Reborn in America

Chapter 22: Copycat to the End

In a day's work, their first song is recorded, and the rest of the work will take time to polish it. This kind of work is usually done by music producers and singers. Alex and the others are not yet familiar with them, so they can only ask Rudy to help.

Rudy himself is a bit cunning, but his professionalism is still good. With Bart continuing to pay for the next day, he still fine-tuned the details of the song very conscientiously.

This is an era without computers, at least not when making music. Relying on manual editing is entirely manual, which is a delicate task.

The Carpenter brothers were not idle either, they followed Rudy as assistants. They learned a lot from it, especially the 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 bright.

That night, Bart found a hotel nearby. To save money, the three of them squeezed into a small room to rest. This is a very rudimentary hotel, and even hot water can't be supplied normally until late at night.

After the shower, Richard turned on the radio in the room and listened to his favorite music program. In these programs, jazz or country music is played. In Alex's opinion, it is not interesting at all. It is not the music he likes to listen to, but in this case it is better than nothing.

The United States in 1950 was still in the stage of urban development. TV is still a luxury, TV stations are very at least, and the coverage is also small. Only in some big cities can there be TV signals. At that time, music transmission relied on records and radio.

Especially records, when people want to listen to specific music, they buy a record to play. The record company at the time was one of the most profitable industries.

The song "Mary" 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 could sell 45 million records of popular songs in a year. Ten years later, record sales have tripled.

Records not only make songs popular, but also cultivate a group of "singers" familiar to the masses. Radio did not show weakness in this regard. By the 1930s, not only were there radio stations in major cities in the United States, but even small villages were dissatisfied.

The singing of singers such as Bing Crosby and Kate Smith often rippling over the United States. Good songs cultivate popular singers, and famous singers make songs popular. Sometimes, some songs and singers become famous overnight through a broadcast.

Alex wants to become famous in this way. The key to becoming famous lies in the quality of the records and how much the radio likes their songs.

Suddenly, he thought of Elvis Presley! The current Elvis should be still in Memphis, and he needs to wait until Elvis is 19 years old, that is, when he is really famous in 1953.

Elvis, Elvis, also went to record records to celebrate his mother's birthday, but was dug up by the record company and became famous in one fell swoop!

"What's the name of the song that Elvis debuted?" Alex thought to himself, and hurriedly looked up information about Elvis in his memory bank, and finally he found: "That'sallright, that's this song." Now! This song is still a cover song by Elvis Presley. However, Elvis has added his own style, combining the rhythm of rock and roll and the characteristics of blues songs!"

This song eventually became Elvis Presley's first single record on Sun Records and conquered the local fans. Since then, Elvis has released a few records and began touring. His kind of music that embodies country music and the combination of rhythm and blues, and his wild and unruly attitude detonated an unprecedented storm of rock music. Since then, Elvis has embarked on the road to success, and a superstar has begun to rise.

"Richard! Have you heard the song "That’sallright"?" Alex asked Richard while picking up the guitar!

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

"Then how do you listen to me singing?" Alex took a deep breath, and then performed the song in the same way as Elvis.

This song is actually very simple, just a few lyrics. However, the amazing thing is that this combination of rock rhythm and blues style singing is very pleasant. Especially Richard, he hugged Alex happily after only half of hearing it.

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

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

"Well, how do you say this. Although the songs you sang before, although they are very good, they always feel a little strange! This one is different, different!" Richard murmured.

"Different?" Alex was puzzled.

In fact, this is easier to understand. After all, Alex came from sixty years later, and the music he first encountered was the product of more than half a century of development. After so many years of evolution, pop music has gone through many generations. If the music of later generations is directly given to people in the 1950s, it is very likely that it will not be acceptable at first.

Elvis's interpretation of this first is different. It has the rhythm of rock and roll and the style of blues, which can be regarded as a link between the past and the future. The reason why Elvis is so famous is not only because he opened the age of rock and roll, but because he was able to bridge the age of blues and rock.

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

In his opinion, Elvis's song is too old, without new ideas and passion.

In contrast, in Richard's eyes, this song "that’sallright" almost pokes his refreshing point.

"Is this song so good?" Alex can't understand the appreciation of people in this era. In his opinion, this song is just so-so.

However, he has decided to copy Elvis' success, so he no longer hesitates.

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

"Will Mom like this song?" Richard hesitated. He knew Angel's temperament. For conservative people, this song is too crude.

"What's the matter?" Alex didn't understand what Richard was thinking. He continued: "We have burned both of our songs. Can we give them to mom together?"

"But the song "that’sallright" is too rough, and I am still a little worried that adults don't like this song!"

"Well, or else! Let's sing "Song for Mom", and let me sing this "that’sallright" solo!" In order to persuade Richard, Alex had to think of such a way.

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

Early the next morning, the Carpenters came to the recording studio. After half a day of hard work, the first song was adjusted.

After the mastering process, the song becomes more pleasant. Rudy will play the final version. Hearing the beautiful 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 listening to such a beautiful song, those on the radio would definitely rush to play it.

"Finally it's finished!" Alex felt relaxed inexplicably, and the pressure on him was not small.

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

As for those blacks who acted as accompaniment, they all smiled. Although they did not sing this song, it was accompanied by them. If this song is on the weekly charts, they will have the capital to show off in the future.

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

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

"Of course we will continue to record! We still have one song that we haven't recorded yet!" Alex quickly replied, and Bart was a little surprised by his words, which seemed to be different from the plan.

"One more song?" Rudy smiled: "You recorded this song for nearly two days. Do you think you can record it in 2 hours?"

"Everyone should have heard this song," Alex said, playing the guitar in his hand: "You follow my rhythm!"

"Huh?" Everyone is really familiar with this song, but why is the rhythm a little rough? And this feeling is like mixing the juice into white wine and mixing them together to drink. Sweet but hot and stimulating, it can make people quickly secrete adrenal hormones and blood flow up.

Soon, the accompaniment music sounded, and after a few passages, everyone had cooperated perfectly.

When Alex sang, his body began to sway slightly, increasing in amplitude, and finally the whole body was swaying. Not only him, but the people in this studio can't help but sway along with the singing!

This song was sung by Elvis Elvis alone. His voice is magnetic, and it sounds like a black man is singing. Because of this, at the beginning, many white djs on the radio were reluctant to play Elvis' songs.

It's completely different now. Alex's voice has not changed. His voice is clear and transparent, full of emotion, loud and refined, like an angelic voice. After his interpretation, this song has a different feeling.

This song "that’sallright" was recorded smoothly. Alex was in perfect condition and passed almost once or twice. This is his own strength, he did not use the ability of "simulating memory" at all, at most, he used the ability of "retrospect" slightly, while reminiscing the audio of Elvis singing this song in his mind, while recording the song.

Since Alex is the only one singing, his way of singing is faster to record. It doesn't need to be accompanied by a reasonable Chad singing method, which is more suitable for him.