Yoshitaka Minami -- Slow na Boogie ni Shite Kure （スローなブギにしてくれ）

So far on this blog, I've heard Yoshitaka Minami（南佳孝） doing Barry Manilow disco, a bit of whimsical City Pop, and even something for Hiroko Yakushimaru（薬師丸ひろ子）. But arguably, his most famous tune takes things back to American 50s pop, a few years before Checkers made the scene, although Chanels were also paying tribute to the genre at around the same time.

His "Slow na Boogie ni Shite Kure"(Make It A Slow Boogie) always struck me as a reflection of how those Tokyo teens used to get out of their school uniforms, put on their own versions of greaser leather jackets and poodle skirts, and twist the afternoon away in Harajuku right by Yoyogi Park back in the late 70s and early 80s. Lyricist Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆） and composer Minami introduced this ode to "American Graffiti" in January 1981 as the singer's 9th single. On my first listen to it, I thought it was something that would have been perfect for the aforementioned Checkers, but y'know, I think it's meant for Minami....I think that cadence in his voice just hits the target...right from "Want you..." I get that craving for a hamburger and milk shake brought to my car by a roller-skating waitress smacking her gum.

The above video has a much older Minami taking the stage, but he still has the chops for the song. But strangely enough, although Minami and Matsumoto were the ones who created it, neither of them can take credit for the title. Actually, the song was made as the theme for a movie which came out in March 1981, and the movie itself was adapted from a novel of the same title by Yoshio Kataoka（片岡義男） who loved writing essays dealing with American culture, motorcycles, Hawaii and surfing. Minami probably received a lot of inspiration for the melody right from the guy himself.

"Slow na Boogie" became a hit for the singer, and although I don't know how high it went on the Oricon weeklies, it did become the 49th-ranked song for 1981, selling a little over 280,000 records.

And here is the scene from the 1981 movie itself, starring a very young Atsuko Asano（浅野温子）.