Yoru ga Kuru (夜がくる）by Asei Kobayashi

   A lot of typical weeaboos fantasies about visiting Japan go something like, “I want to go to Shibuya,” or “I want to visit a maid café.”

Me? I'm a simple man.

I just want to sit down at a old izakaya and enjoy a glass of that good old Suntory Old Whisky.

Suntory it is certainly one of the country’s most famous and recognizable brands. Its commercials are especially iconic—and they happen to be some of my favorite advertisements of all time.

I still remember the first time I saw the classic 1969 commercial. 

A tall foreign traveler walks into what appears to be a traditional Japanese inn. Without needing to say a word, the hostess seems to understand exactly what he wants. Before long, the two are sharing glasses from a bottle of Suntory Old.

It’s a simple commercial, but it’s effortlessly cool and classy. More importantly, its music is unforgettable.

The commercial’s theme,  “Yoru ga Kuru/夜が来る” (The Night Comes.) , written by composer Asei Kobayashi (小林亜星), is a short but catchy combination of bluesy guitar and soulful jazz scatting. The piece was reportedly originally titled “Ningen Mina Kyōdai,” or “All Humans Are Brothers.” Which I think perfectly captures the atmosphere these commercials were trying to create. 

The original vocalist performing the memorable scat singing was reportedly Silas Mosley, an acquaintance of Kobayashi’s. Mosley was also a theology professor at Sophia University and a gospel singer, still looking for photos of the guy but his work can be found in anthology album called "The History of Jazz, The Birth of the Blues" by Jinichi Uekusa (植草甚一).

Over time, “Yoru ga Kuru” became an iconic piece of Japanese popular culture. Suntory has continued using the melody for decades, and it remains closely associated with the brand. There is also a version featuring actual lyrics, sung by Kobayashi himself. That rendition is quite good, but there is something especially grounded and inviting about the original, wordless jingle.

Maybe it’s the simplicity of it. The gentle guitar, the relaxed scatting, and the dimly lit atmosphere make it feel less like an advertisement and more like the beginning of a good evening.

Creating a genuinely memorable commercial jingle is difficult, but Suntory struck gold with this one. Even after all these years, the moment that melody begins, you immediately understand the mood: the day is over, the night has arrived, and it’s time to pour a drink.

Hopefully, one day, I’ll get to sit at a quiet bar in Japan, order a glass of Suntory Old, and hear some old man on guitar singing “Ba di dum dum dum Shoobie da dum” somewhere in the background.

Now that would be a dream come true.

Saori Hareyama -- Ichi-en Dama no Tabigarasu（一円玉の旅がらす）

By Monaneko via Wikimedia Commons

For the past several years, we Canadians have been getting along in our economy without the one-cent coin, aka the penny. Rounding up and down has been our way of circumventing the lack of that copper disc when paying in cash here in the Great White North. And yet...and I will apologize to Japanese currency fans in advance for what I'm about to write...the one-yen coin over there still exists despite the fact that it looks and feels more like a token to slip into a gacha-gacha machine.

And yet, the one-yen coin received its fame and appreciation in the sun when this song came out as the debut single of enka singer Saori Hareyama（晴山さおり）. Released in March 1990, "Ichi-en Dama no Tabigarasu" (The One-Yen Coin Vagabond) was presented so that the coin was depicted as the typical historical lone-wolf hero on the byways and highways of Japan. At around the same time, the consumption tax was first applied to the bills of the Japanese public so that having all of those one-yen coins became rather precious in trying to provide exact change.

Written by Toyohisa Araki（荒木とよひさ）and composed by Tetsuya Gen（弦哲也）, it was created as this rather robust if playful enka performed by the then-16-year-old Hareyama from Kanagawa Prefecture. I first saw and heard it played on a recent episode of "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）and just from how it sounded and what the song was about, I figured that it would have ended up on NHK's music vignette show "Minna no Uta"（みんなのうた）, and sure enough it was there.

"Ichi-en Dama no Tabigarasu" won a number of awards including Best New Artist for Hareyama who was especially lauded for her kobushi, the vibrato technique that is vital to any enka singer. Hareyama's career in singing had started when she won an award in NHK's amateur singing program "Nodo Jiman"（のど自慢）in 1988. Following that debut, however, her career failed to stay on fire and by 1992, she went into temporary retirement. She decided to give it another go for another decade beginning in 1995, but this time, she went along more of a pop vein although eventually nothing really took off for her.

STUTS & Taeko Onuki - Ohayō (おはよう)

Its always refreshing to know that older artist you grew up listening to still have "the sauce", and they can still turn out great music years later. It's kind of like seeing an old friend years later and knowing that he's doing great in life. That's kinda' how I felt after hearing Taeko Ohnuki's voice in the new song "Ohayo"( (おはよう) / Good Moring).

Produced and arranged by the artist STUTS, Ohayo feels like the perfect marriage between Ohnuki's 70s sophisticated jazz sound and the modern indie/ lo-fi vibe that us chronically online folks have grown accustomed to. We even get a relaxing music video accompanying the song, which I gotta say, this is probably the best music video I've seen for a City Pop song, ever. 

We follow a day in the life of nameless woman as she runs her motorcycle garage, located somewhere what looks to be Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong). We even gets some lovely shots of Enoshima Island in the background as she rides her own bike down the highway as she greets all her neighbors throughout the peaceful coastal town. We even gets some cameos from SPUTS and Ohnuki scattered throughout the video. 

I've never heard of STUTS before this song, but after exploring some of his other work, he seems to be a really good producer. The Nagoya born musician really excels at creating a nostalgic sound clearly influenced by 90s hip hop, House, and R&B. I think any Nujabes fans will gravitate forwards this guy real well. 

If you want to get a good sense of his style, I'd recommended checking out his Tiny Desk concert.

 Overall I think Ohayo is the perfect marriage of old & new and show cases both artists strengths very well. I think anyone who misses the easy listening quality of Taeko Ohnuki's music and those who are on the search fore more beats to study to will both be satisfied. 

Momoe Yamaguchi -- Harukaze no Itazura（春風のいたずら）

Amazon.jp

This Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）song was recommended to me by a commenter a few days ago and it turns out to be her fourth single that I hadn't known about. "Harukaze no Itazura" (Spring Wind Mischief) which was released in March 1974 arrived between a couple of arguably more well-known hits by the famed 70s aidoru and actress, "Kinjirareta Asobi"（禁じられた遊び）from November 1973 and "Hito Natsu no Keiken"（ひと夏経験）from November 1974.

As with those two songs, "Harukaze no Itazura" was written by Kazuya Senke（千家和也）and composed by Shunichi Tokura（都倉俊一）. The arrangement by Shunichi Makaino（馬飼野俊一）was reflective of what Momoe's early material sounded like: light and bouncy kayo paired with her younger and higher-pitched vocals. It's all about a young girl who's gotten so distraught after a fight with the boyfriend that she's gotten lost somewhere in the big cruel city while a cold spring wind is blowing. If Momoe's late-career persona of jaded mankiller ever saw this lass, she would have either taken her under her wing or perhaps given her a sneer and internally told her to dry up.

"Harukaze no Itazura" reached No. 11 on Oricon and ended up as the 85th-ranked single for 1974. The song was also included on her 3rd studio album "Juu-go Sai no Tehma ~ Momoe no Kisetsu"（15歳のテーマ 百恵の季節...Theme of 15 Years Old ~ Momoe's Season） which came out in April 1974 and reached No. 7 on the album charts.

Wink -- Manatsu no Tremolo（真夏のトレモロ）

From YouTube

I'd been noticing it for a while but the Labels on the right had been showing 1,990 articles under the Aidoru tag. Well then, I decided (having that little bit of whimsy inside me) that the next article regarding an aidoru wouldn't only be the 1991st article but also an article about an aidoru with a song from the year 1991.

Well, when I think of aidoru from 1991, my first thought will always concoct the duo Wink. And sure enough, I found their 11th single from June of that year, "Manatsu no Tremolo" (Midsummer Tremolo). It's a song that I hadn't heard in so long and yet when I made my reacquaintance with it yesterday, the memories came back and I gave myself a Gibbs slap for forgetting about it in the first place.

First off, I'm not a musicologist or a musician, so I had to find out what a tremolo is. According to Wikipedia:

Tremolo: "trembling" or "quivering". In music, it describes a wavering effect created either by repeating a single note very quickly, rapidly alternating between two different notes, or quickly varying the volume of a sound.

Now, as to how a tremolo fits into a Wink single, I'm not sure. Perhaps Neko Oikawa's（及川眠子）lyrics refer to a young lady quivering herself over some sort of love affair. Takashi Kudo's（工藤崇）melody with Satoshi Kadokura's（門倉聡）arrangement is right along the Wink formula of synth-heavy Eurobeat (although I could use a confirmation or denial on whether "Manatsu no Tremolo" would be considered Eurobeat), and again I'm not sure if any tremolo effect had been employed in the music. 

The music video above was also one of a number of such Wink videos that employed a ton of computer graphics. The effects company staffers probably didn't have to worry about their kids' tuition for college during the Wink heyday. In any case, "Manatsu no Tremolo" hit No. 2 on Oricon, going Gold. By the end of 1991, the song was the 63rd-ranked single of the year. It was also placed as a track on Wink's 6th album "Queen of Love" which was released in July that same year.

Masahiro Kuwana -- Limelight（ライム・ライト）

From Rakuten

Just by coincidence, I noticed that yesterday would have been singer-songwriter Masahiro Kuwana's（桑名正博）73rd birthday. Unfortunately though, the native of Osaka had passed away at the age of 59 in 2012 from heart failure.

I came across this track from his 5th album titled "Kuwana No. 5" from June 1979. "Limelight" is a cool and strutting number that has been classified as blues-rock and I can also throw in City Pop and New Music into the mix. With lyrics by Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）, "Limelight" was composed by Kuwana while its arrangement was handled by the singer and Canadian-American composer and arranger David Campbell. Noting how TOTO-like the song felt, I tried to search whether Campbell had anything to do with the legendary American band. I couldn't find anything definitive but the man has worked with artists on both sides of the Pacific including X Japan, Chika Ueda（上田知華）, Jackson Browne and Carole King.

Anri -- Sentimental Express

 

When it comes to Anri's（杏里）albums, I've devoted articles to them such as her 1981 "Kanashimi no Kujaku" （哀しみの孔雀）and her 1988 "Boogie Woogie Mainland". And then there are times when I cover individual tracks from an album through individual articles over many years. I think her "Mystique" from June 1986 is one such example and I'm going with the most updated version with the bonus tracks from 2011. Thus far, I've done "Innocent Time", "Morning Squall/Evening Rain"（モーニング スコール）and "Honeymoon Shuttle"（蜜月船）. 

From what I've read of "Mystique" on J-Wiki (which peaked at No. 6 on Oricon), it seems as if Anri had wanted to once more have a clean slate with a new album with help from new songwriters and new sounds, without any assistance from Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）who had been producing and writing for her for several years prior. In a way, it reminds me of the aforementioned "Kanashimi no Kujaku" which was also quite a different project for Anri which involved her trying out different things there as well.

I have here her second track from "Mystique", "Sentimental Express". And although this is not a Kadomatsu-penned number per se, it is still City Pop with that crystalline synth, boppy bass, a good bouncy rhythm and a nice battery of horns. What's interesting is that "Sentimental Express" may have been the first collaboration among composer Anri, lyricist Yumi Yoshimoto（吉本由美）and arranger Yasuharu Ogura（小倉泰治）. Getting into Japan in 1989, it became a tradition for me to buy up new Anri albums at the CD shops. Starting with "Boogie Woogie Mainland", I saw that songwriting triangle of Anri, Yoshimoto and Ogura becoming the main engine behind the next few albums of hers leading from the late 80s into the early 90s as the singer adopted more American R&B dance pop. If "Sentimental Express" had been an audition of sorts for Yoshimoto and Ogura, then they passed swimmingly.