northeast......"

Zhou Xuan was originally born in a scholarly family, his father graduated from Jinling University, his mother graduated from Jinling Women's University, and his parents were both senior intellectuals during the Republic of China. But Zhou Xuan's childhood was miserable, and he was abducted and sold to a wealthy family by his opium-smoking uncle when he was three years old.

Her adoptive father was an idle opium ghost who quickly lost his family property, and her adoptive mother had to take Zhou Xuan to Shanghai to make a living by being an aunt (wet nurse). Later, her adoptive mother remarried a businessman, so she transferred Zhou Xuan to a small family that sang opera.

Zhou Xuan has never learned to sing systematically, and his musical literacy is cultivated when he is learning to sing. Don't look at her two months before she turns 14, but she has been performing on stage in the Mingyue Song and Dance Troupe for three years, and was rated as one of the top ten singers in Shanghai some time ago, and will soon get the reputation of "Golden Voice".

"My home is on the Songhua River in Northeast China" three times in a row, clearly singing a sense of layering, and the emotions are very well controlled, like an orphan who has lost his home and is crying.

Zhou Hexuan felt the melody of the music and began to sing at the end of the prelude: "My home is on the Songhua River in Northeast China, where there are forests and coal mines, and there are soybean sorghum all over the mountains......

"Stop!"

Nie Er suddenly stopped, and he had a headache and said, "Mr. Zhou, you were suppressed by Zhou Xuan's prelude singing. ”

In layman's terms, it was Zhou Hexuan, the lead singer, who was robbed of the limelight by Zhou Xuan's prelude accompaniment. Although Zhou Hexuan sings well, he is completely incomparable with Zhou Xuan, a professional singer, in terms of the level of KTV in later generations.

If you put it in the 21st century, this situation is easy to solve, and it only takes the tuner's hand.

But the problem is that there are no tuners in this era, and recording records depends on the real level of the singer.

Zhou Hexuan was also speechless, he was so pressed by a 14-year-old girl that he couldn't raise his head, he smiled bitterly: "Then what should I do?" ”

Nie Er thought for a while and said, "Mr. Zhou, in fact, your voice is very good, but your singing skills are not in place." You don't deliberately pursue skills, this is your shortcoming. My advice is to play to your strengths and avoid your weaknesses, you don't care about any skills, you can sing how you want, just express the emotions you should have. ”

Zhou Hexuan thought for a moment, and suddenly smiled: "I understand, let's do it again." ”

Nie Er nodded and said, "Okay, now re-record, the band is ready." ”

Zhou Hexuan really didn't pursue any skills this time, only experienced the mood of broken mountains and rivers and exile, and opened his throat and sang wantonly. When singing to the key places, due to the emotion, all kinds of broken notes, all kinds of out of tune, and in some places even the beat can't be met.

But Nie Er's face kept smiling, and that was what he wanted. Especially in the last two sections, Zhou Hexuan's voice was hoarse when he sang "Nine One Eight, Nine One Eight", the beat was completely distorted, but there was an indescribable taste, and the song was full of despair, resentment, sadness and anger.

After recording it again, Nie Er asked everyone to rest first, and he listened to the recording just now. After listening to it several times in a row, he took the song sheet and said to the crowd: "When Mr. Zhou sings here, here, and here, the choir joins in the two lines of '918, 918' and sings. In the last paragraph, Zhou Xuan sang a duet with Mr. Zhou. As for the orchestra, violin and trombone are added at the climax, and the piano is changed at the end......"

Well, the arrangement has been changed again, and there are still a lot of changes.

It wasn't until the third day that Zhou Hexuan finally finished recording "On the Songhua River", and it was an unprecedented version.

Although Zhou Hexuan is the lead singer, his singing skills are not online throughout the whole process, which is in stark contrast to Zhou Xuan and the professional backing singers of the children's choir. But somehow, the male voice that was out of tune to the hoarse made people cry, as if they heard a northeastern man who had left his hometown hissing and roaring.

Zhou Xuan's ethereal and childish childish voice is like an orphan girl in exile, constantly comforting Zhou Hexuan, and at the same time telling her tragic life experience.

The version of "On the Songhua River" broadcast by the radio station was sung by Zhou Hexuan and asked Meng Xiaodong to sing, although the singing skills are very good, but it cannot be compared with this version at all. After Nie Er's adaptation, the current version of "On the Songhua River" is extremely full of emotions, and it can even beat various versions in history.

It's worthy of Nie Er, awesome!

Of course, Zhou Hexuan also played a big role, his music appreciation vision beyond the times, and gave Nie Er a lot of inspiration in the process of arranging.