Toshi Ito to The Playsmen -- Kimi wa Doko e（君はどこへ）

 

The Mood Kayo band Toshi Ito and Happy & Blue（敏いとうとハッピー&ブルー）formed up in the early 1970s and later came up with their enduring hit "Hoshi Furu Machikado" (星降る街角）in 1977. However, they actually had a predecessor group going back a few years. The name was only slightly different in that the group was known as Toshi Ito and The Playsmen（トシ伊藤とザ・プレイズメン）. As for that final word which doesn't exist in English, I couldn't find any romaji form so I have put it in as "playsmen" under the wild assumption that it was inspired by "playboy".

Even so, according to one Japanese blog, Toshi Ito and The Playsmen may have also originated from an earlier band known as Takami Shoji to Novelty Hawaiians（高見昌児とノベルディ・ハワイアンズ...Shoji Takami and The Novelty Hawaiians） in the early 1960s. Regardless of where they ultimately came from, The Playsmen made their debut in 1967 with what seems to have been a double A-side known as "Kitaguni no Hito/Kimi wa Doko e"（北国の人・君はどこへ...The Man From The North Country/Where Have You Gone?）. 

Listening to "Kimi wa Doko e", this Minoru Endo-penned（遠藤実）song sounds like a mix between Mood Kayo and a wistful and mournful ballad about a man wondering about the whereabouts of a lost love. From what I've read in the comments below the YouTube video, the main vocalist was Yuji Mori（森雄二）, who would later create another Mood Kayo band, Mori Yuji to Southern Cross（森雄二とサザンクロス）. 

Looking through Yahoo Images, The Playsmen put out at least one more 45" titled "Niigata Blues"（新潟ブルース）. According to J-Wiki, which had virtually nothing about this group aside from the fact that it existed before Happy & Blue came into being in the 1970s, it did take on an intermediate name of Toshi Ito & Blue Candle（敏いとう＆ブルー・キャンドル）before finally settling on its most famous incarnation.