I was talking with Rocket Brown and Sanok on the Discord server earlier today, initially on the topic of Hideki Saijo（西城秀樹）when I realized that his birthday of April 13th passed by a few days ago. He would have been 66 this year, and so in commemoration, I'd like to put up a song of his.
His debut single, "Koi suru Kisetsu"（恋する季節）, is already up on the blog, so I'm going to go with Saijo's second outing, "Koi no Yakusoku" (Promise of Love) which was released in July 1972, about 4 months following the first single. Single No. 2 for Hideki has that same sort of beefiness that "Koi suru Kisetsu" has but it also possesses an interesting combination of flute and marimba (?) which reminds me of some of the music offered on the original "Hawaii Five-0" and 1960s James Bond soundtracks. Because of that impression, "Koi no Yakusoku" has that certain air of mystery and suspense.
As was the case with that debut single, Takashi Taka（たかたかし）provided the lyrics of a young man left absolutely devastated inside though probably stoic on the outside at the end of a teen romance. However, instead of Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）, it's Kunihiko Suzuki（鈴木邦彦）behind the music this time with Masahiko Aoi（葵まさひこ）handling the arrangements. "Koi no Yakusoku" did even better than "Koi suru Kisetsu" in the rankings as it hit No. 18 and it gradually became the 95th-ranked single for 1972. Both singles were also included in his debut album "Wild na Juu-Nana Sai/Saijo Hideki"（ワイルドな17歳/西城秀樹）from November 1972.
A voice full of youth. Still, I feel the goodness of the song.
ReplyDeleteI do agree...right at the beginning of his long successful run.
Delete