Hong Kong had long been a British colony. Western cultural influences started early and seeped into people’s daily life as early as the 1920s.
Cultural influences from the West took an upward turn in the 1950s, firstly through films. During the time when Wong Jum-sum grew up, the number of Western films on show every year was never less than 200. The West was also prominent in radio broadcast. Thanks to the work of progressive radio show hosts like Aileen Woods and Uncle Ray, a whole generation came to be exposed to all styles and genres of Western pop music. They helped to nurture a world where one could embrace simultaneously the diverse sound and sentiments of Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and Benny Goodman. A new collective outlook was thus embodied in the skin and bone of the baby boomer generation.
Judy Jim began singing since twelve, and won gold in the First Sing Tao Amateur Singing Contest when sixteen. Her debut EP for EMI contains her winning song Down the Trail of the Aching Heart. Listening to this, one can hear no trace of what her close friend Wong Jum-sum described as a persistent propensity to stage fright on her part.
All the songs on the EP were arranged by Vic Cristobal, a Filipino musician who was to collaborate intensively with Wong Jum-sum in the numerous subsequent works in Cantonese pop.
Composers and Lyricists:
Jimmy Kennedy,
Nat Simon
Vocalist: Judy Jim
You told me I was your darlin'
You kept me hangin' around
Somebody else is your darlin'
So lonesome and blue I'll be found
Down the trail of achin' hearts
Where nobody hides their tears
You sent me there where sadness starts
Down the trail of achin' hearts
Once I was passing your window
Under the light of a star
Somebody else played my love song
And played it on my old guitar
Down the trail of achin' hearts
Where nobody hides their tears
You sent me there where sadness starts
Down the trail of achin' hearts
After you've had all your darlin's
Maybe you'll be on the shelf
One of these days, little darlin'
Now you may be down there by yourself
Down the trail of achin' hearts
Where nobody hides their tears
You sent me there where sadness starts
Down the trail of achin' hearts
