My mother played this single over and over again of the late Kiyohiko Ozaki's（尾崎紀世彦） rendition of the love theme from "The Godfather"to such an extent that I frankly thought Ozaki had been the original singer all along. Finally seeing the original movie, I had been personally flattered that Francis Ford Coppola would use a Japanese singer's ballad for his masterpiece. Of course, I would be corrected some time later.
Still, Ozaki hits this one out of the park, and I think his performance here, years after he had originally released this as part of his 7th single released in July 1972, has even more gravitas. The single went as high as No. 9 on the charts.
I'm not sure whether there were ever lyrics attached to the love theme in the original movie, but I think Ozaki proved that they should've been in there. To be honest, he kinda looks like Don Corleone in the video.
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| The 45" of Kiyohiko Ozaki's "Love Theme from the Godfather" |
I only just found out that he had DIED (last night), and in 2012! And I'm very upset about it. He was one of my favorites back in the '70s.
ReplyDeleteBut I am very thankful that there are so many videos of his performances — most of which I've never seen or heard. His White Christmas is lovely. But I was blown away by his rendition of Bridge Over Troubles Waters. (Sigh)
But my favorites have always been Yuki Wa Furu and Mata Au Hi Made. (Listening brought me to tears last night.)
And, lastly, thank you for this post!
Hi there. Yeah, Ozaki left us too early still but boy did he leave us with some fine songs. For me, it will always be "Mata Au Hi Made". A wonderful way to leave until we all meet again.
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