Last month, I made a discovery within Hideki Saijo's（西城秀樹） long discography that hadn't quite surfaced although it earned the late singer a Gold Prize at the Japan Record Awards in 1981. His September 1981 39th single "Sentimental Girl"（センチメンタルガール）was a very pleasant old-fashioned rock-n'-roll and pop tune that fit the man like him and denim.
The B-side to "Sentimental Girl", "Moonlight Party", especially with City Pop maestro Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）behind the music and arrangement and Masako Arikawa（有川正沙子）as the lyricist and that title itself, might hit the eyes and brain as an urban contemporary number to contrast with the the feeling of the A-side. However, that's a definite no. "Moonlight Party" continues the good ol' rock-n'-roll and doo-wop times with some twangy country thrown in for good measure. And once again, my head was doing a nice little nodding here and there as it did its three minutes and change.
Hideki Saijo clearly is clearly dramatic and charismatic however until recently if I had hear someone talking about rock-n'-roll I would not have thought of Hideki Saijo.
ReplyDeleteNo, when anyone mentions Japanese rock n' roll to me, Hideki is also a name that won't come immediately to mind. However, among the Shin-Gosanke, he would be the closest when compared to Goro and Hiromi.
Delete