Thursday, June 13, 2019

Yukari Ito -- Ano Hito no Ashioto(あの人の足音)


Last month, I had put out an APB on that mysterious song that Yukari Ito(伊東ゆかり)had performed on what was probably a B-movie spy caper titled "Five Golden Dragons". Despite doing some searching, I still haven't been able to nail down the identity of that song, and so I'm thinking that maybe it was indeed just something that had been put together for just that movie. Perhaps it doesn't even have an officially-known title. But let's see what the future holds.


As I was doing that initial search via YouTube and J-Wiki, I tried out this September 1967 single by Ito titled "Ano Hito no Ashioto" (That Man's Footsteps). As it turned out, it wasn't the song from "Five Golden Dragons" but it has a similarly romantic Mood Kayo tone with some fine brass.

Written by Mieko Arima(有馬三恵子)and composed by Jun Suzuki(鈴木淳), "Ano Hito no Ashioto" is a slightly mournful ballad about a woman who misses the love of her life dearly and knows him so well that she can peg him just from the sound of his footsteps. No idea about what happened to the lad but regrettably for Ito, it sounds like he may be gone for good. I can just envisage her standing at the end of some foggy pier at night, just to bring in that well-worn Mood Kayo trope.

3 comments:

  1. Hello - Have you had any response from Yukari Ito's website management as to the identity of her guest spot song on "5 Golden Dragons"?
    Like others, I am becoming a belated fan of her style/s. I agree with your view that "Ano Hito no Ashioto" (That Man's Footsteps) demonstrates similar moods and tones, and offer that her February 1967 hit "Koyubi no Omoide"(小指の思い出)also has similarities.
    As I would like a recording (without overlaid dialogue) of the 5 Dragons song, I would appreciate your advising any success in learning it's title, or availability.
    Kind Regards,
    Graham Croft (Australia)

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    Replies
    1. Hello, Mr. Croft. Yes, I remember you from last year. I checked Ms. Ito's site where I placed the question. Did get a few nibbles but nothing definitive. One person said that he remembered seeing the word "Sun" in the title but my impression from all of the comments is that they either didn't know or could only speculate. Below is the URL for the page with my inquiry:

      http://itoyukari.bbs.fc2.com/?act=reply&tid=9115275

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  2. Hi. Yes I was immediately attracted to the song during the movie several years ago and being starved for good melodious music since the 1960s I am very quich to pick up on such a beautiful song. Yukari ito certainly looked lovely in her Japanese attire. The movie credit details everything you could want to know about the actors, composers etc but alasshe gets nary a mention! I also would love a clean version having taped it off the movie. She has a lovely cd with cover versions of our western usa aust uk hits of 60s its title and cd are eluding me at present. Let me know if anyone has any succes regards. colintjohn46@ gmail.com Kallangur Australia.

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