Well, if there was any doubt before, it has been utterly extinguished now. Winter's a-coming! ⛄ Just before noon today, we got those sprinkles of the white stuff coming down and collecting on the lawn. Those in the Xmas mood are probably humming happily while others who had been hoping for some vestiges of summer to stay are in existential (or literal) fetal positions.
Last night when I was doing some prep work for this week's coming Reminiscings of Youth article via the Oricon Top 10 list for November 1981, I noticed a song at No. 10 that I hadn't seen before. Titled "Sayonara Moyo" (A Pattern of Goodbyes), I didn't even know the singer involved, Toshihiro Ito（伊藤敏博）. The above video's uploader has pegged it as a winter song, and what better choice considering our current weather conditions?
Written and composed by Ito with arrangement by Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）, it was released as the singer's 2nd single in August 1981. Despite the release date, the song is about the end of romance with the references to crackling brown leaves and the coming of snow. It's been categorized as a New Music tune, and I think that there's enough of a lushness and exoticism in Omura's arrangement that I could even consider it a Fashion Music number. The first half of "Sayonara Moyo" is very languid until Ito suddenly launches into a jaunty beat which continues to the end.
"Sayonara Moyo" peaked at No. 5 and ended up as the 55th-ranked single for 1981, selling nearly 480,000 records. Even before its official release in August, it had earned Ito the Grand Prize at the Yamaha Popular Song Contest for that year in May.
There's some interesting background as well for Ito himself. Somewhat similar to the story of soon-retiring Kei Ogura（小椋佳）who had been a bank employee for some years while also singing and songwriting, Ito was working for Japan National Railways as a conductor in his native Niigata Prefecture when "Sayonara Moyo" became a hit. He became known as the Singing Conductor and often when he appeared on those music ranking programs to perform the song, he would usually be placed in a trainyard or on a train platform or even on a train somewhere. His JNR career did come to an end in the late 1980s and he's been working ever since in the fisheries industry while continuing to sing. He had been releasing singles up to the early 2010s.
I imagine the Grand Prix was due to the surprise "gear shift" half-way through. Well, that and his voice. Those high notes!
ReplyDeleteUsually, the Grand Prix winner at "Popcon" would go on to take part in the World Popular Song Festival in November (well, fall, anyway). Ito did not, presumably because he was under contract from Philips, and part of his contract made him sever all ties from Yamaha (see also: Aming, who would have been shoo-ins for the Grand Prix at the 1982 WPSF had they taken part).
The Japanese competitors at the 1981 WPSF were a really odd lot as a result. Yamaha invited some rock bands who took part at the 1981 "Light Music Contest." Oh, that Super Slump song!
Hello, Mike. Good to hear from you. I guess those Yamaha folks like gear shifts on songs just as much as they like them on their motorcycles. Many thanks on the additional information.
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