I've been a fan of Japanese popular music for 40 years, and have managed to collect a lot of material during that time. So I decided I wanted to talk about Showa Era music with like-minded fans. My particular era is the 70s and 80s (thus the "kayo kyoku"). The plus part includes a number of songs and artists from the last 30 years and also the early kayo. So, let's talk about New Music, aidoru, City Pop and enka.
Credits
I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.
Thursday, December 30, 2021
Barry Manilow -- Copacabana
One definite musical presence in my childhood and youth was singer-songwriter Barry Manilow. After first hearing his "I Write the Songs" on some K-Tel record commercial, it seemed as if he had become a permanent resident on the airwaves with chart-toppers such as "Mandy" and "Ready to Take a Chance Again". And then even going into the 1980s when music videos were all the rage, Manilow had another hit with his 1981 "Read 'Em and Weep"; I was surprised by that release year since I didn't hear about the song until the video came out in 1983, so I gather that it was truly one of the longest slow cookers in pop.
However with all of those songs that he created, the one hit that has always stood out in my mind (and is this year's final ROY article for KKP) is "Copacabana". Released in June 1978, I'm guessing that it was one of the last great disco hits of the era and it was one song that got plenty of airplay on the radio whether I was at home or in the car. At the time, I had no idea where Copacabana was; at first, I'd assumed that it was somewhere in Africa before I learned that it was in Brazil.
Even there, I was wrong. "Copacabana" wasn't referring to anywhere in Brazil but the real-life Copacabana nightclub in New York City..."the hottest spot north of Havana" and the setting of a tragic love suspense thanks to Jack Feldman and Bruce Sussman's lyrics paired with Manilow's tropical disco. In a way, this pairing of a sad story with one heck of a happy disco-dancing melody should have earned it honourary kayo status in Japan. At the very least, it did get its own J-Wiki page where I discovered that "Copacabana" has even been used as the cheer song for the Chiben Wakayama High School(智辯和歌山高校)baseball team...and interestingly enough, the team won this summer's Koshien tournament. Thank you, Barry!
"Copacabana" hit the Top 10 in a number of countries including the United States (No. 8) and Canada (No. 7). From what I've read of the Wikipedia article for the song, although it was all about the intrigue at the nightclub in New York, the seed for it was germinated between Manilow and Sussman at the Copacabana Hotel in Rio de Janeiro. Speaking of the legendary club, it was closed down in May 2020 due to the pandemic and although there were plans to open it up again in a new location this year, nothing has happened. Still, 80 years of history are nothing to sneeze at.
So, what was coming out in June 1978 or thereabouts according to Showa Pops?
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