Tomoya Dan (later Yuuichi Ikuzawa) -- Doyoubi no Gogo no Rock n' Roll（土曜の午後のロックンロール）

 

When I first wrote about singer, guitarist and songwriter Yuuichi Ikuzawa（生沢佑一）back in 2021, it was for a pleasantly mellow AOR number called "Everyday" that was released in 1983. In the same article, I also noted that he had started his career as a rock n' rollin' teenager under the stage name of Tomoya Dan（弾ともや）.

That first single by the 16-year-old Dan was "Doyoubi no Gogo no Rock n' Roll" （Saturday Afternoon Rock n' Roll） released in July 1974. And yep, it surely is good old-fashioned rock n' roll which seems to have come straight out of the 1950s or early 1960s. So, I gather that his get-up on the cover of the single was quite appropriate. In fact, that look and the way he sounded back then reminded me of young teen heartthrob Hideki Saijo（西城秀樹）who was only a few years older than Dan. Maybe the future Ikuzawa and his manager were trying to grab onto the Saijo Bullet Train at the time.

As for who was responsible for the crafting of "Doyoubi no Gogo no Rock n' Roll", it was the legendary Yu Aku（阿久悠）on lyrics and Tadao Inoue（井上忠夫）, the future Daisuke Inoue（井上大輔）, who once belonged to the Group Sounds band Jackey Yoshikawa & His Blue Comets（ジャッキー吉川とブルー・コメッツ）, behind the rock n' roll melody. In a way, Dan presaged the whole Harajuku 50s thing by Yoyogi Park by several years. Anyways, I was able to get this article up right on Saturday afternoon.✌