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.
Back in early April, I introduced a singer by the name of Masami Urabe（浦部雅美 or うらべまさみ）who I'd never heard before until commenter Robert B. informed me. The song that I covered was "Sukoshi Tōde wo Shitemimasen ka"（少し遠出をしてみませんか）, her debut single from September 1976. It's quite the amiable country song including a happily plucky banjo.
Well, her sixth and penultimate single from 1982 is "Tomadoi" which can be translated as "Wonderment" or "Confusion". Written and composed by the singer herself, I'm hoping that she meant the former meaning. Urabe's voice had become richer and mellower by this point, and "Tomadoi" is one of those tunes that is delectably difficult to categorize outright. First off, it's got a folksy waltz rhythm but with an intro and chorus that hints at City Pop especially with the breezy and minty background vocals. At the same time, there's something also some rather old-fashioned kayo kyoku meshing with the City Pop of the chorus.
Cooler temperatures out there but at least the sun is also out so no complaints from me. Welcome to another Friday Urban Contemporary session on KKP.
The last time I wrote about the cool-as-heck band Suchmos, it was for their comeback single "Eye to Eye" from July 2025, and it did attract a lot of attention from appreciative fans.
Well, I've decided to look back at their career and arrived at their debut single from June 2015, "Miree/Pacific". That first song "Miree" had also been included in Suchmos' 1st EP,"Essence" which had been released in April that year. Written and composed by the band's late bassist Hayata "HSU" Kosugi（小杉隼太）, according to this Musixmatch page, the song goes into how love is the reassuring constant navigating throughout the vagaries and superficialities of life; sounds like a more hopeful version of a certain City Pop song I and millions of other people know.
HSU's melody is a pleasant smooth drive with the top down on the Shuto Expressway. A differently arranged version of "Miree" (below) was provided on the band's first full album"The Bay" which came out in July 2015. This one has more of a beefier bass and seems a bit more measured in overall delivery, and I think I prefer the single.
I've already posted a number of Art of Noise articles in the past ten years as parts of the Reminiscings of Youth file here on KKP, and indeed, the avant-garde synthpop group consisting of Anne Dudley, Trevor Horn and all of the rest made up some of the most incredible collages of sounds to form music to add pleasure to my time in the 1980s. By the time that they came up with their version of "Dragnet" for the movie starring Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks in 1987, they were very much a welcome part and parcel of the decade's pop panoply.
However, several years earlier, I was honestly taken aback and maybe even somewhat intimidated by the Art of Noise when I heard their December 1983 debut single"Beatbox". It was nothing that I had ever heard before; they made this beloved song in the breakdancing world out of various sounds which emanated like and not like human voices screeching out a march alongside some pounding percussion and perhaps my first exposure to orchestral hits.
I've read and heard that there have been various takes (or diversions) on "Beatbox" on record and in music video. If so, then the music video below is the one that I've seen because I remember seeing that image of the London police officer getting duplicated and stretched out. It was quite the tourist video for London as well.
Among all of the diversions (I've seen No. 10), I think the one that I heard the most on radio was Diversion 1 which lasts more than eight minutes and finishes with a classy classical piano take on the core song. It's almost as if AON was trying to let us know that no matter all of the technology and sampling, music still comes down to a basic beautiful melody played out on an old-fashioned instrument.
So, as I said, "Beat Box" was released in December 1983. What else was being released in Japan in that month?
The last time I wrote about Ritsuko Kazami（風見律子）, it was for the mysterious and panther-y "Yoru no Subete"（夜のすべて）from her 1985 debut album "Kiss of Fire". It has quite the bass synthesizer thrumming throughout the song which seems to have some of that City Pop and some of that throwback exotic kayo.
Well, another track from "Kiss of Fire" is "Karui Kankei"(Slight Connection) which takes things a little more into the blippity-bloppity technopop while filtering some chugging train-like jazz rhythm. Not surprisingly, words and music were provided by Haruo Chikada（近田春夫）who knows something about the eclectic stuff. Some nice harmonizing between Kazami and who I think is Chikada himself on background vocals.
The above is a photo of Šarengrad, Syrmia, Croatia. If I'm not mistaken, I believe my English circle of well-to-do ladies took a trip to Croatia some years ago for about a week and found it wonderful.
But that wasn't the only reason for me to post this particular photo from Wikimedia Commons. The other explanation is that I'd wanted to write about this folk song which was originally created and recorded by Croatian (formerly a part of Yugoslavia) singer-songwriter Vlaho Paljetak (1893 – 1944).
Now, to be honest, when I first came across "O Marijana", I had half-jokingly thought that we had a "Kusuri wo Takusan"（くすりをたくさん）situation here. But no...this has nothing to do with a love of a certain notorious weed but ardor for a beautiful lass by the name of Marijana. Covered by Nara-born singer Seiji Tanaka（田中星児）as his 6th single from 1976, the singer himself provided the Japanese lyrics. In a way, Tanaka's rendition reminds me of some of the music from Bobby Vinton who was popular in the same decade. The song was used as the theme for a TBS morning information program of the time called "Hachi-ji no Sora"（8時の空...The Sky at 8 O'Clock）.
Some songs are so perfect they feel timeless, “Georgia on My Mind” is one of those songs.
Originally composed by Hoagy Carmichael, the song became truly definitive through Ray Charles’ legendary rendition. There’s absolutely no way to improve on it. That hasn’t stopped countless artists from trying their hand at their own renditions, although one that stood out to me was the cover by George Yanagi (柳ジョージ).
George Yanagi was a Yokohama-born rock artist whose music clearly drew inspiration from old-school rhythm and blues, so it makes sense that he would eventually take on a classic like “Georgia on My Mind.” His version appeared on his 1989 albumGood Times 3. It’s a decent cover, but its also very clearly modeled after Michael Bolton’s version from that same year.
What really caught me off guard, though, was discovering that seven years earlier, George had already performed the song live at his 1982 concert at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo—alongside Ray Charles himself.
Now that's much better.
And I’m not just saying that because Ray is there. I genuinely enjoy George’s raspy vocals, and I think he gives a stronger performance in this live duet than he does on the later studio recording. Plus I prefer the more orchestral arrangement here over the more pop sounding one. What’s funny is that, in the comments of the video, people who had the privilege to actually attended the concert mentioned that George seemed visibly nervous onstage.
I mean… yeah. He was standing next to Ray Charles, singing one of the greatest songs of all time. I’d be nervous too.
But honestly, I think he pulled it off. And from the sound of it, Ray seemed to enjoy singing with him as well.
Let me know which version you prefer, and in the mean time check out George Yanagi's original music as well. If you're a fan of Blues Rock and Heartland music, his 1991 album, Raw, is pretty good for that. And if you need something from his 70s output, You cant go wrong with his Rainy Wood classic, Weeping in the Rain
It was exactly two months ago that I posted singer-songwriter Tomoko Koyano's（古谷野とも子）most recent article and that was for her 1978 number"Shiawase Modoki"（幸わせもどき）which translates into "Fake Happiness". For me, it sounded a little bit ahead of its time and had quite some cool groove.
Well, her second single from April 1975 was "Shiawase"...just plain "Happiness", so I gather that the cynicism hadn't quite landed yet. Written and composed by Koyano with Ichizo Seo（瀬尾一三）providing the arrangement, "Shiawase" comes across as a languid and sunny pop song of the 1970s which brings to mind something that the Carpenters would tackle...that oboe in there always sparks off Karen Carpenter in my engrams. Plus, being early in her career, the singer sounds a little flightier and more uncertain in her vocals. Not sure whether "Shiawase Modoki" was meant to be her own response song to "Shiawase".
