It took me the purchase of "Japanese City Pop" to find out that R&B singer Hitomi "Penny" Tohyama（当山ひとみ）even existed, and just out of pure luck, browsing through YouTube unearthed her older sister, Keiko "Myrah" Tohyama（当山恵子）. There was some more digging for me to find out that Myrah was indeed Penny's older sister.
The anthropological dig continued as I gradually found out that perhaps the elder Tohyama released one single and one album...at least. The one single apparently was released in 1984 and was titled "My Guy ~ Cafe Sign", a mellow ballad with a hint of Motown in its music and lyrics by Yoshihiro Yonekura（米倉良弘）, the same fellow who came up with "Sexy Robot", Penny's song that I wrote about last night.There was one other person involved in the lyrics but unfortunately I couldn't read his kanji due to the size of the photo of the liner.
Myrah has a slightly higher voice than Penny, and she definitely has got that feeling of some of that 70s soul. "My Guy" is also a track on that first (and perhaps sole) album "What Can I Do?". From what I've read, both the single and album are the rarest of the rare.
Good evening J-C: maybe not quite as rare (albeit expen$ive); there's a copy for 14,800 on Yahoo.jp. There is also a nice label shot that may have the lyricists in it; but the album-back shot is *almost* legible ..... I suppose you'll just have to buy it ;) https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/f218597465
ReplyDeleteMorning, T-cat.
Delete14,800 yen is somewhat too rich for my blood. :) If I can hear a few more tracks and if Tower Records decides to a re-master for a much less insane price, I'd consider it.
The R&B tracks seem to be a throwback to the late 1970s as opposed to the year (1984) it was released.
ReplyDeleteYes, that's a good thing!
I will admit that her voice is not as good as her imouto.
However she can get funkier than old dirty buttcrack too.
Hi there.
DeleteI think you forgot to mention "old dirty buttcrack following 3-bean salad night".
That's one of the interesting things of some Japanese music, anime tunes, in particular. The composers seemed to create melodies that sounded 5 to even 10 years earlier than the release date.
BTW, how did you find out about the Tohyama sisters?
Ewww!
ReplyDeleteOkay, I did deserve that deeper exposition of my aforementioned comment about buttcrack.
Anyway I found out about Penny the same way I've found a lot stuff. That mysterious algorithm that's behind those Youtube Recommendations.
However, I found about Myrah from a recent article on the "Light Mellow on the web ~turntable diary~" blog that you mentioned in a post awhile back.
I have since lost a lot of my ever shrinking mortality exploring that rabbit hole of a site.
After that I went looking for more information and found a number of sites talking about her in other countries and/or languages.
Then, obviously, your post came up and here I am...losing a lot of my ever shrinking mortality exploring this rabbit hole of a site.
I blame you both! ;p
Always a pleasure bringing new victims into the Dark Side of Japanese City Pop! :)
DeleteThere is no dark side of Japanese City Pop. It is all wonderful, special and golden!
DeleteAs this was a few years ago you probably know this by now, but as no-one seems to have mentioned it I thought I'd add - Penny released a version of this song first! On 1981's Just Call Me Penny LP, and also on the b-side of 1982's Our Lovely Days single.
ReplyDeleteHi again, Keir and thanks for all of the songs and albums that you've put up on YouTube over the years. Actually, I didn't know about this information so thanks again for letting us know.
DeleteYou're welcome, and thank you for your site! I often stumble upon it when researching things, it's nice to have English written by a human to read rather than machine translation!
DeleteIn my day job, I have to often "clean up" after coming across machine translation. Sometimes, it's good for a laugh.
Delete