Yukari Ito -- Suteki na Cappuccina（すてきなカプチーナ）

 

Last night on "Uta Con"（うたコン）, singer Yukari Ito（伊東ゆかり）appeared on the show. There was a brief montage of her career through old footage, and although her career began in 1958 when she was around eleven years old, there were even a couple of photos of her as a 6-year-old singing in front of a mix of civilians and American servicemen, so she's actually been behind a microphone for 70 years!

Now, her featured song on "Uta Con" was her trademark kayo "Koyubi no Omoide"（小指の思い出）from 1967, but during the montage, there was another song played that I had never heard before. Titled "Suteki na Cappuccina" (Splendid Cappuccina), at first thought, I'd assumed that it was one of Ito's cover tunes of an old American chestnut since her early discography consisted of two wings of cover tunes and actual kayo kyoku created by Japanese songwriters. Well, as it turns out, "Suteki na Cappuccina" is an example of the latter with the homegrown song being created by lyricist Kazumi Yasui（安井かずみ）and composer Hiroshi Miyagawa（宮川泰）.

With a gallant guitar twang, a high-toned backing chorus and a steady rhythmical gait, "Suteki na Cappuccina" sounds like an ideal American girl pop song of those 1960s, and well that is obvious, since it was indeed released as Ito's 30th single in December 1965. I was wondering about that last word, though. What is a cappucina? Well, in Italian, it refers to the capuchin monkey. I'd assumed that it was a variant of coffee but the way it's used in "Suteki na Cappuccina" and one other golden oldie, it's a lady of a goodly amount of popularity.

As for that other golden oldie, I'm talking about Nat King Cole's "Cappuccina" from 1961. It's a different song to be sure, but this particular song does remind me somewhat of "Mack the Knife".