Found out through Twitter earlier today but as it is already April 13th in Japan, I can say that the day is the late Hideki Saijo's（西城秀樹）birthday. He would have been 68 this year and of course, he is greatly missed everywhere.
In commemoration, I found his 45th single "Night Games" which was released in June 1983. Now with the blog, the direction his music took in the mid-1980s and the title of this one, I had fully been expecting that "Night Games" was another one of his City Pop tunes. Once again, I was proven wrong. Actually, it's a dynamic pop/rock number that is more reminiscent of his early 1970s aidoru days and his vocals here probably took a lot of fans back to those lean and hungry teen times.
"Night Games" was such a good fit for Saijo that I was surprised to discover that it was actually a cover of an original song of the same name by British singer Graham Bonnet in 1981. The cover by Hideki got its Japanese lyrics via Iori Yamamoto（山本伊織）and it peaked at No. 19 on Oricon. It first showed up on an album via "BIG GAME'83 HIDEKI FINAL IN STADIUM CONCERT".
For all of his fans out there, have a very Happy Hideki Day!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Feel free to provide any comments (pro or con). Just be civil about it.