A snow day has been declared for the Toronto area after getting the heaviest snowstorm in a couple of years. So I figure that the kids are either gleefully sleeping in or hitting the hills with their sleds. In addition, it is Valentine's Eve rather than Valentine's Day and I had already been planning to put this Reminiscings of Youth chestnut up even without the Valentine's Day reference, but the timing couldn't have been better regardless.
Last summer, I finally got around to welcome the late singer Nicolette Larson onto the pages of "Kayo Kyoku Plus". A number of her songs were recurring tunes on AM radio here in Canada and at one point, I thought that she was actually as Canadian as maple syrup, only to find out many years later that she hailed from the state of Montana in the United States. One of those songs of hers was the cool and urban "Lotta Love" which was created by Neil Young.
Another song that hailed from her September 1978 debut album "Nicolette" was "French Waltz" which is about as different as can be from "Lotta Love". One reason that I had assumed that Larson was Canadian was the fact that she sang some of the song in French and that there was something rather Canadian and folksy about it. If it had been written and composed in Japan, I would have immediately pegged it as a Fashion Music tune. Anyways, "French Waltz" was another popular song on the AM airwaves for years and even before "Lotta Love", the song had become a favourite of mine to listen to and remember the old days by.
Interestingly enough, "French Waltz" had been created by Adam Mitchell. He had been born in Scotland but ended up in Toronto along with the rest of his family as a teenager, and it looks like at least the earlier years of his music career were spent in the Toronto area, so perhaps the Canadiana did seep into "French Waltz" after all.
As with "Lotta Love" as a ROY topic, I'm going to hit the September 29th issue of the Oricon charts to delve into what was popular at around the same time that "Nicolette" had come out. But I've already done the Top 3 there so let's go with the bottom three of that Top 20 chart.
18. Rie Nakahara -- Disco Lady (ディスコ・レディー)
19. Pink Lady -- Monster （モンスター）
20. Chiharu Matsuyama -- Kisetsu no Naka de （季節の中で）
Hey, you are thinking out of the box here and this was a cool idea! Reviewing the bottom three hits of the top ten is a great way to cover some songs that do not get enough press. Pink Ladies' Monster was cute!
ReplyDeleteRecently, I've noticed that a number of certain kayo kyoku get repeatedly posted up in the ROY articles, so yeah, a little shaking of things is always nice. :)
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