Kenji Aida/The Peanuts -- Kyoto no Yoru （京都の夜）

As the blog keeps on going, it is getting more difficult for me to remember songs off the top of my head, especially anything before the 1970s. That's a pity in one way, but in another way, it does spur me on to search for potential gems from the past on YouTube. And without waiting for the next episode of "Kayo Concert", I've been able to find one pretty nice Mood Kayo tonight.

Titled "Kyoto no Yoru" (A Night in Kyoto), this was the 2nd single of Kyoto-born singer, Kenji Aida（愛田健二）. Aside from that previous sentence and a very brief listing of his hit songs from J-Wiki, I couldn't find any other information on Aida, unfortunately. However, "Kyoto on Yoru" was a really big hit for him when it was released in 1967.

Written by Kei Wada（和田圭）and composed by Yasutoshi Nakajima（中島安敏...for both names, I hope that is the right pronunciation）, at first, with that shamisen intro, I thought it would be in the enka vein of kayo, but as soon as that lonely trumpet started blaring out, I realized that this would be a classic Mood Kayo, fine enough to drink to in that nomiya somewhere in the former capital of Japan (provided that you are allowed to enter...I've read a number of those places need a recommendation to get past through the door). And I have to say that the video above provides a fine travelogue of Kyoto. I wouldn't mind visiting the city again someday. Lyrically as well, "Kyoto no Yoru" fits the Mood Kayo tag as the silken-voice Aida sings about that love lost for any number of reasons. Most likely, there were a lot of ochoko of sake drunk that night.

Coming across the Aida original from 1967, I also discovered that The Peanuts（ザ・ピーナッツ） sang a cover of "Kyoto no Yoru". Although the arrangement sounds as if the cover had been done as early as the same year when the original was released, according to one Japanese blogger for the duo, Emi and Yumi Ito（伊藤エミ・ユミ）apparently recorded their version sometime in 1972. One reason I thought that it had come out earlier was that their "Kyoto no Yoru" has that Peanuts sound with the larger number of brass and violins...a sound that I could probably say was "Swingin' Tokyo" much along the lines of how the 60s was the decade for "Swingin' London". Of course, the setting is Kyoto in this case, though.

It would be rather nice to enter a Kyoto izakaya and...carefully...sip a sake while "Kyoto no Yoru" was playing...provided that I'm allowed to enter it.

Nope, not Kyoto, but nighttime Shibuya.