I'm not quite sure what a funky mermaid would look like although I can speculate Ariel doing the Moonwalk and spinning on her head on the ocean floor. King Triton would be absolutely scandalized, though.
This "Funky Mermaid" does exist though as a remix track from Miho Nakayama's（中山美穂）remix album "Makin' Dancin'" from October 1988. I actually found this on one of the radio channels and was immediately sent swooning back to my dancing (or what roughly resembled dancing) days in university. Not sure if this would be properly categorized as Eurobeat or straight-on R&B, but both genres were influences in the dance-pop of the day in America.
For Miporin fans, "Funky Mermaid" is that desired smoothie of various songs from her discography with the overriding flavour being "Moonlight Sexy Dance" from her "Mind Game" album released earlier that year in July. However, it also has chunks of "50/50", "Close-Up" and "JINGI-Aishite Moraimasu"（JINGI・愛してもらいます...You Will Love Me）. I'm not sure if this is an accurate statement, but it seems like Nakayama was the favoured go-to 80s aidoru for dance remixes for some reason. "Makin' Dancin'" hit No. 2 on Oricon.
The original "Moonlight Sexy Dance", written by Chinfa Kan（康珍化）and composed by Takao Sugiyama（杉山卓夫）, would be the Miporin equivalent of pineapple in that smoothie. There is some musical tropical punch in there through the synthesizers and percussion that makes me think of hot beaches and warm summer breezes. When I used to make smoothies back in Ichikawa, pineapple was indeed one of my main ingredients. "Mind Game" also hit No. 2 and was the 36th-ranked album for 1988.
Hi, J-Canuck.
ReplyDeleteI just love "Moonlight Sexy Dance" and the whole "Mind Game" album with its more 80s R&B-flavored summer tunes (this album is one of my favourites from Miporin). On the other hand, I've always asked myself what's up with "Makin' Dancin'". Yeah, I get the whole remix thing, and quite like the idea ("Waku Waku Sasete", for example, got a lovely 12'' treatment back in 1986 or 87), but "Makin' Dancin'" is quite sloppy, sounding more like a chaotic megamix than a proper remix. In my opinion, they really missed an opportunity with this one, but it still reached #2 on the Oricon charts, thanks to Miporin's popularity at the time.
Hi, Marcos.
DeleteGood to hear from you. I think "Makin' Dancin'" has that fan-made feeling of putting together a whole bunch of Miporin song pieces and throwing in that typical remix beat, but to my ears, it's not too bad. And again, the fans were more than willing to buy it. I've got a sense that the guys behind the project were rabidly trying to take advantage of the opportunity and get something out ASAP rather than work on quality.