I've been a fan of Japanese popular music for 40 years, and have managed to collect a lot of material during that time. So I decided I wanted to talk about Showa Era music with like-minded fans. My particular era is the 70s and 80s (thus the "kayo kyoku"). The plus part includes a number of songs and artists from the last 30 years and also the early kayo. So, let's talk about New Music, aidoru, City Pop and enka.
Credits
I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.
I'd thought that my previous article on Shiro Sagisu（鷺巣詩郎）would be the final one for February 2026, but I was very wrong there on realizing that the music world has lost a pioneer in pop music and someone who has had a presence on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" over the years. Singer-songwriter Neil Sedaka passed away at the age of 86 on February 27th.
From what I've read on his Wikipedia file, he was responsible for a huge number of hits for himself and other singers, especially during the 60s and 70s, and I recall hearing his voice through radio, on K-Tel commercials and TV appearances since I was a kid. In fact, the very first ROY article that I posted was a Sedaka creation for Captain & Tennille. But for his own records, I always remembered that higher and melodic voice of his.
With all of those Sedaka successes in the postwar era, it's perhaps no surprise that the Japanese, who were more than happy to provide their own cover versions of many American and British hits of the time, also took a fancy to Sedaka's own tunes. Here are the ones that have been plucked from the pages of KKP over the years.
One of my favourites by Sedaka though was "Laughter in the Rain" from 1974. It still gives me a chill when he sings the chorus out and it's a song that I definitely have great memories about. My condolences to his family, friends and many fans.
It's the final day of February and since we're not in a leap year, the final day will naturally be the 28th so certainly it'll be a lower output than usual for KKP.
Now, usually, I keep a lot of the City Pop on hand for Urban Contemporary Fridays, but seeing that this is February 28th, I might as well provide something pretty exciting, especially this is also a Saturday. A few years back, I noted that "Evangelion" soundtrack maestro Shiro Sagisu（鷺巣詩郎）had also been quite the disco City Pop king in the late 1970s. He put out an album with his Somethin' Special band called "Eyes" in 1979.
Well, he and the band also put out a single in that same year called "Ai no Message"(Message of Love), and as was the case on "Eyes", Keiko Sugai（須貝恵子）provided her dynamic vocals and the lyrics on this particular song. It's got a little bit of everything as in Long Island Iced Tea bit of everything. I can hear a boogie rhythm, disco flair and some propulsive funk...just the cocktail to heave Tokyoites to the dance floor in the discos around town.
The weather here has been improving although the temperature is set to plummet again for Sunday, but the feeling is that spring is just around the corner. And it couldn't come fast enough.
Several years ago, I posted an article on actress/aidoru Nana Okada's（岡田奈々）biggest hit, her 4th single"Seishun no Sakamichi"（青春の坂道）from March 1976. The wistful song of youth created from lyrics by contest winner Aiko Nakaji（中司愛子）and then whipped into shape by lyricist Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）before getting laid onto a melody by Koichi Morita（森田公一）under Ichizo Seo's（瀬尾一三）arrangement must have touched a lot of people's memories and current feelings. It did pretty well by hitting No. 23 on Oricon.
Well, the follow-up single, released in June of that year, "Wakai Kisetsu"(Young Season), was created by almost everyone involved with "Seishun no Sakamichi", except that the composer this time was Ken Sato（佐藤健）. If anything, "Wakai Kisetsu" is even jauntier with a boss saxophone and jangly guitar giving a hint of Motown pop. Matsumoto's lyrics here were based on Okada's recurring role in the popular NTV drama at the time, "Ore-tachi no Tabi"（俺たちの旅...Our Journey）, where her character introduces a guy living in the boarding house next door. The producers for the program knew what they were doing by also having "Seishun no Sakamichi" show up as an insert song.
"Wakai Kisetsu" didn't do as well as "Seishun no Sakamichi" but it was a moderate success by scoring a No. 36 ranking. Both songs ended up on her 3rd album"Akushu Shiyouyo"（握手しようよ...Let's Shake Hands） which was released in August 1976.
Yesterday, I wrote up an article regarding the late Taeko Morino（森野多恵子）regarding her own cover version of the standard "Sunny" back in the 1960s. Of course, I mentioned that she would later go through a couple of name changes, each time accompanying a change in music genre.
In the 1970s, Morino changed into Tan Tan, a chanteuse of R&B and City Pop. Her third of three albums released under than moniker was "Trying to Get to You" from 1978 and this is the title track.
This was a cover version of the original, also from 1978, by the late Eugene Record who used to be the lead vocalist for the group The Chi-Lites. Both versions are great as something sounding quite (Philadelphia?) soulful, although Tan Tan's cover is shorter and has more of a wistful and uptempo feeling compared to the Record original which has an apologetic if hopeful slant that fences can be mended between a couple. Unfortunately, Record passed away in 2005 after a battle with cancer.
Gotta have singer-songwriter Yasuhiro Abe（安部康弘）back on Urban Contemporary Friday. When you're talking about a drive on an evening leading into the weekend in Tokyo and thinking about what to put onto the radio, one of his songs usually fits the bill.
Managed to come across the B-side for Abe's November 1982 debut single"We Got It!" which is definitely car stereo-worthy. Mind you, "Hadashi no Ballerina"(Barefoot Ballerina) can also be put into the dashboard slot although it's a little more melancholy as a ballad. Written by Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）and composed by Abe, it looks like one guy and his "prima ballerina" have come to the end of their relationship so the night is spent with one last meal before the inevitable goodbye. It is indeed another song of broken hearts but it also feels like a true Abe creation.
Of course, I've known about guitarist and songwriter Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂）for years as someone who's provided a lot of singers with their material along with his own discography which includes the fine 1976"Lady Pink Panther". And of course, I know him as being one of the Fab Four in the legendary band Happy End（はっぴいえんど）.
But I don't know very much about the rock band that he was also associated with, Hucklebuck（ハックルバック）, which has apparently come in and out of existence about four times with the first time being the year of 1975. Mind you, it has consisted of some of the best studio musicians including Suzuki, drummer Jun Aoyama（青山純）and the late great keyboardist Hiroshi Sato（佐藤博）, and I'm sure that they were busy enough in their solo activities.
The album "Maboroshi no Hucklebuck"（幻のハックルバック...The Mysterious Hucklebuck） was recorded in the studio in October 1975 but released in 1976, and the first track on Side A is "Great American Funky Girl", an instrumental which was composed by Suzuki. I would like to know who inspired the man to come up with such a funky piece to open the album. I can only think of a particularly sassy young lady from New York but other than that, I know bupkis. But the guys in the band obviously had a great time jamming this short and sweet piece, and it sounds like the ideal theme song for an American sitcom or drama regarding the titular lady in the Big Apple.
I'll be honest here but I've had this lovely song on the back burner for some time now and I'm finally putting it up today because I've finally figured out what the singer's name is. Yes, I held off from posting this due to a naming problem but the last thing I want to do is screw up a name, especially if the singer is still alive...which of course I'm hoping she is.
Depending on the source, I've come across the readings Maru Tokiyo and Maru Tokiya. However, down the 1986 self-titled album's obi, there is one sentence that begins with "I'm Maruja", And then, my brain did all sorts of old-fashioned computing noises with the conclusion being that all four kanji spell out MA-RU-JI-YA with the stylized form of the name above the upper-right hand corner of the photo on the album cover: Malja.
So, now that I've figured that one out, I can introduce Malja formally to KKP. She's one of those mysterious singers that came in and out along the lines of Takako Mamiya（間宮貴子）in that she released only one single and this album "Malja". One of the tracks here is the scintillating "Nice Guy ni Ai wo Komete" (With Love To A Nice Guy) which is a pretty sweet title although it sounds like the nice guy here is now very much in the past.
Written by Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）and composed by Yuuichiro Oda（小田裕一郎）, it's quite the laidback and slightly haunting mid-tempo ballad with the velvet vocals of Malja providing soothing solace to listeners' ears. I've only heard this song and one other track on the album but according to the website of the hair and music store Fam, "Malja" is apparently a hidden gem of Baleric modern pop music which features arrangements that make full use of the intricately programmed sounds unique to this era. And yeah, it does feel rather 80s.
Well, at least it's brilliantly sunny out there with the temperatures actually above zero degrees Celsius. Still, snow is everywhere of varying colours and conditions although we are waiting avidly for the arrival of spring.
Today, we're starting the usual Urban Contemporary Friday with something more recent. And this time around, a couple of music makers from other collaborations are being brought here together on KKP for the first time. I first introduced Fukuoka-born singer-songwriter kiki vivi lily last year when she worked with Cosmic Funk duo KAGAMI on the 2025"Friends". A couple of years ago, I got my first encounter of singer-songwriter and trackmaker Hiroyuki Ikezawa（池澤寛行）, aka SUKISHA, when he was collaborating with jazz and soul guitarist Shingo Sekiguchi（関口シンゴ）on their 2020 "Imaginary Trip".
Well, if we go back even further, we'll find that kiki vivi lily and SUKISHA worked together as well to provide a song called "Blue in Green" in February 2019. With some of that familiar electric piano groove and the singer's buttery vocals, we get launched into some cool and nocturnal urban adventure (mind you, kiki prefers to stay at home in the dark as shown in the official music video below). I do love that dancing bass and the rest of the beats, although things get a little weird in the last quarter of the song.
Christopher Cross is already represented on the weekly Reminiscings of Youth series via his theme song for "Arthur", "Best That You Can Do", and yeah, indeed it was a hit and one of the songs that was a regular on the radio airwaves throughout 1981.
But the singer-songwriter from San Antonio, Texas, had been around for a decade and then in January 1980, he released his first single"Ride Like The Wind". As with "Arthur's Theme", it was a regular on radio. When I first heard it though, I'd thought that it was all about some guy enjoying riding on his steed in the countryside. Actually, it's all about fleeing the authorities on the way to the haven in Mexico. For some reason, I get images from "The Shawshank Redemption". Compared with "Arthur's Theme", "Ride Like The Wind" is much more dramatic, thrilling and urgent rather than the sophisticated and romantic cadence of the former. Thriller versus romance. But of course, Michael McDonald's singular contribution adds some further wondrous spice...like kosher salt in all those YouTube cooking videos.
As one YouTube commenter put it, he'll never listen to "Ride Like The Wind" without remembering this sketch from Canadian comedy series "SCTV". As a segment on the in-house radio show "The Gerry Todd Show", it features Rick Moranis as McDonald himself racing to the studio to give his multiple takes of "a long way to go". I'm happy to say that I actually saw the sketch in its first run!
I only discovered this Rick Beato video several months ago. During this interview with McDonald, we find out that he actually caught the "SCTV" skit and figured that he was having a nervous breakdown. The power of pot!😵 Glad that he has such a good sense of humour.
In Canada, "Ride Like The Wind" made it all the way up to No. 3 on RPM while in America, it peaked at No. 2. Let's see what was also at the top of the Oricon charts on January 28th 1980, a couple of days before the Cross classic was released.
It's been a standard through all audio media for the decades that it has been in existence since its release by singer-songwriter Bobby Hebb in February 1966. Yep, "Sunny" has popped up here and there in my life via radio and records and now on YouTube.
But now through my browsings of YouTube, I've discovered that there have been a couple of remarkable cover versions of "Sunny" in Japan. One was by the late Taeko Morino（森野多恵子）who was a member of the Group Sounds band The White Kicks（ザ・ホワイト・キックス）via an appearance on a 1968 music show that was preciously saved on audiotape by YouTuber Old But Cool (something that I would like to be).
As I mentioned in the lone article thus far regarding The White Kicks, Morino went by a few names during her life and career which were sadly cut short in 1998 at the age of 50. She was also known as Tan Tan, known for her disco and City Pop material from the late 1970s, and then as Harumi Ohzora（大空はるみ）going into the 1980s as she specialized in techno jazz. Morino didn't leave The White Kicks until 1971 but she gave a fine solo performance for "Sunny" with a really brassy voice to match the brass accompanying her.
Then, a couple of surprises greeted me when I discovered via the Wikipedia article for "Sunny" that the late Mieko Hirota（弘田三枝子）had recorded the song. Surprise One was that she had recorded the standard onto her January 1966 album"Miko in New York"...several weeks before Hebb himself released his version to the world, although the song had been created by Hebb all the way back in 1963. So, does that mean Hirota was the very first person to show "Sunny" to the world? As for Surprise Two, that would be the singer herself who sounded far more mature and rich for someone who wouldn't reach the age of 19 for another few weeks when she was in the recording booth.
I was informed earlier today that a couple of YouTube channels as noted above came up with a couple of playlists with the "Kayo Kyoku Plus" title to distinguish them. As much as I appreciate them spreading the good word regarding the old Japanese pop music as we ourselves have for the past fourteen years, I would just like to set the record straight that the two channels never contacted me regarding the title and vice versa. So, basically, I am not sponsoring the playlists and they have no direct connection with this blog.
Now, back to your regularly scheduled KKP reading.
Isn't this something? A couple of lovers in their best finery as they look longingly into each other's eyes under a huge shining supermoon in some exotic city such as Casablanca. Cocktails and dinner are awaiting them on a table a few metres away.
I'm pretty sure that the setting established in Yoko Minamino's（南野陽子）"Moon Rendezvous" is far less glamorous and luxurious but no less exciting for the people involved. From what I've understood of Shun Taguchi's（田口俊）lyrics, the lass is happily expecting to meet her beloved Dad or beau at the airport...or maybe both; that would be quite the interesting thing. As for Mitsuo Hagita's（萩田光雄）melody (and he also arranged the song), considering the lyrics and the title, I would've been anticipating a City Pop tune, but instead, it hews to an innocent and smooth bossa nova style. For an aidoru song, it sounds quite mature and refined, and at the time, Nanno was still under twenty. The song wasn't released as a single but was included as a track on her November 1986 2nd album"Virginal" which peaked at No.2 on Oricon.
Hello, J-Canuck here! Fireminer is back with a new article on an R&B band that hasn't been on KKP before.
It is difficult for a single blog entry to comprehensively describe the impact of YouTube to overseas fans of Japanese music. Till this point, I still can’t wrap my head around the effort my older brother put into loading up his Gen 2 iPod with Japanese music at a time when you pretty much had to go fishing on P2P servers. But only a few years down the line and things got much easier with YouTube. Just go there and you can enjoy an entire world of Japanese music in full 240p glory.
A good number of my peers were immediately attracted to Japanese hip-hop because of YouTube. They did not belong to the breakdance crew, who were into Crunk anyway. I suppose they were born a bit too late for the Missy Elliot era, so they went with M-Flo and Nujabes instead. In hindsight, their style of atmospheric reggae- and R&B-infused hip-hop truly was the forefather to the modern lo-fi beat music you find everywhere on YouTube nowadays.
The one YouTube music video that overseas fans kept recommending to each other was “Garden” by Sugar Soul (シュガー・ソウル) and Kenji Furuya (降谷建志) of Dragon Ash fame. Little has to be said about Dragon Ash. If you were into Japanese hip-hop at the time, you knew Dragon Ash. Sugar Soul though we had little idea about. They were an R&B trio formed in 1996 by DJ HASEBE (real name: Hasebe Daisuke), vocalist aico (real name: Machida Aiko) and composer Kawabe (real name: Kawabe Kenhiro). Their single Garden was released in 1999 and was arguably their biggest hit to date.
That orchestral backing was just delightful and hankered back to the 90s golden age of hip-hop, when you started to see a lot of crossovers but the music had not been subsumed by the lazy sampling of the bling era. The lyric was inspirational and talked about reaching to a promised land through the fire and turbulence of life. It’s the kind of music that puts spring in your steps.
Sugar Soul would release another four singles and one album before calling it quit in 2001. After giving birth, vocalist aico resumed activity as the singer for the electronic dance unit KAM (カム) in 2010. Sugar Soul reunited in 2018 to commemorate their 20th anniversary and released the EP “UPLOAD”.
First off, thanks go to The history man on YouTube for providing this video on the life and career of kayo kyoku songwriting legend Yu Aku (1937-2007) who apparently remains the 2nd-most prolific lyricist in Japan following Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）. Yesterday, the return of NHK's "Uta Con"（うたコン）after the Olympic break was a big one for all of the kayo fans since a good chunk of the program was a tribute to the works of Aku who would have been 89 back on February 7th..
This isn't an Author's Picks because I wasn't the one who came up with these songs for performance on the show last night. Of course, it was the NHK producers who did that but I still wanted to acknowledge the Aku songs that had been sung on the Shibuya stage since they have remained part of the bread and butter that make up a lot of this blog. You can also take a look at a Creator article that I wrote up back in 2015 regarding Aku and his constitution on writing those lyrics.
Another new face to add to the files of "Kayo Kyoku Plus", Yoshimi Yokosuka（横須賀昌美）has been recognized on J-Wiki as a model and an actress from Ishikawa Prefecture who began her career in 1980 as a Shiseido commercial model. However, she also branched out into music starting in 1981 with only four singles up to 1988.
Her third single was "Breathless" which was released in May 1988. Written by Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）, composed by Kisaburo Suzuki（鈴木キサブロー）and arranged by Kazuo Otani（大谷和夫）, it's quite the dance-pop-friendly sort of song, and I'm not sure, but would this also be considered to be part of Eurobeat? I'll have to find out from commenters. In any case, for someone who seems to have been considered as a thespian and model, her vocals weren't too shabby.
For the longest time, I was rather confused about whether one of the most famous cities in Western Japan was formally known as Fukuoka or Hakata. Well, as it turns out, Hakata is actually the most famous area in the city of Fukuoka...filled with a literal and huge community of yatai food stands and it's beloved for the tonkotsu ramen. I would love to have some of that now though if I have too much of it, my blood will end up resembling the broth. I did stay there one night although I regret not exploring too much of the area outside of Hakata Station which you can see above.
At the site "TV Tropes", there is the Early Installment Weirdness section which talks about how long-running TV series started out a bit strangely or differently compared to the peak years which most fans are acquainted with. For example, the original "Star Trek" had a differently arranged theme song, Mr. Spock was a little more emotional and Lt. Uhura wore a gold command uniform for one episode rather than the familiar red one.
Well, we've come to one of those on KKP. Allow me to introduce Goro Noguchi（野口五郎）, enka singer. Fans of the late Showa Era brand of music might pop their eyes at that introduction since we all know that the Gifu Prefecture-born Noguchi gained his fame from not only being a hit aidoru singer of the 1970s but also one of the three teen heartthrobs that made up the Shin-Gosanke（新御三家）, or The New Big Three, alongside Hiromi Go（郷ひろみ）and the late Hideki Saijo（西城秀樹）.
But it is true. When I first wrote about Noguchi's 2nd single, the intrepid hit "Aoi Ringo"（青いリンゴ）from August 1971, this was a reset of sorts. His very first single from May of that year was "Hakata Miren" which I first translated as "Hakata Regrets" but I'm now thinking it could be a little less melancholy and will re-translate it as "Remembering Hakata". Regardless, "Hakata Miren" is indeed an enka song and teen Goro sang it in a way that made me wonder whether the management group around had been trying to mold him into the next Shinichi Mori（森進一）. His catchphrase was even "The Adorable Hope of Enka". It was a very different sound from him and ultimately one that didn't impress listeners. There isn't even an Oricon ranking listed for it.
I couldn't find any videos of Noguchi singing "Hakata Miren" live aside from this one. Other kayo singers have covered it, though. Incidentally, the song was written by Tetsuo Houshi（鳳司哲夫）and composed by Eiichi Arai（荒井英一）.
It was exactly a year ago (and also today happens to be the current Emperor's birthday in Japan so it was a national holiday over there) that I posted up "Dance-y Songs for Me (for International Dance Day)". I don't consider myself anything of even being a mediocre dancer but I always enjoy seeing the experts trot their stuff especially when it comes to music I've come to known and love. And yes, International Dance Day is on April 29th but as I mentioned in the original article a year ago, I can't wait until the 29th. I wanna boogie now! So, without further ado:
This was one of commenter Brian Mitchell's suggestions when he spoke on the original dance article, and I see that the dance-oriented video games have agreed as well. Seeing how kayo kyoku has been getting its props around the world, I can also imagine that folks can be strutting their stuff to Pink Lady's classic in the clubs as well as the karaoke boxes.
Hey, the Village People brought it to the disco-crazed masses but Hideki Saijo（西城秀樹）also made it his own as a beloved piece of his discography. The danceability is already built in, and as with "UFO" above, I'm sure that both the karaoke boxes and dance clubs felt the love for "Young Man". Certainly, Saijo may be looking at us with a smile.
I don't usually consider the music of Hosono（細野晴臣）, Takahashi（高橋幸宏）and Sakamoto（坂本龍一）something to hit the disco floors for (despite YMO marking itself "the No. 1 dance band in Japan"), but "Tighten Up" can be one exception since as with "Young Man" above, this was a Japanese cover of a song by an American band that liked to get the folks up and moving. I still want that YMO shirt!
I'm surprised that I hadn't included this one in the original article but I guess Labels was pretty stuffed to the gills with entries, so I'm glad that I get to put it the second list. After all. Kingo Hamada's（濱田金吾）classic is a City Pop party favour for big city living. Plus, YouTuber hirokoboogie shows how folks can move to the groove if you refer back to the "midnight cruisin'" article.
This was another one of Brian's recommendations. Having listened to "Say Goodbye" in the years since I posted up the article for the song and got my copy of the 1982 album "Awakenings", I'm wondering if the late great Hiroshi Sato（佐藤博）had been channeling his inner Stevie Wonder or Herbie Hancock when he came up with this masterpiece. Shimmy those shoulders away.
Speaking of hirokoboogie, here she is with her friends as they cut up a rug doing Anri's（杏里）"Goodbye Boogie Dance". Not sure if there had been a lot of lockin' when the song first came out in 1983, but I'm sure folks at home were shimmying up a storm. I can't even imagine how the new fans were reacting on the dance floor at the City Pop dance parties several years ago to this one.
PSY-S was another technopop band that burst onto the scene with some great hooks...hooks that could potentially grab onto listeners and force them to boogie, shimmy or however folks tend to move. The two versions of "Woman-S" had their own ways of manipulating people into doing their steps; the original (below), for example, had that booming percussion.
I've got a feeling that "Dance-y songs for Me 3" will be coming out in 2027!
I've mentioned about sentimentalism a few times over the past few days, and yesterday was a prime example. As some of you know, I used to have a biweekly Sunday anime + food outing with my anime buddy for about a decade but when COVID stopped those plans, we never really got around to picking things up again.
However, yesterday, a few of us did get together for some lunch at our favourite diner and then for dinner, we grew our group by three times to make the annual Shinta run, and what I mean by that is that every year around this time, we all get together at our favourite yakiniku restaurant, Shinta, up in Richmond Hill for tons of meat for an hour and a half, and then a fair amount of creme brulee and soft-serve ice cream to cool us down. Man, I sure don't eat as much as I used to.
We did plug in some anime between meals though. But as a bit of backstory, allow me to explain. In the pre-COVID era, my buddy and I did watch the first season of what has become a successful video game-to-anime adaptation of a franchise called "Uma Musume: Pretty Derby"（ウマ娘 プリティーダービー...Horse Girls）, all about horse girls who vie to become the very best at their craft. The characters have been named after some of the finest true-life thoroughbreds that have ever raced in Japan over the last several decades, and it seems like the characters have been portrayed by pretty much every female seiyuu that has gone behind the mike.
It was a fun first season and I did watch some of the episodes of the subsequent seasons, but I never really got all that excited about the various theme songs used at the beginning and endings of each episode.
Well, yesterday, I got to see the first few episodes of the second separate anime from the franchise. "Uma Musume: Cinderella Gray"（ウマ娘 シンデレラグレイ）which had its run throughout much of 2025 last year. Again, it has that feeling of The Little Train That Could as the button-down but brilliant Oguri Cap（オグリキャップ）begins to make her mark on the racing world in Japan while making friends and even making enemies into friends (or frenemies).
Oguri Cap (1985-2010) was indeed a legendary racehorse whose popularity loomed so large that he was dubbed "The Idol Horse". I was never a big fan of horseracing myself although I remember my parents taking my brother and I down to the old Greenwood Racetrack here in Toronto to watch some of the races. Making origami cranes out of the thrown-away ticket stubs was more our thing between races. However, even I had heard of Oguri Cap via television; it would be hard not to forget with that name.
Anyways, the anime version of Oguri Cap as played by seiyuu Tomoyo Takayanagi（高柳知葉）actually got to sing the first ending theme for "Cinderella Gray", and it's the first acknowledgement of a "Uma Musume" theme song on KKP. "Mugen" (Infinity) has a nice indies pop sound to it which is reassuring to hear, especially if things get a little too intense by the end of an episode, and I have to say that Takayanagi has some fine vocals to the point that I wonder if she has released some non-anime albums. The song was written and composed by Honoka Takahashi（たかはしほのか）, one-half of the pop-rock duo Regallily（リーガルリリー）.
What I had also forgotten was that Takayanagi already has standing on the blog since she was part of Coro Machikado（コーロまちカド）, the seiyuu quartet who came up with the beefy bass-heavy "Yoi Machi Cantare"（よいまちカンターレ）for the anime "Machikado Mazoku"（まちカドまぞく...The Demon Girl Next Door）.
Being a Sunday, I should be my usual more relaxed self but right now, it's the final day of the Winter Olympics and of course, that means that the Gold Medal game for Men's Ice Hockey is happening as I type this. Canada and the USA are battling it out and currently they are tied at 1-1. Canadians have confidence in their team but a few of them have also admitted to some jitters. What I wouldn't advise though while standing among a horde of hockey-crazed Canucks watching the game is whispering doubt along the lines of "But, what if we lose?". It won't look pleasant.
That's quite the segue into this song titled "Tamerai no Whisper"(Hesitant Whispers) which was sung by Shoko Minami（南翔子）, a name that I haven't talked about for a few years...at least, not since I posted her 1985 "Nagisa No Separation"（渚のセパレーション）. That had a rock vibe along the AOR side of things but "Tamerai no Whisper" which appeared on Minami's 3rd album from November 1986, "Sophisticated", is, as the album title would suggest, a more refined slice of sophisticated pop on the City Pop side of things.
One commenter for the above video mentioned that as soon as they heard the intro, they figured that it was the Kisugi siblings, lyricist Etsuko and composer Takao（来生えつこ・来生たかお）, behind the creation of the song. I actually saw the songwriting list first but I still went "ah, naruhodo" on seeing those two. Those guys were indeed the masters of the smooth and refined melody that hint at champagne and caviar in Tokyo. Kimio Mizutani（水谷公生）also has to get his accolades as the arranger. Considering the year of release, "Tamerai no Whisper" sounds like the typical City Pop song of that time of the Bubble Era.
When it comes to those B-sides, they are often decent enough songs by the artists but of course, when the A-side is a huge hit, those songs on the other side disappear within a huge shadow. Can you imagine Miki Matsubara's（松原みき）monster single "Mayonaka no Door ~ Stay With Me"（真夜中のドアー）when it first got out in November 1979? I can wonder why another song would be placed on the flip side.
But then again, that B-side isn't too bad at all, and it feels as if the songwriters were paying a bit of tribute to the intro of Peaches & Herb's"Reunited" which had been released several months earlier that year. "Soushite Watashi ga" (And Then I) is a musical musing regarding a lady pining over a guy who hasn't quite noticed her yet. The lass wishes she could be a bird or a flower so that she can surreptitiously look over the fellow and hope that he can do the same.
Written by the same duo behind the more famous A-side, lyricist Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）and composer/arranger Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）have created a creamy and soulful City Pop ballad to contrast with the perky "Stay With Me", complete with those silky strings, keyboards and horns. Listeners can decide which of the two songs are the more poignant.
Sad to say, but it's been a little over eleven years since I've visited my old residential neighbourhood surrounding the Tozai Line's Minami-Gyotoku Station（南行徳駅）. I dropped by there back in the fall of 2014 but didn't do the same for my most recent trip there in 2017. I wonder if there has been much change in the past decade in terms of stores and restaurants. I hope that the Tonki tonkatsu place is still there; that was always one of my favourites when I didn't particularly want to cook anything for dinner but wasn't in the mood for konbini bento. There was also the patisserie just down the subway mall that I often frequented.
The old neighbourhood in Ichikawa City, Chiba Prefecture was what I was thinking of as I was listening to singer-songwriter Iruka's（イルカ）adorable "Juu-Nen Mae no Kimi no Machi" (Your Old Town of Ten Years Ago). It's the folksy B-side to the City Pop A-side of her November 1980 15th single"Yoake no Goodbye"（夜明けのグッドバイ）. I figure that I first heard this most cordial country waltz on an episode of "Sounds of Japan" as Iruka reminisces about the ol' hometown and what/who has changed over the decade. The song also strikes me as one where the flute got a cracking solo.
The song was used for a commercial involving Sincol, a company specializing in indoor furnishings. However, the video above features the company using another Iruka song from a year later.
It was at the end of 2022 when I posted the first article regarding the band 99.99...which is supposed to be called Four-Nine. Their April 1982 debut self-titled album"99.99" had a stylistic split with half of the tracks following a progressive rock/technopop line (Type A) while the other half was following fusion (Type B). The first track on Side A"Amazin' & Amusin'" sounded like Type B to me.
Track No. 4 is "Through The Night, Toward The Light" may have actually ended Side A so I gather that Side A was indeed the Type B side. Written and composed by keyboardist Masei Hattori（服部ませい）, it feels like a jam session being filtered through Steely Dan and Santana arrangements. Perhaps that is Hattori helping on the fleet-flooted vocals but I do believe that the female voice is being provided by Suzi Kim who was also behind the mike for "Amazin' & Amusin'". I even think that the vocals are so nimble that I'm wondering if Hattori and Kim were going for their own form of vocalese.
Well, this brings back some sentimental memories. The bunch of us often went to this combination of Hard Rock Cafe and Tony Roma's at the end of an alley off the main street of Roppongi in Tokyo. There was really no worry about the alley being dark; the neon firing away off the building housing the two restaurants was more than enough to light the way.
Back in 2024, I posted an article featuring singer-songwriter Kingo Hamada's（濱田金吾）fourth single from November 1981, "N.Y. City Marathon". If I ever do an Author's Picks based on New York City, this is one song that I will definitely feature. However, tonight's article and the last article for tonight is the B-side"Sentimental Moment". A happy-go-lucky song that contains some City Pop verses and an AOR chorus, this was created by Hamada with Kazuko Kobayashi's（小林和子）lyrics.
Speaking about those lyrics, it seems to deal with a guy surprised (and probably secretly delighted) that a woman from his past that he's never quite gotten over has darkened his doorstep once more. A second chance and a sentimental moment. Judging from the very upbeat chorus, I imagine that the reunion has been successful and they're both bounding down the highway in a cherry-red convertible.
In the relevant J-Wiki article for this particular song by chanteuse Yuiko Tsubokura（坪倉唯子）, she sang this on TV Asahi's "Music Station" while still in her wild costume as the squeaky-voiced singer for B.B. Queens. Maybe they were reprising their hit song "Odoru Ponpokorin"（おどるポンポコリン）. Anyways, I would have loved to have seen the expressions on everyone's faces while she was creamily singing it. Well, we can all check the video below out.
No squeaky voice here for her 4th solo single"Je t'aime" which came out in January 1993 and definitely no hint of "Odoru Ponpokorin". This is a classy urban ballad that sounds as if it should have been the ending theme for a drama. Guess what? It was...it finished each episode of the NTV drama "Jealousy"（ジェラシー）. Written by Akira Ohtsu（大津あきら）and composed by Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎）, this sophisticated pop song was Tsubokura's highest-ranking single when it hit No. 25 on Oricon.
Good evening. As I mentioned in yesterday's articles, I was busy today meeting friends for lunch, some of whom I hadn't seen in a few years. Of course, with all of the drizzle and gloom outside, it was the perfect day to tuck into a bowl of Black Garlic Ramen at Santouka. I've always said that it's the wintry days that have the ramen tasting especially great.
A few years ago, I introduced a singer named Emi Shirasaya（白鞘慧海）on the blog who had an initial career singing R&B during the 1990s before trying her luck in the United States in 2001. Her early stage had her going by a couple of names with me showcasing her second of two singles in 1997 under the Shirasaya（しらさやえみ）name.
Her first four singles between 1995 and 1997 were released under the name Chiemi（千恵美）. However, the song of this article actually resides in her debut album from October 1995, "C". "Anata ni Ima Aitai no" (I Wanna Meet You Now) is a snazzy urban tune that shows off some more power in her husky vocals along with some of that City Pop of the 1990s; the Bubble Era may have been long gone by that time, but it sure didn't feel that way in the music with those synth horns and the devil-may-care arrangement. ATSUKO came up with the lyrics while Seikou Nagaoka（長岡成貢）was the composer here.
Although today has had a slightly changed schedule to accommodate my busier one tomorrow, I still haven't forgotten that Thursdays are devoted to regular Reminiscings of Youth songs. We did have the special holiday edition earlier this week, so here's the regular one.
So, it's nice to have the Queen of Quiet Storm herself, Anita Baker, back on the blog. I became a fan from the 1980s but she kept on going well into the 1990s and beyond. I have her first four albums but didn't continue the collection of her discography after heading to Japan. Well, some years during my odyssey there, I was either in Tower Records or HMV when I discovered her 2002 BEST compilation,"The Best of Anita Baker", and it took me all of a second to make the purchase.
Along with those hit songs from her early albums, there were some new ones that I hadn't heard by Ms. Baker, and one of them was "I Apologize" which was a October 1994 single. I may have been eight years late but better late than never. And it was another soulful smash for me and in my humble opinion, it was the standout new song for me. Created by Baker, Gordon Chambers and Barry J. Eastmond, it's a heartfelt tribute to the one action in a relationship that might be extremely difficult but absolutely necessary. I've spoken to enough married students to get that impression.
On Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, "I Apologize" hit No. 8. And perhaps I should apologize since I didn't realize that Baker just celebrated her birthday last month on the 26th. In any case, what was also being released in October 1994 in Japan?
One of the earliest Mood Kayo-based articles that I ever put up on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" was Yujiro Ishihara's（石原裕次郎）1977"Brandy Glass"（ブランデーグラス）which was about as dramatic as one could get with that cigarette-and-whiskey-soaked voice along with the background chorus and trumpet. It didn't open the door wide for my jump into the bar-and-tryst-filled Japanese music genre at the time that I first heard it in the early 1980s, but it did stick to me for many years until I finally admitted my liking for Mood Kayo.
Of course, with "Brandy Glass" being the typical 45" single, there was a B-side to be heard as well. So, I finally listened to "Ashiato"(Footsteps) which was the flip side to the original single when it was released in April 1977. Somewhat more lighthearted than the A-side, it was also a different genre: more old-style club jazz standard that would attract someone like Nat King Cole to do an English version of it. It was the same songwriters behind "Brandy Glass" who tackled "Ashiato": lyricist Yoko Yamaguchi（山口洋子）and composer Mitsuru Kotani（小谷充）with the song being about Ishihara musing about a wistfully lost opportunity: seeing the lady she loved getting married to someone else without him being able to express his opinions to her. All he can do now is to wish her well. The song would be perfect for a 50s or 60s nightclub aside from a weirdly inserted twee synthesizer or something like that.
"Ashiato" was the original B-side to "Brandy Glass". However, in a later reissue of the single in 1979, the B-side ended up being "Koi no Machi Sapporo"（恋の街札幌）which was a 1972 single by the Tough Guy.
As a sad sign of the times, another establishment close to my friends and myself is going into liquidation proceedings right now. My anime buddy who's also a big guitar enthusiast often went down to Steve's Music Store in the Queen West area of downtown Toronto to check out the guitars and any other equipment. Well, if he wants to pick up any final things there, he's gonna have to put a rush on.
It's a bit of a melancholy way to start off an article about a very reassuring tune, but I had to go with something. Regardless, here is "Deanna" by Tokyoite jazz/fusion guitarist Yoshiaki Masuo（増尾好秋）. Although he never got any formal training in the instrument, according to his website's biography section, he was the son of a jazz band leader and then he took up the guitar by himself when he was 15. Obviously the talent and affinity for music was passed down to him. While he was playing away at the Waseda University jazz club, he was discovered by theSadao Watanabe（渡辺貞夫）, saxophonist extraordinaire, and recruited into his own band in 1967. Masuo's first album would come out a couple of years later titled "Barcelona no Kaze"（バルセロナの風...The Winds of Barcelona）.
In 1980, his album "The Song is You and Me" was released, and it had at least a couple of notable guests helping out: Yutaka Yokokura（横倉裕）, and the jazz fusion duo The Brecker Brothers. One of the tracks is the soothing "Deanna", penned by drummer Tony Cintron Jr., which sounds readymade for some sipping cocktails at sunset. If you've had a bad day, this should take some of the edge off. As for the mime tuxedo that Masuo is wearing on the album cover, I'm not too sure about that. However, he's being kind to the canary on his finger, so I'll give him that.
Some bright lights from the neighbourhood of Ameyoko in Tokyo just to let readers know that I'm starting the Urban Contemporary Friday for at least a couple of songs early on a Thursday because I will be busy tomorrow for a good chunk of the day doing other things. I occasionally have a life outside of KKP.
I was going to post up an article regarding punipunidenki's（ぷにぷに電機） "Zurukunai?"（ずるくない？）from 2021, only to find out that I had already jumped the gun on that one a couple of years ago. I was slightly deflated there but I was then able to find this one by the Neo-City Pop songstress which goes even earlier into her discography. June 2019, to be exact.
"Kimi wa Queen"(You are a Queen), which was written and composed by punipunidenki and given additional songwriting credits by composers Mikeneko Homeless and Shin Sakiura, is pretty much as advertised. It's a bouncy urban tune about someone liking and then lusting over a lady in Tokyo. Not surprisingly, the singer herself is taking a walk throughout the bright lights and big city of one of the world's largest metropolises while her singing is happily tripping the light fantastic on those streets.
He passed away only relatively recently in 2023 at the age of 85, but Bill Salugawas a comedian who was part of the improv troupe The Ace Trucking Company. He'd been performing since the 1960s but the one character that certain generations will always remember him for was the nattily-attired Raymond J. Johnson Jr. His schtick was that whenever anyone called him Mr. Johnson, he would take umbrage and rattle off all of the different permutations of his name that he preferred to be addressed by. I did see him on the old variety shows on television and commercials doing that bit. Typically, it goes like this (and this is from his Wikipedia profile):
"NOOO!!! You don't have to call me Johnson! My name is Raymond J. Johnson Jr. Now you can call me Ray, or you can call me J, or you can call me Johnny, or you can call me Sonny, or you can call me Junie, or you can call me Ray J, or you can call me RJ, or you can call me RJJ, or you can call me RJJ Jr. . . but you doesn't hasta call me Johnson!"
And that is who I was reminded about when I first heard about 80s aidoru Kaori Moritani（守谷香）. Now, a number of celebrities in Japan have gone through multiple name changes in their careers, including enka legend Hiroshi Itsuki（五木ひろし）, and so on that note, the Aichi Prefecture-born Moritani isn't any different but for some reason, Moritani just sparked my image of Raymond J. Johnson although the lass is far prettier. Along with the above name, she's also gone by a different reading of that family name which is Kaori Moriya in different configurations of kanji and hiragana（守谷佳央理、もりや かおり）. She's also gone by Kaori Morizumi（守純かほり）and even, briefly, WANKU.
Her first six singles, in fact, were recorded under her name of Kaori Moritani, and for the purposes of this article, here is the B-side for her May 1987 debut single"Yokokuhen"（予告編...Trailers）, "Chiffon no Tsubasa" (Chiffon Wings). It is indeed a cutesy aidoru tune but with some of that Doobie Bros. bounce thrown in to help launch things. You can thank composer Takashi Ike（池毅）and arranger Ichizo Seo（瀬尾一三）for that along with lyricist Rui Serizawa（芹沢類）. It managed to reach No. 12 on Oricon.
One other notable piece of trivia regarding Ms. Moritani is that she had once been married to TOSHI, one of the members of X Japan, for several years. She even left show business to help run her husband's entertainment agency. As of right now, she is going by the name of Kaori Moriya.
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