Classic Korean Pop Music Archive: Cho Yong-pil / Cho Yong-pil 1st Album (1980)

Cho Yong-pil 조용필
趙容弼 대표곡 모음 : 창밖의 여자 / 단발머리 Cho Yong-pil Compilation : Woman Outside the Window / Short Hair
1980. 03. 20

Side A

1. 창밖의 여자 / Woman Outside the Window

2. 돌아와요 부산항에 / Come Back to Busan Port

3. 잊혀진 사랑 / Forgotten Love

4. 돌아오지 않는 강 / The River of No Return

5. 정 / Affection

6. 사랑은 아직도 끝나지 않았네 / Love Did Not End Yet

Side B

1. 단발 머리 / Short Hair

2. 한오백년 / Resentment of Five Hundred Years

3. 대전 블루스 / Daejeon Blues

4. 너무 짧아요 / Too Short

5. 슬픈 미소 / Sad Smile

6. 너와 나* / You and Me*

* This music was recorded as a 'wholesome song', which was mandatory for musicians to feature in their every albums in 60-80s.

We have already taken a look at the "Godfather of Korean Rock" before here. However, one might probably ask another question, "then who is the 'legendary of Korean music?'" With certainty, everyone would say that he is Cho Yong-pil. Born in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi-do in 1950, he started to grow his dream as a musician when he was seven years old inspired by Ray Charles and The Ventures. Even though his family opposed his dream, he finally left his home with his friends and founded the band called Atkins(애트킨즈). Soon, in 1959, he made a band called Five Fingers (화이브 핑거스), and played various songs made by the greatest black artists such as James Brown in the US Forces Korea. In spite of his success in the U.S army, nevertheless, he paused his music career as his brother found him out. Of course, he didn't give up. Instead, he moved to Busan and started his music career again and made a huge success with numerous hit songs such as "Come Back to Busan Port" (돌아와요 부산항에)

Thus, even though this album is his first regular studio album, actually it is a compilation album featuring his numerous hit songs and few new ones. However, this fact doesn't degrade the true value of this album. He showed various music styles such as trot, folk, rock n roll, ballad, Korean traditional music, and even disco. Especially, one of the greatest hit songs included in this album, "Short Hair" (단발 머리) features disco-style synthesizer sounds which were regarded as innovative at that time. Not only that, the huge success from this album made a huge influence on Korean pop music industry. Such as, this album made pop music widespread to the mass public. With various genres of music featured in this album, regardless of age or sex, it successfully granted a huge popularity from people.

With the huge success from the album not only for the mass public but also for critics, Cho Yong-pil started to endeavor much harder for music creation. Eventually, he has become a 'national artist' who has published 18 regular studio albums and made a enormous contribution on Korean pop music industry.