Checkers -- Oh!! Popstar

This was another Checkers must-sing at Kuri during our bi-weekly visits there. Released as the band's 10th single in February 1986, I always considered it as one of their classic musical tributes to all that was Sha-Na-Na 50s pop, thanks to that guitar and the doo-woppy chorus. I had no idea that the song was also used in a movie adaptation of the famed manga by Mitsuru Adachi（あだち充）, "Touch". But then again, the song was composed by Hiroaki Serizawa（芹沢廣明）, the same man who had also composed the original titular theme for the anime series, sung by Yoshimi Iwasaki（岩崎良美）, and that song also had that 50s vibe.

Masao Urino（売野雅勇） provided the lyrics for "Oh!! Popstar", and although the melody is jingly-jangly happy, the words display a somewhat sadder story about the trials and tribulations of a pop star who had once thought that he could gain happiness from fame. Right from the first line stating the "Oh, woe is me"feeling of "Oh, tragic pop star", the title character is looking forlornly through the wintry window atop a skyscraper, and at one point, even rips a poster of him with his boot before breaking down in tears. Aye, there is almost something Shakespearean in all this. I wonder if Urino had been thinking of Othello when he was writing the song.

Interestingly enough, members of the band would later admit that the year surrounding the making of "Oh!! Popstar" was not the easiest. Although I couldn't get the full details from J-Wiki, one incident involved the sax player, Naoyuki Fujii（藤井尚之）, getting drunk and ending up busting his elbow which took him out of the recording of the song. I'm not sure whether Urino had gotten "inspiration"from that year of transition.

In any case, despite the woe that was within and without at the time, "Oh!! Popstar"went as high as No. 2 on Oricon and even became the 9th-ranked song of the year. The only song that put up the wall against Checkers so that they couldn't get the top spot was Akina Nakamori's （中森明菜） monster hit, "Desire".

It's hard to believe that such a good-times song by Checkers would have so much sturm und drang in it.

Checkers -- Oh!! Popstar