Following their signing to EMI Singapore in 1978, they performed in Canada, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand and the United States.
[5] The group is mentioned in an L.A. Weekly article about L.A. DJ and musician Chad Brown in his quest to find rare and interesting records.
Songs on the album included "Louisiana Man", "Is Anybody Goin' to San Antone", "Folsom Prison Blues" and "Snakes Crawl at Night".
As a result, the group was invited to go to Oklahoma to take part in the international music festival, held in November that year.
In a 2016 review of the album, some 37 years after its release, Pat Padua of Spectrum Culture talking about dollar bins being a great place to get acquainted with music from a faraway said it was the kind of dollar bin album that you'd pick up as a joke but turns out to be serious fun.
As mentioned in the 16 August issue of Billboard, he said his records had not done as well as expected due to the version by the pirates coming out the day after the official release.
[15] In 1992, EMI released The Very Best of Matthew & the Mandarins which featured "Singapore Cowboy", "Broken lady", "Lucille" and a duet with Sarah Chen, "I Really Don't Want To Know".
[16] The 27 July 1996 issue of Billboard noted that EMI had released two compilations by Singaporean act The Quests and an album by Matthew & the Mandarins.
[17] Tan became the subject of Singapore Country, a 2012 documentary by Wee Li Lin in which the film-maker paid tribute to the song as well as the artist.
Tan was also the musical director of the concert which featured Jimmy Chan, Gina Vadham, Henry Suriya, Hillary Francis, Mel and Joe, and Frank and Robyn.