All Those Casablanca Songs

 

I threw "Moon over Casablanca in Art Deco style" into the Bing AI art generator last night and I got a pretty good image, but then I saw those huge skyscrapers in the background and went "What?". Don't ever recall seeing concrete towers over Rick and Ilsa in the legendary "Casablanca". But then again, my mind was returning to 1942 instead of staying anchored firmly in 2024. The Moroccan city now has skyscrapers including the Casablanca Twin Center. No idea whether there is a Rick's Café Américain in there.

Now as for why I'm mooning over Casablanca at the start of this work week is that yesterday, NHK had its usual episode of "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新・BS日本のうた）, and a couple of singers performed a cover of Ichiro Toba's（鳥羽一郎）"Casablanca Goodbye" (カサブランカ・グッバイ). Realizing that I've gone over a couple of other kayo kyoku with the famous city in their title, I decided that perhaps I can highlight those Casablanca songs. By no means is the word Casablanca as ubiquitous in Japanese song titles as the words "ai"（愛...love） or "haru"（春...spring）, but considering the city's pedigree in pop culture everywhere, I just thought it was good enough for an Author's Pick.

(1979) Kenji Sawada -- Casablanca Dandy （カサブランカ・ダンディ）

(1982) Hiromi Go -- Aishuu no Casablanca （哀愁のカサブランカ）

(1996) Ichiro Toba -- Casablanca Goodbye (カサブランカ・グッバイ)

Since the list isn't too extensive, I thought I would finish things off with a rendition of the immortal "As Time Goes By" from "Casablanca" by jazz singer Yasuko Agawa（阿川泰子）from her 1978 album "Flyin' Over". Also, just to let you know, the movie will be celebrating its 82nd birthday at the end of next month.