Emiko Nakayama -- News Sokuhou（ニュース速報）

 

A lot of us have half-jokingly remarked that whenever we hear soundtrack maestro John Williams' "Special Report" theme for NBC that it's not only the most epic music for a potential crisis but it makes us all go into Pavlovian-induced ("Oh, my word. It's John Williams! Activate the Panic Room, honey!) states of fear.

Well, Emiko Nakayama's（中山恵美子）"News Sokuhou" (Newsflash), which is the B-side to her 6th single from December 1975, "Yuu Gohan wa Curry ni Shimashou"（夕ごはんはカレーにしましょう）, is about as far away from Williams' bulletin song as Coruscant is from Tatooine. It's also quite different from the happily perky A-side which basically acted as a commercial jingle for Bon Curry Gold. 

Lyricist Fumiko Okada（岡田冨美子）and composer Ken Sato（佐藤健）, who had taken care of "Yuu Gohan wa Curry ni Shimashou", also created "News Sokuhou". I don't know where the newsflash aspect of this kayo kyoku comes in, but it is still a curious ballad in that it begins with what sounds like a 1970s breaking news alert before it suddenly transitions into a languid Motown soul love song (with electric sitar) containing some sappy love talk about comparing the songwriting boyfriend to Takuro Yoshida（吉田拓郎）himself. It's got plenty of atmosphere, too, with some stormy sounds busting in. Hopefully, the newsflash is that the pair is getting married instead of breaking up which a lot of lyrics and sound effects of storms tend to hint at.

Kumiko Yanagida -- Crazy Baby

 

Only found out about this song and its singer in the last several weeks. However, she's got a lovely and refreshing voice to go with the breezy arrangement so let's take a look.

There's not a lot of information on singer-songwriter Kumiko Yanagida（柳田久美子） via J-Wiki and it's rather incomplete considering that although this song "Crazy Baby" was released as a single in 2020, her J-Wiki profile only goes as far as 2007 in terms of her albums and singles while her contributions to compilations take things to the mid-2010s. Her website no longer exists and her blog entries finished in 2016.

In any case, as mentioned above, Yanagida has created a nice tune in "Crazy Baby" with guitar and synths that don't sound too over-the-top. In fact, I'd say that it goes more for the indies pop sound. The Iwate Prefecture-born singer did start out as an indies artist in 2001 before going major in 2004. But apparently, once her contract to Toy's Factory finished in 2007, she went back to the indies route. As of this time, she's released nine singles and four full albums.

Seikima II -- Rouningyo no Yakata（蠟人形の館）

 

Looks like Episode 7 of "Ganbare! Nakamura-kun!!"（ガンバレ!中村くん!!...Go for It, Nakamura!）is now in the record books. This time, it used the well-worn anime plot device of having the main characters go through a scary place...and for this episode, it was the school after dark. From the few excerpts available, it appears that Nakamura-kun was able to turn the tables on good ol' Hirose for once. 

As has been the case with every episode, the ending theme for Episode 7 was again another throwback to the past. Furthermore, as was the case with Episode 4's ender, Barbee Boys' "Makeru mon ka"（負けるもんか）, this one is also a song that I had never heard before.

For one thing, it's a heavy metal tune and I don't really listen to the genre. Mind you, Seikima II（聖飢魔II）does have representation on KKP via its "EL-DO-RA-DO" and I'm going to add its second entry here with "Rouningyo no Yakata" (House of Wax) which supposedly ended Episode 7, and yeah, why not end this scare-themed entry with a song titled after a famous horror movie from the past? 

Released as Seikima II's debut single in April 1986, the former Demon Kogure（デーモン小暮） plays his role perfectly as one of Satan's best right down to the delivery of his terrifying warnings. I have to say that his singing voice is quite pure...almost angelic, but don't tell him that. The single managed to reach No. 17 on Oricon. Words and music were provided by Damian Hamada（ダミアン浜田）.

To continue to show that Demon Kogure now Demon Kakka（デーモン閣下）is really a fairly mellow guy, here is his interview with British talk show host Jonathan Ross. 

Wow! I can actually say that this is a trailer that reveals nothing of the movie itself. I actually caught "House of Wax" at the theatre when it was given a re-release during my university years.

Sachiko Nishida -- Acacia no Ame ga Yamu Toki（アカシアの雨がやむとき）

 

I heard this one last night on "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）for the first time, and it was originally sung by Sachiko Nishida（西田佐知子）. "Acacia no Ame ga Yamu Toki" (When the Acacia Rains Stop) was Nishida's 13th single from April 1960 with Kaoru Mizuki（水木かおる）as lyricist and Hideyuki Fujiwara（藤原秀行）as composer. Delivered in a sad and resigned tone by Nishida, it recounts the story of a lady whose paramour has suddenly left her bereft of love and hope. The horns led by a crisp trumpet sound forlorn and melancholy.

Strangely enough, through a 2003 magazine article via J-Wiki, the story goes that "Acacia no Ame ga Yamu Toki" was the song that a lot of young folks protesting the 1960 US-Japan Security Treaty ran to like a buddy giving solace when things didn't go their way. Perhaps they were crying in their beer as this song was playing in the bars and izakaya. Another tidbit from J-Wiki is that Nishida had been struggling with singing the song until lyricist Mizuki helped out by saying that it had been based on famed author Kojiro Serizawa's（芹沢光治良）1947 novel "Paris ni Shisu"（巴里に死す...A Death in Paris）. Nishida would then record it while thinking of images from the City of Lights.

Eventually, "Acacia no Ame ga Yamu Toki" would hit the million-record mark in sales by 1968. Nishida would also sing the song at her second appearance on NHK's Kohaku Utagassen in 1962, a year after she'd performed her more famous rendition of "Coffee Rumba"（コーヒー・ルンバ）on the same stage. She also sang "Acacia" on the 1969 edition of the Kohaku. In 1963, a cinematic adaptation of the song was produced which had Nishida in a supporting role.

"Good" Songs

Wikimedia Commons

No particularly good reason to do so but I just wanted to post up another Author's Picks with the theme today being "good" songs. That is to say, songs with "good" in the title and they are good songs, to boot. Plus, it is a Sunday so a lot of whimsy to share.

(1980) Plastics -- Good

(1988) Keiko Kimura -- Good Morning

(1995) Kahimi Karie -- Good Morning World

(2001) Kirinji -- Good Day Good Bye（グッデイ・グッバイ）

(2025) Mrs. GREEN APPLE -- Good Day

Jun Matsue -- Fatty

Wikimedia Commons

Happy Mother's Day! Hopefully, wherever you are, you and your mother are enjoying a meal, flowers and other things this day. The above photo is that of a Chinese buffet and although we're not going to one tonight, we are going to get some Chinese food delivered to us on Mom's request. Calories be damned!

Speaking tangentially and delicately on buffets and calories, I have this song "Fatty" here by singer-songwriter Jun Matsue（松江潤）. Now, Matsue has representation here already as the leader of his later project Spoozys which was something of a late 1990s/early 2000s group, and from the songs that I've covered under that band name such as "Plastic Planet", we got to hear some raunchy techno rock along the lines of POLYSICS.

Well, "Plastic Planet" may have been Spoozys' debut outing, but "Fatty" was Matsue's first single all the way back in September 1993.  And I'm assuming that it was also a track on his first album from that same year, "Sunny Pop Generation". It's definitely some sunny guitar pop/rock...venturing more into the Shibuya-kei sphere than technopop. Instead of POLYSICS, I get more Flippers' Guitar with perhaps a bit more liveliness in the guitar. Maybe it's not really a Mother's Day tune (well, with a title like "Fatty", it shouldn't be😨) but it can still fit the feeling of a nice sunny Sunday song.

Hidemi Ishikawa -- Hey! Mister Policeman（Hey! ミスター・ポリスマン）

 

One of the more common catchphrases and situations in anime at one point, the "moshi, moshi...keisatsu desu ka" (Hello, is this the police?) was definitely the existential salve for one character to erase the presence of a more troublesome character. If a 911 response in Toronto were only that quick nowadays...

Anyways, the preamble ramble this time is for Hidemi Ishikawa's（石川秀美）5th single "Hey! Mister Policeman" which first made its presence known in May 1983. Written and composed by Kyoko Matsumiya（松宮恭子）, perhaps she was inspired by The Marvelettes' "Please Mr. Postman" in terms of the title and the catchy rock n' roll arrangement by Kazuo Otani（大谷和夫）. As for Matsumiya's lyrics, I'm not sure whether Hidemi-chan is calling for a cop to stop a particularly pesky (and perhaps wealthy) suitor from following her or perhaps she's asking for the officer to stop the guy himself from moving his eyes to other female targets other than her. 

According to the J-Wiki article for "Hey! Mister Policeman", it was Ishikawa's first single to get into the Top Ten of Oricon by placing in at No. 10. Furthermore, according to the aidoru's then-manager, everyone had been so busy that they didn't have enough time to take a suitable photo for the single jacket. While everyone was wringing their hands at this situation, Ishikawa and company went down to Guam for filming during which they ran into a local police officer, so taking advantage of things, Ishikawa was able to get some cute photos with the cop. There was the bright idea about using one of those Hidemi-and-cop shots as the jacket, but they simply weren't in time for the first production run of the record. Basically, the result was that "Hey! Mister Policeman" ended up with two different single jackets that you can see in the video above. I guess all involved made do with one of those initial photos after all.