Shouchi Tanabe & The Spiders -- Monkey Dance（モンキー・ダンス）

 

First off, let me say that the above video is by the YouTuber kirara and in it is a group of people doing the old 1960s dance, The Monkey. Now I was never the greatest dancer when my friends and I were hitting the discos in the 1980s. Probably, people would have described me as a wayward exoplanet on the dance floor but I do remember one of the moves I had was identical to that of The Monkey, but I can't be sure how that could fit into a 80s dance remix. 

Tonight on "Uta Con"（うたコン）, the show paid tribute to the late lyricist Yu Aku（阿久悠）who had passed away in 2007. Japanese tradition has it that a person's death is to be commemorated on the 1st, 2nd, 6th, 12th, 16th, 32nd and 49th anniversaries of their passing, and so last year was Aku's 16th anniversary. The list of his works for many singers such as Kiyohiko Ozaki（尾崎紀世彦）, Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）and Pink Lady（ピンクレディー）is so famous and long that even a full hour of tribute to him wouldn't have been enough.

However, I was intrigued by one song of his. In fact, it's been officially noted as Aku's first work as a lyricist: "Monkey Dance" by the Group Sounds band The Spiders...well, to be exact, the cover single states that it is Shouchi Tanabe & The Spiders（田辺昭知とザ・スパイダース）; Tanabe was the leader and the drummer. "Monkey Dance" was the B-side to the band's first single "Furi Furi"（フリフリ...Shake Shake） which was released in May 1965. Koji Wakino（脇野光司）was responsible for the suitably Monkey Dance-friendly tune and even Masaaki Sakai（堺正章）and Jun Inoue（井上順）are getting in on the act on the cover.