Soft Film Video Jukebox: Rebecca Pan

If you missed Hong Kong in the 60s on Lucky Cat Zoë's radio show last week, then you are in luck. The podcast is now available on her blog. It was a fun — and funny — show. Besides debuting their new song, "When You Were Dreaming", the band also shared their recent discovery of a delightful tune by Rebecca Pan called "Willow Pattern Blues", released in the U.K. in 1965 as the B-side of "Will the Orange Blossoms Smile" (which they played on the show).

The single was one of several that Rebecca recorded for the Parlophone label under the name Ching. Both songs were written by Iain Kerr and Roy Cowan, a musical comedy duo who toured internationally for years as "Goldberg & Solomon" in their popular show Gilbert & Sullivan Go Kosher. A newspaper ad for their follow-up, Slightly Jewish and Madly Gay, touted them as "those two crowned gnomes of nonsense" (The Sydney Morning Herald, March 14, 1977).

As for "Willow Pattern Blues", it's a tasty little morsel of tongue-in-cheek Orientalism that's addictively charming all by itself. But the following homemade video by boogetman65 will have you playing the song over and over again!