Credits

I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.

Monday, September 9, 2019

Naomi Miyanaga -- Summer Rain


It's one of those nights where, although I usually keep things to two articles, I find a song so catchy and/or interesting that I just have to include it NOW.


Have never heard of Naomi Miyanaga(宮永尚美)and have never seen her name in the pages of "Japanese City Pop". However, I caught her about half an hour ago on the New J Channel radio singing some funk so I checked the rest of YouTube on the off chance that she may have a presence there.

Well, the Force is with me tonight. Miyanaga is somewhat represented with tracks from her 1984 album "Moment". There's very little information about her origins and discography but apparently she released at least one more album, "Che~!"(チェッ!...Tsk!)in 1986. Anyways, going back to "Moment", Miyanaga seems to have embraced City Pop including this track called "Summer Rain". According to Takechas Records, this funky number was created by Mika Silfver, and then from the JASRAC database, the lyricist was Juha Vainio (although my gut tells me that perhaps that might not be the case but I will go with it for now). But the arranger for most of the album was guitarist Fujimal Yoshino(芳野藤丸), and perhaps some of his influence can be felt by that really boss bass in the intro and the soaring instrumental bridge midway.

From the looks of it, "Moment" might be one of those rarest of the rare albums. From the sites I've checked so far, it's sold out and may be discontinued. Then again, I've said that for a number of albums in the past, only to be happily proven wrong.

2 comments:

  1. Hi J-Canuck!

    Juha Vainio wrote the original finnish lyrics. The original song, "Viivytään Hetkeen Viimeiseen", appeared on Meiju Suvas's 2nd album "Pidä Musta Kiinni" (1983).
    You can listen to this song here:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srHRyiZkg0I

    "Summer Rain" is a cover of this finnish song with new arrangements (original were by Kaj Westerlund). English lyrics were written by Frank Robson and Japanese lyrics written by Yumi Morita (森田由美).
    https://auctions.c.yimg.jp/images.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/image/dr000/auc0507/users/1a92e3343861c426ff4c8af1acac8e5ed6cc0499/i-img750x750-1563958100uccimz171231.jpg

    Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Morning, Daemonskald!

      Thanks for the information again. After listening to Suva's original, I will have to learn that Japan doesn't have an entire monopoly on the sounds of City Pop. :)

      Delete

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