The troubadour of the pop world, Choi Baek-ho, revealed behind-the-scenes stories related to his signature song "About Romance."
On the 17th broadcast of MBN "Kim Ju-ha's Day & Night," Choi Baek-ho, marking his 50th year since debut, appeared and recounted his life, music, and the background of the creation of the classic song.
That day, Choi Baek-ho recalled the process leading up to the hit song "About Romance," which brought him a second heyday in his late 40s in the late 1990s. He said that after returning from the United States, the song "Abby" he released did not receive much attention and he went through financially difficult times, and he calmly revealed that thanks to the Misari acoustic guitar live cafe boom at the time, he was able to earn at least his living expenses by singing.
Choi Baek-ho also mentioned the place where the song was born. He said, "There was a time when I lived on the first floor of an apartment in Mok-dong. When I went to see the house, I liked the feeling as soon as I entered the front door so much that I told my wife, 'Let's buy this house,' without even taking off my shoes," and he added with a laugh, "I made 'About Romance' in that house. Looking back now, it seems I also received good feng shui influence."
He also conveyed the story contained in the song's lyrics. Choi Baek-ho said, "I was playing an acoustic guitar in the living room when I saw my wife washing dishes in the kitchen through the window," and explained, "Suddenly I thought that the lovers I had met in the past might by now be someone's wife living like that. At that moment the lyric 'Where will the girl of my first love grow old like me?' came out." He added, "At first I didn't give it the title 'About Romance,' but I felt that all these emotions ultimately amounted to romance, so the title was completed."
However, the song did not receive a big reaction immediately after its release. Choi Baek-ho recalled, "For about the first year it sold only about 20 to 30 copies a month," and said, "Then around the Chuseok holiday about a year and a half after its release, the record company suddenly called to say they had received orders for thousands of copies."
The background was the influence of a popular drama. Choi Baek-ho said, "At the time the song was played on the drama 'Men of the Bathhouse.' Mr. Jang-yong sang it in the drama," and revealed, "That year alone 300,000 copies were sold by the end of the year." He went on, "I heard that drama writer Kim Soo-hyun, while driving, heard the lyric 'Where will the girl of my first love' on the radio, looked up the song and immediately inserted it into the drama," and expressed his gratitude, saying, "Kim Soo-hyun is the lifesaver of my life."
Meanwhile, "Kim Ju-ha's Day & Night" airs every Saturday at 9:40 p.m. <
[Photo] MBN "Kim Ju-ha's Day & Night" broadcast screen capture
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