Lisa Tatsuki & Yuji Konno/Keiko Kobayashi -- Kibun wo Dashite Mou Ichido （気分を出してもう一度）

 

This will probably go down as one of the weirder analogies when it comes to pop culture connections on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" and it will further cement my status as a sci-fi geek. However, work with me here. In the 1970s when I first heard and started watching the adventures of everyone's favourite Time Lord, The Doctor, from "Doctor Who", it was through watching the dapper if often ill-tempered Third Doctor portrayed by Jon Pertwee and then his replacement, Tom Baker, took over as the thoroughly daffy Fourth Doctor. But as a kid, I had thought that Jon and Tom were the first and second incarnations of The Doctor at that time.

Well, lo and behold, during one of the PBS pledge breaks for money by Mike and Goldie (who basically threatened us to donate or no more "Doctor Who"[ha, ha...little did they know that we Torontonians still had TV Ontario to fall back upon]), I found out rather dramatically through a poster of the Doctors (including the then-new Fifth Doctor played by Peter Davison) there were two other old guys to the left that I had never seen before: an ancient fellow and a mop-topped chap. It turned out that they were the first and second incarnations of the Time Lord starring William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton! There was a "Doctor Who" before Jon Pertwee. I was rather gobsmacked.

Strangely enough (and we are returning from the TARDIS to kayo kyoku now), I had the very same feeling about the flirtatious and fun "Kibun wo Dashite Mou Ichido" (Bring Back The Mood Once More). The reason for this is that for the longest time, I had assumed that City Pop chanteuse Rajie was the first singer to croon this song created by lyricist Kazumi Yasui（安井かずみ）and composer Kazuhiko Kato（加藤和彦）as one of the tracks on her debut album "Heart to Heart" released in September 1977.

Ah, well...nope, that wasn't the case at all. If truth be told, the first rendition of "Kibun wo Dashite Mou Ichido" was provided by a duo comprised of celebrities who probably didn't consider singing as their regular gig. For one thing, the late Yuji Konno（今野雄二）was a movie/music critic, a translator (he actually provided the Japanese lyrics for Akemi Ishii's（石井明美）big hit "CHA-CHA-CHA") and a novelist, while Lisa Tatsuki（立木リサ）has been a teenage model, actress and a TV personality (with one earlier song under her belt).

Both of them had their dalliances on TV including their time (probably shared) on the late-night NTV program "11 PM", and maybe that's how they got together to perform this song which was released in July 1977, a couple of months before Rajie's version. Compared with the 70s City Pop sound of her "Kibun wo Dashite Mou Ichido", the duet between Tatsuki and Konno starts off sounding quite soulful before the feeling transforms into something even more luxurious with images of crisp white tablecloth and champagne flutes. In addition, considering how small their discographies were, the two of them did pretty well in the recording booth. By the way, the backup singers here were members of the fusion band Sadistics which included drummer Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏）and guitarist Masayoshi Takanaka（高中正義）.

As any television pitchperson will say, "Wait! There's more!". Following the single by Tatsuki and Konno, folk singer and radio personality Keiko Kobayashi（小林啓子）would release her own solo take on "Kibun wo Dashite Mou Ichido" in August, in between their version and Rajie's cover. With the additional subtitle of "WE CAN DANCE", Kobayashi's version amps up the Latin flavour (which populates all of the versions) and the funk. Handling the arrangement was her husband Nobuyuki Takahashi（高橋信之）, Yukihiro's older brother. The other interesting connection is that Rajie herself served as one of the backup singers behind Kobayashi along with the Takahashi brothers. The single was also the first track on her 3rd album "Chotto Kibun wo Kaete"（ちょっと気分をかえて...Change The Mood A Bit） released in the same month.

So at this point, we've got ourselves four...count 'em, four!...different versions of "Kibun wo Dashite Mou Ichido" if we also include the 2002 cover duet with Maki Nomiya（野宮真貴）and Crazy Ken Band's Ken Yokoyama（横山剣）that was included in the Rajie article. However, according to J-Wiki, composer Kato himself provided his own cover via his February 1978 album "Gardenia", and he had quite the backup band: drummer Takahashi was back, Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂）was on guitar, Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）was on bass, and Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）was on piano among other great musicians. Alas, I couldn't find a copy of that one on YouTube.