Iruka -- Juu-Nen Mae no Kimi no Machi（10年前の君の街）

From Wikipedia

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.

99.99 -- Through The Night, Toward The Light

 

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.

Kingo Hamada -- Sentimental Moment

 

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.

Yuiko Tsubokura -- Je t'aime（ジュテーム）

 

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.

Chiemi (Emi Shirasaya) -- Anata ni Ima Aitai no（あなたに今会いたいの）

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.

Anita Baker -- I Apologize

Kingkongphoto & www.celebrity-photos.com
via Wikimedia Commons

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?

access -- SCANDALOUS BLUE

Sharam Q -- Single Bed（シングルベッド）

Yumi Matsutoya -- Haru yo, Koi （春よ、来い）

Yujiro Ishihara -- Ashiato（足あと）

 

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.