Rose, Rose, I Love You

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"Rose, Rose, I Love You" (Chinese: 玫瑰玫瑰我愛你; pinyin: Méigui méigui wǒ ài nǐ) is a popular song originally in Mandarin Chinese and later sung in English. It is the only song written by a Chinese to become a major English-language chart hit.

Yao Lee collection album titled after her hit song Rose, Rose, I Love You (玫瑰玫瑰我愛你)

The original Chinese lyrics were by Wu Cun (Ng Chuen; 吳村 Wú Cūn) and the music was credited to Lin Mei (林枚), a pen name for popular song composer Chen Gexin. The song was first recorded in 1940 by Yao Lee as an interlude for the movie Singing Girl (天涯歌女) and released as a single on Pathé Records (EMI) catalog number B. 597.

The English language lyrics were written by a British correspondent, Wynford Vaughan Thomas. It was recorded by American singer Frankie Laine and the Norman Luboff Choir, with Paul Weston and his orchestra, on 6 April 1951, and released by Columbia Records as catalog number 39367. The song reached #3 on the Billboard magazine music charts. (When the songwriter Chen Gexin's youngest son went to the United States for advanced education, he was able to meet Laine and maintained a correspondence.) At this time, Yao Lee's Mandarin version was also released in the US (Columbia 39420) and UK (Columbia 2837) credited to "Miss Hue Lee."

A recording was made by Gordon Jenkins for Decca Records (catalog number 27594^[1]).

The song was also covered in the UK by Petula Clark (with a different set of lyrics and the title "May Kway"), a version that entered the UK charts on May 5, 1951 and peaked at #16^[2], and Kyu Sakamoto remade the song in the 1960's.

This song features in the 2005 film The White Countess. The film appears to be set in 1937, so the inclusion of the song (in Mandarin Chinese, but to a swing-band accompaniment) would be anachronistic.

"Rose, Rose, I Love You" also appears in the soundtrack of "The Pillow Book", 1996.