Taro Yamada -- Shinbun Shonen（新聞少年）

 

Last night, NHK's "Uta Con"（うたコン）was back on the air as they have been for the past few months, but this time, the show was back with something that we hadn't seen in several months...an audience. Mind you, the usual social distancing restrictions were in effect and the lucky people who were allowed to attend were all up on the higher levels instead of the main floor so there were fewer people that I had expected but that's OK for a first time. Baby steps, y'know.

One of the guests was singer Taro Yamada（山田太郎）. That name is fairly common (kinda like a Tom Jones) so I saw quite a few Taro Yamadas through J-Wiki, and this singer Taro Yamada from Tokyo is also an actor and a horse owner. However, he was actually born Ken Nishikawa（西川賢）in 1948.

Yamada debuted as a singer in 1963 with "Kiyorakana Seishun"（清らかな青春...Pure Youth）, but his claim to fame came a couple of years later in 1965 with "Shinbun Shonen" (The Newspaper Boy), written by Fujio Hattan（八反ふじを）and composed by Nobuo Shimazu（島津伸男）. Not sure whether to classify it as an enka or as a kayo but it sure is genki as it describes a stout-hearted lad doing his best for the neighbourhood by delivering the papers. 

I'd probably even it call it a march to make any mother proud. In any case, Yamada performed it alongside enka singer Hiroshi Miyama（三山ひろし）on the show last night. When it first premiered in 1965, it became a hit and earned the singer his first of three consecutive invitations to the Kohaku Utagassen later that year. If the Oricon charts had existed then, I wouldn't have been surprised if it had hit the top spot.