Sing Out/Young 101 -- Namida wo Koete（涙をこえて）

 

I heard this song on an episode of "Uta Con"（うたコン）, I believe, several weeks ago. When I did, I figured that this must have come from the 1960s or early 1970s since it involved pretty much every guest to sing in a Sunshine Pop style.

Indeed, the song was "Namida wo Koete" (Rising Above the Tears) and it was originally sung by the choral band Sing Out（シング・アウト）. Almost a couple of years ago, I wrote about a similar group called Young 101 which basically acted as the in-house singers for the NHK music show "Stage 101"（ステージ101）. Well, apparently, Sing Out was the 12-person predecessor for Young 101 which had their time between 1969 and 1971. As was the case with Young 101, certain members of Sing Out would go their own very successful solo ways such as singer Seri Ishikawa（石川セリ）, songwriter and producer Yasunori Soryo（惣領泰則）and composer Yasuo Higuchi（樋口康雄）.

"Namida wo Koete" was the first of three singles released by Sing Out in November 1969. Written by Koji Kaze（かぜ耕士）and composed by Hachidai Nakamura（中村八大）, it's a very lively, upbeat and inspiring song that had me thinking The New Christy Minstrels, an American group that used to get onto AM radio a whole lot back when I was a moppet.

As for the song, it peaked at No. 53 on Oricon. Not surprisingly, Young 101 would provide their own cover of "Namida wo Koete" on their April 1971 album "Stage 101".