Either this song, "Birds" or "Kagayaki Nagara"（輝きながら...As You're Radiant) was the first Hideaki Tokunaga（徳永英明） single I'd ever heard. It was on one of those "The Best 10" video tapes that I'd rented, and I was rather gobsmacked at Tokunaga's high voice. Not that a lot of male voices in Japanese music were in the baritone/bass range (was listening to Matchy, Checkers and CCB at that time), but this guy's pearly tones could have labeled him a eunuch.
As with a lot of evergreen ballads, "Birds"just has that ability to take me back to my university days. Written by Akira Otsu（大津あきら）and composed by Tokunaga himself, it's just arranged in that pleasant swayworthy way that would get participants in a karaoke booth to involuntarily swing their upper bodies like metronomes.
Tokunaga's 3rd single, released in May 1987, didn't crack the Top 100 in the yearly Oricon rankings, although his next release, "Kagayaki Nagara" ended up becoming the 13th-ranked song of 1987, but both singles were part of his 2nd album, "Birds", which did hit the top spot in the weekly charts.
Thanks J-Canuck for this post on 徳永英明. While his overly effeminate voice can be a bit distracting, he is still an awesome singer. I tend to like his older songs like Rainy Blue, 風のエオリア, 壊れかけのRadio, 夢を信じて but his various covers in the VOCALIST collection of CDs have been pretty damn good - 秋桜（コスモス）, いい日旅立ち, 瞳はダイアモンド, Endless Story, First Love, セーラー服と機関銃, 未来予想図 are among some of my favorites that he's done and I'm amazed at how he was able to not only personalize the songs but also approach them in a different way so as not just do a straight-forward/karaoke rendition.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm also more of a fan of his older music...i.e. late 80s. I have two of his BEST compilations, INTRO I & II. Perhaps you hit upon the key word here....personalize. I think what distinguished him from his peers back in those days was not just his voice but also how he was able to personalize the songs given to him, "Birds" included.
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