I wonder if anyone reading this was anywhere near born...or for that matter if anyone's parents were born...when The Fifth Dimension was really big in the 1960s. Well, I was around. In fact, I remember that one of the first songs that I actually listened to and enjoyed was their huge hit of "Up Up and Away" in 1967. I wasn't even 2 years old when this came out and listening to this again, I can see where later bands like Swingout Sister got their inspiration.
The above is a song by The Fifth Dimension that I hadn't heard about until basically tonight. This is "It's A Great Life" which was a track on their 3rd album "Stoned Soul Picnic" from 1968. It's a similarly sunny song that I could love just from the horns in the intro alone.
And apparently, Takao Tajima (田島貴男...man, did he look like a stringbean back then) of Original Love also loved that brassy intro enough that he adopted it for his 4th single, "Sunshine Romance" from May 1993. And as the title states, there is plenty of good ol' sunshine in this song that I re-discovered tonight (it's on the "Sunny Side of Original Love" BEST compilation that I bought years ago). This is quite the pick-me-up song that actually had me thinking of some of those 80s bands such as The Style Council.
The keyboardist for Original Love at the time, Ryutaro Kihara（木原龍太郎）, came up with the lyrics. The single managed to peak at No. 48, and it was also a track on the band's 3rd album "Eyes" from June 1993 which made it to No. 4 on the Oricon weeklies.
http://entamedata.web.fc2.com/music/music_a2016.html
ReplyDeleteWhat happened to the music pages of Entamedata? Is it an April fool's day joke?
Hello there.
DeleteNot sure myself. I checked out Entamedata and apparently according to their homepage, the powers-that-be over there are "reviewing" the rankings for singles and albums. At this time, the only charts that are available are ringtone downloads, CD rentals and Billboard Japan rankings from the mid-2000s plus USEN hits from 1977 onwards.
I will have to keep an eye on the website to see if there is any improvement. Thanks for letting me know.
does "reviewing" mean that they'll bring them back?
ReplyDelete(Thank you!)
Not sure. They might bring them back or, and I'm a fairly cynical guy, the word "review" is a polite way of saying that they will no longer be maintained.
DeleteIf you are interested in seeing the Oricon rankings over the decades, you can check the category for "Oricon Rankings" in the right-hand Labels section. And if you have any specific years for albums and singles that you want to check out, let me know and I will get you the link on the blog.
J-Wiki also has lists of the Top 10 albums and singles. You just need to copy and paste something like 1980の音楽.