Hiroshi Wada and Mahina Stars -- Tokyo no Yoru wa Tanoshiku（東京の夜は楽しく）/Tokyo no Yoru wa Sasayaku（東京の夜はささやく）

 

It's been about half a month since I've tackled a Mood Kayo and last night's "Uta Kon"（うたコン）was more on the folk stuff of the 1970s (which of course I was perfectly fine with), so nothing about the old bar songs there.

First off, let's have those Mood Kayo veterans Hiroshi Wada and Mahina Stars（和田弘とマヒナスターズ）back on KKP again with their 1966 song "Tokyo no Yoru wa Tanoshiku" (Fun Nights in Tokyo) which was actually a B-side to "Ginza Blues"（銀座ブルース）, a single that had the group duet with Kazuko Matsuo（松尾和子）. Written and composed by the same fellow behind the sultry music of "Ginza Blues", Domei Suzuki（鈴木道明）, "Tokyo no Yoru wa Tanoshiku" has more of a galloping melody with some Latin hustle percussion and that steel pedal guitar so maybe even a bit of Hawaiian punch is included. The guys are basically happily exhorting all of those salarymen to Wang Chung (80s pop joke) the night away in the largest city on the planet. Good times, back then.

I've also thrown in this Tokyo-themed song by Mahina Stars called "Tokyo no Yoru wa Sasayaku" (Whispers in the Tokyo Night) although I couldn't track down the originating year for this one, though it's been contained on kayo compilations for the 1960s. I figure it was probably a non-single album track on one of the group's original LPs.

Written by Tetsuo Miyagawa（宮川哲夫）and composed by Hideki Mishima（三島秀記）, "Tokyo no Yoru wa Sasayaku" has more of an intimate sensation on the ears, and I especially enjoy the almost-crystal like guitar plucking right from the start. The feeling is akin to a couple dancing really close on the nightclub floor buoyed by plenty of alcohol in the two of them. It's truly a Mood Kayo love ballad somewhere on the streets of Tokyo.