"陈升是一个迷样的男人，他让我自觉是个十足的女人，他仿佛可以完全透视我的心事，使深藏内心的秘密，不由自主一点一滴流露出来。" ——陈淑桦谈音乐制作人陈升, 1988 

“Bobby Chen is an endearing man; he made me feel like a whole woman. He seemed to be able to see through my inner world, extracting the secrets I held deeply little by little." -- Sarah Chen on music producer Bobby Chen, 1988 

剪报： 1988年《明天，还爱我吗》专辑发行时的报刊剪辑。和前一张《女人心》缓慢的进度不同，《明天，还爱我吗》的制作只花了两三个月，甚至抢了英文专辑《Hold Me Now》的先。也许和高速度的制作相关，专辑中好几首歌留下了两个版本，最大的差异是主打歌《明天，还爱我吗》两版，据说是醉酒版和清醒版。

Clipping：A 1988 magazine article on Tomorrow, Will You Still Love Me. Unlike the prolonged production of Woman's Heart, Tomorrow took just 2-3 months to produce. Its release took many by surprise, as people had been waiting for Sarah Chen's English album Hold Me Now. Perhaps related to the rapid production, several songs on this album had at least two versions. Chen gave the title song two entirely different interpretations. She was said to have recorded one version after drinking lightly, letting go of the perfect control she exerted on the other.

Fan message (Nov 2025) left on our video celebrating "Talk to You, Listen to You"

"The most beautiful voice I have heard in my life. Thank you, Sister Sarah."

《明天还爱我吗》是陈淑桦最具杀伤力的专辑，也是一张隐藏着她爱情故事的唱片。也许是因为独特的个人意义，里面好几首歌具有摧毁性的威力，如〈哗笑的街〉和〈明天还爱我吗〉。许多歌迷认为这是陈淑桦最佳的专辑。制作只花了两三个月，和前一张《女人心》的漫长制作过程完全相反。

1988年春，《女人心》推出后，百代开始筹划陈淑桦的下一张专辑。媒体得到的讯息是她将制作一张英文专辑，延续《Miracle of Love》的胜果。至于华语专辑，陈淑桦说还在选制作人，其中包括李宗盛，以及“沈兴远、郑华娟、黄韵玲”三人的制作组，而她自己希望的人选是陈扬。经过《女人心》的制作煎熬后，她对华语专辑的制作过程没有信心，说可能从1988年8月开始，但预期制作会花很长时间。所以大家预期的下一张将是英文专辑，没有意料到《明天还爱我吗》抢了先。 

那时候，陈淑桦的音乐制作走上了比较稳定的时辰，事业上的成功减轻了她的心理负担。但上一次失恋的伤痕还未痊愈，她不仅对爱情产生不愿投入太深的防范，对媒体和娱乐界也更加提防。然而她逃不掉媒体对她私生活的追问，于是推出新的应付方法——小学三年级的初恋，后来小男生移居美国，三年前他们在纽约偶遇，什么感觉都没有。这么明显的搪塞考倒了媒体，拿她没办法。 

在这样的背景下，《明天还爱我吗》的制作开始了。制作人又是一个和陈淑桦同岁的新人，陈升，而陈淑桦希望的陈扬协助了制作，黄韵玲则参与了编曲。当年的录影显出，陈升和陈淑桦达到一定默契，足以让他在与她同台的电视节目上当众开她的玩笑。陈升的想法是做一张延续《女人心》的专辑，但歌里的故事不是天下任何一个女人的，而是陈淑桦自己的。换言之，他试图打开陈淑桦的心扉。 

自从违背父母之愿踏入乐坛，陈淑桦就提醒自己要维护名誉，不落入娱乐圈的尘埃，不辜负父母的关怀。她不久前因为娱乐界的炒作吃了大亏，这些年来想了各种办法应对媒体对她隐私的侵犯。要在这张专辑里打开心扉是不可能的。但这是一个难得的、可以打下自己烙印的机会。她能做的，就像抛出“小学的初恋”一样，是给些无关紧要的点点滴滴，知道陈升不会轻易放过她，在他们的交流中结合她的体验。 他们最后选定的专辑主题是与一个不投入的恋人分手。

陈升在2003年《给淑桦的一封信》中说，陈淑桦透露给他的具体内容很少。但陈升在和她的接触中洞察出她一些隐藏很深的东西。在专辑推出后、1988年的采访中，陈淑桦承认陈升对她的内心世界有了解。她说：“陈升是一个迷样的男人，他让我自觉是个十足的女人，他仿佛可以完全透视我的心事，使深藏内心的秘密，不由自主一点一滴流露出来。” 

就这样，以这种若即若离的方式，陈淑桦达到了她能接受的、影响专辑的方式：既没有讲出具体经历，又流露了她的感受。《明天还爱我吗》就成了有她个人意义、值得琢磨的专辑。 

这张专辑一度是我的最爱。在我还不知道制作背景前，就已被好几首歌震住。专辑推出时，百代注重宣传的是一首与她早年专辑《美丽与哀愁》同名的歌，她自己也多次现场演唱。这是一首优美而杀伤力强的歌，但歌词模棱两可，有点可疑。考虑到专辑制作时他们猫捉老鼠的情形，不排除其中有些陈淑桦未意识到的玩笑。 

主打歌〈明天还爱我吗〉是我最推崇的陈淑桦歌曲。这首小虫谱的歌流传下三个版本。1988年海外发行的CD版由黄韵玲编曲，每次我听都有被它窒息之感。它的效应就如 Adele 的〈Set Fire to the Rain〉一样，有摧毁力的美。如果陈淑桦只发过这一张专辑，只唱过这一首歌，我也会是她的歌迷。 

也许与快速制作有关，这张专辑没有确定“最佳版”，台湾原版卡带和海外CD版之间有出入，好几首歌在音乐编辑和演唱上都有两个版本。专辑于1988年11月意外推出，台湾大街小巷都飘着“亚瑟潘的四个朋友”。但一个月后陈淑桦的新英文专辑 (Hold Me Now)也面世，两张在市场上产生竞争，宣传也远不及《女人心》。《明天还爱我吗》的销量未破《女人心》的纪录。一年后，有〈梦醒时分〉的专辑压住了她过去的作品。 

1990年，百代和滚石分裂后，滚石未取得《明天还爱我吗》的版权，它归百代所有，断掉了它的长远销售和广泛流传。陈淑桦于1995年重录了〈明天还爱我吗〉并制作了MV，是对这张最具个人意义专辑的珍惜与保留。近四十年后，专辑中好几首歌仍广传于民间，留住了陈淑桦在事业和生命转折点前，歌声的美丽、深情与威力。毕竟，这是她的故事，链接了她的内心世界。

Tomorrow Will You Still Love Me (henceforth Tomorrow) was Sarah Chen's most powerful and personal album. Hidden within it were her own love experiences. Perhaps because of its personal significance, several songs, such as the title track and Boisterous Street, are emotionally devastating. Many Sarah Chen fans consider it her best album. Surprisingly, production took only two to three months, the complete opposite of the drawn-out process for Woman's Heart.

In spring 1988, after the release of Woman's Heart, EMI began planning Chen's next album. Media reports said she was to record an English album, building on the success of Miracle of Love. For her Mandarin album, Chen said they were still choosing a producer. Candidates included Jonathan Lee, the team of Shen Xing-Yuan, Zheng Hua-Juan, and Kay Huang, while her own preference was Chen Yang. After enduring the unpleasant production of Woman's Heart, Chen had little confidence in the process for her Mandarin albums, saying that although it was scheduled to start in August 1988, it could take a long time. Naturally, most expected the next release to be an English album.

By then, Chen's music production had returned to a steady rhythm, and her commercial success had eased her anxiety. But on a personal level, she had not fully recovered from her last breakup. Not only was she reluctant to invest emotionally in another relationship, she had also become more guarded with the media and the entertainment industry. Still, she couldn't escape intrusive questions about her love life, so she adopted a new strategy: she told the story of her “first love” in third grade, a boy who later moved to the U.S. and whom she encountered in New York years later, with no feelings rekindled. This obviously evasive answer left the media unsure whether to take her seriously.

It was under this backdrop that production of Tomorrow began. The producer was once again new to Sarah, Bobby Chen. Her own preferred choice, Chen Yang, assisted with production, while Kay Huang handled arrangements on some tracks. TV footage from the time shows that Bobby and Sarah had developed a rapport, enough for him to poke fun at her on air. Bobby Chen wanted to continue where Woman’s Heart left off, but this time, the stories would not be about women in general, they would be about Sarah Chen herself. In other words, he wanted to open her heart.

Ever since entering the entertainment industry against her parents’ wishes, Sarah Chen had reminded herself to avoid scandal, so as not to let them down. She had recently suffered a breakup due to interference from the entertainment industry and had tried various ways to deflect media intrusion. Opening her heart in this album was simply not an option. Yet she could not let go of the golden opportunity to weave her own experiences into songs. What she could do, much like the “third-grade first love” story, was to offer small fragments, knowing Bobby Chen would dig deeper, thus integrating her feelings into the album. The final concept centered on breaking up with an uncommitted lover.

According to the 2003 documentary A Letter to Sarah, Sarah Chen revealed very little to Bobby. But as she expected, he was not so easily fooled; instead, he gained insights into parts of her emotional world she had long tried to hide. In an interview after the album’s release, Sarah Chen admitted Bobby was no stranger to her emotions: “Bobby Chen is an endearing man; he made me feel like a whole woman. He seemed to be able to see through my inner world, extracting the secrets I held deeply little by little.”

By playing this hide-and-seek game, Sarah Chen found a way to influence the album that was acceptable to her. Without disclosing her actual love affairs, she nonetheless let her feelings into the songs. Tomorrow became her most personally significant album, an intriguing one for the detectives among her fans.

This album was once my personal favorite. Even before I knew its production history, I was enthralled by multiple tracks, overwhelmed by the sheer force of emotion. Beauty and Sorrow shared its title with Chen’s 1980 album, likely by design. When the album launched, EMI focused promotion on this song, apparently one Chen herself liked, as she performed it several times on live TV. The melodically beautiful song is an emotional wreckage, a tour de force, yet its lyrics were ambiguous, even suspicious. Given the cat-and-mouse dynamic between singer and producer during production, one cannot rule out that some pranks were embedded in the album without Sarah Chen’s awareness.

The title track, Tomorrow Will You Still Love Me, is my favorite Sarah Chen song. Composed by Johnny Bug Chen, it exists in three versions. The 1988 CD version, released overseas, leaves me breathless every time I listen. Its effect is akin to Adele’s Set Fire to the Rain, devastatingly beautiful. Even if Sarah Chen had released only this one album, sung only this one song, I would still be her fan.

Perhaps due to the quick production, several tracks exist in two versions, with differences in arrangement and vocals between the Taiwan cassette and overseas CD releases. Unfortunately, after its surprise release in November 1988, it competed with Chen’s new English album Hold Me Now, released just a month later. Promotion for both albums also fell short of that for Woman’s Heart. Though the streets of Taiwan echoed with “Arthur Penn’s four friends,” Tomorrow did not surpass the sales record of Woman’s Heart. A year later, the release of Dream to Awakening overshadowed all her past work.

In 1990, after EMI and Rock Records parted ways, Tomorrow remained under EMI’s control. Rock Records did not obtain its rights, cutting off its long-term distribution and visibility. In 1995, Chen re-recorded Tomorrow Will You Still Love Me and even filmed a beautiful MV, showing how much she cherished the album. Nearly 40 years later, several tracks from it continue to circulate through fan uploads, preserving the stunning beauty, deep emotion, and vocal power of Sarah Chen before a turning point in her life and career. After all, this was her story, her inner world.

📀 1988-11 EMI《Tomorrow Will You Still Love Me》Tracks: 

美丽与哀愁｜明天还爱我吗1-2｜孤单｜伤心旅店｜如梦如烟｜亚瑟潘的四个朋友1-2｜哗笑的街1-2｜日安忧郁1-2｜生命中的DJ｜本城女子（🔗 查看完整曲目信息表； YouTube 播放列表）

This site was enriched by the generosity of a long-time Sarah Chen fan from Malaysia, C.Y., who shared her personal collection of clippings and magazine articles spanning much of Chen's career (1983-1996).