Bad Boy
Studio album by A-Mei
Released	7 June 1997
Recorded	1997
Studio	Platinum Studio (3) 豐華錄音室 Forward Studio A-String Recording Studio Mega Force Studio Beat Sound Studio, Taipei City Sun House Studio, Taipei Premium Recording Studio Form Recording Studio, Singapore
Genre	Mandopop R&B
Length	47:38
Label	Forward Music
Producer	Chang Yu-sheng
A-Mei chronology
Sisters (1996) Bad Boy (1997) You Make Me Free Make Me Fly! (1997)

Bad Boy is the second studio album by Taiwanese Puyuma singer A-Mei, released on June 7, 1997, by Forward Music. Predominantly a R&B, pop and soul record, Bad Boy centers on the theme of love and relationships. The album was solely produced by her producer and mentor Chang Yu-Sheng, and was ultimately the last album of hers that he was actively involved with due to his untimely death caused by a car crash five months later.^[1] On August 17, 2018, 21 years after its release date, a vinyl reissue of Bad Boy was released by Forward Music.

Commercially, the album found immense success at home and abroad, topping Taiwan's IFPI sales chart for an impressive 9 weeks and went on to sell a total of 1.38 million copies in Taiwan alone.^[2] Since its release, Bad Boy has remained the highest selling album of all time in Taiwan.^[3][4] It also managed to shift more than 6 million copies throughout Asia, setting a major record for the highest sales for a Taiwanese chanteuse.^[5] The album's mammoth success consequently established A-Mei as a force to be reckoned with on the music charts in East Asia.

In order to promote Bad Boy, five songs off it were released as singles; the title track, "Can't Cry", "Whenever I Think About You", "Dancing Alone" and "Listen to the Sea". All five singles attained massive commercial success throughout Asia and are now regarded as modern day classics in the Mandopop genre. To this very day they are still receiving heavy rotation and are being sung by contestants on major televised singing competitions.^[6] A-Mei went on to perform a plethora of songs from the album on her "1998 A-Mei In Concert Live" concert tour the following year.^[7]

Background

Seven months prior, A-Mei released her debut studio album, Sisters. The record became an immediate smash, selling over 1.21 million copies in Taiwan, becoming the fourth best-selling album of all time there, and shipped an additional 4 million copies throughout Asia to boot.^[8][9] Thus, breaking a glass ceiling for Taiwanese aborigines in show business. After this monumental success, the production of her sophomore studio album began, which was once again helmed by her mentor Chang Yu-sheng.^[10]

Production

The album opener "Can't Cry" was written by Liu Si Ming and composed by Liu Zhihong.^[11] As the first song of the album, the power ballad fully demonstrates A-Mei's prowess in singing lyrical slow songs. The title track, "Whenever I Think About You" and "Lonely Tequila" were composed and written entirely by Chang Yu-sheng.^[11] "Whenever I Think About You" in particular serves as a continuation of the song "Sisters". "Dancing Alone" was written by Yu Guangyan and composed by Sky Wu.^[11]

"Listen to the Sea" was written by Eric Lin and was composed by Michael Tu. On the day of writing the lyrics of "Listening to the Sea", Eric Lin went to a small bar with a book and didn't come out until four in the morning, then followed the bartender and drove to have a late-night snack, and at that time the dawn was breaking in the sky, and one of the waiters suddenly said that she would like to go to the seaside to have a look, and everybody felt that the proposal was good, so the group went there. When they went there, they sat on the beach and chatted, and Lin asked the girls about their relationship status and their views on relationships, and all their answers were different, which gave Lin a certain understanding of women's views on relationships in that era, and laid the groundwork for the creation of "Listen to the Sea."^[12]

Cheng Hua Jiuan wrote and composed the song "Sweet Words".^[11] The torch song "Lover? Enemy?" was written by Wu Yukang and composed by Guo Tzu.^[11] "Loving Isn't Too Early or Too Late" is a synthesizer-laden ballad was written by Daryl Yao and composed by Zheng Zhiming.^[11] The pop, R&B and gospel influenced album closer "Loved You" was penned by Lo-Jung Chen and composed by Chen Chih-yuan.^[11]

Commercial performance

Stimulated by its smash hit singles, Bad Boy debuted at #1 on the Taiwan IFPI albums chart and resided there for an astonishing 9 weeks; becoming her second consecutive record to accomplish this.^[13] Bad Boy sold 1.38 million copies in Taiwan, making it the record holder for Taiwan's highest-selling album to date, a record which was previously held by Jacky Cheung's The Goodbye Kiss.^[14][15] An additional 6 million copies were sold throughout Asia.^[16] Bad Boy dominated the popular music charts at home and abroad and received a number of music awards in Asia, which attracted the high attention of the international music scene and established her status as one of the most sought-after celebrities in East Asia.

Accolades

In 1997, the album's title track won the 4th Chinese Top 20 Song Award at the 4th China Music Awards held by Channel V, where she also won the prize for Best Newcomer.^[17] At the 9th Golden Melody Awards held in 1998, Michael Tu was nominated for Best Composer for his work on the song "Listen to the Sea." At the same ceremony A-Mei herself was nominated for Best Mandarin Female Singer while the album Bad Boy was nominated for Album of the Year.^[18]

Track listing

References