Masahiko Kondo -- Tameiki Rockabilly（ためいきロ・カ・ビ・リー）/Eien ni Himitsusa（永遠に秘密さ）

For the last couple of Reminiscings of Youth articles (for Industry and Hall & Oates), I realized, coincidentally enough, that for each one, there were Masahiko Kondo（近藤真彦）tunes in the Top 3 but I hadn't written about them yet. Well, seeing that I ought to give them their necessary due, I'm putting them together to kill two birds with one stone. My first observation for the both of them is that though they are undeniably typical Matchy entries, they also possess some interesting characteristics.

The first is "Tameiki Rockabilly" (Sighing Rockabilly), Kondo's 11th single from July 1983 which was used as the theme song for a cinematic remake of Yujiro Ishihara's（石原裕次郎）"Arashi wo Yobu Otoko" (嵐を呼ぶ男）starring the singer himself. I'm gathering that the thumbnail photo at the top of the article may be of Matchy drumming those drums in that very movie just like Ishihara did in the original. The song was also used in a curry commercial.

As I said, "Tameiki Rockabilly" is another Kondo spectacular with those choppy aggressive horns with the wailing guitar, and of course, the kid was gonna kick up his legs and twist his body around in any stage performances of the song. However, what first caught my attention along with the sound effect of a storm brewing in the background was that layer of keyboard underneath the horns in the intro. My initial thought was "Well, that's a pretty urban contemporary synth in there". And then, the first verse popped in with a piano and a beat that struck me as being pretty City Pop although the refrain was most definitely a typical Matchy tune.

The songwriters were the veterans Takashi Matsumoto and Kyohei Tsutsumi（松本隆・筒美京平）but my question was what gave the song that urban sheen. It turns out that the arranger was none other than City Pop master Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）. Ahhh...naruhodo. "Tameiki Rockabilly" was another No. 1 for Matchy and it ended up as the 34th-ranked single for 1983. Not surprisingly, it also got him another invitation to the Kohaku Utagassen that year for his 3rd consecutive appearance on the NHK New Year's Eve special.

The summery "Eien ni Himitsusa" (Eternal Secret) was Single No. 15 from September 1984 for Kondo and for those City Pop/J-AOR fans, the song ought to inform you fairly quickly that it was indeed Tatsuro Yamashita（山本達彦）who came up with music and arrangement...and backing vocals. Matsumoto was once again behind the lyrics but that purring rhythm, the saxophone solo and Tats' voice in the background definitely brought Matchy even further into the genre fold than "Tameiki Rockabilly".

Not sure whether Yamashita ever did a self-cover of this one but it would be interesting to find out. In any case, "Eien ni Himitsusa" was another chart-topper for Matchy as it eventually became the 49th-ranked single of 1984. It sold close to 240,000 records.