When I first discovered the high tones of Hideaki Tokunaga（徳永英明）, it was through the tapes of "The Best 10" that I had rented out at Nippon Video all those years ago. And the two songs that I would often see him perform was the lovely "BIRDS" and this one here by the title of "Kaze no Eolia" (Aeolus of the Winds).
And I would always be reminded of air conditioners with "Kaze no Eolia" since that was part of the raison d'etre for Tokunaga's 5th single from February 1988. It was used as the campaign song for National's Eolia AC, and if I'm not mistaken, the company was also one of the sponsors for "The Best 10", so the song got double promotion whenever Tokunaga appeared. Considering the release date, I gather that the marketing team at National felt that it was never too soon to get those customers thinking about safeguarding themselves from the oppressive heat and humidity that has always been part and parcel of a Japanese summer.
"Kaze no Eolia" was written by Akira Ohtsu（大津あきら）and composed by Tokunaga himself. The title referred to Aeolus, the God of Winds in Greek mythology, and the song had somewhat more of a mysterious edge to it compared to the innocence of "BIRDS". Watching the young Tokunaga above in the video, those puppy-dog eyes probably had the young ladies swooning and more than ready to assist.
The song reached No. 4 on Oricon and became the 52nd-ranked song of 1988. It also earned Tokunaga a prize at the 8th annual Japan Composers Awards in October of that year. The awards was one of the premier music awards shows during the 1980s but had its last celebration in 1991.
Are you still in Japan? I moved to Tokyo in August 1987 and stayed until Oct 2010. I miss it. But anyway, this was the first song I heard of Tokunaga, and I always loved it as well as his unique voice. If you remember it was the theme son for an air conditioner brand of National (aka Panasonic) called EOLIA, lol. In the commercial there was a cute, young haafu looking girl, not sure if she was, and the location was somewhere in Greece. I met a haafu Greek lady years later and teasingly asked her if she was the one in the commercial, LOL!.
ReplyDeleteAll the best.
Hello, Bobby. Nope, I moved back here to Canada well over a decade ago after living 17 years in the Kanto area. I still miss it (although Japanese summers will never be comfortable for me).
DeleteMy first Tokunaga song was "Kagayaki Nagara". I used to hear it all the time on shows like "The Best 10". https://kayokyokuplus.blogspot.com/2013/08/hideaki-tokunaga-kagayaki-nagara.html