Chapter 22: Copycat to the End

In one day's work, their first song was recorded, and the rest of the work was spent on polishing it carefully. This kind of work is usually done by music producers and singers together. Alex and the others are not familiar with it yet, so they can only ask Rudy to help.

Rudy himself is a bit cunning, but his professionalism is still good. While Bart continued to pay for the next day, he dutifully fine-tuned the song's details.

This was an era without computers, at least when music was produced, computers were not used. All editing and editing are done manually, which is a delicate job.

The Carpenter brothers were not idle either. They followed Rudy and acted as assistants. They learned a lot from it, especially in terms of sound processing. The most important thing is that Alex always adjusted according to the original version and gave many opinions that made Rudy's eyes shine.

That night, Bart found a hotel nearby. In order to save money, the three of them crowded into a small room to rest. This is a very simple hotel. Even hot water cannot be supplied until late at night.

After taking a shower, Richard turned on the radio in his room and listened to his favorite music program. In these programs, some jazz or country music is played. It didn't sound interesting to Alex at all, not his kind of music, but in this case it was better than nothing.

In 1950, the United States was still in a stage of urban development. Television is still a luxury product. TV stations are very limited and their coverage is small. Television signals were only available in some big cities, and the spread of music at that time relied on records and radios.

Especially with records, when people want to listen to specific music, they buy a record and play it. Record companies at the time were one of the most profitable industries.

"Mary," a song written by George Stoddard in 1919, became a popular song through recording. At that time, Victory Records sold 300,000 records of the song within three months.

By 1939, record companies were selling 45 million pop records in a year. Ten years later, record sales tripled.

Records not only made songs popular, but also cultivated a group of "singing stars" that were familiar to the masses. Radio was not weak in this regard. By the 1930s, not only major cities in the United States had radio stations, but even small rural areas were dissatisfied with the small radio stations.

The voices of singers such as Bing Crosby and Kate Smith often echo over the United States. Good songs create popular singers, and famous singers make songs popular. Sometimes songs and singers become famous overnight through a single radio broadcast.

This is how Alex wanted to become famous, and the key to fame was the quality of their records and how much radio stations loved their songs.

Suddenly, he thought of Elvis Presley! The current Elvis Presley should still be in Memphis. It would take until Elvis Presley was 19 years old, that is, in 1953, to become truly famous.

Elvis Presley also went to record a record to celebrate his mother's birthday. As a result, he was discovered by people from the record company and became famous in one fell swoop!

"What's the name of the song that Elvis Presley debuted on?" Alex thought to himself, and quickly searched for Elvis-related information in his memory bank, and finally he found: ""That's All Right", that's the song Yes! This song is still a cover of Elvis Presley. However, Elvis Presley added his own style, blending the rhythm of rock and roll and the characteristics of blues songs!"

The song eventually became Elvis Presley's first single on Sun Records and conquered local fans. Elvis Presley then released several records and began touring. His music, which embodies the combination of country music and rhythm and blues, and his wild and uninhibited attitude set off an unprecedented storm in rock music. Elvis Presley embarked on the road to success, and a superstar began to rise.

"Richard! Have you heard the song "That's All Right"?" Alex asked Richard while picking up the guitar!

"I heard it, I heard it on the radio! What's wrong?"

"How about you listen to how I sing?" Alex took a deep breath, and then performed the song again in the style of Elvis Presley.

This song is actually very simple, just a few lyrics that come and go. However, the wonderful thing is that this singing method that combines rock rhythm and blues style is very pleasant to the ears. Especially Richard, he only heard half of it and happily hugged Alex.

"You, how did you do that?" Richard asked excitedly.

"How did you do it? What do you mean!" Alex asked somewhat unclearly.

"Well, how do I put this? Although the songs you sang before were very nice, they always felt a little strange! This one is different, different!" Richard murmured.

"It's different?" Alex was a little confused.

In fact, this is easier to understand. After all, Alex was born sixty years later, and the music he came into contact with at the beginning was the product of more than half a century of development. After so many years of evolution, pop music has gone through countless generations. If you were to listen to the music of later generations directly to people in the 1950s, they would probably not be able to accept it at first.

This first one performed by Elvis is different. It has both rock rhythm and blues style, which can be regarded as a link between the past and the future. The reason why Elvis Presley is so famous is not only because he started the rock and roll era, but also because he played a role in connecting the blues era and the rock and roll era.

These things are incomprehensible to Alex, after all, he is not from this era.

In his opinion, Elvis's songs are too old and lack any novelty and passion.

In contrast, in Richard’s eyes, the song “That’s All Right” almost hit his sweet spot.

"Is this song that good?" Alex couldn't understand the appreciation of people in this era. In his opinion, this song was just average.

However, he had decided to copy Elvis Presley's successful path, so he no longer hesitated.

"Richard, let's record this song if we have time tomorrow!" Alex put down the guitar in his hand and said.

"Will Mom like this song?" Richard hesitated. He knew Angel's character and temper well. For conservative people, this song was too rough.

"What's wrong?" Alex was a little confused as to what Richard was thinking. He continued, "Can't we just burn both songs and give them to mom together?"

“But the song “That’s All Right” is too rough. I’m still a little worried that adults won’t like this kind of song!”

"Okay, how about this! Let's sing "Song for Mom" ​​and let me sing "That's All Right" solo!" Alex had to come up with this method in order to convince Richard.

"Whatever you want! We'd better go to bed early, we have to go to the recording studio tomorrow." Richard had no choice but to say this.

Early the next morning, the Carpenters arrived at the recording studio. After working hard for most of the day, the first song was adjusted.

After the master tape was post-processed, the song became even better. Rudy played the final version. Listening to the beautiful and moving singing, everyone felt very excited, as if they were dreaming.

Richard said happily: "Is that really what I sang? Really?"

Bart finally felt a little relieved. He thought that after hearing such a beautiful song, the people on the radio station would definitely rush to play it.

"It's finally done!" Alex felt inexplicably relieved, and the pressure on him was not small.

Even Rudy was moved by this song. He felt that this was the most beautiful song he had ever produced in his life. As the actual producer of this song, he also felt an indescribable sense of satisfaction.

As for the black accompanists, they were all smiling. Although this song was not sung by them, it was accompanied by them. If this song hits the weekly charts, they will have bragging rights in the future.

After the song ended, everyone was still immersed in that strange atmosphere. It lasted for almost a minute and no one spoke.

"Hey, your rental time only has 2 hours left, do you want to continue recording?" Rudy looked at the time and then reminded.

"Of course we have to continue recording! We still have one song to record!" Alex replied quickly. His words surprised Bart, as it seemed to be different from what he planned.

"One more song?" Rudy smiled: "It took you nearly two days to record this song. Do you think it can be recorded in two hours?"

"Everyone should have heard this song," Alex said, UU reading www.uukaｎshu.net while playing the guitar in his hand: "You follow my rhythm!"

"Huh?" Everyone is indeed familiar with this song, but why does the rhythm feel so rough? And this feeling is like adding juice to liquor and mixing them together to drink. Sweet but hot and exciting, it can make people's adrenal hormones secrete quickly and their blood surge.

Soon, the accompaniment music started, and after a few paragraphs, everyone was already cooperating seamlessly.

As Alex sang, his body began to sway slightly, and the amplitude became larger and larger, until finally his whole body was swaying. Not only him, but everyone in the recording studio could not help but sway and sway to the singing!

This song was sung by Elvis Presley alone. His voice had a kind of magnetism, and it sounded like a black man singing. Because of this, many white DJs on radio stations were reluctant to play Elvis songs at the beginning.

Now it's completely different. Alex's voice has not changed yet. His voice is clear, transparent, full of emotion, loud and refined, like the voice of an angel. After his interpretation, the song had a different feeling.

The recording of "That's All Right" went smoothly, and Alex was in perfect condition, almost passing it in one or two passes. This is his own strength. He has no ability to use "analog memory" at all. At most, he only uses a little "retrospective" ability to record the song while recalling the audio of Elvis singing the song in his mind.

Since Alex was the only one singing, his way of singing was faster to record, and he didn't have to match Richard's singing style, which was more suitable for him.