In 2005, Carabao joined up with famous female singer Parn Tanaporn, widely recognized as one of the best voices in Thailand, to make fresh music aimed at a younger generation. The iconic song (and iconic performance) from that collaboration is หนุ่มบาว-สาวปาน Num Bao Sao Parn (Carabao Boy and Parn Girl) in the first video below. The song, which is the title song of the first Carabao and Parn Tanaporn album, is about a young man who loves Carabao music falling in love with a young woman who loves Parn music. The lyrics, are basically an inside joke for fans of Carabao and/or Parn. That song with it’s many Easter eggs is translated and explained HERE to the best of my abilities. But anyone can immediately appreciate the eclectic sound—and that the song is a total earworm:
Who is Parn Thanaporn? Parn (pronounced “Bpan”), real name Thanaporn Wakprayoon, has an amazing voice that is both strong and emotional. She is twenty-some years younger than most of the Carabao band members. One of her biggest hits, เบอร์นี้ไม่มีคนของเธอ (This Number Doesn’t Have Your Person [at it]), is a great intro to her solo music. It’s the first song on this Parn Tanapporn song compilation YouTube video below.
“This Number Doesn’t Have Your Person [at it]” is about a woman, who gets sick of her boyfriend constantly contacting someone right in front of her and finally grabs his phone and tells the woman on the other end, “Your person isn’t here!,” finishing with, “Unless someone has died, don’t call!”
Parn has been singing since childhood, went to high school at the College of Dramatic Arts, began back-up singing while in high school, majored in music at Chulalongkorn University, and sang the original soundtracks for many dramas and movies before becoming a solo artist in 2000 under RS Promotion. Over the next two years she won a pile of awards, such as Best Song, Best Music Video (several times), Best Female Artist for the Youth, Best Solo Vocalist, and Best Thai Pop Singer. The collaboration with Carabao was in 2005, and in 2012, she was invited to play Effie White in the Bangkok version of the musical “Dreamgirls” [For comparison, Jennifer Hudson played Effie in the American film by the same name.] In addition to working on her own projects, Parn is a voice trainer for many big artists. In 2014, she got a master’s degree in music at Silpakorn University.
The origin of the Carabao – Parn collaboration is a friendship between Parn and Thierry Mekwattana of Carabao. They had previously made a solo album with RS. Also Parn had previously sung backup for Carabao while still in high school.
The 2005 collaboration between Parn and the band Carabao produced many duets that are completely addictive and ideal for karaoke. The project had Add Carabao writing some straight-up love songs–not his typical thing–and he knocked it out of the ballpark with 3 beautiful heartbreakers: สุ่มไฟรัก Sum Fai Rak (Build the Fire of Love), ดอกไผ่บาน Dok Pai Baan (The Bamboo Flower Blooms), and มนต์รักผีเสื้อ Mon Rak Pee Seua (Butterfly Love Spell).
To find additional great songs from this album go to Translations by Album at this site. (You are looking for “Num Bao Sao Parn (Special Carabao Album with Parn, 2005)”) None of the rest of that albums’ songs are written by Add Carabao, but one is written by Theirry Mekwattana and one by Lek Carabao (Preecha Chanapai). The other songs are presumably written by Parn’s people, and at least one is an adaptation of a Parn solo song. Specifically, เหงา…ไม่เข้าใจ Ngow…Mai Kowjai (It’s Lonely … I Don’t Understand) is a silly twist on a famous Parn song, “เหงา..เข้าใจ” Ngow Kowjai (It’s Lonely … I Understand).
Google her name in Thai to find more songs by ปาน ธนพร (Parn Thanaporn). You’ll find the lyrics to her best solo work translated into English by Tamnong at the website Deungdutjai.com (among translations of thousands of other great Thai songs). Here is the List of Translated Songs [sung] by Parn Thanaporn at Deungdutjai: http://deungdutjai.com/2000/04/06/translated-songs-by-parn-thanaporn/
เบอร์นี้ไม่มีคนของเธอ (“This Number Doesn’t Have Your Person [at it]”), mentioned above, is the second song in that list at Deungdutjai.
References:
Thai Wikipedia entry “ธนพร แวกประยูร” [Thanaporn Wakprayoon], as of 3/3/2004.
Thai Wikipedia entry “หนุ่มบาว-สาวปาน’ [Num Bao – Sao Parn, meaning “Carabao Boy – Parn Girl”], as of 3/3/2004
“Parn biography” at https://www.last.fm/music/Parn/+wiki. As of 3/3/2004