You might think that it's a tad early for a hammock-swaying song such as this one, but then again, "Kimi no Heart wa Marine Blue"(Your Heart is Marine Blue) [I think that's a compliment] was actually released in January 1984....nearly 30 years ago....pass the Geritol, dear. Kiyotaka Sugiyama（杉山清隆） and Omega Tribe took care of this one, right up in their wheelhouse of gentle beach-and-rolling surf pop. It's the melodic equivalent of an Orange Mimosa.
Omega Tribe's 3rd single was written by Chinfa Kan（康珍化）, a lyricist for a number of the band's songs and for hits by other artists such as Anri, Akina Nakamori and Mariko Takahashi, and composer Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）. It was the theme song for a TBS drama, "Toshigoro Kazoku"(年ごろ家族...A Family of Age), for which the band also appeared on apparently. Peaking at No. 12 on Oricon, it became the 45th-ranked song of the year, and was a successful seller in the stores with over half a million records sold.
Thanks J-Canuck for this post on 杉山清貴 & オメガトライブ. I think オメガトライブ were at their best with 杉山清貴. SUMMER SUSPICION and ガラスのPALM TREE were also great songs from them. While カルロス・トシキ and ジョイ・マッコイ tried their best to fill in the void left by Sugiyama's departure, it just wasn't the same. I didn't realize that the group reformed once again in the 90s under the name ブランニュー・オメガトライブ with 新井正人 at the helm but that didn't seem to last either.
ReplyDeleteOff topic - Would it be okay to make another suggestion for a future posting? How about a post on 吉川晃司? Saw the live action るろうに剣心 movie a week back and Kikkawa was one of the main bad guys 鵜堂刃衛. Who knew in addition to being a great singer rock singer that he would find his second calling as an actor.
Hey, JTM. I've got CDs for both incarnations of Omega Tribe with Kiyotaka and Carlos. Although I'm OK with both of them, it seems that the band had its heyday with Kiyotaka Sugiyama. I didn't have any idea about Masato Arai, but at that point, I think Japanese pop music was going in a much different direction, although it would be nice if some AOR did make a resurgence.
ReplyDeleteI think Koji Kikkawa would be a welcome appearance here on the blog. It's a Friday. Why not "Be My Baby"?