Ramlah Aziz and the Rythmn Boys

Ramlah Aziz and the Rythmn Boys second EP
Ramlah Aziz and the Rythmn Boys second EP

Ramlah Aziz and the Rythmn Boys Olympic EP The Rythmn Boys from Singapore backed many popular singers in the mid to late 1960s and even performed in a couple of movies. The band is said to have won a battle of the bands competition in Singapore in 1965 playing Rolling Stones songs. The Rythmn boys were M. Ayob Taib (lead guitar), M. Osman Said (rhythm guitar), M. Ali Taib (bass), A. Rahim Razak (organ) and M. Nor Ahmad (drums).

The Rythmn Boys first came to prominence backing singer A. Ramlie on his first few EPs, which were big hits in Singapore and Malaysia in 1966. The band made recordings following that with a number of other singers, including S. Mariam, Novel (from Indonesia), M. Amin, Adnan Othman, and S. Ahmad. Not all those recordings include organ and some of the record covers have pictures of the band with only four members, so A. Rahim Razak may have joined later.

Presented here are the first two EPs The Rythmn Boys recorded with Ramlah Aziz. There are good songs on both EPs, but the thing that really impresses me is the organ playing, especially on the second EP, which adds a very atmospheric tone.

Ramlah Aziz and the Rythmn Boys Olympic EP labelThe titles on the first EP are Bertemasha (Excursion), Kaseh Yang Suchi (Pure Love), Kerana Setia (Because Of Loyalty) and Rela (Consent), which seems to be another song related to Indonesia’s ‘Confrontation’ with Malaysia, in which Ramlah consents to her loved one going off to ‘defend the nation’.

On the second EP the songs are Janji (Promise), Untok Mu (For You), Balasan Illahi (God’s Judgement) and Sukma Ria (Proud Soul). A number of songs on both EPs are credited to Salleh Aziz, who may have been Ramlah’s brother, or other relation. I have seen reports of The Rythmn Boys playing nostalgia concerts over many years. Perhaps they never stopped.

(Updated from the original January 3, 2008 post to include new text and the first EPs scans.

Ramlah Aziz and the Rythmn Boys first Olympic EP cover
First Olympic EP

0 thoughts on “Ramlah Aziz and the Rythmn Boys”

  1. Another unique quality about these recordings by this particular group is the spelling of “RYTHMN” which should actually be “RHYTHM”. But then nobody really noticed it after 40+ years.
    Doesn’t really matter though but just a thought.

  2. Salleh Aziz is Ramlah Aziz’s brother. He is now with Brigade Seni Malacca. He is also the father to Shamril Salleh (Sham Kamikaze) and Shahiral Salleh (also a musician). Salleh Aziz is also the cousin of the late Mustapha Noor (the actor in Mawar Merah). During the 60’s Salleh also had a band called Les Arjuna Combo which Ramlah Aziz was singing with prior to the Rythmn Boys.

  3. Thank you for honouring my late mother, Ramlah Aziz. Many thanks to the efforts put up by this website team members. To Uncle Salleh @ Uncle Yon and Sham… all the best to you. Teruskan berjuang di dalam dunia seni tanah air.

  4. inalillah…so my favourtite singer ramlah aziz is no more. alfatehah. so sad to hear this. for years i have been thinking of getting the songs because they are not in the market anymore. now that i got them in this web, i came to know she is not with us anymore. lagu2nya tetap dalam kenangan. smeog aallahyarham dicucuri rahmat.

  5. I grew up in Australia over over 45 years ago and that is how we were taught to spell it then. rythmn. I remember voicing the “mn” to remember. I still want to add the n to “rhythm” spelling to this day from that habit.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.