Too Foolish (1994)
Eric Moo


Along with musicians such as Liang Wern Fook and Billy Koh, Malaysia-born Singapore-bred singer-songwriter Eric Moo was a key figure in xinyao, or the Singapore folk movement of the 1980s.
Some of the 49-year-old’s best-known songs were slice-of-life ditties about the man in the street, including the rousing Kopi-O from the popular drama series The Coffee Shop (1986).
But his love ballads were what cemented his reputation as an angst-ridden, leather jacket-clad star. And Too Foolish was a prime example of the macho, heartbroken laments favoured by the melodramatic.
It was the essence of bombastic love songs distilled into a single song, and amateur singers struggled to master the monster hit in karaoke lounges all over.
Composed by Moo, with lyrics by Chen Jiaming, the tune boasted a chorus that daringly went for the high notes. Its claim to fame, however, were 30-word-long phrases that tested the singer’s breath control. For instance: “It’s only, why did you ignore all those swirling rumours in the beginning, and choose me in the midst of wind and rain?/It’s only, why, after we have ignored it all, chased after true love and tasted the sweet after the bitter, did you give up on me?”
With the inclusion of a plaintive erhu in its arrangement, the song also prefigured the so-called “China-style” tunes popularised by later artists such as Jay Chou.
The EMI-released album that bears the same name – a collection of nine of Moo’s previous ballads, a live track which sampled songs from his 1993 Malaysian concert, plus the new title number – reportedly sold a whopping 1.8 million copies across Asia.
It was arguably an early example of the now-common marketing tactic of packaging together some greatest hits with a sprinkling of new tracks.
The collection includes earlier examples of Moo’s ballads: from the more radio-friendly Sad People Get Sadder (1991), to the more quietly affecting For You (1989), which was written for his then-girlfriend, model-actress Jazreel Low.
Moo was also successful as a songwriter for others.
The big Cantonese hit for Hong Kong singer Jacky Cheung, Just Want To Spend My Life With You (1993), came from his pen and it appears here in its original Mandarin version, Shouldn’t Let You Wait Too Long.
Among my favourite tracks are those taken from the 1988 album You Are My Only One: Those Days and the stirring title number.
Moo broke into the Taiwan and Hong Kong markets with You Are My Only One and the power ballad became a template of sorts for his future lung-busters – a gentle, contemplative stanza, building up to an explosive chorus as emotions boil over.
In contrast, Those Days was a very different type of ballad. In it, Moo reminisced about friendships of yesteryear. Inspired by a phone call from a friend’s mother, he wrote the song in half an hour.
Over the course of his long career, he has sometimes come across as cocky and even controversial. He has also been guilty of over-singing at times and his forceful blasting of songs by female singers on The Classic (2009) was an exercise in excess.
But Too Foolish reminds you of Moo at his best. To dismiss the veteran all together, because of transgressions real or imagined, would be plain silly.
(ST)