Kojiro Shimizu -- Merry Go Round

 

I'm kinda wondering whether City Pop enjoys a good carousel in its lineup. I recollect that Akira Terao（寺尾聰）had sung a mid-tempo tune of that nature titled "Merry Go Round" back in 1981.

Well, I found this considerably more uptempo song, also titled "Merry Go Round", complete with some snazzy horns, piano, saxophone and snappy percussion sung by actor/singer Kojiro Shimizu（清水宏次朗）for his December 1991 album "Mind Breeze". I saw this on YouTube and as soon as I saw the thumbnail with the album cover, I figured with that title, there had to be something urban contemporary about this release.

Sure enough, there is something of the Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）flair and Resort Pop in "Merry Go Round" which was actually written by Masako Arikawa（有川正沙子）, composed by Kazuhiro Hara（原一博）and arranged by Masahiro Ikumi（幾見雅博）. In an interesting turn of coincidence, Arikawa was also the lyricist behind Terao's "Merry Go Round" a decade prior (things that make me go Hmmmm). Anyways, both songs with the same title but totally different melodies hit me just fine.

Shimizu hails from Tokyo and was scouted right in Harajuku where he was hoofing it up as a member of the famous Takenoko-zoku dance group. He made his debut as an aidoru in 1981 under the stage name of Koji Take（竹宏治）. After taking a short break from the industry, he returned to show business in 1984 under his real name with the single "Billy Joel wa Niawanai"（ビリー・ジョエルは似合わない...Billy Joel Doesn't Fit Me） which earned him the Grand Prize at the 13th Tokyo Music Festival. A whole barrage of singles and albums came out following that. At the same time, Shimizu walked the acting path which included a role as one of the pompadoured young toughs, Hiroshi Kato（加藤浩志）, in the "Be-Bop High School"（ビー・バップ・ハイスクール）series.