Eiichi Ohtaki -- Hormone Kouta ~ Genki de Cha-Cha-Cha（ホルモン小唄〜元気でチャチャチャ）

 

It's hard to believe that we're approaching the 11th anniversary of the untimely passing of singer-songwriter Eiichi Ohtaki（大滝詠一）. He really had that timeless voice which struck me as very much of an old-fashioned lonesome cowboy croon. There are so many examples but I can state one here which is "Shiawase na Ketsumatsu"（幸せな結末）, his November 1997 hit and theme song for the Fuji-TV drama "Love Generation".

But Ohtaki also had his sense of humour that up until recently never got noticed. In March 2023, a double-CD album was released, "Ohtaki Eiichi ~ NOVELTY SONG BOOK/NIAGARA ONDO BOOK". Disc 1 was the novelty songbook which features unreleased tracks with Ohtaki behind the mike and tongue firmly planted in cheek for at least some of the tunes. One such number is "Hormone Kouta ~ Genki de Cha-Cha-Cha" (The Hormone Song ~ Happy Cha-Cha-Cha) which had originally been created for singer-actor Akira Kobayashi（小林旭）back in 1976 for an album project but when those plans fell through, the song was shelved for the last few decades, except for one time when Ohtaki played it on Internet radio. In fact, it was so rarely heard that folks wondered if "Hormone Kouta" was nothing more than an urban legend.

Written by Tetsuro Hoshino（星野哲郎）and composed by Ohtaki, "Hormone Kouta" is a song about replenishing one's mojo that sounds like a mix between kayo kyoku and a march from Disneyland. Certainly, it's a different voice from Ohtaki who sounds as if he needs some of those aphrodisiacs listed in the lyrics such as liver, raw eggs and honey (hopefully not together). The tongue-in-cheek aim is to have the song aimed at the middle-aged and elderly to get some of the sexual energy back. It's definitely ironic in that this had originally been meant for Kobayashi since his reputation has been that of a virile and masculine personage.