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I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.

Saturday, May 24, 2025

Downtown Boogie-Woogie Band -- Smokin' boogie(スモーキン・ブギ)

 

When it comes to the good-time rock n' roll group, the Downtown Boogie-Woogie Band(ダウン・タウン・ブギウギ・バンド), almost all listeners will be reminded of "Minato no Yoko, Yokohama Yokosuka"(港のヨーコ・ヨコハマ・ヨコスカ)from 1975.

But immediately before that, their 3rd single "Smokin' boogie" was said to be the song that got the band into listeners' ears. Written by bassist and vocalist Takeshi Arai(新井武士)and composed by fellow bandmate Ryudo Uzaki(宇崎竜童), it starts off rather rootsy before we all get that reminder of what it must have been like to cut a rug on the dance floor back in the 1950s. Meanwhile, Arai's lyrics talk about how one probable teen got into a life of cigarettes. Japan Tobacco must have loved this one while anti-cancer campaigns probably did not. Even the chorus makes like the sound of the guy puffing away.

However, as they say, "Wait, there's more!". It turns out that "Smokin' boogie" was inspired by American blues guitarist Elmore James' 1961 "Shake Your Moneymaker", itself inspired by previous songs according to Wikipedia.

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