Ushirogami Hikaretai -- BAB

 

We're on the verge of completing our first weekend of 2024 and the coming week ought to be giving us the financial version of a hangover following the usual Holiday spending spree: the bill for the credit card. Let's all prepare some aspirin in advance here. At the same time, though, let's also savor the presents that we have gotten (unless you've already exchanged them). In my case, I did the usual beneficial exchange between myself and KKP old hand JTM with me sending over a City Pop compilation CD and a book while I got some albums from him including this one that you see above.

Yasushi Akimoto's（秋元康）first gigantic aidoru group a couple of decades before AKB48 was Onyanko Club（おニャン子クラブ）, whose file is also fairly big here on KKP. Along with postings of songs by the main group including for the surprising album "KICK OFF", there are articles for the individual singers and two of the subgroups. My initial assumption had been that Ushiroyubi Sasaregumi（うしろゆびさされ組）and Ushirogami Hikaretai（うしろ髪ひかれ隊）were twin groups in existence at the same time, but actually with one of the members of the former team graduating from Onyanko Club, Ushirogami Hikaretai was formed in 1987 in response with Shizuka Kudo（工藤静香）, Akiko Ikuina (生稲晃子) and Makiko Saito (斉藤満喜子). Marcos V. in fact provided an article on their 2nd single "Anata wo Shiritai" (あなたを知りたい) almost a decade ago (man, time flies).

Anyways, I wanted to take this time and space then to post about some of the songs on Ushirogami Hikaretai's 2nd album "BAB" which was released in March 1988. Now my theory on how that name came about had been that when "BAB" is said in katakana, it sounds like what a cute Japanese baby might say or what an adult might say to that baby to amuse him/her. However, according to J-Wiki, the letters stand for the members' blood types: Kudo=Type B, Saito=Type A, Ikuina=Type B.

The first track is "Honey", a pretty muscular aidoru tune written by the late Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）and composed/arranged by Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）, and yep that bass of his is powering it. The rest of those instruments are also conspiring to weave a tale of intrigue, desire and confrontation on a dance party night. 

"Hora ne, Haru ga Kita"（ほらね、春が来た...You See, Spring is Here） which is Track 2 on "BAB" is also the trio's 4th single from February 1988. All of those synthy sounds have had me placing this as a techno aidoru tune by lyricist Akimoto and composer Goto. It really is quite catchy with the warp speed tempo and there are riffs galore with the keyboards and percussion racing for the border. All that excitement for the arrival of spring. Then again, Torontonians ache with that feeling every year. The single peaked at No. 6 and it also became the 90th-ranked single for 1988. It also was used as the second opening theme for the anime "Tsuide ni Tonchinkan"（ついでにとんちんかん...Miraculous Tonchinkan） that had its run from 1987 to 1988. There are also a couple of other themes for this anime included in the album.

There's a bit of 1960s "Georgy Girl" pop in the arrangement of "Bab Call" by lyricist Kenzo Saeki（サエキけんぞう）and composer Yuuji Okiyama（沖山優司）. Reading the lyrics, apparently the BAB girls are inviting the listener for a bit of an innocent bath together. Innocent....right.😨

Kudo was already carving out her path to superstardom in her solo career at the time of "BAB", and here she is with her own solo song on "BAB", "Hikishio"（引き潮...Ebb Tide）. Goto was behind the mellow travel-friendly melody while Masako Arikawa（有川正沙子）provided the lyrics of a woman walking alongside the beach while on a trip reminiscing or trying to forget a just-ended romance. I think it just about enters Resort Pop range with its languid pace in demand of a cocktail.

My final contribution here is the final track which is a dance remix version of "Hora ne, Haru ga Kita" known as "The Turntable Mix", and you know back in the 1980s, it was basically de rigueur for a whole bunch of songs to have adaptations ready for the dance floor. Mind you, it's hard to imagine a Ushirogami Hikaretai song up with "Boom Boom" and "Bizarre Love Triangle" in the disco, but you never know...maybe at a ComiCon perhaps. 

Anyways, "BAB" peaked at No. 6 on Oricon. I'll have to cover the remaining tracks in a separate article or even cover a few of them on their own.