Once again, I'm beginning an article with a reference to the 74th edition of the Kohaku Utagassen nearly 3 weeks ago. There was a goodly amount of the good ol' days by bringing in some of the singers from years past such as Akira Terao（寺尾聰）and Hiroko Yakushimaru（薬師丸ひろ子）. One lady that I didn't mention was singer and actress Ran Ito（伊藤蘭）who was once one-third of the 70s hit aidoru trio Candies（キャンディーズ）with successes such as "Haru Ichiban" (春一番）. Well, she was back on her own on the Shibuya stage on New Year's Eve singing some of the old Candies songs.
It's been a family affair for the Mizutani family via the KKP vector. I just mentioned Ito's husband, Yutaka Mizutani（水谷豊）, only a couple of days ago with his own song "Omotesando Nanpa Street"（表参道軟派ストリート） and a few months ago, I noted their daughter Shuri（趣里）who's spearheading the current NHK morning drama serial "Boogie Woogie"（ブギウギ）and also participating in the theme song "Happy Boogie"（ハッピー☆ブギ）. Well, Ito came out with a song of her own in the last few months of 2023 and it's quite a different animal from the 70s aidoru tunes that she and her group were famous for.
This time, she's tackling City Pop or Neo-City Pop via vocoder, and the song is "Shibuya Sta. Drivin' Night". Written and composed by Hyogo Prefecture singer-songwriter Jun Abe（安部純）. From that video, it's basically a love letter to all of those City Pop driving tour YouTube videos that populate that certain corner of the platform. I had been hoping for the full version of the song but it's still just the first one minute and forty six seconds, and I couldn't wait any longer. Hopefully, something in the range of three to four minutes will be coming soon.
I do enjoy listening to candies, but I had not paid attention to the fact that Ran Ito went solo!
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure when Ito decided to make a comeback to recording but it's probably within the last few years. Until then, I think she was content to be the occasional actress.
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