Though they've been largely non-existent for years now, when I was a kid, there used to be a plethora of Xmas TV specials on the original American networks such as NBC with Bob Hope and the like. I viewed them as much as I did the usual Christmas cartoons including "A Charlie Brown Christmas", and interestingly enough, in Japan, there were signs that the commercial networks at least were also willing to entertain the masses with their own Yuletide specials.
For example on NTV, there was an annual Xmas special that lasted between 2003 and 2008 called "HAPPY Xmas SHOW". It was broadcast usually on either the night of December 23rd or 24th and had veteran comedian Sanma Akashiya（明石家さんま）as the host for 2 hours of music-based festivities featuring some of the popular singers at the time such as Morning Musume（モーニング娘。）, Chemistry and Ayumi Hamasaki（浜崎あゆみ）. As you see in the opening for the inaugural broadcast, Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）provided his doo-wop version of "White Christmas".
At the end of the 2006 broadcast of "HAPPY Xmas SHOW", Mrs. Yamashita, aka Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）, provided an Xmas tune to nicely and melodically bookend the show with the First Couple of City Pop. Although Tats has given listeners the J-Xmas song, Takeuchi has also been generously lavishing our ears with a number of Yuletide numbers whether they be covers of the classics or homegrown J-Pop. In this case, it's the latter with "Christmas wa Issho ni" (Together at Christmas) which was a track on her 10th studio album "Denim" which came out in May 2007.
Realizing that the song had been created many years after the original City Pop boom, I still think that "Christmas wa Issho ni" possesses that quality of Xmas time among the bright lights of Tokyo so I can consider it as something from the Neo City Pop vein. Besides by that point, folks like Ryusenkei（流線形）were already providing their brand of urban contemporary tunes. In addition to her husband's guitar cutting from the intro, there are those scintillating keyboards, the tight horns, the light & funky beat, and of course, Mariya's tender vocals.
Nothing like "Christmas wa Issho ni" to accompany a walk down the illuminated Keyakizaka in Roppongi. As for "Denim", the album hit the top spot on Oricon and became the 20th-ranked release for 2007.
This is one I always forget about, which is a shame because it's a great song. I'd love it if she'd come out with a full Christmas album. She has a fair number of Christmas songs scattered across various albums, so it wouldn't take much work to just throw those together with a few new songs.
ReplyDeleteI was kinda thinking the same thing as well, Scott. She has enough Xmas songs that she could whip up a fairly decent compilation album.
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