Hiroko Taniyama -- Yoru no Buranko （夜のブランコ）

As I mentioned in my last entry for Michiya Mihashi's（三橋美智也）"Ako to Guitar to Uramachi to"（アコとギターと裏町と）, which was a B-side ballad for his 1964 single "Yoru no Buranko" (Night Swing), I was searching for the latter song at the usual sites such as YouTube. I was unsuccessful but then I found out that "Yoru no Buranko" wasn't exactly an exclusive title. There was another song with that same title by singer-songwriter Hiroko Taniyama（谷山浩子）.

Now, Hiroko Taniyama has been a name that I have heard before although up to today I had never indulged in any of her music. There is one article on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" in which she did provide the lyrics for a Yuki Saito（斉藤由貴）single in the mid-80s, "Doyoubi no Tamanegi"（土曜日のタマネギ）. In fact, she provided a number of songs for Saito and also aidoru Naoko Kawai（河合奈保子）among many other singers. But the surprise piece of trivia here according to J-Wiki is that her possibly first contribution of her music career was all the way back in 1970 as a 14-year-old when she composed and wrote the song "Boku tachi no Himitsu"（僕たちの秘密...Our Secret）, a B-side for the single "Shiroi Tenshi"（白い天使...White Angel）for the group Baby Brothers who would soon transform into Finger Five. And this was a couple of years before she released her own debut single, "Ginga Kei wa Yappari Mawatteru"（銀河系はやっぱりまわってる...The Galaxy Does Turn）.

The Yokohama-born Taniyama has released 23 singles and 36 studio albums to date. Single No. 22 is the aforementioned "Yoru no Buranko" from June 1994 which is this very atmospheric urban contemporary ballad about a secret tryst. It's perfect for night listening and I always love a bluesy saxophone as Taniyama almost delivers the lyrics as a whisper to emphasize the illicitness of the affair. Considering that she created the song in the early-mid 1990s, the arrangement of her "Yoru no Buranko" had me thinking of folks like Kazumasa Oda（小田和正）, Masayuki Suzuki（鈴木雅之）and Toko Furuuchi（古内東子）which has definitely raised her profile in my own eyes.

So far, it has just been the one song that I've heard but I am starting to get interested in the rest of Taniyama's output. Considering how prolific she's been in her own singing career from the 1970s to the present day and the fact that she's labeled as a New Music singer, I'm quite interested in how her music has evolved over the decades when I consider the musical journey that Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由実）has taken me and all of her fans.

By the way, this is the second title I've come across in a week in which I couldn't find the intended song and singer but found a great different tune with the same title under a different singer. Martin's tune was the first example.

October 27, 2020: Just wanted to let you know that I did get some new information from Mike according to our conversation in the comments section below so I've made a follow-up to "Yoru no Buranko."

Nope, not the "Yoru no Buranko" I was looking for
but I still found a good song nonetheless.