Cools Rockabilly Club -- Sentimental New York（センチメンタル・ニューヨーク）

"Hey, that motorcycle yours?"

If that anecdote on the J-Wiki article is indeed true, then supposedly that line of inquiry in a restaurant may have started a rock band in 1975 which still exists today and has influenced later musical entities such as BUCK-TICK and Fumiya Fujii（藤井フミヤ）of Checkers.

The question was thrown out in the early 1970s by future singer and actor Hiroshi Tachi（舘ひろし）who was in his twenties at the time and perhaps was still wondering what his lot in life was going to be. Meanwhile, the target of his question was another strapping young lad, Koichi Iwaki（岩城滉一）, who would go into the acting field a few years later. Iwaki was wondering whether there was going to be a fist-filled conflict but it ended up that he and Tachi would hit it off well over the topic of motorcycles.

At the end of 1974 in Harajuku, that conversation led to the creation of a tough biker club called Cools（クールス）with Hiroshi "Boss" Tachi as the leader, Koichi "Ko-chan" Iwaki as the sub-leader and another buddy Hidemitsu Sato（佐藤秀光）joining in. All in all, there were twenty-one members when Cools started up and they all styled their hair into pompadours and put on the black jackets & jeans. The following year, the club got hired as protection during the final concert of the band Carol（キャロル）with Eikichi Yazawa（矢沢永吉）, but apparently Cools may have gotten quite enough attention at the concert to the extent that they were seen as an offshoot band. Some of the younger staff at King Records picked up on the leather-bound cluster of charisma and somehow persuaded an initially reluctant Tachi to get a music act together.

Thus, the first incarnation of Cools the band was born. Tachi, Haruyuki "Pitpi" Mizuguchi（水口晴幸）, and Kazuumi "Mura" Murayama（村山一海）were on lead vocals, James Fujiki（ジェームス藤木）was on lead guitar, Kazuo "Frank" Iida（飯田和男）was on side guitar, Kiichi Okubo（大久保喜市）was on bass, and the aforementioned Sato was on drums. Mitsuo "Shacho" Umemura（梅村光男）was on guitar but he soon left once the band was officially formed. As for Iwaki, he had already decided to pursue that acting road so he didn't join.

Cools' first phase lasted between 1975 and 1977 and Tachi decided to model themselves after the band Sha Na Na (I used to watch their variety show) going after a 4-beat American rock n' roll style. Five singles and six albums ensued during that period before Boss made the decision to leave the group.

Drummer Sato became the new leader of the band which also re-named itself into Cools Rockabilly Club from 1978 to 1981. This whole thing with Cools all started from a recommendation from my friend Jerry when he was looking for other doo-wop bands aside from Chanels/Rats & Star from that time frame. Before I found out about all this history with Cools and its many incarnations, I came across this song which was recorded during this second phase.

However, instead of a pure 50s rock n' roll style, what I got with "Sentimental New York", which was their 7th single released in September 1978, was some doo-wop taking a dive into some romantic and bluesy funk and soul. I do like this and although I'm not sure who is on lead vocal (Mizuguchi or Murayama?), he does sound a bit like departed leader Tachi. I gotta say that for a biker club, these guys can carry a tune! I wouldn't mind hearing some more of their stuff if they decided to bring in a bit of the City Pop style. Some fine chorus and horns.

According to J-Wiki, there have been six incarnations up to the present day with Cools RC (1981-1983), Original Cools '90 (1990-1992), The Cools (1992-1997) and back to Cools from 1997 onwards.