P.S. on Tokyo House Party: Group Sounds

 

I almost forgot that I had another topic within the "P.S. on Tokyo House Party" series that I had to get off my chest. A week ago, I did the rather shibui tribute to Mood Kayo which had its huge heyday in the 1950s and 1960s although the genre would continue forward well into the 1980s at least. 

Well, another genre that actually had a much shorter life span consisting of the latter half of the 1960s, but still left quite an impression is Group Sounds, so dubbed since the bands that resided within this type of music emulated some of the rock n' roll groups in the West such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Beau Brummels and Herman's Hermits. So we had a fair share of Japanese rock n' roll bands which likened themselves to members of the animal kingdom including The Tigers, The Spiders and Ox, although there were other bands with names such as The Blue Comets and The Golden Cups.

The GS bands also left a number of songs that still have nostalgic appeal today, and some of the members also found success years later after the boom died out in the early 1970s. Those would include singers such as Kenji Sawada（沢田研二）, Akira Terao（寺尾聰）and Hiroshi Kamayatsu（かまやつひろし）. So without further ado, here are just a few of those bands.

The Spiders（ザ・スパイダース） -- Yuuhi ga Naiteiru (夕陽が泣いている）and Bang Bang Bang （バン　バン　バン）

The Tigers -- Hana no Kubi Kazari (花の首飾り）and Seaside Bound （シーサイド・バウンド）

Amazon.jp

Ox -- Girl Friend（ガール・フレンド）

Amazon.jp

The Golden Cups -- Nagai Kami no Shojo （長い髪の少女）