Kaoru Sudo -- Namida no My Boy（涙のマイ・ボーイ）

 

When it comes to the music of the late singer Kaoru Sudo（須藤薫）, I usually think of either City Pop or 1950s/1960s American girl pop, so something similar to what Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）was doing at around the same time in the late 1970s going into the 1980s. There was that one aspect of Japanese pop culture which fully embraced the aesthetic of "Happy Days"-like fashion and sentiment at that time.

Anyways, Sudo released her 2nd album "Paradise Tour" in July 1981 (just the time that I was in Japan for my own second trip there), and from it, we have "Namida no My Boy" (My Boy's Crying). With lyrics by Masako Arikawa（有川正沙子）, the music and arrangement by Kazuo Horiguchi（堀口和男）and Masataka Matsutoya（松任谷正隆）respectively really slather on the Richie Cunningham feelings, thanks to the doo-wop background chorus and the rich underlying rhythm that calls for one of those angular hot rods pulling up to Arnold's. Sorry to you folks who may not know my "Happy Days" references, but you can check out the link right here. But getting back to the song itself, it's great hearing these 50s sounds through 80s production values and then brought through 21st-century YouTube.