Alternate language versions of songs.

My mom bought a CD while we were in Houston today, so, of course, she played it during the car ride back. It was mostly Vietnamese (and/or English) covers of Chinese and Japanese songs (Sakura Drops and Can You Keep A Secret? by Utada Hikaru, for the curious) done by a singer with, well, not the best vocals to my ears.

More importantly, I don't think a whole lot of folks here will have listened to a lot of old Chinese pop, but basically, the songs that got English versions should be added to the list of 'songs that are better off not sung in English'. Can You Keep A Secret? for a Vietnamese cover with English thrown in (it's the hip thing to do in Asian music). Sakura Drops got a plain English version. Both were close to unbearable for me. I wish I had links.

Well of course that made me post this thread...

Korean to Japanese almost always works seemlessly. I just prefer Korean versions because Korean just sounds better as a singing language to me.

Korean to Chinese can work well. Or it can work not so well, though that's up to debate (I think Mirotic sounds funky in Chinese but Rising Sun sounds better in Chinese, coming from a native speaker.)

This isn't a direct translation of this, but it certainly fits here. Though the English version doesn't make as much sense to me...

This translation of the Soviet national anthem kicks ass.

So... any alternate language versions of songs you like you want to share...?

Kane wo Narashite, or Ring A Bell, was used as the theme song for Tales of Vesperia. It was recorded in both Japanese and English, by the one singer, Bonnie Pink, so no annoying or lackluster covers..

Kane wo Narashite

Ring A Bell

I actually didn't like the song when I first heard it at the preview during the first Tales Festival last summer, but it's really grown on me. Must be from it constantly played ingame as an instrumental x.x

I was gonna post Kane wo Narashite/Ring a Bell as soon as I read this thread but Blazing got to it first. :P
Other than that, I don't know any alternate language of a song that's not from a video game. For instance:

Song: Lullaby For You
Artist: JYONGRI

Japanese version
English version

This song plays at the end of The World Ends With You when the credits roll. I'm pretty sure both versions are sung by the same person because she's fluent in both English and Japanese. Also, I personally I prefer the English version of this song.

well.. kraftwerk's released most of their music in english and german. i can't find a german version of what songs i know, but they still sound great in english..

kraftwerk - "europe endless"

Skroy Horitz said:

I was gonna post Kane wo Narashite/Ring a Bell as soon as I read this thread but Blazing got to it first. :P
Other than that, I don't know any alternate language of a song that's not from a video game. For instance:

Click to expand...

lol if it's got to do with Tales, I'll be there faster than you can say "KUREEAAAAAAH", or mention something else about it xD

foreign contaminant said:

well.. kraftwerk's released most of their music in english and german. i can't find a german version of what songs i know, but they still sound great in english..

kraftwerk - "europe endless"

Click to expand...

Definitely agree that Kraftwerk still sounds great in English, but I rather prefer the German versions of their songs. Computer Liebe, for example, sounds nicer than the English version (which I can't find for some reason). Same for Taschenrechner and Pocket Calculator (though I do love Ralf Hutter's voice and accent in the English one, haha).

And that English version of the USSR hymn isn't bad but it is vastly inferior to the Russian one.