Welcome to the regularly scheduled Reminiscings of Youth article for this week. The Swedish group ABBA has immortalized itself in Japan with their "Dancing Queen", a song that has become so ubiquitous in the karaoke boxes that it's practically an obligation to sing it on every visit.
Strangely enough, I never mentioned this in the "Dancing Queen" article, but ABBA was quite the common quartet on Canadian and American television when I was a kid because of the popularity of their disco hits in the 1970s. It would be a rare day when I either didn't see a compilation album on TV hawking an ABBA song or hear one of their tunes on the radio. Disco wasn't disco without them.
Therefore, it's a tad ironic that for the second ever ABBA song on KKP, I've chosen "Super Trouper", their November 1980 single. For one thing, I think it's probably the least disco of all of the songs I've heard by them and yet, next to "Dancing Queen", it's the one ABBA song that I remember the most. It's also catchy as heck in a children's song-like way especially when the chorus hits.
OK, we've established that "Super Trouper" is one of my cherished ABBA tunes but there is the matter of the title. For the longest time, I naturally assumed that it was talking about a really determined and heroic boy scout type but I only found out in the last few days that it was referring to a kind of massive spotlight and from the lyrics by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, despite that super trouper and all of the other spotlights blinding a superstar on stage, she knows that her darling is out there somewhere looking out for her. Awww...💓
I actually looked forward to hearing "Super Trouper" when I was in the car or listening to the radio. But I found out that it didn't do all that amazingly well in Canada or the United States with the former's RPM showing a No. 32 ranking while in America, it only went as high as No. 45. However, it did hit No. 1 in several European nations although ABBA's native Sweden wasn't one of them; it peaked at No. 11 there.
So, what was up in the Top 3 of Oricon in November 1980?
1. Seiko Matsuda -- Kaze wa Aki Iro （風は秋色）
2. The Nolans -- I'm in the Mood for Dancing
3. Mayumi Itsuwa -- Koibito yo （恋人よ）
1980 was a very fascinating and diverse year for music. Some came in late 70's disco and others mixed and experimented. 1980 was also Seiko first year as a professional singer, and On the reasons I consider her to be the queen of 1980's idol pop, since she was popular, active, and in the news every year of the 1980s. In March of 1980, ABBA came to Japan and even performed at the Budokan! Sadly, ABBA threw in the towel in 1982. The Nolans are interesting in that, working for Teichiku Records, they covered Japanese songs with English versions in their later years. I didn't know much about Mayumi Itsuwa, but I want to learn more.
ReplyDeleteMayumi Itsuwa is a wonderful singer and songwriter who started out being known as the Japanese Carole King in the early 1970s before finding her own style of music done in a European or even French way (somewhat like Taeko Ohnuki). I would say that she's even one of the pillars of Fashion Music.
DeleteI think 1980 was indeed a turning point for the aidoru. Momoe Yamaguchi was retiring as the aidoru superstar of the 1970s back then while Seiko Matsuda took up the baton as this new type of aidoru.