This is a follow-up to nikala's article on Tin Pan Alley's "Yellow Magic Carnival" from 1975. I managed to find a cover of the song via MANNA on YouTube. Considering how obscure she is, it was great that I could find at least three videos of her singing her version of Haruomi Hosono's（細野晴臣）original.
For MANNA, this was her debut single from March 1979. Unlike the faintly old-fashioned tropical original from Tin Pan Alley, her version has been arranged to sound a bit more disco against the singer's coquettish vocals. It's still rather fun to hear the old-fashioned disco version (with just a hint of Doobie Bros.) as well. It was also the lead track on her debut album, "Chabako Trick", also from 1979.
Any idea if this is the same MANNA that did "Zenkai Power," the ending theme of the first 199 eps of Dragonball Z?
ReplyDeleteHello, Bob63!
DeleteIndeed, the singer for "Yellow Magic Carnival" and "Zenkai Power" are one and the same. In fact, you can see Manna give a country bluesy version of the "Dragonball Z" ending theme right here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpHvcmp1VLc
She's Mariko Iwasawa, the wife of Satsuya Iwasawa from Bread & Butter. She is indeed pretty obscure, that's the only other thing could find out about her.
ReplyDeleteThanks very much for the clarification, Keir!
DeleteAh, also, just wanted to thank you for the songs that you've been putting up. I've been subscribed to your YouTube channel for quite a while now.
DeleteShe made the first ending song for Dragon Ball Z, so you'd expect her to be at least a bit more popular, but this was the only thing I could find about her. Weird
ReplyDeleteHi, Michael. If I could get a dollar for every underrated singer that I've found out about in the last fifteen years, I could have had a pretty decent dinner by now. Manna is someone that I actually discovered through the "Japanese City Pop" book.
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