Sing and Play (Chinese: 唱遊; pinyin: Chàng Yóu) is a 1998 Mandarin album by Beijing-based singer Faye Wong. It includes 10 tracks in Mandarin, with a bonus disc of 3 Cantonese tracks.[1] It was released on 21 October 1998 in Japan.[2]
The album title is usually translated as Sing and Play in English sources.[3][4][5]
Others refer to the album as Song Tour[6] (遊 can mean tour), Scenic Tour[7][8] which was the name of Wong's 1998–1999 concert tour,
Love Life,[9]
or Song Play.[10]
Sing and Play was the first Chinese album recorded using HDCD techniques.[citation needed]
The album was noted for some of its ballads, in contrast to the pop songs which had provided most of Faye Wong's hits around that time.[3] "Red Beans", "Face" and "Love Commandments" have been popular songs of the album.[7]
As of February 1999, the album sold almost 90,000 copies, including imports.[2] It was rereleased in Japan on 3 March 1999 with the bonus track, "Eyes on Me".[2]
The album debuted at number three, respectively, in Hong Kong on the week of 4 October and in Malaysia on the week of 13 October 1998.[13] It peaked at number one in Malaysia on the week of 20 October 1998.[14] It reached number two in Hong Kong on the week of 11 October 1998.[14]Billboard's Asia bureau chief, Steve McClure, placed it in number seven of his top ten list of 1999 Asian albums.[9]
^ abcBillboard, Faye Wong article by Steve McClure, 6 February 1999, page 51, "Global Music Pulse" column, edited by Dominic Pride
^ abStan Jeffries, Encyclopedia of world pop music, 1980-2001 2003 p224. "In January 1998, Wong won the favorite female category at Taiwan's Channel V awards. As part of her new goal of winning wider recognition, in the same year she released Sing and Play. The album included some Wong compositions and introduced more ballads to her canon, as most of her previous releases had been unerringly jaunty pop numbers. She then undertook a tour of Japan that lasted for six months. Her nomadic lifestyle throughout this period made her one of the most widely recognized people in East Asia (Asiaweek magazine included her in a list of "50 people you should know in China"), but it began to have an effect on her private life."
^Shane Homan, Access All Eras: Tribute Bands and Global Pop Culture, 2006, p224. "... almost exclusively on contributions from Hong Kong-, Beijing- and Singapore-based composers along with her own compositions on Sing and Play (1998), Only Love Strangers (1999), Fable (2000), Faye Wong (2001) and To Love (2003)."
