I quickly mentioned Megumi Shiina (椎名恵) in my selection of Eurobeat songs as the singer who was going to record Megumi Hayashibara’s (林原 めぐみ) "Yoake no Shooting Star" (夜明けのShooting Star) in the first place, but nothing more was said about her in my entry.
I felt kinda bad because I really like singer-songwriter Megumi Shiina,
or, more specifically, her debut album, “MISS YOU”, which was released in March
1986. As for the song I decided to highlight today, it’s called “Shy na Boy”
and is the album’s opener.
With a strong and steady bass line, “Shy na Boy” can
be described as a mixture of synthpop, funk with a touch of R&B (I don’t
really know if City Pop is a good term to include here but I used this label as well). Maybe I lack a
solid genre to classify it, but the sound is typical mid-80s, for sure. Besides
the bass and some classy synths prior to the choruses, a nice guitar is
introduced in the bridge and then, again, near the end of the song, giving “Shy
na Boy” a “cool” vibe.
Other than the arrangement, Megumi’s vocals were a
great surprise for me when I first heard this song and the whole “MISS YOU”
album. To be honest, I didn’t expect Megumi Shiina to be such a strong
vocalist, and I can’t really tell why I had such prejudice. The way she sings
the whole chorus and pronounces “shy na boy” in a calm, yet firm way just makes
me enjoy her singing a lot, and also the fact that her vocals just go up and
down in the melody without major interferences.
As a fun fact, I can’t help thinking she is saying
“China boy” instead of “shy na boy”. Taking in consideration that Japan refers
to China as Chuugoku, I don’t really know if this sentence was premeditated or
just a fun coincidence. In the end, I’m doomed to always hear “China boy”.
Like I said, “Shy na Boy” was included in Megumi
Shiina’s debut album, but apparently the song was released in single format in
1997 as well. As I couldn’t find many information about this fact, I don’t know
if she re-recorded the song or if she just released the 1986 version as a
single.
Lyrics for “Shy na Boy” were written by Hiroki Ootomo (大友博輝). As for the composition, Hiroya Watanabe (渡辺博也) was the responsible.
Hi, Marcos.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard this side of Shiina before since I've only known about her though her cover of an 80s song titled "Love Is All" and her Xmas album that I bought years ago. She's rockin' it a bit more here. :)