The Wynners are a Hong Kong pop band formed in the 1970s. The group consists of

Alan Tam Alan Tam Wing-lun MH (; born 23 August 1950) is a Hong Kong singer and actor. He played a major role in developing the Cantopop scene in the 1980s as he was known for singing romantic ballads with modern arrangements. From 1983 to 1987, Alan Tam ...

(lead vocals),

Kenny Bee Chung Chun-to (born 23 February 1953), also known by his stage name Kenny Bee, is a Hong Kong singer, musician and actor. He is best known as the singer of the group the Wynners, and as a solo artist who has been active in the Hong Kong ente ...

(lead vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards),

Bennett Pang Bennett Pang Kin-san (, born 7 April 1949) is a Hong Kong musician, singer and actor. He is well known as the lead guitarist of The Wynners. He is currently a host of Pleasure & Leisure, a talk show produced by Television Broadcasts Limited ...

(lead guitar), Danny Yip (bass), and Anthony Chan (drums).

History

Beginning as a

Hong Kong English pop Hong Kong English pop () is a genre of music consisting of English-language songs that are made, performed and popularised in Hong Kong. It is known as simply English pop by Hong Kongers. The height of the English pop era in Hong Kong was from t ...

band, The Wynners were assembled by manager Pato Leung in 1973 out of an earlier incarnation of the group, ''the Loosers''. Bee, who was with ''the Sergeant Majors'' before joining the Wynners, was the only one not part of the original lineup. The group soon became one of the most popular teen idol groups in Hong Kong at the time. The group's first studio album, ''Listen to the Wynners'', released in 1974, was a commercial success. It included the Walkers' hit ''

Sha-La-La-La-La "Sha-La-La-La-La" is a song by Danish glam rock band Walkers. The song was co-written by band members Torben Lendager and Poul Dehnhardt. It entered the Danish charts at number eight in the last week of March 1973, and peaked at number two aft ...

''. The next albums were equally successful, such as the 1976 release ''Some Kind of Magic'', which included hits such as ''

Save Your Kisses For Me "Save Your Kisses for Me" was the winning song of the Eurovision Song Contest 1976, performed for the by Brotherhood of Man in The Hague, Netherlands. The lyrics and music were written by Tony Hiller, Lee Sheriden, and Martin Lee, the latter two ...

'', a cover of the 1976 Eurovision winner by British pop band

Brotherhood of Man Brotherhood of Man are a British pop group who achieved success in the 1970s. They won the 1976 Eurovision Song Contest with " Save Your Kisses for Me". Created in 1969 by songwriter and record producer Tony Hiller, Brotherhood of Man was initi ...

. Their success in music was mirrored other forms of the popular media, including a television show on

TVB Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) is a television broadcasting company based in Hong Kong SAR. The Company operates five free-to-air terrestrial television channels in Hong Kong, with TVB Jade as its main Cantonese language service, and ...

, ''the Wynners Specials'' (1975), and three feature films, ''Let's Rock'' (1975), ''Gonna Get You'' (1976) and ''Making It'' (1978). In 1978, members of the group went their separate ways to develop their solo careers. Alan Tam and Kenny Bee went on to become two of the most popular stars in Hong Kong in the 1980s. Never formally disbanded, the Wynners have since reunited on stage every five years to sold-out crowds. On 1 April 2011, they reunited at the

Artistes 311 Love Beyond Borders Artistes 311 Love Beyond Borders () was a major fund raising campaign held in Hong Kong for the victims of the Japan 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. The event was organized by the Hong Kong Performing Artistes Guild and began at 7pm on 1 Ap ...

fundraising event set up by

Jackie Chan Fang Shilong (born 7 April 1954), known professionally in English as Jackie Chan and in Chinese as Cheng Long ( zh, c=成龍, j=Sing4 Lung4; "becoming the dragon"), is a Hong Kong actor, filmmaker, martial artist, and stuntman known for ...

in Hong Kong to help tsunami victims in Japan. Most recently, they held a benefit concert for

Family Bridges Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Ideall ...

at the

Oracle Arena An oracle is a person or agency considered to provide wise and insightful counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. As such, it is a form of divination. Description The word ''o ...

on 8 November 2014.

Music

The group sang exclusively in English in their early days, mainly covers of popular songs from other parts of the world, most notably "

Hey Jude "Hey Jude" is a song by the English rock music, rock band the Beatles that was released as a non-album single in August 1968. It was written by Paul McCartney and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership. The single was the Beatles' fir ...

" by

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

. In 1975, the group collaborated with songwriter/lyricist James Wong and released a number of original Cantonese songs for the soundtrack of the movie ''Let's Rock'', which Wong also directed. With lyrics in a light-hearted, colloquial style along the lines of those from

Sam Hui Samuel Hui Koon-kit (born 6 September 1948), usually known as Sam Hui, is a Hong Kong musician, singer, songwriter and actor. He is credited with popularising Cantopop both via the infusion of Western-style music and his usage of vernacular Canto ...

, these songs defined the signature style of early

Cantopop Cantopop (a contraction of "Cantonese pop music") or HK-pop (short for "Hong Kong pop music") is a genre of pop music written in standard Chinese and sung in Cantonese. Cantopop is also used to refer to the cultural context of its production ...

Awards and honours

RTHK Top 10 Gold Songs Awards Top Ten Chinese Gold Songs Awards () is one of the main C-pop music award in Hong Kong. The award is sponsored by RTHK. Beginning in 1978, it is the oldest major award in Hong Kong, even earlier than the Jade Solid Gold Top 10 Awards. The cer ...

* 1988 RTHK Golden Needle Award

References

External links

The Wynners music database

Rewind album: 'Listen to The Wynners', by The Wynners
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wynners, The English-language singers from Hong Kong Cantopop musical groups Musical groups established in 1973