Isao Hayashi -- Dance Party no Yoru（ダンスパーティーの夜）

 

I think that KKP's resident enka/Mood Kayo expert Noelle Tham has been the one to write about Isao Hayashi（林伊佐緒）, although I've also contributed a few articles on his behalf. From Noelle's article on Hayashi's "Mamurogawa Boogie" (真室川ブギ) from 1954, I was struck by the fact that he has been known as Japan's first singer-songwriter, and the song that he provided kayo legend Hachiro Kasuga（春日八郎）in 1964, "Rosario no Shima"（ロザリオの島）, is one of the first and most haunting Japanese pop songs that I'd ever heard. However, despite those years mentioned above, it's important to note that Hayashi had been around as an entertainer since the early 1930s.

Back in October 1950, though, he composed and recorded a somewhat maudlin and moody tune called "Dance Party no Yoru" (The Night of the Dance Party). Paired with lyricist Takao Wada's（和田隆夫）words, Hayashi croons this ballad about meeting a lovely woman in red at the dance hall one night, having a wonderful affair with her, and then having to sadly part permanently for some reason at another dance party. Not only are the horns and strings there, but there is also a jazz clarinet included as a solo which makes it sound as if the song were even older by a couple of decades or so.

In his J-Wiki file, it's noted that Hayashi had his peak songwriting period during those 1950s with songs such as "Dance Party no Yoru" being huge hits for his record label, King Records.