Masaki Sato -- Snow Dancer

 

I'm sure that a lot of folks in my neck of the woods would greatly prefer not to hear the word "snow" for the next several months at least. It was a very long and cold winter and even now, things are still pretty cool although temperatures should be rising happily next week.

However, allow me this one. A few weeks ago, I introduced singer Masaki Sato（佐藤正樹 or 佐藤真紀）who wasn't the most prolific fellow with just two singles that I could find online thus far. I did cover his second single "Million Night" from 1983 which seems to cover a really rumbling City Pop drive down the urban highways. Well, this time, it's his debut single from 1982 which is a whole lot more congenial and jingly.

I don't mean "jingly" as in a Christmas jingle bells sort of way, though. It's more like this really does sound like a commercial jingle (and the lyrics do contain the corporate catchphrase "It's the No. 1 spirit!"). "Snow Dancer" was the 1982 campaign song for the sporting goods store Salomon, and I guess from the title, perhaps the company was aiming for the skiing set. Written and composed by the same duo behind the later "Million Night", lyricist Akira Ohtsu（大津あきら）and composer Kisaburo Suzuki（鈴木キサブロー）, the happy City Pop disco arrangement was provided by Kazuo Otani（大谷和夫）. No, perhaps there isn't a city involved with the ski resorts and slopes but skiing has been connected with the urban and urbane lifestyle for such a long time that we can give this one a pass. It's just too bad that I couldn't find the commercial itself on YouTube.

Hideki Saijo -- New York Girl

 

Yeah, I knew that Hideki Saijo（西城秀樹）had his City Pop phase going deeper into the 1980s but I didn't realize that it went quite this deep. Armed with a sparkling single cover by Hiroshi Nagai（永井博）, Saijo released his 57th single from May 1987 in the form of "New York Girl".

Beginning with a quiet intro that had me thinking of Earth Wind & Fire's "Fantasy" for a little while, "New York Girl" vaults into sultry urban dance pop action with Saijo yelling out the title throughout the song (bass addicts, you'll love this one, too). It seems the song was created for Saijo right from the start with keyboardist and record producer George Duke and Shalamar member Howard Hewitt creating the song while future AKB48 Svengali Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）came up with the Japanese lyrics. "New York Girl" managed to peak at No. 50 on Oricon. The Japanese version is above while the English B-side is below. Its first appearance on an album was on the December 1987 version of "BEST PACK/Saijo Hideki".

Hiromi Ohta -- Unlimited（∞）

 

Hiromi Ohta's（太田裕美）trademark song will forever be "Momen no Handkerchief" (木綿のハンカチーフ）. It has that fresh countryside feeling of innocence and hope emanating from a young lady. Written by Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）, composed by Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）and arranged by Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）, one couldn't have asked for a steadier trio of song creators to weave this hit.

But guess what? I guess that young lady simply couldn't resist that pull from Tokyo or whatever huge metropolis was close to her small town. She finally relented and took the train and ran into the disco to dance out her passions. And that's where we are with "Unlimited" which is represented by the "∞" on Ohta's source album "Umi ga Naiteiru"（海が泣いている...The Sea is Crying） from December 1978. It also happens to be the final track on the album, so I guess Ohta wanted us to continue all of the nocturnal dancing.

The crazy and wonderful thing is that Matsumoto, Tsutsumi and Hagita were also all in on this number as well which had me thinking mirror ball, Bee Gees and flashing floor panels. But then again, back in those 1970s, when it came to disco stuff, Tsutsumi was the go-to guy for the melodies. That piano instrumental break followed by the electric guitar is absolutely sublime to me. Enjoy boogeying the night away!

Piper -- Sunshine Kiz

 

Y'know...taking a look at the above music video for Piper's 1984 single "Sunshine Kiz", I would have bet that this had been filmed almost a good half-decade earlier when the City Pop group led by vocalist Keisuke Yamamoto （山本圭右）had their Early Installment Weirdness phase with lots of sung songs. The video has a bit of that cringey factor with the members goofing around but it's not quite as eye-squinting as the music video for YMO's "Kimi ni Mune Kyun"（君に、胸キュン）which had been released a year earlier.

Still, "Sunshine Kiz" has that City Pop feeling of summery groove and good times from decades ago. The strange "ooh-wah-ooh-wah" vocalization aside, I will always welcome the boppy bass and the Fender Rhodes which practically demand an icy cocktail and a beach umbrella. The titular sunshine kids are probably around my age now and just about to get their retirement funds, but hey, they can now spend a lot of time by the sea.

Miho Nakayama -- Sweetest Lover

Happy Friday! We're at the end of another work week so as far as "Kayo Kyoku Plus" is concerned, it's time for some urban contemporary material. A few nights ago before I went to sleep, I decided to listen to the late Miho Nakayama's（中山美穂）"angel hearts" album from December 1988. 

I'd expected "angel hearts" to launch with a bang such as one of her dance-pop numbers created by Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）...although Kadomatsu had nothing to do with this album. Actually, the only biggest constant in the songwriting crew is Chinfa Kan（康珍化）, but for this first song, "Sweetest Lover", it was Miporin herself that came up with the lyrics of dedication to the love of one's life; mind you, she went under the pen name of Mizuho Kitayama（北山瑞穂）. The very tender soulful ballad melody was created by another singer-songwriter who also left us very prematurely, CINDY, with Ichizo Seo（瀬尾一三）handling the arrangement. 

"Sweetest Lover" sounds like a nice comfortable way to ease into the waters of "angel hearts" and the style of the song reminds me some of the balladry that was coming out back in those 80s in the States. I'll have to see if I can cover the rest of the album but I'll have to re-listen to it once more; it did too good a job of sending me off to La-La Land.

Madonna -- Material Girl

 

Welcome to the weekly Reminiscings of Youth for this Thursday. I heard that Madonna was coming out with a new album sometime later this year. I went WOW since for a guy like me who's nearing retirement age, I first knew about Ms. Ciccone when I was in my late teens. Man, has this been a career for her!

Since hearing her for the first time back in 1983 for "Holiday", it was pretty much Madonna everywhere for the rest of the 1980s. I'm not sure how many nicknames she's picked up during that time, but one of them was The Material Girl because of that January 1985 single, "Material Girl", and it's the nickname that I usually associate with her (I just read that she hasn't been too fond of that one, though).

As with a lot of her hits, "Material Girl" was all over the airwaves and the music video was on heavy rotation on the local video shows with her going all Marilyn Monroe. Songwriters Peter Brown and Robert Rans wrote the lyrics to show that Madonna was all about the glam and goodies but the music video impressed upon the viewers that she was quite the opposite. The melody itself hit me as a synthy and slightly sinful song for Madonna done up in a cutesy yet sly fashion, and it was quite the change to see the lady done up in a totally different fashion compared to her previous videos. I also forgot that there were a couple of other celebs involved in the video: Keith Carradine and Robert Wuhl.

"Material Girl" reached No. 2 on America's Billboard and No. 4 on Canada's RPM. So, what else was hitting the record stores in Japan in January 1985?

Yutaka Ozaki -- Sotsugyo （卒業）

Yoshie Kashiwabara -- Lonely Canary （ロンリー・カナリア）

Seiko Matsuda -- Tenshi no Wink （天使のウィンク）

Tomita Lab -- PHARMACY

 

The above video is provided by WizArno: A Magical Journey Together, and it's a most detailed tour of what is perhaps the leading drug store chain in Japan, Matsumoto Kiyoshi. It may sound like the name of an enka singer but believe you me, you'll remember it for all of the medicine, medical supplies and cosmetics that you can shake a stick at.

A while back, I posted up an article regarding one of my favourite songs, period, "Like a Queen" by Tomita Lab（富田ラボ）with the sister R&B act Soulhead providing their smooth vocals. If I ever need a pick-me-up that doesn't involve caffeine or alcohol, this is one of the songs.

Well, the original 2005 single of "Like a Queen" did have a coupling song called "PHARMACY", and to be blunt, it's not quite as catchy or epic as the main song. But it's still a Tomita Lab creation so there is still a fair bit to like. At first though, it was a little weird listening to this odd conglomeration of the typical Tomita groovy smoothness and a synth-based reggae rhythm underlying everything. If I'm not mistaken, it's Tomita himself singing the lyrics here although according to the JASRAC database, no lyricist name is given so perhaps he was winging it while recording it. And as we approach the end, I even get some late 1970s Steely Dan feeling. Maybe "PHARMACY" is the type of song to hear while chilling at the most boho cafe in Tokyo.