Southern All Stars -- Ya Ya ~ Ano Toki wo Wasurenai（あの時代を忘れない）

 

Well, we are on the verge of approaching the summer season so why not put up some Southern All Stars（サザンオールスターズ）to start things off today?

"Ya Ya ~ Ano Toki wo Wasurenai" (I'll Never Forget Those Days) was SAS' 16th single from October 1982 following the high-flying nocturnal fun of "Niji Iro The Night Club" （匂艶「にじいろ」THE NIGHT CLUB） which got onto the record shelves back in May. In contrast to the party-hearty disco City Pop of their 15th single, "Ya Ya" is much more of a solemn and nostalgic ballad bringing in images of old friends gathering once more on the beach of their youth with Keisuke Kuwata（桑田佳祐） heading up the singalong in tribute to those good ol' days.

Written and composed by Kuwata, the arrangement for the song reminds me of a couple of songs from the 1970s including The Jackson 5's "I'll Be There". According to the J-Wiki article on "Ya Ya", the song wasn't just to get listeners thinking about their happy past but also to reveal Kuwata and band's good times when they were attending Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo when they belonged to the music circle Better Days, and the club is mentioned verbatim in the lyrics.

"Ya Ya" hit No. 10 on Oricon and ended up as the 69th-ranked single for 1983, going Gold. It also became a track on a number of Southern All Stars' albums with the first one being "Ballad '77~'82"（バラッド '77〜'82）which was released in December 1982 as the band's first BEST compilation of their slower songs. This particular album stayed up at No. 1 for 8 straight weeks on Oricon's cassette tape chart and became the No. 1 tape release for 1983 while on the regular album chart, it ranked in at No. 13. By the way, the above video has Kuwata singing "Ya Ya" about 25 seconds in; before that, he's involved in some comedic scene. If for whatever reason, the singer hadn't chosen the music route, I think that he would have made for a decent comedian.