After reading and commenting on J-Canuck’s “Rosa” post, I decided to contribute an article about Miho’s (中山美穂) other Latin-styled hit song, “50/50”. To be honest, this article was
written some months ago, but just now, inspired by J-Canuck’s above mentioned
post, I decided to give it a proper life in this blog.
“50/50” was
one of the few Miho Nakayama 80s
singles that I didn’t care at all. Being released in July 1987, I always thought of "50/50" as a silly Latin song
trying to emulate Madonna’s “La Isla Bonita” (listen to it here), which was released as a single in February of the same year (but appeared first in the 1986 "True Blue", Madonna's third album).
But this scenario changed a couple of months ago
when I started watching Miho’s 1987 drama “Mama wa Idol” (ママはアイドル), as the show gave new
life to my Miho’s fanboyism. Although “50/50” was not featured on the show, I
decided to give the song a chance after two years of remembering it as the
worst Miho single from the 80s. Yeah, it’s strange. I can’t even explain
properly why I hated the song so much.
But now I
changed my mind. In reality, “50/50” is a strong summer song and a great addition to Miho’s
discography. “50/50”, as a whole, is very bouncy, while the Latin melodies
played by some charming synths are
also an interesting touch. Talking about synths, the song is actually full of
them, making this a very 80s style Latin song. And the chorus, of course, is a
highlight. The melody mixed with the synths makes it a very catchy pop number.
I especially
like the live performances of this song, as they made the bass sound more
robust than in the studio version. In the video presented below, from “The Best
Ten” TV show (ザ・ベストテン), Miho is singing in the middle of Tokuyama Post Office (徳山郵便局). Everyone
who knows “The Best Ten” is aware of how transporting an aidoru singer and a live band to a Post Office was really the kind
of thing they would do back in the days. Enjoy it.
As a side
note, Tetsuya “TK” Komuro (小室 哲哉), the J-Pop
wizard of the 90s, composed “50/50”. He even recorded his own version for the
self-cover “Hit Factory” album, released in October 1992. The arrangement of
his version is very nice and the synths used by him bring some tension to the
song. The only turn-off is his vocals. Unfortunately, his version is not on
YouTube, and I only found it on niconico, which needs a free registration. But
for who is able to access it, here’s the link below.
Released
between the catchy and bouncy “Hade!!!” (「派手!!!」), theme of “Mama wa Idol”, and the
eurobeat-inspired “CATCH ME”, Miho’s first number one hit, “50/50” was a hit on
its own. The song reached #2 on the Oricon
charts, selling over 211,000 copies and landing in the year end chart as the #23 best-selling single of 1987.
It was later included in Miho’s first best of album, called “SELECTION”, which
was released in November 1987 and reached #1 on the Oricon charts. It was also
part of the “Perfect Best” compilation, released in 2010. “50/50” was written
by Shun Taguchi (田口俊), composed by Tetsuya Komuro, and arranged by Motoki Funayama (船山基紀).
Finally, here is a frontal picture of my own copy of the “Perfect Best” compilation.
Hello, Marcos. Never heard this song before so I'm glad you put it up. Compared to some of her earlier singles, I don't think I ever came across Miporin doing something with a Latin feel to it.
ReplyDeleteA lot of aidoru tunes in the 80s pretty shamelessly "borrowed" hooks from Western hit songs, and I think "50/50" is actually not too bad with any of its copying from Madonna. I heard something far more blatant for an Yoko Oginome song from a hit by British band Level 42.
Glad that you have a better appreciation of "50/50" now since I've been doing the same thing with a lot of other songs from my past.
Latin music was not very common in Miho's 80s discography. I remember one or two album tracks, but not much more than this.
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree that "50/50" is not similar to Madonna's "La Isla Bonita", besides the fact that both are Latin songs. It was a strange idea that kept coming every time I listened to it, though. Fortunately, I don't mind it now, and the song started to get a lot of heavy rotation.
Sometimes we appreciate a song better after a while. I'm always happy when this happens.
And I need to hear that Oginome/Level 42 thing. It must be interesting.
Well, the song in question was on Oginome's "246 Connection" album from 1987. I forgot the title of it but it was one of the later tracks. The Level 42 song was "Lessons In Love".
Deletehttp://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/246%E3%82%B3%E3%83%8D%E3%82%AF%E3%82%B7%E3%83%A7%E3%83%B3