Ryoko Moriyama/Aoi Teshima -- Sayonara no Natsu（さよならの夏）

 

A good Sunday to you wherever you are. Yup, things are getting cooler...we did have that possibly last blast of summer yesterday with the temperatures going into the low 20s Celsius with plenty of sun. Today, I woke up to things being a lot cooler at a mere 4 degrees this morning. However, I did get plenty of sleep last night to compensate for some of the problems I did have slumber-wise the other night that I described in my final article for Saturday.

It's rather appropriate then I start this KKP broadcasting day with a song that will lovingly place you into relaxing slumber. This is "Sayonara no Natsu" (Summer of Farewells) by folk singer Ryoko Moriyama（森山良子）which was released as her 25th single in April 1976 and served as the theme song for the NTV drama of the same title that had its run between April and June of that year. 

I was kinda stuck on how to categorize this ballad which beautifully flows like the freshest water in a cold stream. There are some of those folk elements which is of course Moriyama's area of expertise and in a way, I can even pick up on some New Music elements, but I just decided to go with regular pop or kayo for "Sayonara no Natsu". Written by Yukiko Marimura（万里村ゆき子）and composed by Koichi Sakata（坂田晃一）, that slightly wistful bittersweet flavour in the song has me assuming that the show "Sayonara no Natsu" was probably quite a melodramatic one.

Now, if "Sayonara no Natsu" above sounds rather familiar to you, then you may be a Studio Ghibli fan because a cover version of this was sung by Aoi Teshima（手嶌葵）as the ending theme for 2011's "Kokurikozaka kara"（コクリコ坂から）, translated as either "From Coquelicot Hill" or "From Up on Poppy Hill". For me, this version of "Sayonara no Natsu" has an even grander and more rustic feeling (as strange as that description might read). I'm assuming that the instrument from the intro is a pianica which, along with Teshima's whispery vocals, gives the arrangement that wistful feeling of nostalgia from Moriyama's original while the shimmering strings provide that "bigger picture" sensation. Interestingly enough, both "Kokurikozaka kara" and NTV's "Sayonara no Natsu" were set in Yokohama.

The full title for Teshima's version is "Sayonara no Natsu ~ Kokurikozaka kara" and this was her 4th single released in June 2011. It peaked at No. 22 on Oricon. One of the songs included on the single is "Asa Gohan no Uta"（朝ごはんの歌）, a happy jazzy ditty that I've already written about. I also read that the famous "Ue wo Muite Arukou" (上を向いて歩こう) by Kyu Sakamoto（坂本九）had also been brought in as an insert song for the movie.