Well, I guess in a way, it did take well over a decade of this blog's existence for MAX's "Give me a shake" to get on board despite the fact that it was a song that I'd remembered hearing and seeing over and over again on television while in Japan. But that's what an aging mind does to me.
As usual, I have to say "Better late than never". "Give me a shake" was not only MAX's April 1997 6th single since coming out as a solo unit but it was their first homegrown single that didn't have any origins from Italo Eurobeat tunes (did not know that). Written by Yuuko Ebine（えびね遊子）and composed by Yasuhiko Hoshino（星野靖彦）, who's collaborated with some of the other stars of the decade such as Namie Amuro（安室奈美恵）and Ayumi Hamasaki（浜崎あゆみ）, I think it still has that MAX sheen of dance-pop with the glamourous ladies vamping it up in the video.
"Give me a shake" would win a Japan Record Award for Excellent Song that year, as well as hit No. 1 on the charts and invite MAX for their first of five consecutive appearances from 1997 to 2001 on NHK's Kohaku Utagassen. It ended up as the 67th-ranked single for 1997 and was a track on the group's 2nd album "MAXIMUM II", released on Christmas Day that year. It hit No. 2 on the Oricon weeklies and became the 23rd-ranked album for 1998. Some other accolades for that album was that it became a million-seller and it won Best Pop Album of the Year honours at the 12th annual Japan Gold Disc Awards.
I listened to "MAXIMUM II" sometime last year and it's a fun album with lots of new jack swing tunes(especially "Wonderland"). Glad they were able to get out of Namie Amuro's shadow and stand out on their own. They're still together today(minus one member).
ReplyDeleteHello there. Yes, I'm glad that they were able to strike out gold on their own and had a good run of it.
DeleteHello, Brian. Yes, those were quite the days. I was over there when it was all about the Komuro Steamroller and then aidoru began to come back via Tsunku's Hello! Project.
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