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.
Happy Friday! Well, things are supposedly falling into place for Toronto's contribution to the World Cup next week. I'm casually interested in the soccer that's to be played but to be honest, I was looking more at what restaurants representing the other nations in Canada's group will be cooking up.
Speaking about what someone is cooking up, it looks like Mariko Tone's（刀根麻理子）protagonist in her song "Private Number" is getting quite hot and bothered about her beau. Must be early times in the relationship but she's more than happy to give the lad her special phone number. "Private Number" starts out a bit tinny tropical but then the synth thrums in along with the persistent percussion before things get all funky and even some Motown. Of course, gotta have that City Pop saxophone and the horns in there, too.
"Private Number" is available on Tone's June 1986 3rd album"Naturally". It was written by Linda Hennrick, composed by Goji Tsuno（つのごうじ）and arranged by Shiro Sagisu（鷺巣詩郎）.
As KKP readers know, I do the weekly Reminiscings of Youth on Thursday and I did provide the one for Nik Kershaw earlier this afternoon. However, considering what I've heard in the last 24 hours or so, I feel that I have to write one more ROY tonight especially in the light of the passings of a few Japanese representatives in the music industry within the last month: songwriters Yuji Ohno（大野雄二）and Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）along with singer Yoichi Sugawara（菅原洋一）.
Singer Peabo Bryson passed away on June 2nd a couple of days ago at the age of 75 due to what may have been a stroke. The obituaries on television often mentioned his 90s duets for "Aladdin" and "Beauty of the Beast", but I had known him for a decade prior because of his songs coming onto radio frequently. And he's already got representation on KKP through two of those wonderful melodies from his work with Roberta Flack via the 1983 album"Born to Love".
The following year, another wonderful ballad was released by Bryson titled "If Ever You're in My Arms Again", which came out in April 1984. It's a lush Quiet Storm ballad of second chances that was created by Cynthia Weil, Michael Masser and Tom Snow, and listening to it once more reminded me that they don't come up with this sort of love song anymore. Some of those notes he hits! From the list of musicians involved, I notice that at least a few of them have worked with Japanese singers such as guitarist Paul Jackson Jr. and bassist Neil Steubenhaus. On the Adult Contemporary charts in both Canada and the United States, the song hit No. 1 with it staying at the top of the US chart for four weeks. I'm glad that a new generation is discovering his wonderful abilities.
My condolences go out to Bryson's family, friends and many fans.
What else was coming out as singles in April 1984 in Japan?
As is the case with many people, I appreciate a swig of ice-cold orange juice in the morning, just before I plow into breakfast. That tang of citric acid is part of what I need (along with the cup of coffee) to rev myself up from too little sleep.
Now, let's go back to the morning of December 31st 2025. Because of the 14-hour time difference between Toronto and Tokyo, the Kohaku Utagassen that started broadcasting at 7:30 pm JST was shown live here in my humble abode at 5:30 am EST. Of course, since the Japanese TV service Jme is a streaming service, I couldn't save the show into storage. Sure, the New Year's Eve special was also being shown at later times and dates up to January 3rd but I just had to see it live. Not exactly in the most alert or happiest of moods, I set everything up and the Kohaku began as scheduled. Then I saw this performance:
If I'm not mistaken, the aidoru group CANDY TUNE started the ball rolling for the 2025 edition and, boy did it wake me up...or maybe the better expression is that it blew me awake! All that cheerfulness and high-pitched voicing had a much more excessive effect on me than anything that orange juice could provide. The group only came into being in 2023 but around a year later in April 2024, they released their digital single "Bai Bai Fight!" (Double Double Fight!) as this dempagumi march of hyperspeed energy and happiness but for some reason, the ladies didn't get their invitation to the Kohaku until over a year later.
Couldn't quite sink down into my armchair to doze off after that and I actually held off on writing anything about this pure adrenaline of a song. But then, a few weeks ago when I was watching an excerpt on the national broadcaster's "Asaichi"（あさイチ）morning information program that dealt with the comedic duo Sandwich Man traveling to various hospitals to cheer up and talk with patients, I saw one conversation they had with one young man. Several months earlier, he had suffered a major stroke which left his left side paralyzed. To be sure, those were tough times but he stated that he stuck with the difficult rehabilitation regimen while listening to "Bai Bai Fight!" as an aural tonic to keep him putting up the fight, and he made it through perfectly. The power of music, eh? I found my hook to bring it onto the blog.
"Bai Bai Fight!" was written and composed by Tamaya 2060%（玉屋2060%）. May this energize you up!
I hadn't quite understood what the music video for Nik Kershaw's January 1984 hit "Wouldn't It Be Good?" was all about but dang, I really did enjoy the New Wave song. I finally realized that Kershaw had been acting as some alien curious about what humans were like and after having a good tasting, decided that they weren't all that healthy after all and scampered back off to his home planet.
Still, as I said, "Wouldn't It Be Good?" was a good load of fun to listen to, and just for YMOfan04's benefit, I can explain that the synths used were a PPG Wave 2.2 and a Yamaha DX7. It made for quite an interesting riff, and I was surprised to find out that the cool instrumental bridge in the extended version was actually an "orchestra of electric guitars" rather than a bank of synth-horns which now makes things even cooler.
I'd probably say that I heard "Wouldn't It Be Good?" more on the radio than saw the video on TV. The radio back then was giving it a whole lot of heavy airplay. In Canada, it hit No. 9 on RPM and in the United States, it only got as high as No. 46. Meanwhile in Kershaw's UK, it peaked at No. 4 on the OCC.
So, what was occupying the Oricon charts a few days following the release of "Wouldn't It Be Good?" in the world? I have Nos. 5, 6 and 7.
Back on March 26th, I provided an article on Tomoyo Harada's（原田知世）"Hoshi no Deja Vu"（星のデジャ・ヴ）, a pleasant and wistful song that works fine with the aidoru's soft and purring vocals. It was also the B-side to her7th single from July 1985, "Soushun Monogatari"（Early Spring Story）.
So, finally we've come to the A-side, and "Soshun Monogatari", which was also used as the theme song for a Harada movie of the same name, is a pretty different animal. Written by Chinfa Kan（康珍化）and composed by Hideya Nakazaki（中崎英也）, it was arranged by Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）into this ballroom waltz style in triple time according to the J-Wiki article. It's quite the moody and bittersweet affair but it doesn't quite encapsulate the plot of the movie which is pretty wild from what I could read on its Wikipedia page.
"Soshun Monogatari" reached No. 4 on Oricon and ended up as the 73rd-ranked song for 1985, selling a little over 160,000 records. Harada made her first appearance on the Kohaku Utagassen that year singing this one.
I remember the Yellow Magic Orchestra single "Taiso"（体操）with its upbeat melody and its message of up-and-at-'em just to rouse up the kids for the morning exercise session. The music video made me wonder how much in the way of stimulants and the like were pumped into its production, though.
There's a bit of lyrical psychedelia as well in the B-side for "Taiso", although the more dramatic "Tegakari"(Key) didn't get its own video which is too bad in a way. Haruomi Hosono's（細野晴臣）words seem to describe a depressed fellow who's ended up in a one-person video adventure game that could also serve as a mindscape aching to be analyzed by a psychiatrist for their thesis. Hosono and YMO drummer and vocalist Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏）came up with the urgent pounding melody that could make that fellow build up quite a sweat as he's running up and down those hills in the gamescape.
This isn't true with everybody but sometimes I associated certain bands and singers with famous areas. Southern All Stars（サザン・オール・スターズ）will always be connected to seaside Chigasaki because they are from that area, so that is easy. However on the other hand, I've felt that the late kayo chanteuse Keiko Fuji（藤圭子）and Shinjuku made a good pairing (although she's originally from Hokkaido) not only because she sang "Shinjuku no Onna"（新宿の女）but she just fit that urban angst in the back streets of that Tokyo neighbourhood.
This is straight from their website. Please don't kill me, Momo and Koharu.
Well, as for the eclectic accordion-driven sibling duo Charan-Po-Rantan（チャラン・ポ・ランタン）, I picture them setting up shop in the shitamachi districts of Tokyo such as Ueno or Kanda. They actually do hail from the nation's capital (though the sisters Momo and Koharu were born in Chiba) but I don't know exactly where they were raised. Now as to why I think they feel just at home in the traditional quarter of town, and this is even before they released their album of kayo covers "Showa Hyaku Nen"(The 100th Year of the Showa Era) on Christmas Eve last year, their music always hit me as being something just as comfy, old-fashioned and woodsy as the architecture of the Taisho and early Showa eras. I'm not sure whether 2025 or 2026 would be considered Showa 100 according to the Japanese reign year system if Emperor Showa had survived up to now but let's give the sisters the benefit of a doubt.
So, let's take a look at three of the tracks from "Showa Hyaku Nen". One is a cover of Takao Hirata & Sellsters'（平田隆夫とセルスターズ）"Hachi no Musashi wa Shinda no sa"（ハチのムサシは死んだのさ）, the novelty pop hit from 1972. Some great sisterly harmonizing here with the song taking on an arrangement that seems to be part ska and part old-fashioned street band chindon'ya style. And it comes with a music video that's swift and reminiscent of the old anime style from that decade. I'm especially happy that Charan-Po-Rantan picked this one since I don't think "Hachi no Musashi wa Shinda no sa" usually gets selected in any kayo kyoku retrospective either on TV or compilation album.
Hey, and we all get a lovely video of vocalist Momo not only singing but showing off a bit of summery 80s aidoru cheesecake in the music video for the duo's rendition of Meiko Nakahara's（中原めいこ）1984 hit "Kimi Tachi Kiwi Papaya Mango da ne"（君たちキウイ・パパヤ・マンゴだね。）The Charan-Po-Rantan style is fully in play here as well.
Finally, here is the Hibari Misora（美空ひばり）classic "Makkana Taiyo"（真赤な太陽）from 1967. There's perhaps even more of a funky element in this cover and Momo adds some Ringo Shiina（椎名林檎）growl and Ego-Wrappin' attitude into her delivery. That chindon'ya saxophone really chews into the arrangement like me on a tenderloin steak. Frankly, "Makkana Taiyo" is a song that just begs to be covered in any kayo cover album because the singers can really have at it.
Feel free to take a look at the rest of the tracklist via the link to the album above and there are some more of the songs up on YouTube.
