"Natsu no Claxon" (Summer Horn) was the first Jun'ichi Inagaki (稲垣潤一） song I'd heard. This is a really mellow, Perry Como-friendly ballad about Inagaki enjoying summer in his car and hoping that it would last just a bit longer. With its slow tempo and easy lyrics, it's a karaoke favorite as well....at least for some of us old timers. The song was written by written by Masao Urino（売野雅勇） who wrote several of Akina Nakamori's （中森明菜）early hits, and composed by Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）who composed several of Miho Nakayama's（中山美穂）big songs.
Inagaki originally hails from Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture. Influenced by Stevie Wonder, he had a band during his junior high school days called Faces where he was the singer and drummer. Later on, he joined bands which entertained American forces stationed in Yokosuka and Tachikawa near Tokyo before debuting with his first solo song, "Ame no Regret"(雨のリグレット...Rainy Regret) in 1982.
"Natsu no Claxon" was released, appropriately enough, in July 1983 as his 5th single. It was included in his 3rd album, "J.I." released in September of the same year. The single went as high as 25th place on the Oricon weeklies. Of course, any of his Best albums will have it as well.
Here in 2019 reading your post as I stumbled on this song at a ramen restaurant here in Southern California. I used Shazam and got lucky capturing the name of this song. Listened to it the entire drive home. What a great song! Are there any more songs like this you can recommend? I don't even know if you'll see this, this post was written nearly 7 years ago! Thanks for sharing this tidbit about the music and the artist. I wonder what he would think to know its still being enjoyed today by total foreigners. Cheers!
ReplyDeleteHello, Adrian.
DeleteGood to hear that you've discovered this classic urban contemporary number from Japan. It's quite the nice and dreamy way to end the day, isn't it?
For other recommendations, you may want to try something like Yasuhiro Abe's "Irene" (https://kayokyokuplus.blogspot.com/2012/02/yasuhiro-abe-irene.html) and Kingo Hamada's "Mayonaka no Tennis Court" (https://kayokyokuplus.blogspot.com/2016/02/kingo-hamada-mayonaka-no-tennis-court.html).
In fact, scroll through the City Pop and J-AOR categories found in "Labels" on the right and see what you like. Apologies in advance if the video has been taken down. Unfortunately, the war between YouTube and JASRAC is neverending.
Incredible. I stumbled upon this song on Youtube a year ago and i was immediately mesmerized by it. There's something enchanting about the melodies that i just can't quite figure out.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, apparently Andy Lau did a cover of this song, which can be seen here www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eZsz6WhNd0. Cheers for the post, J.
Hello, Kevin! Thanks for your comments and tip on Lau's version. Feel free to keep on reading.
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