Before his pop icon ascent, Tom Chang fronted a metal band. His crystalline voice and shocking sopranist range led the group Metal Kids to clinch the first National Popular Music Competition in 1988. Later that year, his first single, an ad campaign song titled “我的未来不是梦” (“My Future Isn’t a Pipe Dream”), captured the energy of a Taiwan in economic lift-off after four decades of martial law and primed the stage for his debut album. 天天想你 (Always Missing You) arrived in November, while the 22-year-old was still in college. A departure from the ennui and melodrama that dominated the charts, tracks like “和天一样高” (“As High as the Sky”) and “没有不可能的事” (“Nothing’s Impossible”) resonated as anthems of optimism for a generation on the cusp of realising their dreams and quickly proved a watershed moment for Mandopop.
Though the entire album was a critical and commercial success, its title track would cement Chang’s place in the C-pop pantheon. Performing music by Chen Chih-yuan and lyrics by Fred Chen, the singer strikes a heavenly balance between innocent longing and unbridled emotion, creating an ode to teenage love both personal and universal. His musicality prevails on other sophisticated ballads like “告诉我亲爱的” (“Tell Me My Dear”) and “不是因为寂寞” (“Not Because of Loneliness”), while the introspective “渺小” (“Tiny”)—artfully voicing the words of early 20th century Chinese poet Xu Zhimo—foreshadows the original work on his 1994 album 卡拉OK.台北.我 (Karaoke Live. Taipei. Me).
In the decades since its release—and since Chang’s tragic death in 1997—the album has remained fresh, relevant and a pop masterpiece. To celebrate its legacy, producer and engineer Micky Yang joins Apple Music to discuss a re-issue in immersive Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos. “I still remember when I was a freshman in high school and thinking, how could someone be a rocker and sing pop so well? The point is, he can sing so high,” Yang tells Apple Music. “When I first got news that I would remake the album last year, you could imagine my heartfelt excitement.” He opened the vault for the original tapes to start the painstaking process of restoring Chang’s virtuosic performance, which included scrubbing for white noise. “A very unique aspect of the album is how real instruments interact with MIDI and synthesizers. Because we were doing [restoration work], we couldn’t approach it with too much of a 2022 sensibility,” he says. Instead, Yang explains he opened up the mix to pull Chang’s voice out in front: “This allows the power of the vocals to penetrate deeper into the listener’s ears.”
“Because you’re working with the emotions of the songs, I had the lyrics next to me as I worked and slowly savoured them line by line. I found that Tom really interprets every dimension of the lyrics so powerfully,” Yang says. “If I had gained any new perspective [about Chang through the project], I would say it’s that I worship him even more, ha ha.” Yang says he’s particularly proud of how the Spatial Audio versions for “跟着我” (“Follow Me”), “我的阳光我的风” (“My Sunshine, My Wind”) and the title track came out. On these tracks—and the groundbreaking album as a whole—Chang’s legendary voice shines like never before.
