Various -- Meiji Chocolate Theme（明治チョコレート・テーマ）

 

There are a number of reasons that I actually gained weight while living in Japan instead of the opposite and probably healthier direction. One is that the average convenience store held some scrumptious snacks including various forms of chocolate. The famous company Meiji（明治製菓）was also complicit by providing some of that cacao goodness including those chocolate-covered almonds. If the product being stated on this blog sounds familiar, then you must have read yesterday's article on Mariya Takeuchi's（竹内まりや） "Synchronicity ~ Suteki na Guuzen"（シンクロニシティ (素敵な偶然)）since the song was used for that particular Meiji confection.

From Amazon.jp

Yeah, that's right. YOU! Damn you, Meiji Almond Chocolates and your sultry chocolatey vixen ways! That might as well be a mug shot...a mug of hot chocolate!

I have no idea how many tens of millions of Meiji chocolate products get sold annually but I know that the marketing department for the company must have cleaning up the yen all these decades including the various commercial campaigns on television. And that includes the whimsical theme song for the chocolate which was one line repeated over and over like a hypnotic mantra: 

Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate wa Meiji（チョコレート チョコレート チョコレイトはメイジ～ ...Chocolate is Meiji）

The first time I heard it was when the popular aidoru duo of the late 1980s going into the 1990s, Wink, sang it coquettishly for the company. My assumption had been that the jingle was made just for them.

Well, how wrong I was! The "Meiji Chocolate Theme", which is also known as "Chocolate wa Meiji"（チョコレートは明治） and "Meiji Chocolate no Uta"（明治チョコレートの歌...The Meiji Chocolate Song）, was first created by famed songwriter Taku Izumi（いずみたく）, who was also responsible for the theme song for the long-running interview show "Tetsuko no Heya"（徹子の部屋） starring Tetsuko Kuroyanagi（黒柳徹子）, in 1966. The above ads were supposedly from 1967 and it's interesting to see that the commercials feature a father and his daughter enjoying the chocolate; apparently, Mom would have stopped that habit dead in its tracks. The very first version as noted above was sung by the vocal trio The Three Graces（スリー・グレイセス）who also sang the theme song for beloved anime "Mahotsukai Sally"（魔法使いサリー）in the same year of the Meiji theme's debut.

Reading through the J-Wiki article for Meiji, the theme song has been covered over the past half-century by many singers in their individual way, and one such band who did so was none other than the Group Sounds bunch known as The Tigers（ザ・タイガーズ）with Kenji Sawada（沢田研二）at the fore.

80s aidoru Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）gave her own contributions to the "Meiji Chocolate Theme" and other songs connected with the company.

Jun Matsumoto（松本潤）of Arashi（嵐）wasn't the one singing here but the theme gets a circus-like arrangement while the lad himself and his surroundings are very reminiscent of Willy Wonka.