Sachiko Nishida -- Hajimete no Machi de（初めての街で）

In terms of soothing myself down after some unanticipated glitches in my day (you can take a look at my last article, "Damatte Ore ni Tsuite Koi"（だまって俺について来い）that I whipped up a few hours earlier), there was another song from "Uta Kon"（うたコン）last night that I had cottoned onto for the first time.

Guest Sayuri Ishikawa（石川さゆり）sang this lovely ballad called "Hajimete no Machi de" (First Time in Town) which the hosts pointed out was a successful commercial song for Kiku-Masamune sake（菊正宗酒造）. Of course, I did not know this and even my parents had been unaware of this famous ad.

Ahhh...such a mellow song to go with some mellow sake and I did see some nice dishes to go with the famous Japanese libation in the ad above.

The original singer was Sachiko Nishida（西田佐知子）whom I've usually associated with the 1960s, but "Hajimete no Machi de" was a single that she released in November 1979. In fact, her 104th single was her 2nd-last single to date. However, "Hajimete no Machi de" had been used as the reliable Kiku-Masamune jingle since 1975, and if I read the J-Wiki article correctly, Nishida was always the singer although she apparently wasn't the first choice for the gig.

For one of her final singles, Nishida couldn't have asked for a more prestigious songwriting pair than lyricist Rokusuke Ei（永六輔）and composer Hachidai Nakamura（中村八大）since among many of their many kayo for other singers, including presumably Nishida, they were the ones behind the legendary "Ue wo Muite Arukou" (上を向いて歩こう) back in 1961 for the late Kyu Sakamoto（坂本九）. The above video features the commercial version of "Hajimete no Machi de", so I'm assuming this is the original take from 1975. Listening to it, it has that old-fashioned Mood Kayo statement with a proud trumpet among the brass starting things off but the rest of the tune seems to take on a milder pop kayo flavour from the previous decade. Of course, the commercial song had to include the Kiku-Masamune name in the lyrics.

The fascinating thing about the 1979 single of "Hajimete no Machi de" is that it takes on even more musical influences. It starts off with some bluesy jazz but then it progresses into a small potpourri of genres including folk, New Music and even country. And immediately, I thought about another singer perhaps tackling this version and that would be chanteuse Ruiko Kurahashi（倉橋ルイ子）. But this is no slight on Nishida who does a great job on both versions. However, if I had to choose one over the other, I would have to go with the 1979 take. The Nakamura melody arranged by City Pop/AOR keyboardist Akira Inoue（井上鑑）is very comforting but so are the Ei lyrics as Nishida sings that no matter how many times a person might find himself in a first-time situation (town, love, heartbreak, etc.), he/she will never be alone and there will always be sake to help smooth some rough edges (drink responsibly, though!).

Getting back to Ishikawa's performance last night, though, she did great which is why I looked up "Hajimete no Machi de" in the first place. Incidentally, she also took on a commercial song for a certain kind of liquor many years ago herself, and I've also taken a long shine to it.