When Financial Secretary Antony Leung Kam-chung quoted from Below the Lion Rock in his first budget speech, it was the voice of Roman Tam, who sang the original 1979 hit, that reverberated in many people's minds.
In three decades of Canto-pop, Tam, 52, who died of cancer last night, stood out as one of the few singers to become a cultural icon and whose songs have become golden oldies - a walk down memory lane for those who came of age in the 1970s and 1980s.
Tam came to Hong Kong in 1962 from Guangxi province and worked as a trainee tailor, a trainee bank teller and also as a guard at the now demolished Lai Chi Kok amusement park.
His parents had instilled in him a passion for music, but it was not until 1967 after the Beatles had become 'more popular than Jesus' and revolutionised the music scene worldwide that Tam formed his own band, The Four Steps.
It was later renamed Roman and The Four Steps when he realised he could sing. He left the band in 1972, and teamed up with that other Hong Kong icon, Lydia 'Fei Fei' Shum, but their partnership lasted just a year, although they remained friends.
He left for Japan in 1974 to learn more about music production, teamwork, image and showmanship. It was an education that stood him well on his return to Hong Kong in 1976, when he was recruited by TVB to sing its theme tunes and became a household name in Hong Kong.
The '70s is often described as the golden age of Hong Kong, and Tam's songs remind those who lived through the period of a time when Hong Kong emerged from its 'sweatshop' economy to become a financial powerhouse.