1. Hiroko Yakushimaru Woman "W no Higeki" yori
2. Seiko Matsuda Heart no Earring
3. Alfee Koibito-tachi no Pavement
4. Momoko Kikuchi Yuki ni Kaita Love Letter
5. Akina Nakamori Kazari ja nai no yo Namida wa
6. Anzen Chitai Koi no Yokan
7. Tomoyo Harada Tengoku ni Ichiban Chikai Shima
8. Hidemi Ishikawa Mystery Woman
9. Issei Fuubi Sepia Michi kara no Kumikyoku
10. Yosui Inoue Isso Serenade
To be honest, I'm doing this on the fly since I'm not too knowledgeable on this topic, but I did want to acknowledge on the blog that earlier today UNESCO recognized a group of 41 folk dances from 24 of Japan's 47 prefectures known collectively as Furyu Odori as an Intangible Cultural Heritage. Many congratulations to all of those prefectures.
At first, I considered putting up some of the minyo and enka tunes that involved folk dancing but then I thought that wouldn't be too sporting because none of them are part of those 41 dances that have been listed. So instead, what I will do is give a very small sample of those dances that were selected along with their home prefectures. The origin years apparently go way back so I'll just settle for the default year of 2022 just to acknowledge when they were given the UNESCO status.
If anyone has actually witnessed or even performed any of the dances, please let us know!
Nishimonai no Bon Odori（西馬音内の盆踊）, Akita Prefecture
Chakkirako（チャッキラコ）, Kanagawa Prefecture
Kanomizu no Kake Odori（寒水の掛踊）, Gifu Prefecture
Tsushima no Bon Odori（対馬の盆踊り）, Nagasaki Prefecture
There have been plenty of Japanese singers usually associated with summer sun and beaches that actually have recorded songs for the Yuletide. For example, Anri（杏里）has done "Christmas Calendar" and of course, Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）has come up with the ultimate J-Xmas tune, "Christmas Eve", as a result of a "Take That" moment against those who had scoffed at him for being just a summer dude.
Therefore, it shouldn't come as any surprise that the band Southern All Stars（サザンオールスターズ）, as summery as they have been, has also come up with their own Xmas songs. For one thing, leader and vocalist Keisuke Kuwata（桑田佳祐）created "Merry X'mas in Summer" during his mid-1980s Kuwata Band project.
Sure enough, Southern All Stars recorded "Christmas Time Forever" as the final track for their hit September 1992 album "Yo ni Man'you no Hana ga Sakunari"（世に万葉の花が咲くなり...Many Flowers Blooming in the World）. It's completely SAS with Kuwata's vocals (he wrote and composed the tune with Tommy Snyder helping out on the English lyrics) and those keyboards by his wife Yuko Hara（原由子）but there are those jingle bells and a certain Xmas hush in the arrangement by Takeshi Kobayashi（小林武史）. Plus, it looks like they brought in the kids as well.
"Christmas Time Forever" was used as the 1992 campaign song for Marui Department Store, but though I couldn't find any sign of that commercial on YouTube, I did find the official music video. As for the album, "Yo ni Man'you no Hana ga Sakunari" was at No. 1 for four weeks in a row throughout the month of October 1992 and it quickly became the No. 7 album of the year. In terms of Oricon's all-time rankings, the album is currently No. 99. "Namida no Kiss"（涙のキッス）is also a track on it.
Welcome to Hump Day! It certainly looks it out there. It's been dreary all day and with a ton of rain pouring on us this morning, there will be some high winds screaming in starting from around now, so we have to see if there will be power outages. On a more localized and cheerier note, I've picked up another couple of CDs from CD Japan with one of them being an old Chika Ueda（上田知華）album from the 1980s, something that I hadn't expected that I would ever see on sale again.
But more on that one later when I do get it. The purchase reminded me that I did have an Ueda Xmas-themed song in the backlog so it's time to get to that one. I have here "Holy Night Tonight" which was the final track on her November 1992 album "Asa Hiru Yoru Hare"（朝昼夜晴れ...Morning, Noon, Night and Sunny）. Now, when it comes to J-Xmas songs, they will always be either on the cheery party-time or depressing heartbreak theme, but they won't get into the religious aspects, so I didn't have any thoughts that the song would get into the birth of Christ or a manger despite the title.
As it is, "Holy Night Tonight" is an Ueda-created Xmas tune with some 90s City Pop and perhaps some House influences. Lyrically, it's about meeting an old flame in the city and perhaps igniting some old sparks despite the fact that the other is already married (definitely an unholy thought). Ueda also goes into her "yeah, yeah" here which was something that she was doing on one of the other tracks for "Asa Hiru Yoru Hare", "That's Why You Can't". The other notable thing about the song is that the saxophone solo gets a bit deranged. I couldn't track down who the saxophonist was, but I figure that they may have hit the nog a little too hard during recording.
I've used the situation portrayed in the above video, one of many commercials for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups in the 1970s and 1980s, to illustrate how "Kayo Kyoku Plus" came to be. Over a decade ago, I decided to use my blogging experience and mesh it with all of those Japanese popular music CDs that I'd collected over the decades. Now, I can also use it to describe the song for this article which almost sounds as if fusion band The Square had bumped into technopop trio Yellow Magic Orchestra and somehow exchanged ideas.
Ironically, this track, "Kawaii Techno" (Cute Techno), was placed as the final song on an album called "Magic" which was released in November 1981 (alas, no "yellow" or "orchestra"). Also, there was no involvement by Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）, Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏） or Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）at all with The Square's keyboardist, Daisaku Kume（久米大作）, handling everything. It's definitely not the usual The Square fusion piece and I still can't help but hear some of the more whimsical aspects of YMO, especially via their album "Service", although that album wouldn't come out until 1983.
Another notable thing is the guest appearance of comedian Tamori（タモリ）, who has since become one of the most venerable television celebrities in Japan, on two of the tracks in "Magic" including "Kawaii Techno". He's the one on the trumpet jamming in with the rest of The Square and he's providing some of the weird background vocals near the end.
This must be a coincidence that would have the appropriate fans prostrating themselves in front of the City Pop gods in joy and gratitude. Singer-songwriters Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）and Miki Matsubara（松原みき）share a birthday (November 28th), and though I am a day late, I would like to give my well wishes to the both of them although I know that Ms. Matsubara left this mortal coil around eighteen years ago.
It was a little over a week ago that I put up an article for a Taeko Ohnuki song, so let's go with Matsubara tonight. I was just scanning through the BEST compilation of hers when I discovered "Bay City Romance" which was originally a track on her 5th studio album, "Aya"（彩...Brilliance）, from December 1982. Lyricist Akira Ohtsu（大津あきら）and composer/arranger Jun Sato（佐藤準）were behind this spritely nighttime adventure of a date bayside; I'm assuming that it's Yokohama which is why I've got the googly photo of Yokohama Bay and Minato Mirai up on top.
Yup, the City Pop is in there but especially at the beginning, I also get those funky notes reminiscent of the Dazz Band. Although I think that all of us City Pop fans are lucky to be alive now since we have access to all of this melodic goodness, when I hear the lyrics regarding the lucky couple enjoying a wonderful evening, I can actually begin to understand when some of those fans wish that they were around in Japan in those early 1980s. Well, I was in Japan in 1981 but I certainly didn't have the appreciation of the time and place that I do now.
Indeed, Season 3 of the "Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai ~ Tensai-tachi no Ren'ai Zunousen"（かぐや様は告らせたい〜天才たちの恋愛頭脳戦〜）franchise, "Ultra Romantic", finished up months ago, although I'm still catching up on the show with Episode 10 to be seen this week. Yup, I'm also approaching the moment of the entire series, and in a few weeks apparently, there will be a special "Kaguya-sama" movie titled in English as "Kaguya-sama: Love Is War – The First Kiss That Never Ends" which will show the consequences of that moment.
"Ultra Romantic" has had its highlights as was the case with the previous two seasons with one of those coming up in Episode 2 where Kaguya and a very reluctant Ai Hayasaka pulled off yet another machination on Miyuki at a local karaoke box. The plan didn't quite go off to plan but Kaguya's jack-of-all-trades major-domo once again displayed another ability which was singing. And unlike Miyuki, Hayasaka showed that she could hold a tune very well which further cemented my impression during all of my times at karaoke with students and fellow teachers that there is always that one singer who can hold everyone's attention with their vocal cords.
Seiyuu Yumiri Hanamori（花守ゆみり）, aka Hayasaka, displayed a brief excerpt of her abilities via "Kanashikute Lu Lu Lu" (My Feelings Lu Lu Lu) as an insert song. But in the months since the broadcast of the episode, I've noticed that the song has gotten quite a bit of coverage via YouTube. Written by "Kaguya-sama" creator Aka Akasaka（赤坂アカ）and Kiyomi Kumano（くまのきよみ）, and composed by Keiki Nishida（西田圭稀）, "Kanashikute Lu Lu Lu" sounds like a 1990s J-Pop ballad, so I instantly got some nostalgia vibes from listening to it. The lyrics also seem to reflect Hayasaka's frustration at her own relationships, either with Kaguya or Miyuki. From what I've read regarding later chapters of the manga yet to be shown on screen, things will get more complicated for everyone involved.
While I'm at it here, I felt like putting in this much briefer insert tune which premiered in Episode 1 where Ishigami tries to save Iino's pride by showing off what he listens to.
Yes, this is the sugary-sweet moe "Anata no 💓 ni Headshot" (Headshot to Your 💓) that pretty much seals Ishigami's fate as a kyun-kyun loving otaku. Once again, the lyrics are by Akasaka with the melody and arrangement by Kei Haneoka（羽岡佳）, the man behind the soundtrack for all of "Kaguya-sama". I'm convinced that he can whip up any sort of music from any genre now, including anything that could be sung by employees at a maid café.
Singing it is vocalist and lyricist Kaon Kokudo（國土佳音）who hails from Saitama Prefecture and began her career in music in 2015. In addition to her main activities, Kokudo has also provided chorus arrangement, narration and vocal direction. Her singing runs the gamut from opera to heavy metal.
"Kaguya-sama" has had all this attention and attraction from the budding romance and comedic misunderstandings for the past few years, but I also think that any of the music attached to the franchise has been top-notch as well.
When it comes to the TV legend that is Tetsuko Kuroyanagi（黒柳徹子）, my first thought will always go to her duties as host for the long-running TBS music ranking program "The Best 10"（ザ・ベストテン） which ran from 1978 to 1989. That was the first time that I had ever seen this vivacious lady who has been an actress, hostess, TV personality and a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF.
However, the truth is that Kuroyanagi has had a show on TV Asahi that had begun a couple of years earlier than "The Best 10" and is still going on today, more than 30 years after the music program finished its run. "Tetsuko no Heya"（徹子の部屋...Tetsuko's Room） is a far more sedate viewing experience than the often bouncy and noisy "The Best 10". Running in the early weekday afternoons, Kuroyanagi invites guests of all stripes onto a set which appears like the salon in a stylish and old-fashioned house where they the host conducts cordial interviews. You would expect cups of tea and a plate of cookies on the table.
I'm not sure how long the above video will stay up, but the episode is a repeat of a "Tetsuko no Heya" with the Godfather of Manga himself, Osamu Tezuka（手塚治虫）, that was most likely broadcast soon after his passing in 1989 with Kuroyanagi providing a preceding monologue giving tribute to her friend.
Of course, for such a show, a theme song which has the same sort of atmosphere imbued into each and every episode is absolutely necessary. And so, ever since "Tetsuko no Heya" began its run in February 1976, the theme song has been one of lightness and amity. It's a very welcoming and cordial (and very well-known) theme that lasts less than a minute, but it gives out the appropriate feeling of a splendid afternoon tea with friends.
Composed by Taku Izumi（いずみたく）who had come up with kayo hits such as the onsen-friendly "Ii Yu da na"（いい湯だな）for The Drifters and The Duke Aces, and the heartfelt ballad "Miagetegoran Yoru no Hoshi wo" （見上げてごらん夜の星を）by Kyu Sakamoto（坂本九）, I discovered in the J-Wiki article for the theme song that it had been derived from an earlier musical performance by Kuroyanagi and soprano Yuuko Shimada（島田祐子）titled "Nijuushou"（二重唱...Duet）. But that information wouldn't see the light of day until Shimada, who guested on "Tetsuko no Heya", let the cat out of the bag in 2006. The original "Nijuushou" did have lyrics provided by Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）, but of course, the theme for the show only has that light scatting.
So, when I saw the title of this song "T.V. Phone Age", I was wondering whether this band, FILMS, was being rather prophetic during its time when the cutting-edge technology available to the masses involved the Sony Walkman and all of those VHS video recorders. I encountered this video while I was checking out some of the various Japanese synthpop bands one night a few weeks ago; during that time, I found out about the recent young duo, LAUSBUB, and their "Telefon" of 2020.
Well, FILMS is over 40 years back and they were around for a good chunk of the 1980s starting from 1980 itself. The above is the video for their first of two singles "T.V. Phone Age" which was released in that year, and yup, the footage is raw, ambitious if amateurish and somewhat anarchic; just the type of early music videos that fascinated me. It looks like a bunch of college kids who decided to form a band on the fly and took a crash course in very rudimentary choreography and avant-garde drama.
The performance of "T.V. Phone Age" and all of those bloops and bleeps don't seem all that different from the works of some of those other synthpop groups of that time that we all have access to now because of YouTube and the like. However, I also have to remember that those early days of New Wave and technopop didn't have the Internet or MTV (the latter for several months, at least) so to come across these avant-garde bands and their videos was probably not the easiest thing outside of late-night shows or other remote sources of media (maybe as an extra on a VHS tape).
The song was written and composed by vocalist Chuuji Akagi（赤城忠治）who began his career in the 1970s and dabbled in glam rock, folk and technopop. He started FILMS as a branch off another band VAT 69 in 1979, and in the beginning, FILMS was a group of nine members which included bassist and synth-bassist Nobuo Nakahara（中原信雄）, who would later join the band Portable Rock, and keyboardist Taku Iwasaki（岩崎工）. Iwasaki's name was a familiar one to me and when I checked, sure enough, he is already included in KKP because he was behind the soundtrack for the 2013 anime "Gatchaman: Crowds". The membership changed over the years with singer-songwriter Saeko Suzuki（鈴木さえ子）also having been a member as a drummer. One album, "Misprint" came out in 1980.
That dessert may look a little too gigantic for me now, but I have loved my strawberries on waffles with all of the ice cream and custard in the way. 😋
Anyways, I'm getting that image of French pastry in my head, so whenever that happens, I also get images of whispery voiced Kahimi Karie（カヒミ・カリィ）as well. "Bonjour Line" was something that took time for me to track down, and as it turns out, it was produced and released right at the start of Karie's solo career. In fact, in her debut year of 1991, "Bonjour Line" was a track included in a compilation album called "Blow-Up" which was probably the earliest that it showed up. However, the music video showed up in a 1994 VHS tape titled "Karie on TV".
Speaking of that music video of "Bonjour Line", which was created by Karie and Keigo Oyamada（小山田圭吾）, it strikes me as being typical of her videos as it resembles old-fashioned film footage of Paris from long ago. Karie is simply doing her relaxed strolling around the City of Lights taking in the sights, but also having time to set up a meeting with a little friend later on in the day. It's laidback Shibuya-kei with a bit more of the bossa nova and the initial light scatting by the singer had me swaying in my seat.
Doing the ol' maintenance again, I re-encountered my article for Keizo Nakanishi's（中西圭三）March 1994 album "Starting Over" which was my first time getting to know one of the finest voices in Japanese popular music in the 1990s, thanks to a taped copy of the album that I received from a relative. At one point, I thought my tape was going to wear out since I was playing it so often on the machine.
One of the tracks on "Starting Over" was "Nemurenu Omoi"(眠れぬ想い...Sleepless Feelings [or Memories]) and it was an orchestral version that I'd compared in the article for the album to one of the more tenderhearted aspects on the soundtrack from "Moonlighting", the mid-1980s detective sitcom starring Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis (it was the harmonica that sealed the deal). Since then, I've also come to think of that version as something that could have come out of a soundtrack for a 1950s romance film starring Cary Grant, thanks to those wonderful strings.
However, I realized that I hadn't written anything on the original single of "Nemurenu Omoi" which was Nakanishi's 9th from July 1993. If push came to shove, I'd probably go with the orchestral album version, but the original "Nemurenu Omoi" is still a lovely ballad as a pop/light soul number. The song also has a lot of big names in its creation beginning with Nakanishi composing the melody while Kanata Asamizu（朝水彼方）took care of the lyrics, Takao Konishi（小西貴雄）handled overall arrangement, Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）arranged the strings and Kunio Muramatsu（村松邦男）from Sugar Babe（シュガーベイブ）handled the chorus arrangement.
Well, with the temperatures having been consistently above the 0-degree Celsius mark for the past week, the snow is all gone and it's pretty dreary out there. Hopefully, though, some of that Christmas snow will return in some form over the next few weeks.
To continue with this year's Xmas season on KKP, I just wanted to mention Scott's Xmas-themed podcasts through his "Holly Jolly X'masu". About a month ago, he featured a J-Xmas compilation album from 2010 titled "We Wish You a Happy" which had quite a few interesting entries that could also be found on YouTube.
One of those is a cover of Yumi Matsutoya's（松任谷由実）"Koibito ga Santa Claus" (My Lover is Santa Claus) which first came out in 1980 and was also covered by Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）. I first provided my take on the classic J-Xmas tune almost a decade ago in the early days of the blog, so it's great that I can provide a follow-up here. And this cover is by the rock band Fed MUSIC which had its run between 2000 and 2012.
Just to give reference on the podcast, Fed MUSIC's cover comes in at about 10:46 with Scott giving his comments on the song and the band. My take on their version of "Koibito ga Santa Claus" is that there's a near-anthemic quality as if it had been meant for a movie scene of triumph involving a teenage couple. If it had been a Hollywood movie, I would have set it in Seattle in the early 1990s. Yup I think that there's some grunge in this version.
As I mentioned, Scott describes the band, but I'll also give one here. Fed MUSIC consisted of vocalist Riku Kudara（久楽陸）, bassist Atsushi Kikuchi（菊池篤）, drummer Yuusuke Akimoto（秋元雄介）, and guitarist Akihito Fukui（福井章人）. According to their J-Wiki article, they first started out being known as Zarigani 5 before the name change in 2007. The "Fed" part of their name stands for F as in Freedom, E as in Endless and D as in Deviously, and the fact that the word "fed" is also the past tense of "feed" was also not lost to them since their concept was to feed music to listeners. In fact, the band's first album in 2007 under the name of Fed MUSIC was "I fed music to you". Under both names, Kudara and company released 8 singles/EPs and 8 albums of varying lengths.
Although the band broke up in 2012, their website did mention a release of a new single in May 2020 under the original name of Zarigani 5, "Amazing".
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| from Wikipedia |
The name Irene Cara was on the Trending list on Twitter this morning, and usually when I see a name on that list, I think that the person is there because they have said something controversial or meaningful. But then out of curiosity and my nostalgia for the 1980s, I checked it out and I couldn't quite believe that the singer and actress had passed away yesterday. Holding onto that string of hope that it was just a sick joke, I checked CNN but sadly, it was all true.
I hadn't heard about Cara in many years. As such, I've always seen her as one of the many beacons of the 1980s. The other beacon was of course the poster of the 1983 movie "Flashdance" with star Jennifer Beals sitting towards the camera with that extended neck hole which became such a popular fashion statement of the decade. I never saw the movie but frankly I didn't have to. The movie became so popular that scenes were always being played on television.
I knew Cara for five songs. Two of them came from the 1980 film "Fame" with the title track and the heartfelt ballad "Out Here on My Own". One was the song of its times "Breakdance", and then there was another upbeat single "Why Me?". However, arguably her most famous song was the hit "Flashdance...What a Feeling" which was the theme song for the aforementioned "Flashdance" and Cara's March 1983 single.
The movie, the poster and that single created by Giorgio Moroder and Keith Forsey became the triumvirate as one of the pop culture icons of the 1980s. "Flashdance... What a Feeling" had those distinctive synths and a power pop styling that pretty much had aerobics instructors and students punching the air in triumph whenever it was played. As well, the song becoming a major hit for 1983 was a regular entry in the local TV music video rankings show "The CHUM Top 30", so I saw Beals doing her dance routine regularly as this song was playing. The accolades were enormous, too, as Cara won an Oscar, a Grammy and a Golden Globe for it. Not surprisingly, it hit No. 1 on the charts in many nations including the United States and Canada, and maybe even Japan, too. For one of my other ROY articles, the one for Commodores' "Turn Off the Lights", it was even listed as one of the songs that was showing up on the Oricon list.
In any case, I hope that Cara's family, friends and fans are holding up together right now during this very sad time. Of course, when "Flashdance... What a Feeling" was released, there were songs up on the Oricon chart for March 1983. I think that the Top 3 have already been mentioned in another ROY article so this time around, let's go with Nos. 9, 10 and 11.
9. Takashi Hosokawa -- Yagiri no Watashi (矢切の渡し)
10. Yoshie Kashiwabara -- Haru Nanoni (春なのに）
11. EPO -- U, Fu, Fu, Fu, (う、ふ、ふ、ふ）
Last week, I began the Gosanke（御三家）series because Japanese music among other entities had its generous share of trios consisting of singers put together by media or management companies or others in the hopes that the synergy would provide lasting popularity and attention onto the singers themselves.
With the formation of the Ganso Gosanke（元祖御三家...the Original Big 3） consisting of Yukio Hashi（橋幸夫）, Kazuo Funaki（舟木一夫）& Teruhiko Saigo（西郷輝彦）in the 1960s, the powers-that-be a decade later thought about putting together a new trio of heartthrob aidoru to gather all the love from ardent fans. And so, the Shin Gosanke (the New Big 3) was born with Goro Noguchi（野口五郎）, Hideki Saijo（西城秀樹）& Hiromi Go（郷ひろみ）. From J-Wiki via a YouTube video (that has since been taken down) involving an interview with Noguchi, the singer said that he had made his debut in 1971 with Saijo and Go following a year later. However, at Saijo's management company, it was then proposed there that Saijo and two others from the same company would form this new trio but somehow Saijo's manager ended up putting his client and Noguchi and Go together despite being from different companies. Apparently, the three of them often found themselves meeting each other on various programs and perhaps there was a certain camaraderie and synergy that was observed which gathered more fans.
The J-Wiki article regarding the Shin Gosanke had some interesting tidbits in there including the observation of this merger of a song-and-dance boy who could act (Go), a dynamic performer in rock and pop (Saijo) and an enka hopeful (Noguchi) with the attraction of fans from different bases. As for me, I always saw Go as the cute and cuddly little brother back in those days while Noguchi came across as the quiet and studious middle sibling and Saijo was the rough-edged big brother who would always protect the other two.
Goro Noguchi -- Aoi Ringo （青いリンゴ）
Hideki Saijo -- Kizudarake no Lola （傷だらけのローラ）
Hiromi Go -- Otoko no Ko, Onna no Ko (男の子女の子）
Listening to this song, the question that came to mind was "When did an aidoru stop being an aidoru according to her discography?". It's kinda like that even older question that was impinging on my brain years ago, "When did kayo kyoku switch to J-Pop?". I have my own answer to the second question, but I know that people have their own varying opinions.
In any case, the reason that I posed the first question was that on hearing Hidemi Ishikawa's（石川秀美）song "Easier", I had to wonder whether this was really an aidoru tune anymore. The fact that it was written and composed by a fellow named David Andrew Scott (according to the JASRAC database) did have me tending toward the negative. What also kept pushing the needle into the "No" range was that "Easier" really does go down easy as something that would be heard in the City Pop or AOR genre. The keyboard work and the wailing guitar has me thinking more West Coast than Tokyo studios for aidoru, in which case, I think that Ishikawa can join Momoko Kikuchi（菊池桃子）in her early twin-tailed career as a singer of teenybopper tunes and City Pop classics. One final point is that by the time Ishikawa had recorded "Easier", she was in the industry for about three years; from what I've seen of other 80s aidoru who've been around for that long, other genres including straight pop have come calling. Still, to cover all the bases since I don't know Ishikawa's discography nearly as well as I do some others, I will throw in the Aidoru tag in Labels.
"Easier" was a track on Ishikawa's July 1986 8th album "Pastiche". Returning to that first question, it has me thinking about some of the other A-list aidoru such as Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）and Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）. When did they make that big step from aidoru to pop superstardom?
As I noted several days ago in the article for "The 73rd NHK Kohaku Utagassen Lineup"（第73回NHK紅白歌合戦）, one of the participants who will be making his debut is musician and singer-songwriter Vaundy. I actually found out about him a few weeks before that when I was checking out some of the newer acts within urban contemporary or Neo-City Pop such as TENDRE.
His debut single from November 2019 caught my eyes and ears. "Tokyo Flash" is a groovy and laidback number whose lyrics hint at perhaps a rather salacious affair going on between an older fellow and a younger lady (maybe in Shibuya?), but you can check out the English translation here if you agree or not (the video below also has English translation). The music by Vaundy has got all sorts of instruments but I think the piano is supporting the arrangements. I also enjoy his vocals which have that certain raw soulfulness on the level of a young and much less rough-edged Joe Cocker.
I think the music video was filmed in Shibuya, Shinjuku and Asakusa at the very least, although the story there is just Vaundy himself making out like a night owl until the morning. The interesting thing is that during his nocturnal escapade, any writing on trucks and buildings are backwards before they get back to normal once the sun comes back up. A bit of "Tenet", perhaps? What doesn't change is the singer's face which stays all fuzzy. Apparently, the video got a million views within a couple of months of its uploading onto YouTube (a couple of months before its release as a digital download single), and when I last checked today, it has gotten 51 million views. On Billboard's Hot 100, "Tokyo Flash" managed to reach No. 64, and it's been included on Vaundy's debut album "strobo" which came out in May 2020 and peaked at No. 5 on Oricon.
As for Vaundy himself, he hails from Tokyo and is still attending art college while going on with his music career. In his high school years, he was involved with Vocaloid songs via NicoNico. He also studied at vocal training facility Ongaku Juku Voice（音楽塾ヴォイス...Music School Voice） in Azabu-Juban in the capital. I did mention that he had also provided one song "lemonade" for the group Chilli Beans. which is also a graduate of the school. According to his J-Wiki profile, he has a thing for creating music that is "genre-less" through thoroughly mixing rock, hip-hop, R&B, synthpop, etc. although he has said that he does like anison. He also added that he hasn't been influenced by any particular other artist. But for "Tokyo Flash", he came up with the song by checking what was popular on radio stations such as J-WAVE and researching any trends that he noticed.
In any case, I'm looking forward to hearing what Vaundy is going to provide on the Kohaku in about a month.
Yup, my first article today was Xmas-based as would be the case on any November 25th on KKP, but I haven't forgotten that it is also Urban Contemporary Friday. In a way, I guess that I was psyching myself up for this last night since I was listening to a string of my old City Pop favourites: Junko Yagami's（八神純子）"Jealous", Junko Ohashi's（大橋純子）"Nemurenai Diamond" (眠れないダイアモンド）and Fujimal Yoshino（芳野藤丸）& Haruko Kuwana's（桑名晴子）"Who Are You?".
While listening to that last one, I saw a video off to the side titled "You Turn Me On" by the band SHOGUN, which had Yoshino as a member. Knowing the group primarily for uptempo songs such as "Otokotachi no Melody"（男達のメロディー）, I'd first assumed that a tune with a title of "You Turn Me On" would be something fairly funky and raunchy.
The English-language "You Turn Me On" is indeed upbeat but it isn't actually a sex machine of a song. It's actually a very sweet paean to the one the protagonist loves, and I can picture some fellow finishing up a long day at work heading back home to happily see his wife. With lyrics by Casey Rankin and lovely melody by Yoshino, it's a gently galloping New Music/City Pop sound with the typical synthesizer haze effect of 70s City Pop gone even more spacey. The arrangements were handled by Kazuo Otani（大谷和夫）with "You Turn Me On" included as a track on the band's debut self-titled album from June 1979. Not surprisingly, "Otokotachi no Melody" is also in there.
Well, it is November 25th which means on the "Kayo Kyoku Plus" calendar that we're entering the Christmas season on the blog so expect the Yuletide tunes to come out fairly often over the next few weeks leading up to December 25th. By the way, the photo of Santa Claus above was taken in front of Hakuhinkan Toy Shop in Ginza. It's kinda like Tokyo's version of FAO Schwarz.
It was only about two weeks ago that I put up the latest in the "Karakai Jouzu na Takagi-san"（からかい上手の高木さん...Skilled Teaser Takagi-san） articles with main seiyuu Rie Takahashi（高橋李依）as the titular Takagi-san performing a couple of covers of Japanese pop tunes. However, a few days back, I just happened to view Season 3's Episode 9 which was the Christmas episode for the entire franchise. Great timing that. And if viewers had thought that the show couldn't get any sweeter, well, they had a whole bunch of mistletoe thrown at them.
Of course, the show topped this cake off with a candy cane or ribbon or gingerbread cookie with Takahashi singing "Santa ga Machi ni Yatte Kuru", aka "Santa Claus is Coming to Town", during the end credits. The arrangement was so adorable and old-fashioned that Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）probably turned green with envy. I hadn't mentioned it before, but those Japanese lyrics were provided by opera singer and composer Takao Kanbe（神戸孝夫）, and they were first used on The Peanuts' cover of the song all the way back in 1962.
Yeah, it's got some of that Hallmark Xmas card type of orchestra behind it, but also some of that piano from Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You". What's not to love? And of course, for the fans, it's Takagi-san herself at the mike. Along with this version and The Peanuts' cover, the blog also has Tony Bennett's immortal take as a ROY article which ironically began last year's Xmas season on KKP exactly one year ago.
Welcome back to the blog, Frank Nagai（フランク永井）! It's been a few years since the kayo crooner has been posted up on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" with the most recent one being his "Tokyo Cachito/Roppongi Waltz"（東京カチート・六本木ワルツ）. I wrote on those two back in March 2019.
This time around, though, Nagai's taking on the other big metropolis of Osaka when he sings "Osaka Roman" which came out in 1966. With lyrics by Tsuneo Ishihama（石浜恒夫）and music by Tadashi Yoshida（吉田正）, I've always been a little unsure about the definition of roman in Japanese, especially with its depiction in hiragana（ろまん）within the title; usually it appears in katakana（ロマン）. My guess is that the songwriters wanted to emphasize the softness of the situation through the more rounded hiragana when compared with the harder and more angular appearance of katakana.
Sure enough, Nagai trills his way through what I think is a form of kayo lullaby regarding the third-most populous city in Japan. Going through Ishihama's lyrics, my take is the roman here refers to the one definition of romance instead of other meanings such as story or romanticism. This might be something that an Osakan is cooing to his girlfriend while on the verge of proposing. He's setting the stage that he's ready for the highs and lows of marriage and that she's exactly the one to spend life with.
The melody by Yoshida is another one of those examples where I'm not sure whether the song belongs solidly in enka or Mood Kayo. As I mentioned, there is that place namedropping in "Osaka Roman" including sites such as Dotombori and Kitahama along with the languid underlying cha-cha rhythm, both aspects of which can be part of Mood Kayo. On the other hand, there's something enka about the main melody that hints at the heart-on-one's-sleeve love within a couple in the Japanese countryside; it's just been arranged with the saucy horns of the other genre.
Regardless, "Osaka Roman" is an intimate love song of the city for those young couples from back in the day. With Nagai also using examples of Kansai-ben in his singing, the song is most likely considered to be a go-touchi song（ご当地ソング）of the area along with some other kayo that I've listed in that Author's Pick over a month ago. Incidentally, this isn't the velvet-voiced singer's first tiff at an Osaka-based song. Noelle Tham has written up an article on his 1964 "Osaka Gurashi" (大阪ぐらし).
Perhaps I should save a day during the week which I can devote to those mysterious one-and-done singers, especially in the 1980s. My impression over all these decades of listening to Japanese pop acts is that it was during that decade when a lot of aidoru or other types of singers made their debut and simply skedaddled or put out a few singles before disappearing from the limelight. I mean, it also happened in the 1970s, but it was the following decade that this phenomenon seemed to be at its peak. Speculating is the only thing that I'm doing here, but maybe with the surging money that was flowing through Japan's economy at the time, studios were simply flooding their recording booths with lots of wannabes to see which tiny nuggets of gold might be discovered among the sand grains.
Of course, I've found some in the past that have gotten onto "Kayo Kyoku Plus", and once again, here is a lady who was literally one and done...at least, according to the good folks at "idol.ne.jp". The only information that I could find about Mika Yuuki（優木美佳）was that she was born in Fukuoka Prefecture, won the Fukuoka Music Festival's Big Contest and was once a vocalist for a rock band in high school.
I may get some pushback on my opinion here which is fine, but it's for that last fact that I haven't pegged her as an 80s aidoru since I have yet to know any rock-singing vocalist who would head straight into teenybopper territory. Plus, she released her one-and-only single in December 1982, "N･U･S･U･T･T･O", at the age of 19 which strikes me as being rather late for debuting as an aidoru singer. But for today, I'm looking at the B-side, "Mint Iro no Koi" (Mint-Coloured Love). One more argument against her being an aidoru is that I think that her vocals for the tune were pretty smooth and refined as they flew daintily but confidently in the higher range while occasionally dipping into the lower depths. Just judging from this song alone, which I enjoy for those warm horns, it seems too bad that she merely released that one 45" record.
Mirai or Miku Minegishi（嶺岸未来）wrote the lyrics for "Mint Iro no Koi" while Shunichi Tokura（都倉俊一）, who had come up with those hits for Pink Lady（ピンクレディー）in the previous decade, was responsible for melody and arrangement.
