There's been a certain piece of classical music that I've often heard in motion pictures since I was a boy. It was used at the very beginning of the original "Rollerball", the 1975 sci-fi film starring James Caan.
Then I heard a brief snippet of it whenever the character of Dr. Van Helsing popped up in "The Cannonball Run" to great comic effect (I remember laughing my guts out because of his appearance and the music). Dramatic or funny, Johann Sebastian Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" always heralded to me something quite sinister was afoot. Didn't even know the title of this iconic organ piece until today; just considered it "creepy organ song used in movies". This was the sort of music that a depraved but sophisticated villain would play in his monstrous mansion on a pipe organ the size of a two-story building.
In any case, "Aki kara mo, Soba ni Ite" then goes into a lovely jaunty melody with those strings that I've often associated with some of the aidoru tunes in the late 1980s. Again, I envision the aidoru in a huge billowing dress, this time being Nanno, in some European castle near a bluff making out like some princess pining for her Prince Charming. The lyrics by Megumi Ogura（小倉めぐみ）take things, though, back down to Earth as a high school girl finally gets the boy of her dreams in the autumn after a number of seasons admiring him from afar. Not going to let him get away easily.
The song was also used for a Glico commercial starring Nanno herself. With arrangement by Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）, "Aki kara mo, Soba ni Ite" was the 8th in her consecutive string of 8 No. 1 singles dating back to her 6th single "Rakuen no Door"（楽園のDoor）, and was 2nd to "Toiki de Net"（吐息でネット）in terms of records sold, selling a little over 270,000 copies. It eventually became the 30th-ranked single for 1988.
Thank you for your input. Ever since i’ve started liking music from the shōwa era (starting from 80s aidoru) this site has been a great place to look into this era of music in a critical manner.
ReplyDeleteI like Nanno a lot and I too imagine a fairytale scenario when i listen to her songs, like Hanashi Kaketakatta and Aki no Indication. This princess-pop fantasy doesn't sound as strong in her first singles but in 87-89 that seemed to be her appeal. Using classical compositions is a nice way to transport the listener into this kind of imaginary field.
Hello, Eduardo and thanks for your comments. I'm glad that you've been enjoying some of the fine tunes from the 1980s. Hopefully, you'll also enjoy some of the other genres.
DeleteQuite a few of the aidoru including Nanno had songwriters weave up some of these European fantasy tunes to the extent that I think that was one of the main characteristics of aidoru music in the latter half of the 1980s. I think that the only aidoru from that time period that didn't seem to get that sort of melodic treatment was Miho Nakayama, although I may be wrong.