Yuri Shimazaki -- Omokage（面影）

 

The above is a photo of Tetsuro Tanba（丹波哲郎）, the star from the 1970s cop series "G-MEN★75" and the 007 flick "You Only Live Twice". He passed away nearly 14 years ago on September 24th 2006 so in tribute, I wanted to see if I could find something connected with his famous TV show to put up onto the blog tonight.

Of course, there is the famous opening theme from "G-MEN★75" by Shunsuke Kikuchi（菊池俊輔）that I covered back in 2015. It is indeed a song reflecting the intrepid cops and their ever-insistent march toward justice. But I kinda figured that any Japanese cop show that has such a proud opening theme will most likely have a mellower and more introspective ballad to finish each episode.

Sure enough, I found out that the show had several ending themes which ran throughout the course of its run. The first of these enders is "Omokage" (Faces) by Yuri Shimazaki（しまざき由理）who recorded this when she was perhaps around all of 18 years of age, but in actual fact, she was already a veteran in the recording booth having released around 8 singles as a child singer beginning in 1968, according to her J-Wiki profile.

Listening to this tenderhearted and melancholy ballad about a past love affair that would probably have been great accompaniment to Superintendent Kuroki (Tanba) and one of his men as they knocked back a couple of scotch-on-the-rocks, I got the distinct impression that composer Kikuchi who also handled "Omokage" brought in some of the melody from the opening theme for this first ending theme. The lyrics were handled by Junya Sato（佐藤純弥）.

(1:12)

"Omokage" became a hit after its release as a single in July 1975 as it peaked at No. 6 on Oricon, eventually selling around 1.4 million records going well into 1976. Shimazaki would provide a few more ending themes for "G-MEN★75" before the program finally ended in 1982.

The song was also a favourite to be covered by other singers as folks like Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）and Kaori Mizumori（水森かおり）have. The above is Mizumori's take on "Omokage".