Yoko Oginome -- Dancing Hero: The Archives by jigenbakuda of "The Tasogare Touch"

Hi there, J-Canuck here! Last Friday, I put up an article introducing a fellow J-Pop blogger by the name of jigenbakuda and his own creation "The Tasogare Touch" where he gives some of his own musical insights into particular songs. By his own admission, he has mainly covered the music of contemporary aidoru but from time to time, he has also looked at the older Showa Era stuff as well.

In the name of good diplomatic relations, jigenbakuda requested whether he could provide a guest contribution to "Kayo Kyoku Plus", and I was more than happy to oblige. His article here is based on the Yoko Oginome（荻野目洋子）megahit "Dancing Hero ~ Eat You Up" originally recorded in 1985, and a 2017 album of various versions of that dynamic aidoru classic. So, without further ado, I will now leave it to jigen!

Tomioka Dance Club’s Bubbly Dance Routine, by Akane

So the song "Dancing Hero" is enjoying a bit of resurgence from its major feature in Tomioka Dance Club’s Bubbly Routine that went viral a while back. It happen to coincide (or maybe it was intentional, but I doubt it) with Oginome's release of the "Dancing Hero" archives.  The repackage is essentially every version of Dancing Hero since 1985, its amazing how many times this song has been redone and its still good every time. The track listing shows where the versions are from and who arranged them.

Tracklisting

1. ダンシング・ヒーロー (Eat You Up)
2. ダンシング・ヒーロー (Eat You Up) -Special English Version-

     English Lyrics：Marco Bruno

     Album 「ラズベリーの風」CD版に収録。

3. ダンシング・ヒーロー (Eat You Up) -Moderan Version-

     Album 「NON-STOPPER」に収録。再発版「NON-STOPPER+10」にはカラオケ版も収録。

4. ダンシング・ヒーロー (Eat You Up) - '70s mirrorball mix-

     Arrangement ："PARADISE GROOVE" Production's

     Album 「NEW TAKE BEST COLLECTIONS '92」、「ラズベリーの風+5」に収録。

5. ダンシング・ヒーロー (Eat You Up) -Club Mix-

     Arrangement ：須貝幸生、神長弘一、片岡俊彦

     Album 「best hits non stop clubmix」に収録。

6. ダンシング・ヒーロー (Eat You Up) -Euro Mix-

     Arrangement ：Hiroyuki Yasumoto

     Compilation Album「Dance Panic! Presents Euro Panic!」vol.2、3に収録。
7. ダンシング・ヒーロー (Eat You Up) - Extended Euro Mix-
      Arrangement ：Hiroyuki Yasumoto
     上記の「Dance Panic! Presents Euro Panic!」の非売品プロモーション用LP盤に収録。
8. ダンシング・ヒーロー (Eat You Up) -Dancing Beat 2005 Mix-
      Arrangement ：SANDRO OLIVE and DAVE RODGERS
9. ダンシング・ヒーロー (Eat You Up) -Dear Pop Singer Remix Version-
      Arrangement ：小倉ヲージ
      Album 「Dear Pop Singer」に収録。
10. ダンシング・ヒーロー (Eat You Up) -Dear Pop Singer Version-
      Arrangement ：本山清治
      Album 「Dear Pop Singer」に収録。
11. ダンシング・ヒーロー (Eat You Up) -Live-
     From the tour「VERGE OF LOVE【荻野目洋子 武道館ライブ】」中の音声トラックより収録。
12. ダンシング・ヒーロー (Eat You Up) <-Instrumental-> (Original・カラオケ)
13. ダンシング・ヒーロー (Eat You Up) <-Instrumental-> (Up-Tempo)
14. ダンシング・ヒーロー (Eat You Up) <-Instrumental-> (Dear Pop Singer Ver.)
15. ダンシング・ヒーロー (Eat You Up) <Accapella> (Dear Pop Singer Ver.)

I linked to the Mirror Ball version because I love love love me some music to vogue to, and this track sounds STRAIGHT out of a 90s New York Ball where they are voguing the old way (read: its my favorite track on the repackage).

The music in "Dancing Hero" is almost identical to the song it covered, Angie Gold’s "Eat you up", a 1985 Italo Disco Hit in Japan. I’ve linked to my favorite version of that song as well. The main difference between the songs is in the lyrics. If you read the translation here, you can see the Japanese lyrics of "Dancing Hero" and the English lyrics of "Eat you up" are quite different, which lead to different levels of enjoyment. I love Angie’s English version, but don’t care for Yoko’s English version. Although overall, I think the Japanese Lyrics are the most enjoyable of all. There are some notable arrangers on the list, but I will point one out. Mr. Dave Rodgers, the king of Eurobeat helps to arrange the dancing beat 2005 version. It is a real treat... The arrangements are all different enough to justify its place on a release with only one song. Including the live version, which includes live instrumentation. What I would give to hear a live version of the mirror ball arrangement...

To briefly go back to the Bubbly Dance Routine, Akane-chan really knows her music and picked some great tunes and representative songs. So "Dancing Hero" came out like middle of the 80’s and "Cant undo this" came out in the middle of the 90’s. They represent the italo disco scene (dancing machine) in the clubs (like Club Maharaja in the late '80s) and the techno scene (can't undo this) in Juliana’s with their fluffy disco fans and girls in that revealing “BodyCon”. From what I can tell, they are the epitome of excess in Japan due to the Bubble, at least musically. And for those who care, you can find a page explaining some of the slang in the TDC's video, here  (In Japanese).

Anyways, I ended up buying Dancing Hero after hearing it on TDC’s Bubbly Routine... I think... it was a while ago, maybe I heard dancing hero first, but it was around the same time. I only wish I could have seen her perform it live in her heyday, but instead I got to see her perform live with TDC on YouTube! Fun times... fun times...

Yoko performing with the young ladies