Robert Armes -- Jump To It

 

Consider this week's Reminiscings of Youth segment as a successful All-Points Bulletin re-discovery for me as well. What I mean is that I've been searching for this song for literally decades since I used to hear it often on radio without being 100% sure on the title and having forgotten the singer's name.

I was fairly certain that the title was "Jump To It" or something along those lines but when I put it into the various search engines including the one for YouTube, what I usually got was The Pointer Sisters' "Jump (For My Love)" (which is also a ROY entry here), a song that was also released in the same year as my mystery search song. So, the search continued as I wondered whether my ears would ever be reacquainted with this tune that I heard on easy-listening stations such as CHFI-FM.

Then, a few days ago I went over to West Coast 99, a YouTube channel that specializes in AOR and all things Yacht Rock. I was listening to one of the songs there when I saw this name listed in the blurb: Robert Armes. Suddenly my mind went CLICK!💡 Could it be? Well, I put his name and the title once more into the search engine and voila! YouTube channel ATN Records had the song "Jump To It". The melody had always remained in my memory so I could definitely identify it if I heard it again, and sure enough, the above video had it. Another decades-long search has ended happily.

One reason that "Jump To It" kept jumping in my mind was that it was a cool AOR tune because of the saxophone and the keyboards. Plus, I've always imagined flying in a helicopter or a Cessna overlooking Toronto while listening to it (not that I ever would be caught in those contraptions since I have a problem with flying). Anyways, it was a shocker to realize that Armes is as Torontonian as I am; I'd always thought the singer and the song were pure Los Angeles. I've read that the singer-songwriter started out in folk music in the 1970s but this website doesn't really mention this but has Armes himself stating that he has provided music for sports telecasts since music and sports are the two big passions in his life. Not surprisingly, one of those shows is "Hockey Night in Canada".

"Jump To It" is a 1984 song but the month hasn't been specified. Therefore, I will just go with May 1984 to search for any Japanese songs that came out in that month. I'm going to go with the Oricon Top 20 list with Nos. 4, 6 and 12.

4. Off-Course -- Kimi ga, Uso wo, Tsuita（君が、嘘を、ついた）

6. Checkers -- Namida no Request （涙のリクエスト）

12. Meiko Nakahara -- Kimi Tachi Kiwi Papaya Mango da ne （君たちキウイ・パパヤ・マンゴだね。）