Over the years of doing the blog, I've made a few observations about the late 1980s in terms of how Japanese popular music was moving on. Aidoru songs were either getting lusher arrangements or more dance beats while in the City Pop world, there were hints of sophisti-pop getting into those songs. One other thing that I've noted is how some female singers were looking abroad to non-Japanese composers to create some magic for them. There was indeed some different feelings with Seiko Matsuda's（松田聖子）"Marrakech" and Reimy's（麗美）"Shadow Play", for example.
Another example is Hitomi Tohyama's（当山ひとみ）"Imagination" which was not only a March 1988 single but the title track and the first track for her album which came out in the same month. According to the JASRAC database, Nat Kipner and Paul Wayne were responsible for the songwriting, although Chinfa Kan（康珍化）came up with the Japanese lyrics for "Imagination". The undulating keyboards and guitars remind of that certain West Coast AOR or the type of songs that would get played in a scene in many an 80s action flick.
Speaking of songwriters, I was wondering about Nat Kipner since that family name was also seen in the credits for Matsuda's "Marrakech", but for that one, the writer was Steve Kipner. Well, it turns out Nat was Steve's father.
Australian songwriter/producer Nat Kipner has had his finger in a few pies. He was instrumental in getting the Bee Gees recorded in their early days. His first big hit as a songwriter was probably “Cheryl Moana Marie” for New Zealand crooner John Rowles, a major hit all across Oceania and Asia. In North America he’s probably best-known for “Too Much, Too Little, Too Late,” the smash comeback hit for Johnny Mathis (in duet with Deneice Williams). He had a breakthrough in Japan in 1982 with “Where Did We Go Wrong” by Italian-American singer Anne Bertucci, which won the Grand Prix for Best International Song at that years World Popular Song Festival (these days overshadowed by the participation by a teenaged Céline Dion). It was not his first submission to a song contest, the aforementioned “Cheryl Moana Marie” represented New Zealand at the Rio de Janeiro Song Festival, while Kipner also composed “Bad Old Days,” the 1978 entry to Eurovision from the UK.
ReplyDeleteThe younger Kipner had his breakthrough with his duo Tin Tin and their major international hit “Toast and Marmalade for Tea” (produced by Bee Gee Maurice Gibb). Steve Kipner went on to be an extremely prolific songwriter, Olivia Newton-John’s “Physical” probably being his most famous hit but he’s responsible for quite a lot.
Hello, Mike. Thanks for the information on the Kipners. I certainly remember Newton-John's "Physical" and its music video. An old friend of mine once came over to the house to play the album over and over again.:)
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