Oricon Top 10 Albums 1981

1.  Akira Terao                                Reflections
2.  Eiichi Ohtaki                              A Long Vacation
3.  Arabesque                                  Greatest Hits
4.  Chiharu Matsuyama                   Jidai wo Koete
5.  TCR Yokohama Ginbae RS      Bucchi Giri II
6.  Off Course                                 We Are
7.  Miyuki Nakajima                       Ringetsu
8.  The Nolans                                 Making Waves (Koi no Happy Date)
9.  The Nolans                                 Sexy Music
10. Mayumi Itsuwa                         Koibito yo

City Pop probably celebrated its finest hour when Akira Terao's cool blue "Reflections" got up to the top of the charts for the whole year. But in the No. 2 position, Eiichi Ohtaki's "A Long Vacation" would also achieve legendary status in the Japanese pop music world. While pop veterans Off Course and Nakajima were in there, there was also a pop/punk/rock band, TCR Yokohama Ginbae RS, which brought in a bit of that Harajuku takenozoku dance feeling onto the charts and TV, and European disco groups, The Nolans and Arabesque, which were enormously popular in Japan.

The Nolans' "I'm In The Mood For Dancing", known in Japanese as "Dancing Sisters" has become one of the big Western nostalgic hits, and as recently as just a couple of years, ago, commercials were still using it. I just hope the sisters' agent or the writers of the song got a really good copyright deal out of it. "I'm In The Mood" is probably their most recognizable hit in Japan, but The Nolans also sang "Sexy Music" which the duo Wink would cover to hit status almost a decade later.

I don't know nearly as much about the German group Arabesque, although I distinctly remember seeing the ladies on Japanese TV during my summer trip there in 1981, and over the years, I've realized that they became one of the prime examples when it comes to the term "Big in Japan".  Their 1977 single of "Hello, Mr. Monkey" still rings out from time to time over the airwaves there.