Let's Go Sanbiki -- Shinchi Waltz（新地ワルツ）

 

When I heard this pleasant song on the most recent episode of NHK's "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）the other day, I assumed that it was one of the veteran enka singers who had tackled this way back since it had that certain old kayo sound. Not surprisingly, I'm once again having crow for dinner.🐦‍⬛

Nope, when I looked up this tune via J-Wiki afterwards, I found out that "Shinchi Waltz", a laidback enka about the commercial area of Shinchi in Osaka, had actually been recorded by a comedy trio by the name of Let's Go Sanbiki（レツゴー三匹）. Written by Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）and composed by Tadashi Yoshida（吉田正）, "Shinchi Waltz" was released as the trio's second single in 1973. From what I can glean from Hashimoto's lyrics, it's all about love gained and lost in the titular neighbourhood. And with the titular dance, there is that rhythmical flow in the melody that almost approaches that of a lullaby. The song was a hit, selling around 100,000 records.

Despite the three fellows, Let's Go Shouji（レツゴー 正児）, Let's Go Jun（レツゴー じゅん）and Let's Go Chousaku（レツゴー 長作）, being shown on the single cover, I only hear one of them singing away. Maybe the other two couldn't sing a note to save their lives but they were there in the recording booth as moral support. Anyways, although I was surprised to find out the identity of the singer behind "Shinchi Waltz", I also remembered that comedy groups in Japan are not unknown to cut records. The manzai duo Saruganseki（猿岩石）and the group Imo Kin Trio（イモ欽トリオ）are just two examples I know that have had their hits.

Let's Go Sanbiki first got started in 1968 when Shouji, Jun and then-member Let's Go Isshuu（レツゴー 一修）had trained within a comedy troupe known as Rookie Bakusho Gakudan（ルーキー爆笑劇団）. Their name came about from a Nagoya yakitori restaurant called Sanbiki that they had frequented but added the phrase "Let's Go" for further oomph. Isshuu would leave the team a year later and was immediately replaced by Chousaku. Let's Go Sanbiki would last until the early 1990s when they would go on indefinite hiatus but with the passing of Jun in 2014, the trio would officially break up.