Earlier today, Rocket Brown of "Come Along Radio" and I had a nice little interview about my experiences with City Pop which will be broadcast through his podcast next week through Discord and/or Mixcloud, I believe, so for you who do tune in, you can get to hear how squeaky like poutine curds my voice is.😫
During our talk today, Rocket Brown (who's attending the return of a City Pop dance party as I write this...looking forward to the report) tipped me off on some rather surprising information: the legendary American vocal group known as The Platters actually recorded a Japanese City Pop song! Yup, I said it. The Platters. The ones behind the classic "Only You" and "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes". These were tunes that I used to hear on George Lucas' "American Graffiti" and episodes of "Happy Days" and even those K-Tel LP commercials.
However, the proof is in the pudding...or to be more literal, in the "TOKYO 1980s Victor Edition (The Compilation) Boogie, Funk & Modern Soul from Japan" compiled by DJ Notoya a few years ago. Plus, The Platters also recorded "Ai no Paradise" (I Know Paradise) mostly in Japanese. From what I could glean online, this was the B-side to a single that was released just in Japan in 1982, "Chotto Matte Kudasai"（ちょっと待って下さい...NEVER SAY GOODBYE）.
I've got no idea what the circumstances were that brought City Pop and The Platters together but here they are, grooving to a very obvious City Pop melody by composer/synthesizer player Kan Ogasawara（小笠原寛）, who actually goes by his nom de guerre Utollo Teshikai（手使海ユトロ）according to his J-Wiki entry, with lyrics by Mayumi Shinozuka（篠塚満由美）. Perhaps either this song or the A-side may have been used for a commercial. Either way, my day was made with this news.
It seems that from 1970 on "The Platters" was a confusing thing, with several versions at any one time, with it being unclear which if any of them had the right to use the unmodified name (as opposed to 'John Smith's Platters' or whatever). Curious about which ones these were!
ReplyDeleteHi, Keir. I've got no idea myself about which incarnation this Platters was. But I was really surprised by this single that got out in Japan.
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