Keiko Toda -- Pay Some Attention to Me

 

Although my ardor for jazz has cooled down over the years compared to those few years in Japan, I still have a love for the standards. Of course, that includes the wonderful songs by the Gershwin brothers, George and Ira. In fact, although I never attended the musical myself, I did get myself a copy of the original soundtrack of "Crazy For You", the tribute musical for the Gershwins. "I Got Rhythm", "Someone to Watch Over Me" and "They Can't Take That Away from Me" are among my favourites.

It was back in the summer when I profiled seiyuu Tarako, the voice of the iconic character in the long-running series "Chibi Maruko-chan"（ちびまる子ちゃん）doing her City Pop thing with "Tasogare"（たそがれ）. Plus there is actress and seiyuu Keiko Toda（戸田恵子）, who voices yet another very famous anime hero, Anpanman（アンパンマン）, and yep, she also had her City Pop phase as well with songs like "Kaiten Tobira"（回転とびら）. 

Well, this time around, I'm showing Toda giving her tribute to the Gershwin brothers via "Pay Some Attention to Me" provided by Marty McFlies v2. It's a Japanese-language version with the relevant lyrics written by Keiji Mizutani（水谷啓二）but otherwise thanks to arranger Toshiyuki Watanabe（渡辺俊幸）, "Pay Some Attention to Me" demands my attention because of its wonderful Nelson Riddle-esque orchestral jazz sound. It's something that I would have expected to hear in Linda Ronstadt's try at the standards through her "What's New?" album, and there is also something in there that made me wonder whether the famous Takarazuka Troupe had ever attempted Gershwin. Anyways, Toda's "Pay Attention to Me" was a track on her 1985 album "Tenderly" which seems to be a partial collection of Japanese-language covers of standards.

Have a listen to the original English version as performed by Lena Jansson and the Nils Lindberg Combo in 1995. According to the website "Gershwin 100", "Pay Some Attention to Me" had initially been given a cursory piano sketch in 1928 but it wasn't until 1937, when it was in fighting form for Gracie Allen to sing.