Chu Kosaka & Makoto Iwabuchi -- Rainbow

 

Probably would have preferred Kayo Grace and Mr. Calico to have stood a little farther away from the number, but in all of the excitement about writing the 2700th City Pop article on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" a few minutes ago, I completely overlooked the fact that the blog itself surpassed the 20 million view mark some time in the last 24 hours. 

Thank you, Mr. DiCaprio! And congratulations yourself on "One Battle After Another" winning Best Picture although I'm sorry that you didn't get that Best Actor Oscar.

It's rather amazing that the views are already more than 70,000 deep beyond 20,000,000 so let's get at it with another song. First off, although I have separate articles for Makoto Iwabuchi（岩渕まこと）and the late great Chu Kosaka（小坂忠）, I had no idea that they also worked together as a duo for several years in the 1980s and 1990s, putting out a lot of albums together.

One album, released in 1982, is "Best Friend", and the cover has Iwabuchi and Kosaka looking very chummy. I managed to find one track "Rainbow" which brings in friendly folk and a hint of that Margaritaville AOR into the proceedings. It's just the melodic tonic for a cool and relaxing Sunday drive out in the countryside or the beachside. Not quite ready for that activity here in Toronto yet, but perhaps this time next month, things will have meteorologically improved.

Junko Yagami -- Koi no Smash Hit（恋のスマッシュ・ヒット）

 

I only noticed this some minutes ago, but this article will become the 2700th such article under the City Pop banner since beginning "Kayo Kyoku Plus" in 2012.

Thank you, thank you!

And who better to share this honour than with one of the greatest representatives of City Pop, singer-songwriter Junko Yagami（八神純子）? She was looking rather glammed up and Blondie-ish in that bold striped dress against the red-and-black background. I'd probably say that it is one of the more famous images of the Aichi Prefecture-born singer as a cover for her 16th single "Koi no Smash Hit" (I WANNA MAKE A HIT WIT-CHOO) from July 1983.

To be honest, "Koi no Smash Hit" wasn't a smash hit, only getting as high as No. 61 on Oricon, but for the fans, it's another jewel in the crown and kinda shows Yagami's transition from her City Pop phase into a more West Coast R&B sound going into the middle of the 1980s. She wasn't even behind words and music this time around...they were provided by lyricist Frank Musker and composer Louis St. Louis. I think the song is also notable for the cameo appearance of what sounds like the turbolift doors on the USS Enterprise and the somewhat tongue-in-cheek lyrics with Junko having a grand ol' time singing about simultaneously getting her guy and getting that Grammy with this creation. Her 6th album from the same month is also titled "I WANNA MAKE A HIT WIT-CHOO" and it did better in comparison than the single by peaking at No. 16.

EVE -- Sugar Sugar

 

I figure that if I can get a Eurobeat song onto the blog last month, thanks to Yoshimi Yokosuka（横須賀昌美）, I can do so here in March as well.

And this time, it's by the group EVE that seemed to be omnipresent in the music world back in the 1980s since they popped up backing up a lot of other artists in the recording studio. This time, though, the Sisters Shinzato from Okinawa are front and centre with their second single as a group, "Sugar Sugar" which came out in August 1987. Written by two of the sisters, Clare & Leona, with Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）handling the arrangement under his nom de plume Mark Davis (man, he's been a busy man today after providing his services for the song of the previous article), I'm sure that he made Stock, Aitken & Waterman very proud with his Eurobeat tendencies. "Sugar Sugar" peaked at No. 77 on Oricon.

Issei Endo -- Kono Mama Truly（このままTRULY）

 

Well, spring officially arrived at 10:46 am this morning. The problem here in Toronto is that everyone got the memo except for spring itself. It's been a cold and dreary day with freezing rain intermittently falling as I type this.

Ahh...that is just meteorological life in the largest city in Canada. Anyways, let's go to something more hopeful and cheerful. The uploader for the above video stated that he first heard singer-songwriter Issei Endo's（円道一成）"Kono Mama Truly" (Just Like This, Truly) on some late-night TV commercial as a jingle for something alcoholic. Not a bad thing to hear in the overnight hours. I could actually happily fall back into La-La Land listening to this or stay up savoring the music in my head.

Yup, I do like "Kono Mama Truly" which was released as a single in January 1986 (kinda like the "Miami Vice" threads there, Issei), according to Discogs. The singer was behind words and music with Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）providing the arrangement which hints at some old-time wonderful Motown soul. Maybe it is truly meant to be enjoyed along with some libations.

Blondie -- Rapture

 

I can't quite remember how records and tapes by the big artists were being distributed back in my teenage years, and the reason I'm starting out this way is that the first time that I'd heard Blondie's "Rapture" was actually through one of those K-Tel compilation records in which there was one quick cut of the music video where Debbie Harry was holding her head while she purred the title. Now, I would think by that point, the song had long been released as a single and as part of an album, and so I was wondering why I hadn't heard of this one before. Blondie was already big in the world so I should have heard this one already on the radio or television.

Well, in any case, I eventually did hear the totality of the song and caught the video after it had been released in January 1981. "Rapture" was basically the first time that I ever heard rap in any form. Harry was talking in some rhythmic pattern about eating Cadillacs and entire bars which struck me as being some sort of weird New Wave-y thing. I think the only time that I heard anything similar to that was when I was watching a segment on "Sesame Street" featuring a cartoon bear pattering the first five numbers to a beatnik jazz beat.

In any case, Harry apparently had two parts to the song: the first part had her singing in those fluffy light vocals which reminded me of "Heart of Glass" and then the rap part in the latter half had her utilizing those richer and lower tones from "The Tide is High". Looking back at the song after so many years, "Rapture" certainly doesn't strike me as the usual rap tune with the tubular bells and the disco rhythms in there. Plus, I'm sure when the video was first shown, maybe there had been a disclaimer stating that one shouldn't be under the influence while watching it. Aside from Harry, the one other character that I still remember is the so-called "Man from Mars" in his white suit and top hat.

"Rapture" hit No. 1 in the United States while it reached No. 3 in Canada. I also recently found out through the YouTube comments for the song that it had become part of the lore in "The Boys" with Soldier Boy doing a cover on "Solid Gold". Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing Captain America trying it out himself.

Anyways, right on the day that "Rapture" was released, these three songs were at the top of the Oricon chart.

1. Masahiko Kondo -- Sneaker Blues (スニーカーぶるーす）

2. Harumi Miyako -- Osaka Shigure （大阪しぐれ）

3. Mayumi Itsuwa -- Koibito yo （恋人よ）

Nash Music Library -- Summer Things

From Amal Suthan via Wikimedia Commons

Well, it's a heck of a thing to come up with a summer song when spring here in Toronto doesn't arrive for another several hours. However, I know that Torontonians are absolutely biting their lips at even the slightest opportunity to enjoy the hot season once more after one of the more enervating winters in recent memory. 

Unfortunately, I can't bring the heat and the rest of the summer weather but at least we can live a bit vicariously through music. Specifically, I can show another song from the vast discography of Nash Music Library. "Summer Things" comes from their March 2018 collection "Happy Hours" and it's a very skippy and heat-inducing song that even includes a bit of soft rap/vocalese near the end of this short and sweet tune. 

Takako Ohta -- Merry-Go-Round

 

We've been getting reminders of it this week but as of tomorrow and for the whole weekend, Toronto Comicon will be making its presence known at the Metro Convention Centre by the lake. I've been to the summer Fan Expo but not to the spring Comicon (and indeed, spring does arrive tomorrow), although from what I've seen of the video above of last year's version, there doesn't seem to be anything really different. Anime and cosplay will show up as usual. I'd been thinking of putting up a list of the most popular anime cosplayers but the list doesn't include any show I know very well. I've heard of "Jujutsu Kaisen" and "Chainsaw Man" but never got into those. 

Amazon.ca

Just to warn viewers, this is going to be a very shoehorned segue but perhaps for anyone interested in the old DC comics, there is the superhero and stage magician Zatanna. Maybe someone at a Comicon anywhere around the world could dress up like her.

AND SPEAKING OF MAGICIANS (ahem), we have Takako Ohta's（太田貴子）10th album "Magician" from October 1989. One track from this one is "Merry-Go-Round" which is this synthpop concoction written by Hideyuki Yamamoto（山本秀行）and composed by Masaya Ozeki（尾関昌也）. At first, I'd wondered whether this would fall into the Eurobeat category, but then I opted to keep it within pop. But you folks can listen to it and decide.