POP YEH YEH RESEARCH TRIP: Spotlight on THE CLICK IV

THE CLICK IV

Another pop yeh yeh band that had briefly coloured the Malay-language music scene in the 1960s was The Click IV (or sometimes written as The Click 4). Although the members of the band were unknown, they did have their own style of music, which had shown some improvement over time, and according to the singers’ vocal performance whom they accompanied. Through their career, they stuck to only one recording label, which is Olympic Records, between 1967 and 1970.

Jaffar O. (1944 – 2010)

The first singer that The Click IV accompanied in Olympic Records was Jaffar O. Born Japar Ohjar in 1944 from a Madhurese-Boyanese parentage in Singapore’s Bukit Timah district, he left school at the age of 14 to work as an office attendant, before carving his career as a singer in the 1960s. With The Clans, Jaffar recorded two EPs, one each in 1967 and another in 1968, respectively. His songs like Punggok Merindu-kan Bulan (The Owl Misses the Moon), Merindu Kaseh (Missing My Lover So Much) and Undang-lah Aku (Invite Me) became instant hits and had managed to hit the radio’s top charts in both the republic and Malaysia.

Jaffar O & The Click IV – Kehampa’an-ku

Jaffar O & The Click IV – Pinang-kan Si-Dia

Jaffar O & The Click IV – Punggok Merindu-kan Bulan

Jaffar O & The Click IV – Merindu Kaseh

Jaffar O & The Click IV (1967)

Jaffar O & The Click IV – Undang-lah Aku Jaffar O & The Click IV - Undanglah Aku - 1968

Jaffar O & The Click IV – Gagena Paraban Jaffar O & The Click 4 - Gegena Paraban (Senikata: Jaafar O) - 1968

Jaffar O & The Click IV – Kaseh Terpisah Jaffar O & The Click IV - Kaseh Terpisah

Jaffar O & The Click IV – Di-Tinggal Kaseh jaafar O & the click 4 _ ditinggal kasih (1968)

A. Ramlie (1948 – 2001)

After recording a series of EPs with The Rythmn Boys, The Clans and his own Pancharagam A. Ramlie (a.k.a. The Ramlies) from 1966 until 1968, A. Ramlie continued his journey as a recording artist with The Clans. Coincidently, in 1969, Olympic Records was celebrating its fifth anniversary of establishment. For this purpose, Ramlie had invited his fans to contribute their composition of songs and lyrics for him to record in his two EPs in 1969. The approach turned out to be a successful collaboration, where his songs Dendang Anak Tani (A Farmer’s Child’s Song) and Ole-Ole Temasek (Gifts from Temasek) [Note: “Temasek” is an ancient name for Singapore] became top hits of 1969. His last recording with The Clans was made in 1970. By this time, The Clans were trying to break away from the usual pop yeh yeh sound as evident from their style of musical performance, but unfortunately, this was the last recording that they had ever worked out on.