Yuuichi Ikuzawa -- Everyday

 

This is the first time that I've brought singer, guitarist and songwriter Yuuichi Ikuzawa（生沢佑一）into the KKP fold. Born in 1958 in Osaka as Kazuya Miura（三浦知也）, he made his debut under the stage name of Tomoya Dan（弾ともや）in 1974 with "Doyoubi no Gogo no Rock n' Roll"（土曜の午後のロックン・ロール...Saturday Afternoon Rock n' Roll）, and throughout his career since, he's been getting involved with a number of bands such as the 1970s Rosemarie, Twinzer and even a mid-1990s collaboration with Takahiro Matsumoto（松本孝弘）of B'z fame called Rock'n Roll Standard Club.

But taking on the new moniker of Yuuichi Ikuzawa, he released his first solo album "Mysterious", in 1983 and I gather that he was also into the City Pop of the times. Case in point, his "Everyday" which sounds like a morning type of the urban contemporary with the trumpet and the jingling keyboards. Masako Arikawa（有川正沙子）was behind the lyrics while Yuuichiro Oda（小田裕一郎）took care of the mellow melody.

I do like "Everyday" and one reason is that the arrangement is quite similar to the one for the theme song of the ABC sitcom "Too Close For Comfort" which ran between 1980 and 1983. I really liked that theme as well and the opening credits which showed a very soothing and inviting scene of San Francisco life. Johnny Mandel was the one behind the theme and he was also the composer for the theme from the movie and then the CBS show "MASH" as well as the standard "The Shadow of Your Smile".

Returning to Ikuzawa, as a musician he was also involved with a number of 90s hits that I've already written about: "Hateshinai Yume wo" （果てしない夢を）by the group collaboration of ZYYG, REV, ZARD & WANDS, Maki Ohguro's（大黒摩季）"La, La, La"（ら・ら・ら）and ZARD's "Makenaide" (負けないで）.