I have to make an admission here. I was one of the kids who saw "The Star Wars Holiday Special" in 1978 when it was first broadcast. And even back in the day, when everyone was going gaga over "Star Wars", I was one of the guys who stared aghast at Carrie Fisher singing the famed theme by John Williams at the end of the special. I think I ended up dropping a couple of Ewoks in the pool that night (yes, I know...Ewoks wouldn't show up for another 5 years) However, the holiday special did provide us with the very first appearance of bounty hunter Boba Fett.
Living in Toronto at the time, I never got to see the NTV special "Merry X'mas Show"（メリー・クリスマス・ショー）which was broadcast on Christmas Eve 1986. Reading from the J-Wiki notes for the article on this special, apparently the idea for "Merry X'mas Show" was germinated by rockin' bad boy Koji Kikkawa（吉川晃司）when he approached Southern All Stars' vocalist Keisuke Kuwata（桑田佳祐）. It didn't start well with the former accusing the latter of being one of many artists who made Japanese pop music as boring as condensation and things almost came to blows between the two. Going into the wee hours though, the fight mellowed down into a talk after which Kuwata decided on a plan to get singers and bands which wouldn't normally show up on television to provide a Xmas-themed performance for a couple of hours. The result was so successful that another special was done exactly a year later.
For the finale of the first special in 1986, a song was created specifically for the big ending which would be performed by everyone who appeared. "Kissin' Christmas: Christmas dakara janai" (Not Because It's Christmas) was written by Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由実）and composed by Kuwata as a romantic Yuletide ballad about a couple sealing their fate with a kiss and insisting that it's not a Xmas thing that has brought them even closer. With KUWATA BAND arranging everything, "Kissin' Christmas" was never made commercially available in the record shops for some reason, perhaps to keep things as special as they could considering all of the people who were in the final performance.
However, the song finally did get included onto a CD through Kuwata's 3rd BEST compilation "I LOVE YOU -now & forever-" from July 2012, but Yuming（ユーミン）wasn't involved in the recording with Kuwata taking care of all vocals. The album was at No. 1 for three weeks running and was the No. 6 release of the year.
Now, tomorrow on November 27th, an online remake of "Kissin' Christmas" is to be sold with Kuwata and Yuming singing together for the first time since that 1986 finale with its CD single equivalent on the shelves as of December 20th. You can also hear some shoutouts to at least one other J-Xmas tune and a kayo commemorating Japanese New Year's.
Wow, I didn't realize they had re-recorded it. I'll have to get the CD. I finally managed to get a copy of the very limited vinyl release they made for friends, stores and radio stations. Those two specials are fun to watch. Interesting that they had such a contentious start.
ReplyDeleteHi, Scott. I thought that Kikkawa had a lot of cojones to confront Kuwata the way he did (if the press didn't embellish things too much) considering how big Kuwata was and how Kikkawa managed to make himself persona non grata at NHK for a few years at least for causing a disruption at the Kohaku Utagassen (mind you, at the time, neither man had much love for the New Year's Eve special). As it turned out, Kuwata did most of the production alongside an executive at Dentsu Advertising while Kikkawa did barely anything.
DeleteI remember seeing "Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure". but I was way, way, to young to understand the iconic appeal of Carrie Fisher.
ReplyDeleteNever saw "Caravan of Courage" although I knew that there was a TV Ewok adventure. Aside from her brief appearance in "The Blues Brothers", there weren't too many other shows or movies that I saw her in, so Carrie will always be Princess Leia to me.
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