Chris Tong Music: About Chris

About Chris

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Chris (2022)

I was drawn to music from early on. I always loved to sing, and, in second grade, I was chosen as the "best male singer" in my class; along with the "best female singer", I was sent to the third, fourth, and fifth grade classes, to entertain them by singing songs, which was an exciting adventure for me at the time! Around the same time, I began studying classical piano (and continued at that for many years). As a teenager, I started writing my own songs (which often reflected my classical training).

Chris (1997)

When I was an undergraduate student at Columbia University, I won the "Golden Ears Award" for best student in my music humanities class. The university also paid me to play the grand piano in the student lounge as lunch hour entertainment for students and faculty. Once, while I was playing some of my songs on the piano, a man in his thirties sat down in the lounge, and began intensely listening to my music. After I played a few songs, and took a break, the man came over and sat down next to me. He introduced himself. "My name is George Fischoff. You may have heard a couple of the my songs on the radio a few years back. . . Spanky and Our Gang did my song, Lazy Day, and Keith did my song, 98.6. I hadn't heard of "98.6", but "Lazy Day" had always been a song I loved. So I told George that, and he beamed! George said he was a piano player like me, and asked if those were my own songs I had been playing. I said yes. George said: "I really like them! You have a lot of potential. I want to really encourage you to do something with your songs."

George's feedback meant a lot to me, as I was already seriously considering a career in songwriting. But, as things turned out, my life took a different path: professor of Computer Science; leading researcher in Artificial Intelligence and Design; web design, programming, and development of new web technologies; and spiritual author. Over the years, I also wrote music for others. But in 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, while continuing my regular life, I also began performing, arranging, and releasing new versions of my old songs (and completing some unfinished songs, like She, as well as creating new versions of new songs, like Space Girl 2). So George, here I am, years after we spoke, finally "doing something" with my songs!

Think I hear a knock at the door. . .
It's my life, saying: "Come on, there's more!"

Chris Tong, No Cares

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Apparently the universe liked me finally putting my songs out there. . . When I released "Mary's Song" on YouTube on November 3, 2020, the next day my music video mysteriously appeared on pop music superstar Taylor Swift's official YouTube channel (with its 40 million subscribers), where it was heard by over 20,000 of her fans, and liked by over 1,000 of them, in the several hours before YouTube corrected its "mistake". Things like that just don't happen (accidentally)! I took it as a very good sign. Here are just some of the responses from Taylor's fans. Most are about Mary's Song, but some people also found the other songs I had released at that time, She and No Cares:

Mienette Reyes: "At first I thought this was a Taylor Swift song. Haha! This is the first time I heard this song... But the lyrics and the meaning of the song are beautiful. I love it! ❤"

Alexandre Sylvester: "It's actually good song hahahaha I like it."

P A R R A: "This song is very emotional and beautiful."

Jerry: "Please educate yourself on his discography on his website, and listen to all of it. You will love it all if you like Taylor Swift.

bybdolan: "Chris Tong music is lowkey good though. . . She and Mary's Song are genuinely sweet and I love the vibe. It's like a lil 50s/60s romance song. I love Chris Tong."

Luis Isassi Ortega: "Wow. ❤"

Soniekah: "I am a Chris Tong stan [super fan] right now, he's so talented... 'Mary, my Mary...'"

katherine: "This song is sending me."

Artemis Eilish: "Wow, Taylor's voice here is so manly."

Alexis Rojas: "What the hell is this? Good song tho."

L//era: "I actually love his voice. 😍"

elton // the new romantics stan: "Yall this song slaps [is really cool] adding chris tong to my stan list omg when he makes a social media account"

Zelfha Metzie: "Why was this on Taylor's channel? Great song and voice tho"

suicidalgothicx: "Bizarre occurrence! But he sings beautiful. I like it."

Obed Arellano: "Omg I love this song! We need the music video."

KARRIE KARRIE: "Good vibes."

shy af most of the time: "She sounds so fresh."

saraaaa: "omg let's get it to #1"

Rhysdale Flores: "This song makes me so happy. ❤"

abby folklore out now: "I'm voting for Chris Tong for Artist of the Year at the American Music Awards."

Miss Singsang: "[about No Cares:] Taylor Swift brought me here but this song is actually quite nice 👍 good job!"

Simone - reputation ERA: "I love him so much ❤❤❤❤❤"

James C: "For what it's worth, I'm glad YouTube made this mistake, because I never would have found this song otherwise and it's actually a pretty good one."

milfharrystyles: "This genuinely made me cry tears of laughter — 'fairy tales do come true'. Thank you, YouTube, for messing up and bringing Chris Tong to our attention. I'm actually obsessed."

On April 3, 2021, I released my album, Heart Songs. From one perspective, Heart Songs has been 46 years in the making. I wrote Mary's Song in 1975 — 46 years ago (when I was 18). Island came along in 1978, All I Need Is Your Love in 1979, Heart Song in 1980, and No Cares in 1986. But from another perspective, the album is entirely new. I began writing She in 1980, but completed it (writing most of the lyrics) in 2020. Frances Forever's indie hit, Space Girl, came out in March, 2020 and went viral at the end of 2020, inspiring my early 2021 version, Space Girl 2, with new musical parts and lyrics. And I sang all the songs and wrote all the musical arrangements over the course of late 2020 and early 2021, using 2021 recording, mixing, and production technology. The album is such a mixture of old and new that I prefer to think of the end result as timeless — and I hope you will feel the same!

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