Great people of history, Tommy Page, lived 1967-2017

One of the joys of history is discovering people who had extremely interesting lives. And with that I present Tommy Page (lived 1967-2017), an obscure American pop singer who somehow managed to gain a big following in Taiwan around 1990 when I was teaching English and living there. For those who wish to truly understand the . . . um . . . incredibleness of this historic East-West relationship, let me offer this incredible video. 

 Here we see Tommy as he appears on Taiwanese TV where they praise him as someone whose star is shining so bright it is making all the other American pop stars disappear. Then they demonstrate. 

Now the truth is I was never a fan of Tommy Page's singing or his lyrics. I always felt that they were much improved if one spoke Mandarin or Taiwanese as a native language, had a few years of high school English, and were not only translating the words of his songs into your native language as you listened but also were thrilled to pieces to realize that you were able to do so. To illustrate I offer these fine videos.  




Tommy Page, I'll be your Everything (reportedly a Billboard #1 Hit. Ouch!!) 

Despite the fact that I really did not like Tommy Page's music, I did envy him.  Believe it or not, there are people out there who have thought I was famous. (Something I wrote more about in my short story collection in the section on pop stars -- see 
here for details on this fine, fine, fine publication. ) and I've never been quite comfortable with it. Therefore I envied the way Tommy Page could travel to Taiwan any time he wanted, have a few shows, do radio interviews, be met by cheering crowds and adoring fans, and then go home and back to anonymity and a normal life. To me, that would be the perfect set-up, a far away country where I was famous matched by anonymity at home. 


Another Tommy Page hit, one I always felt was much more appreciated 
by people whose brains were translating the lyrics into Chinese as they listened.
He appeared on an episode of the American TV sitcom "Full House" in 1992 where he sang at a character's 10 year old birthday party and reportedly was also on the cover of many magazines as a teenage heartthrob. 
Later in life, Tommy Page when on to become an executive at Warner Brothers Records, and a co-publisher at Billboard Magazine. 

 He reportedly died at age 49 (although some reports say 46) of suicide (dumb way to go IMHO) and was survived by a husband (yeah, that's right) and three children. 



Sources and Links for more Information






[From Singapore and gives an Asian perspective on his career and overseas, Asian success. Includes links to several videos where he sang with Asian Pop-stars of the time. ] 

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