Misato Watanabe -- tokyo

Misato Watanabe -- tokyo

Another birthday....Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里）just turned 47 about a week ago. I haven't profiled her in a while so since the summer is definitely here, let's have another go-around with one of the representatives of the season's music.

"tokyo" is Misato's 6th album which was released in July 1990. I first found out about Misato through her breakthrough hit, "My Revolution" in the mid-80s and up to the time that I got to Gunma in 1989, that was pretty much all I knew of the singer. Luckily, for her and me, she had a huge hit in 1990 with "tokyo". A few of her songs on the album were able to become commercial tunes, and then there was "Summertime Blues", the big song (and her 16th single) which seemed to be the big spearhead for the album. "Summertime Blues" is a great song, and it, along with a couple of other tunes, sparked me to purchase the disc.

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm13381338

(Miku Hatsune version)

https://itunes.apple.com/jp/album/tokyo/575558780
(excerpts only)

The first track is "Power -- Ashita no Kodomo" (the 18th single, released in September 1990) which was written by Misato (as she did with all of the tracks) and composed by Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）, the same man behind "My Revolution"in 1986. It was one of the songs that became part of a commercial, specifically for Meiji Life Insurance. "Ashita no Kodomo"（明日の子供）refers to "Children of Tomorrow", and it kinda proceeds like a superhero show with a bit of minor-key dramatic intro, a verse of innocence before a reassuring and heroic refrain.

The album was the first Misato Watanabe disc that I ever got, and it seemed to make for a great platform for her voice. She blows it out like a rocker in a few of the tracks and then she goes all sweet in some of the others as if she were serenading an elementary school class. "Boys Kiss Girls" is one song that's somewhere in the middle. It's a fun, rolling tune that kinda puts itself in the same area as a Mariko Nagai（永井真理子） pop song. Composed by Hiromasa Ijichi（伊秩弘将）, it was the coupling song to "Summertime Blues". Ijichi, by the way, would later compose a lot of the songs by 90s girl unit, Speed.

And this is how I found out about "Boys Kiss Girls", thanks to a Bridgestone Tire ad, starring a couple of Blake Edwards' most famous creations. This was one of the songs that got me to pick up "tokyo".

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm7332830

"Koi Suru Punks"（恋するパンクス....Punks In Love）is a ska/rock run down the Death Star trench. I'd had an idea that Misato had the potential to blow out the windows vocally, especially after catching yet another commercial featuring her 1989 "Niji wo Mitakai" (also part of the album). But I think she took a couple of swigs of J.D. before hitting the microphone....and good for us. This was her 17th single, released just a few days before the album. This one was composed by Shohei Narabe（奈良部匠平）, a former member of Kome Kome Club.

(karaoke version)

"Birthday" is the sweet side of Misato as she celebrates her beau's most important day. Usually when I've come across a birthday theme in a kayo kyoku tune, it signals a rather downbeat tone in the lyrics, but the singer keeps it optimistic and celebratory here instead of mournful. Also composed by Ijichi, the melody reminds me somewhat of The Monkees' "Daydream Believer"; it has that 60s pop happy-go-luckiness.

I don't know why Misato decided to title this album, "tokyo", but it served as a good introduction to the vocal variety that the singer can bring. The album hit the No. 1 spot on Oricon and was ranked No. 4 for 1990 with 772,000 copies sold. The photos of her on the cover and in the liner notes pretty much imprinted that look into my memory. Tousled hair, huge eyes and lovely smile...kinda like Tom Baker's Doctor Who, except prettier.

Did a photo shoot in Paris