Mi-Ke -- Omoide no Kujukuri Hama （思い出の九十九里浜）

In the last several months of my Gunma stint, I started hearing a song that harkened back to some of those old Group Sounds songs of the 60s, although at the time I didn't know the genre term....I just simply used "Japanese oldies" or Yuzo Kayama songs. There was a trio of women who decided to go somewhat retro in the final decade of the 20th century.

Mi-Ke was an offshoot of B.B. Queens, the motley crew of musicians led by Yuiko Tsubokura and Furanosuke Gendo who came up with the No. 1 song of 1990, "Odoru Ponponkorin"（おどるポンポコリン）, the ending theme for the long-running anime, "Chibi Maruko-chan". The B.B. Queens chorus of Keiko Utoku（宇徳敬子）, Mami Watanabe（渡辺真美） and Haruka Murakami（村上遥） made their debut as Mi-Ke, named after the Japanese word for calico cat, in February 1991 with this ode to all things Group Sounds, "Omoide no Kujukuri Hama"(Kujukuri Beach of Your Memories). Kujukuri Beach is a 60-km strip of sandy beach along the northeastern coast of the Boso Peninsula in Chiba Prefecture which has been a favourite place for swimmers and surfers, and what better venue is there to remember those days of hedonistic suntanned beach bums when Japan was starting to rev up its economic engines.

Written by Daiko Nagato（長戸大幸） and composed by Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎）, the lyrics were almost literally a list of song titles from the Group Sounds era. In fact, shoutouts were given by the ladies to 13 GS songs such as "Hana no Kubikazari"（花の首飾り） by The Tigers and "Yuuhi ga Naiteiru"（夕陽が泣いている） by The Spiders, and all wrapped up in a melody that Kayama-san would've been happy to jam in on (heck, I think Ms. Moritaka could've gotten in on the action). Even Mi-Ke's choreography seemed to take a step back in time.

The song peaked at No. 5 on Oricon, was the 32nd-ranked song of the year, and took the Newcomer's Prize in Pop/Rock at the Japan Record Awards. It also got them their appearance on the Kohaku Utagassen.

And I didn't know this but it was also used as the theme song for the comedy-drama "Nurse Station".