Miyuki Yamanaka/The Drifters -- Honto ni Honto ni Gokuro ne（ほんとにほんとに御苦労ね）

 

Watching the old Saturday-night comedy-variety show "Hachi-ji da yo! Zen'in Shuugo"（8時だョ!全員集合...It's 8 O'clock! Everybody Assemble） starring The Drifters（ザ・ドリフターズ）, one of the more famous types of skits involved a rather impressively large set involving a building such as an ancient house. The guys would get into the appropriate costumes and then go all farcical, always using the various parts of the house as comedic props in the act. As usual, the leader Chosuke Ikariya（いかりや長介）would eventually become the furious straight man loudly wondering what the heck was going on.

The Drifters have their fair share of articles on KKP so they did have their musical output. Quite a while ago, I discovered this particular song which came out sometime in 1970 titled "Dorifu no Honto ni Honto ni Gokuro-san"（ドリフのほんとにほんとにご苦労さん...The Drifters' Truly Truly Thank You For Your Hard Work）. With a bit of Group Sounds rock added to the TV orchestra pop, each of the members give tribute to all those common folks out there who go the added mile to keep the happy home. However of course, being The Drifters, they give the situations their own comical twist such as thanking hausfrau Hanako for her patience as she holds her nose while her husband frequently farts up the home or giving tribute to all of those exam-focused students who don't even have time for a bit of a roll in the hay, so to speak. Those lyrics were provided by Rei Nakanishi（なかにし礼）.

Some time later, I found out that The Drifters' song was actually a cover of a wartime song by Miyuki Yamanaka（山中みゆき）. Written by Toshio Nomura（野村俊夫）and composed by Haruo Kurawaka（倉若晴生）, and both have been acknowledged in the cover, the original song was titled "Honto ni Honto ni Gokuro ne" (Truly Truly Thank You For Your Hard Work) and was released in 1939. Nomura's lyrics had Yamanaka, who had been active as a singer in prewar Japan, sing solemnly about the gratitude to all those helping out in the war effort from the soldiers to their families. Unfortunately, Yamanaka's J-Wiki file only lists that she was active in the prewar and war years and that this song was her most famous work.