I've been a fan of Japanese popular music for 40 years, and have managed to collect a lot of material during that time. So I decided I wanted to talk about Showa Era music with like-minded fans. My particular era is the 70s and 80s (thus the "kayo kyoku"). The plus part includes a number of songs and artists from the last 30 years and also the early kayo. So, let's talk about New Music, aidoru, City Pop and enka.
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.
Tuesday, November 26, 2019
Wakako Shimazaki -- J.J. ga Ita Natsu(J・Jがいた夏)
I've known about tarento Wakako Shimazaki(島崎和歌子)for years and even knew that she had started her show business career as an aidoru. However, I had assumed that she was one of the late 1980s teenybopper singers when in fact she was actually a 1990s aidoru.
She's popped up on a number of shows but the program that I've currently associated Shimazaki with is "Honma Dekka!? TV"(ホンマでっか!?TV), veteran comedian Sanma Akashiya's(明石家さんま)information variety show about a whole panel of experts giving out stats and wisdom while other tarento and comedians have a chance to snark back. No matter which show she appears on, she will always be known for that booming laughter of hers along with the fact that she loves to eat and drink.
But getting back to her old music side, I found this 5th single of hers from August 1990, "J.J. ga Ita Natsu" (The Summer That J.J. Was Here). I was about to make a snarky remark of my own about a certain Hollywood producer/director but frankly I would be a few years too early although according to his Wiki entry, he did write the script for Harrison Ford's"Regarding Henry" back in 1991.
I'd never heard any of Shimazaki's output as a singer before, but listening to "J.J.", she wasn't too bad as an aidoru here. It's quite a bouncy tune about someone pining for a J.J., and it's got some writing cachet since the lyricist was Yu Aku(阿久悠)with Daisuke Inoue(井上大輔)as the composer.
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