I've been a fan of Japanese popular music for 40 years, and have managed to collect a lot of material during that time. So I decided I wanted to talk about Showa Era music with like-minded fans. My particular era is the 70s and 80s (thus the "kayo kyoku"). The plus part includes a number of songs and artists from the last 30 years and also the early kayo. So, let's talk about New Music, aidoru, City Pop and enka.
It looks like the pattern is being made with the Kobayashi-san file on KKP. Since I first put up the first opening theme to "Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon"（小林さんちのメイドラゴン...Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid） back in 2017, it's been the case that there is a flurry of articles based on the anime's music one year and then things go fallow for a few years. In fact, the last time I wrote about anything on the beloved anime, it was back in 2021.
Well, I heard that the cinematic chapter in the franchise, "Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon: Samishigariya no Ryu"（小林さんちのメイドラゴン さみしがりやの竜...A Lonely Dragon Wants to Be Loved ）was released in theatres a month ago, and if the above trailer is of any indication, you're gonna have to bring a box of tissues. The usually cute if stoic Kanna Kamui has a major "OOC is Serious Business" episode here and so will fans in all likelihood.
As a few Japanese commenters have stated, how could there be any Kobayashi-san film without fhana? It would be like Kirk without Spock and hamburgers without French fries. And so, the band has come out with "Namida no Parade" (Parade of Tears). It's the usual fhana/Kobayashi-san happiness and the music video has the gang doing the usual dance show, this time starting out on location in Odaiba, Tokyo. To be honest, it could take a few more listens for it to grow on me because it hasn't quite hit me as amazingly as "Aozora no Rhapsody"（青空のラプソディ）and "Ai no Supreme!"（愛のシュプリーム！）from Season 2. "Namida no Parade" came out as one-half of a single in June including the ending theme for the movie, Sachiko Kobayashi's（小林幸子）"Boku-tachi no Hibi"（僕たちの日々...Our Days）.
I was doing my usual browsing through "Obscure City Pop CDs 1986-2006" and found this one entry showing an album with a young well-to-do fellow making like a character from "Miami Vice" as he enjoyed his tropical life while standing by his white convertible. The fellow is singer-songwriter Koichi Kawamura（川村康一）and the album is his May 1989 debut "Have a Good-Time" and he certainly looks like he's having one.
One track is "Out Of The Night" and although I'm not sure if it's a City Pop tune, I think it feels like a summery AOR song, fitting for that album cover. Written and composed by Kawamura, there's a really breezy and bluesy guitar this side of George Benson helping the singer along with his story of the good life. Have a good time, indeed.
Kawamura hails from Tokyo and his music career had begun in the early 1980s with the rock bands MOZANBEEK and HOO-CHII-KOO before he embarked on a solo career from 1984. Basically, his release of singles and albums started in 1989 and he's continuing to release material now including his latest album "Magical Pop Tracks" which only came out a few weeks ago.
Welcome to another Reminiscings of Youth entry for this Thursday, the final day of July 2025. And what better way to end it with something nice and groovy from the 1980s? Referring back to my article "If I Had an All-Night Radio Show...", I rather regret not having included DeBarge in my midnight playlist but I just had so many candidates to put up. Still, easily, something like their "All This Love" would have gotten airplay on that first episode.
This would be another sure bet from them. "I Like It" was their 3rd single from August 1982 and it was the one that preceded "All This Love" which was my introduction to the singing family. Instead of the swaying love ballad that "All This Love" is, "I Like It" is more in the mid-tempo range but still has Randy and El singing about someone fully in love with his significant other through all things big and small. I like it...or I love it rather for those mellow horns, the bass and the overall rhythm which could represent that someone constantly eyeing his girlfriend or wife as she's doing the most mundane things such as washing the dishes or trying out a new dress. The song managed to reach No. 31 on US Billboard.
I'm going to go way down on the Oricon list to see what else was hitting the Japanese charts in August 1982. I have Nos. 18 and 19.
If you had predicted thirty years ago that musician, producer and songwriter Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉） would make an enka song, I would have searched for that bottle of alcohol and swiped it away from you declaring "That's enough Absinthe of Malice for you!". I could never have imagined the guy behind what I've called the Komuro Steamroller of the mid-1990s, responsible for the huge techno-dance-pop and the hit careers of acts including trf, Tomomi Kahala（華原朋美）and globe, as someone who would ever come up with a song from the traditional Japanese genres of either enka or Mood Kayo.
But miracles do happen. And it did here. I read reports from one of my Twitter friends and then the Mixi news feed that Komuro had written and composed an enka song for the silken-voiced Luca Mochizuki（望月琉叶）, whom I first posted about a year ago with her "Oborozuki"（朧月）. Titled "Wagamama" (Selfish), the two of them worked together to describe a story of one woman who is willing to throw everything away and jump on a train to join her beloved and breathe the air he breathes. Yes, perhaps I'm being a bit florid here, but listening to "Wagamama", I hadn't initially heard any of the old Komuro melodic tropes but then again, there is something in the process going from verse to chorus where I've heard something familiar from the 1990s among the acts that I mentioned above.
In any case, "Wagamama" was just released in the last week and it's apparently already hit No. 1 on the enka/kayo charts of Oricon. Many congratulations to Komuro and Mochizuki.
Some days ago, a commenter asked me about a track from Kahoru Kohiruimaki's（小比類巻かほる）"Frontier" album from September 1992 and I realized that it's been some years since I gave the CD a proper run on the stereo. So, I gave it another listen. I've already posted on a couple of the tracks: the first track "Control" and the title track which was written by the singer and composed by the one-and-only Maurice White from the legendary Earth Wind & Fire, Billy Young and Brenda Russell.
(5:18)
Now, I'll give a few more tracks from "Frontier" some exposure here including the upbeat Track No. 2"Let's Share Love". A nice piece of gospel-like 70s soul, this was also a creation by Kohhy with her old songwriting partner, the late Yoshiaki Ohuchi（大内義昭）. As the title says, it's all about shedding the sadness and enjoying each other.
The following track is "Tears of Joy" which was written and composed by Kohiruimaki. The song goes into full funk mode (some fine wacka-wacka guitar work) and for some reason, whenever I listen to it, I get thoughts that this could have been a theme song for some 1990s cop show in Japan. I have a feeling that some of Prince's influence was still hanging around when "Tears of Joy" was being produced. To be honest, I've often thought that a number of Kohhy songs could have belonged to the soundtrack for the original "The Equalizer" series in the 1980s.
"Tangerine Moon Night"（タンジェリン・ムーンナイト）was the one song that commenter had been inquiring about, and it's the one other track on "Frontier" that Maurice White collaborated with Kohhy on. Also, Bill Meyers and Sheldon Reynolds contributed as well on the songwriting. I believe I made a misspelling when I responded to the commenter by referring it as "Tangerine Moon Knight". Perhaps with "Fantastic Four" in theatres now, I had a bit of Marvel on the brain. It's indeed "Tangerine Moon Night" with the protagonist hoping for that meeting with a significant other. A goodly amount of EW&F brass stuff and rhythm shuffling populate this one.
One more track that I'll show you happens to be the final one. I'm surprised that I hadn't included the Space of Love version of "Smile for Me" with the original version which was Kohhy's 18th single from April 1992 although I did mention it there but at least I get to do it now. Compared to the original R&B-flavoured "Smile for Me", this one ending "Frontier" indeed sounds rather spacy as would befit the Space of Love label and it almost takes things for a cooldown feeling. If it had been toned down any further, it could have gone ambient which is unusual for the singer.
Today is supposedly the last day of our current heat wave and yep, it was a hot one as I walked the concrete in midtown Toronto to meet up with a couple of friends for lunch at Kinton Ramen. I had a pretty tasty if spicy mazemen and I found myself having to deal with my own "ring of fire" issues later on in the day.
Anyways, to keep on with this summer theme, I have here "Summer Tour" by rock band RC Succession（RCサクセション）as their 12th single from June 1982. Written and composed by vocalist Kiyoshiro Imawano（忌野清志郎）and guitarist Reichi Nakaido（仲井戸麗市）, the arrangement is appropriately New Wave sinuous and salivating as the late Imawano sings not of his own band making the rounds around the nation during the hot season but of waiting for a beautiful young lady to walk past his way again so his eyes can get their fill. The song peaked at No. 6 on Oricon and there's something in that underlying rhythm which reminds me of an upbeat take on The Animals' cover of "The House of the Rising Sun" that got especially featured in the Martin Scorcese movie "Casino".
Over here in Toronto, the local news channel CP24 has its four-hour weekday morning show called "CP24 Breakfast" with one of the hosts being the vivacious Jennifer Hsiung. Along with at least a few of the other broadcasters on the channel, Hsiung has had an interesting past in terms of previous occupations. She was once a standup comedian and there's some of that in her patter which has led to some impolitic outbursts occasionally. In a way, she reminds me of a somewhat more toned-down Phyllis Diller or Joan Rivers.
Now, the only reason that I'm even mentioning Ms. Hsiung is that the singer of note here has a glancing resemblance to our CP24 anchor. This is Catherine Catherine（カトリーヌ・カトリーヌ）whose real name is Ayane Miura（三浦綺音）, a model, actress and singer. She's also had some interesting points in her career, one of which is that she portrayed Sadako in the 1995 Japanese TV version of the famous horror franchise "Ringu". I have to say that her hair looks much lovelier and silkier here.
As for her singing career, she, under that stage name of Catherine Catherine, released three singles and two albums, with the last single being "Warawaseru janai ka" (Well, Aren't You Funny?). Released in September 1998, there's something of the indies pop vibe with the guitar and the singer's whispery vocals.
Now, the song was written and composed by Miyuki Nakajima（中島みゆき）and apparently she did cover it herself as the B-side to her more famous 1981 single "Akujo"（悪女）, but not surprisingly, any actual YouTube videos of Nakajima's version don't exist. However, back a few years in the 1970s, she did offer it to another actress and singer Emiko Yamauchi（山内絵美子）who is also appearing on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" for the first time. The Hokkaido-born Yamauchi released "Warawaseru janai ka" as her fifth single in February 1977 and there is a jaunty Old World feeling to this original version that takes it into the Fashion Music realm.
Speaking of Hokkaido, I've also been monitoring the situation in Japan due to some tsunami warnings that could be affecting the entire Pacific coast. I'm hoping that everyone there, especially one regular commenter who may be living in one affected area, will be fine.
Well, it's a hot and steamy Monday out there and Toronto will be facing at least one more 3H day before things finally start cooling down on Hump Day. But I've got a feeling that this summer will be made up of a series of alternating heat waves and cool downs going well into September.
Working folks downtown will most likely want to grab a nice cold drink or two once work is done for the day, so I figure that it's good to have a Mood Kayo to break the ice. So, why not have the premium band Akira Kurosawa & Los Primos（黒澤明とロスプリモス）provide some old-fashioned kayo classiness to the proceedings? Their 1966 debut single, "Love You, Tokyo"(ラブユー東京）, probably remains as their most recognized hit.
However, when they first premiered, that debut single had as its A-side"Namida no Tomo ni"（Together with the Tears) with "Love You, Tokyo" as the B-side. But as I mentioned in the article for the latter over a decade ago, "Love You, Tokyo" got the bigger accolades so some time down the line, record company Crown Records flipped the sides and the rest is history as the new release sold around 2.5 million records.
As it is though, "Namida no Tomo ni", which follows the Mood Kayo trope of having that final dance before breaking up for good (supposedly having that affair isn't particularly good for a marriage), is a perfectly fine example of the genre with the soft Latin rhythm, the tender vocals and the mournful backup chorus. Hiroyuki Nakagawa（中川博之）, as he did for "Love You, Tokyo" provided the melody and arrangement but this time, Shin Kimura（木村伸）was the lyricist.
The song and dance group trf was a unit that I had always associated with 1990s J-Pop starting with their mega-hit "Boy Meets Girl". For a period of several years as I was getting acclimated to the Tokyo life, YU-KI and her gang were seemingly everywhere on the airwaves and television with their dance-pop hits. But as we approached the end of the century, they seemed to do the slow fade from pop culture.
But recently, I discovered that trf had provided a snazzy opening theme song to a 2007 anime adaptation of the manga "Wangan Midnight"（湾岸ミッドナイト...Bayshore Midnight）...a whole decade after assuming that trf had been relegated to the potential nostalgia tour of pop culture history. "lights and any more" may sound like a rogue dependent clause but its release in July of that year as the group's first digital download single provided a good high-octane boost to the opening credits promising lots of furious racing along Tokyo's Bayshore Route. The song was also a part of trf's 10th album"Gravity" from February 2009 which scored a No. 42 ranking on Oricon.
I don't recall all that well about being driven on Bayshore since getting rides was quite rare during my time in Japan with all of those subways and trains to rely upon. Plus, taxis can really rack up the price. But I can imagine some of the flair and romance of going along the highways and byways of Tokyo from seeing some of the videos.
Walking back home near midnight after a long day at work twenty years ago in July meant a ten-minute stroll from Minami-Gyotoku Station in humid 26-degree-Celsius weather to my apartment deep in the suburbs of Ichikawa City. The two vending machines just some metres away from the staircase up to my place were my welcoming guardians like dragons at a gate of a temple as they plied me with well-needed drinks for my parched mouth. The shower was well needed after peeling off my clothing and then I drank down the cans and rested for some minutes before hitting bed. Nope, summer wasn't my favourite season in Japan but I always enjoyed the walk home in my suburban environment.
The memories were activated by the first and title track from "Town Pop", a 2021 release by a singer-songwriter and musician called takezoo. I couldn't find much of anything by this fellow except for the fact that he had been born in Hiroshima but currently resides in Kanagawa Prefecture and that he has put out a lot of music over the past several years. Strangely enough, before finding the album on YouTube, I'd discovered this on an Internet archive.
"Town Pop" is indeed a technopop song but as I listened to the four minutes and change of that title track, I also got quite a bit more in terms of musical influences. Starting and ending with a twinkly keyboard which struck me as being so reminiscent of early American television variety show signoff music, "Town Pop" bounces into a funky pop melody describing a couple making their way to a new town and a new home, presumably a fair bit into the future. And along the way, I get Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）, chip tune, a taste of a waltz and even a spot of Fashion Music greeting me like some really great neighbours. I wouldn't mind a suburb like this!
Welcome to a steamy Sunday in the Greater Toronto Area. I think you have probably read me referring to Yasushi Akimoto's（秋元康）harem of aidoru groups such as AKB 48 as the Alphabet Aidoru. Well, today to start this broadcasting day on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I'll be providing some Alphabet Songs through their titles.
There's something here that is almost downright "Jeopardy" about this selection. I'll take Alphabet Songs for $200, Alex!
Well, this is not only the 12,001st article for "Kayo Kyoku Plus", but it looks like I missed out on someone's birthday by a couple of days. Yes, July 24th was Naoko Kawai's（河合奈保子）62nd birthday so many congratulations to her.
In commemoration, I have this one track from her 7th original album"Half-Shadow" which was released in October 1983. When I read Hiroko Taniyama's（谷山浩子）lyrics for her "Weather Song" before even listening to the song that was also concocted by her, I'd had the impression that it was going to be a rather melancholy ballad about a young lady tracing raindrops on the window while wondering when her Prince Charming would come to finally sweep her off her feet.
Actually, I should have gotten the clue when "Weather Song" was placed as the first track on Side B of "Half-Shadow" which has been labeled as "Sunny Side". Indeed, it's quite the happy-go-lucky tune with Shiro Sagisu（鷺巣詩郎）arranging things so that it sounds like something from the Beatles collection. At the same time, I could imagine an entire song-and-dance performance with Kawai leading a group of dancers in rain gear and umbrellas prancing about on the wet floor. Nothing sad about this one...the aforementioned lady is happily waiting for that prince.
I remember visiting Kyoto with the rest of my classmates during the July 1981 Toronto Japanese Language School graduation trip. We saw the Gion Matsuri procession which was a few layers deep of people on the sidewalk and it was a steam bath out there as Kyoto usually is because it is situated in a shallow valley. The next thing I knew I was back in my bed at the ryokan exhausted out of my mind.
Strangely enough, just a couple of months earlier, singer-songwriter Ami Ozaki（尾崎亜美）had put out her 13th single in May, "Love is Easy", which I noted when I posted the article for her album "Hot Baby" back in 2018. "Love is Easy" was also the launching track for the album. The B-side for that single was "My Shiny Town".
"My Shiny Town" was used as the campaign song for a Kyoto radio station, KBS Kyoto, which was celebrating its 30th anniversary in 1981. Written, composed and arranged by Ozaki, it's a cute tune with a 50s/60s girl pop rhythm to start things off but it also shares melodic space and time with a synthesizer so I gather that I can also give it the Technopop label as well. Usually when it comes to the venerable former capital of Japan, I think enka or min'yo, but Ozaki turns that all on its head here. I also have to mention that Ozaki may have wanted to take a riff from one of the Piano Man's famous songs in the intro.
Although "My Shiny Town" hadn't been included in the original release of "Hot Baby", it was placed onto the 2013 re-release of the album as a bonus track. It must have stood out quite a lot against most of the other tracks since they had been arranged by David Foster, and I don't think Foster does cute.
However as they say in those informercials: Wait! There's more! YouTuber kbskyoto114369 has provided some interesting insight via his own music video for "My Shiny Town" (starts at about a minute in). He wrote the story below the video in Japanese but giving a quick translated look, I had first assumed that he was slamming KBS but as it turns out, he's actually a supporter for the station.
He expressed some surprise that a singer as illustrious as Ozaki would create a song for KBS which at the time had been undergoing some doldrums which involved low ratings, corruption, and an image of radio that only uncool old men would love. But apparently the station managed to turn the tide and clawed its way back up the ladder.
The heat is hitting many Japanese cities including the northern ones such as Sapporo. I definitely feel their pain as someone who's spent seventeen summers in the Tokyo area. It can get plenty hot and humid even here in Toronto but it doesn't come all that close to the "swimming in atmosphere" effect of commuting to work and back in Japan's capital city. It'll probably be another couple of months of this over there.
Nice to have you back, Mariko Tone（刀根麻理子）! Yes, it's been a few years since the singer and actress made an appearance on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", and this time, it's through her 7th single of September 1987, "The Heat of the City". Written by Maxi Anderson and composed by Keiko Matsui, the song might be describing the summer conditions but I think it's also describing the general excitement of the nocturnal life in one of the world's biggest metropolises. Whether it be in the bars, discos and other joints within Shinjuku, Roppongi or Shibuya, there's never a dull night. Tone's sexy vocals, the funky bass and the tight brassy horns help this one which was also a track on her 4th album"Just My Tone" which had been released earlier in May 1987.
Along with the gritty crime dramas that were getting produced and released in Hollywood in the early 1970s such as "The French Connection", Japan was probably no slouch in that area either. There was one such movie called "Akai Tori Nigeta?"（赤い鳥逃げた?...Did the Red Bird Escape?）from 1973 which starred Yoshio Harada（原田芳雄）as Kou Bando（坂東宏）and Kaori Momoi（桃井かおり）and it's been described at one website as being "...an avant-garde work that differed vastly from Japan’s typical crime dramas". From what I've read of it, it struck me as being a modern film noir.
Why I even mention this movie is that by chance, I managed to come across one of the works used for the soundtrack for "Akai Tori Nigeta?" by Yasuo Higuchi（樋口康雄）. Titled "Kou no Tehma" (Kou's Theme), it's a laid back jam going for the jazz, funk, rock and urban at the same time. That electric guitar really gets into the funk like a really hungry mosquito. Just from listening to the song, I am probably able to figure out Kou's personality as this cool if reckless city cat strutting down the streets and woe betide anyone who has the bad luck to accidentally walk into him. Perhaps the song might be a tad early to be given the Label of City Pop but considering how it sounds and the instrumentation and arrangement involved, I felt that it still rather earns it.
One small thing and that is the title of the movie itself. When I first read it, I couldn't help but be reminded of that one Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）song that had been made back in the mid-1980s.
Now, wouldn't the above be a sight for sore eyes? Have a view like this at your next vacation...hopefully sooner rather than later.
The last time I posted anything by the fusion band Katsumi Horii Project（堀井勝美PROJECT）, it was back in the pre-pandemic days. Well, allow me to rectify that. I couldn't quite believe it when I read that this titular track from his "Blue Waters" album was actually released in July 1998 because from the way it sounds, especially with that Fender Rhodes in there, "Blue Waters" sounds like something from the 1980s, perhaps during Japan's Bubble Era.
I think what has gotten me to think that way is that along with the Fender Rhodes, the main piano sounds perfectly attuned to anything used for the soundtrack of Seizo Watase's（わたせせいぞう）"Heart Cocktail"（ハートカクテル） series of anime vignettes. You may be listening to this from the comfort of your own home, but you might still be existentially pressured to yell out for an Orange Mimosa! In any case, this is one really relaxing number for a Sunday brunch.
The above is a shot of the interior of Roppongi Hills in Tokyo. Can't quite believe it's already been 22 years since construction had been finished on this project. I remember when it first opened, it was absolutely flooded with interested folks trying out its restaurants and shops.
Keeping awake is one of my problems after lunch now. Right after having the sandwich and stuff, I always plunk myself into the armchair and then end up dozing off for several minutes. My encroaching age is a factor and when I eventually wake up, I gotta shake off the grogginess because I have to get back to the computer and take care of "Kayo Kyoku Plus".
But ironically enough, I have a 1990s Miho Nakayama（中山美穂）song titled "Keep Awake", and if she were right beside me saying this into my ear, I would go "YES, MA'AM!!". The second track from the late singer's 15th studio album from June 1993, "Wagamama na Actress"（わがままな あくとれす...Selfish Actress）, this was another example of Miporin exploring various aspects of Latin or R&B going into the final decade of the 20th century. Smooth with some funky notes, I think some of that percussion kinda goes into the New Jack Swing of things. Nakayama herself came up with the lyrics while Julia provided the melody.
I'm currently watching actress, singer and seiyuu Keiko Toda（戸田恵子）on the NHK morning serial "Anpan"（あんぱん）which is the dramatization of the lives of manga and anime "Anpanman"（アンパンマン）creator Takashi Yanase and his wife Nobu. Toda is playing a member of Parliament in postwar Japan who also has a Florence Nightingale streak saving war orphans and widows in Tokyo. What's ironic is that Toda has also served as the voice for the hero Anpanman for years.
But before all that, Toda was also cutting records, one of which from 1983 seemed like a City Pop project titled "Naturally". My first Toda article on KKP, in fact, dealt with one of the tracks, "FADE IN ~ Youmei"（溶明）. Well, another track is "Ame no You ni Naite"(Let the Tears Fall Like Rain) and it also sounds like some elegant and classy urbane nighttime tune to be heard while looking wistfully out of a hotel window. Written by Toyohisa Araki（荒木とよひさ）and composed by Ken Sato（佐藤健）, who had also come up with the melody of "FADE IN", the piano, guitar and strings set up that environment of loneliness in the big bad city.
I heard this on a recent episode of NHK's "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）, and I found it quite lovely and old-fashioned. Teenage enka singer Kokoro Umetani（梅谷心愛）is making her way up the ladder in the music world and she released "Himitsu no Hana"(Secret Flowers) as her 2nd single from April 2025 earlier this year.
Remembering her from her debut single"Ban'etsu Sai Sen Hitori"（磐越西線ひとり）a couple of years back, Umetani was rocking an appearance that was a hybrid of traditional enka singer and 1920s flapper girl. So it's pretty refreshing to see her in the video looking like a typical young lady who's just celebrated her Adulthood Day ceremony (although she's still 17 as of this writing) and as someone in regular garb taking a walk along the beach. Speaking of mixing, what got my ears with "Himitsu no Hana" is not just the enka part but also the arrangement which comes across as being quite kayo kyoku, as if it were Mizue Takada（高田みづえ）singing back in the late 1970s. Maybe it has something to do with the songwriters. Kohei Miyuki（幸耕平）was the composer and he's done plenty of contemporary enka but the arrangement was handled by Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）who I've frequently associated with pop songs going back decades. Masao Urino（売野雅勇）was behind the lyrics for this one which managed to reach No. 13 on Oricon.
A few years ago, I posted an article for Shinichi Furukawa's（古川真一）"Cool Romantic"（クール・ロマンティック）, a B-side that was quite the AOR goodie. As I mentioned there, I couldn't find a whole lot of information on the singer and songwriter or all that many songs by him online, but this B-side was the flip side to a 1987 single titled "Day Dream".
The uploader for the video here, Lotus Ladybug, also noted the dearth of Furukawa's discography on YouTube, so we are all lucky that they were able to put up "Day Dream" itself. Written by Tomoko Aran（亜蘭知子）and composed by Chiho Kiyooka（清岡千穂）, I had wondered about waiting until Urban Contemporary Friday (aka tomorrow) to put this one up but listening to this pleasant medium-tempo number, I felt that "Day Dream" was straight-ahead pop compared to its AOR B-side. I didn't quite notice it with "Cool Romantic", but I realized that Furukawa's vocals remind me a bit of the golden voice of Christopher Cross.
Anyways, good to hear that "Day Dream" is back up and running.
I figure that with me seeing the new "Superman" last week and then "Fantastic Four" coming out in the next several hours, I should bring this particular work onto KKP as a ROY entry.
As I have probably mentioned in the past, "Superman II" was the first in the franchise that I caught in 1981. It certainly started with a bang with the most epic Reader's Digest version of an opening credits montage sequence reviewing the first movie that I had ever seen. I never caught the first "Superman" in 1978 on the big screen due to various reasons including the fact that my family was never all that much of a moviegoing family.
Along with the first "Back to the Future", that was one of my big regrets: not catching "Superman" at the theatre. The Christopher Reeve part of the franchise may have gradually ended up going over a cliff but that first movie for the most part was a magical experience. After having seen "Superman II"five times at the theatre (I really did love those credits and the final battle between Supes and General Zod), I finally got to see the original "Superman" on CTV separated into two parts over one weekend, and when I saw those soaring jaw-dropping opening credits (including the Superman logo) with John Williams handling the iconic theme, I realized I missed out on something special, especially with the intro by that kid at the beginning.
The weird thing is that the first time I had ever heard of Williams'"Superman" theme in its entirety, it wasn't on anything connected with the movie but on an episode of "Battle of the Network Stars" which involved television celebrities from various shows competing with each other through events including obstacle courses. The director apparently decided to bring in the theme, and at first, I wasn't all that impressed because I thought it just sounded as if Williams had opted to copy "Star Wars" and its amazing overture.
But of course, the pure epicness of "Superman" with its mashing of the fanfare (that rises to Sousa levels by the end), the march and the love theme into one big overture finally won me over and it got me to buy the original soundtrack whose cover you see at the top. And at this point, among all of those amazing Williams soundtrack themes including those for "Star Wars" and "Jaws", I have to say that the "Superman" theme is my favourite, and I had expressed a bit of disappointment even when the composers for the new "Superman" score brought in just that tiny smidgen of Williams' work although I realize that the original theme was for Reeves and that John Murphy and David Fleming had the prerogative to bring in something new to musically reflect the new Man of Steel.
But with John Williams'"Superman", I could believe that a superhero theme could truly fly!
As crazy as this may sound, "Superman" in 1978 wasn't a summer blockbuster, it was a Christmas one. Released on December 15th in the United States, that must have been some present for superhero fans, and it could explain why the version of the love theme used during the Kal-El-and-Lois flying sequence sounded so Yuletide. In any case, what was up at the top of the charts in Japan a few days later on the 18th?
It was almost four years ago that I first posted an article featuring the band Cotton Time fronted by vocalist Yukiko Nagao（長尾由起子）. From what little I could find out about them, they were active from the late 1990s up to their breakup in 2006. However, I recently discovered that their history does go as far back as 1992.
The reason for that is that Cotton Time did release their first single or album in the form of "Baybridge Story" in that year. Written by drummer Naoki Iwata（岩田直樹）and composed by keyboardist Minako Yamashita（山下美奈子）, it's a pleasant pop song (although I wonder how it would have sounded with real horns instead of the synths) with a hint of that early 70s soul. And when it comes to that titular engineering structure, I can only think of Yokohama Bay Bridge. Of course, I've been to that area in Yokohama; just wished that I could have taken a better picture of the bridge, though.
In a way, I think Cotton Time's sound was a harbinger of what bands such as paris match and Blue Peppers would bring some years later.
I've been watching the NHK news recently and along with the stories on the recent election and bear attacks, there has been the information on the heat and humidity that have been pounding Japan relentlessly, even the northern regions such as Hokkaido. I don't think that much of the working class or even the academic class has been smiling about walking about my old stomping grounds of Tokyo while bathed in 35+ degree Celsius weather but I'm hoping that the various countermeasures such as shaved ice and neck fans have had some cooling effect.
Speaking of Tokyo and smiling, I've got another track here by the Shibuya-kei/techno duo capsule from their February 2005 5th album"NEXUS-2060" to accompany "happy life generator" which I had written about last month. "Tokyo Smiling" is another cheerful tune by Yasutaka Nakata（中田ヤスタカ）that has him and vocalist Toshiko Koshijima（こしじまとしこ）providing that mix of DeVol-friendly Shibuya-kei and technopop that infuses the lyrics regarding female smiles making things alright for one guy as a tonic for all that ails him.
The music video of Koshijima and company making like a 1960s jet-set team of cheerleaders prancing about is adorable. Anytime that I can actually see the vocalist beaming is a good day for me.
It used to be the case that no matter what walk of the Japanese entertainment life one trod, once a certain level of fame has been achieved, that person simply has to cut a record of some sort, level of singing ability be damned. That was true for Manami Hayakawa（早川愛美）. Born in Tokyo in 1967, she was working in a Takadanobaba fashion health facility (a massage parlor which offers those "joyful conclusions") one summer in 1985 when she was somehow brought into the geinokai via late-night TV programs such as "All-Night Fuji". Her rise in popularity led to her being considered a sex industry aidoru which then led her into pin-up modeling and porn. She was even voted Miss Video Boy in both 1985 and 1986 for the magazine of the same name.
And although it was just the one May 1987 single, Hayakawa has the record (no pun intended) for being the first Japanese adult video actress to release a record on her own (according to a 1987 issue of "Video Boy" via J-Wiki). "Roppongi Scandal", which was written by Natsumi Watanabe（渡辺なつみ）and composed by Takeshi Ike（池毅）, is a rock n' roll romp whose basic rhythm seems to echo that of another Roppongi-themed song, Yoko Oginome's（荻野目洋子）"Roppongi Junjouha"（六本木純情派）from the previous year. Meanwhile, the B-side, "TO-NIGHT" (from 3:15) has a slightly more Eurobeat arrangement. Ike was also the composer here while Toru Shizuka（静香徹）took care of lyrics. For both songs, Hayakawa doesn't sound too bad at all for an aidoru.
In 1990, Hayakawa announced her retirement from show business.
NHK's"Uta Con"（うたコン）had its final episode today before going on summer hiatus for the next month, and it was one of their quieter ones with just the hosts and a few guests sitting in a virtual living room. One of the guests, though, was one of Japan's most prolific lyricists Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）, and the theme was on his songs since he's celebrating his 55th anniversary in songwriting this year.
It was almost a decade ago that I posted a Creator article on Matsumoto so you can take a look at some of the songs that he wrote for other singers there. He's supposedly written more than 2,000 songs, so what I have of his creations here on KKP is barely a little over 10%, and to add onto that 10%, I have here a Matsumoto-penned song for Kiyoshi Hikawa（氷川きよし）...his 41st single from this month, to be precise.
Hikawa did perform "Shiro Suiren" (White Water Lilies) on "Uta Con", and listening to that performance and the above YouTube video, it's quite the different animal from the enka that the singer has usually done. Yes, I know that he has fully plunged into other genres such as rock over the past several years, but "Shiro Suiren" might come off as the most purely pop song that I've ever heard from him; in fact, I'm wondering if it could even be a form of new New Music. The composer for the song is TAKURO, the leader of the rock band GLAY.
Well, I gather that it's perfect timing that on the annual Ocean Day holiday in Japan, I'm taking care of the ending theme of a popular anime that...nominally...has something to do with diving. Of course, I'm talking about "Grand Blue"（ぐらんぶる）which happily started its second season in the last few weeks.
Yep, I did catch Episode 2 last week which introduced Iori's scheming little sister, Shiori, and in that one episode, I got the impression of what the entire season might look like: lots of the usual deranged humour from Season 1 but with the addition of some more heartwarming moments.
A week ago, I featured the let's-hit-the-beach-running opening theme "Seishun Towa"（青春永遠）with the duet of Shonan no Kaze（湘南乃風）and Atarashii Gakko no Leaders（新しい学校のリーダーズ）. The ending theme is just as dynamic with another duet and it involves a couple of artists that I haven't featured here on the blog for about a decade. Rapper SEAMO was someone that I posted about in 2014 for his epic "Drive" twenty years ago and May'n was up here in 2016 for her contribution to the anime "Shuumatsu no Izetta"（終末のイゼッタ...Izetta The Last Witch）.
Well, they're here together to provide "Hadaka de Dotsukiai" (Naked Fellowship). Created by Naoki "SEAMO" Takada（高田尚輝）and Giz'Mo, and true to his "Drive", it's a mile-a-minute Latin rap extravaganza that describes the Peek-a-Boo philosophy of having fun: copious amounts of drinking and the opposite amount of clothing. Overall, the song reminds me some of the stuff that Maki Ohguro（大黒摩季）was singing a few decades back.
With all of the turmoil of yesterday's House of Councilors' election in Japan, I almost forgot that today is or was Ocean Day in the country. But NHK reminded me through its coverage of families hitting the beach to swim and collect seashells.
Of course, being the day to visit the seashore and enjoy marine activities, I have those memories of good ol' summertime band TUBE or as they were known in their early days, The Tube. I've managed to find the B-side to their October 1985 second single"Sentimental ni Kubittake" (センチメンタルに首ったけ). Written and composed by vocalist Nobuteru Maeda（前田亘輝）, "Onegai Radio" (Please, Radio) continues the happy twistable rock n' roll on the beach that got these guys started. Can imagine Annette and Frankie dancing on the sand.
As I'd like to reassure people whenever I post the above photo, neither I nor my camera were drunk when I took this shot. This crazy architectural construct is the DeBeers building in Ginza. Every time I pass by it, I just have to look up and admire it for a few seconds.
A couple of days ago, a commenter left a request under the article for "Ni-gatsu no Nioi"（二月の匂い）which was recorded by the late singer-songwriter Kazushi Inamura（稲村一志）and his band Dai Ikkan Dai Hyakusho（第一巻第百章）. Apparently, the request was for the lyrics of another track from the band's 1977 2nd album, "Free Flight", which also holds "Ni-gatsu no Nioi".
Now, I can't find those lyrics for "GOKUU" but after listening to the song, at least I can spread the word out there to anyone who might actually have the "Free Flight" album if they can help the commenter. Just judging from the title, the mystical intro and the Mandarin word for "thank you" which is uttered at the end, I'm gathering that "GOKUU" is referring to the Monkey King, the great warrior of Chinese folklore. This is one laidback New Music tribute thanks to Inamura's relaxed delivery and the rhythm which feels like sailing on a calm river. Compare this one with Godiego's（ゴダイゴ）"Monkey Magic" which became a more famous hit the following year.
Anyways, I hope the commenter will get some happy results soon enough.
It was many a time that I walked down Ginza on a Sunday when the main street was closed to provide the hokoten. Summer was nice and sunny of course, but all that heat was reflected at full power from the concrete. Luckily, there were plenty of stores and cafés on either side to provide cold drinks in addition to the vending machines.
I had never heard of the singer-songwriter Keiko Funami（船見啓子）before but she did have a brief time in the spotlight by coming up with two singles and one mini-album in 1992 under the NEC Avenue label. Her debut single from July of that year was "Natsu, Dakishimete"(Hold Me, Summer) which was appropriately warm, happy and sunny. She came up with the lyrics while Youki Asano（浅野穣） composed the music. Most of it is in the pop vein except when the saxophone solo floods in with a City Pop feeling.
There's not much information on Funami but she does have a short J-Wiki article. She hails from Niigata Prefecture and after attending Tokyo Metropolitan University, she worked as both a nurse and a model before being selected as a campaign girl for both Mitsubishi Motors and Kanebo Cosmetics in 1992. For a while, she even performed as Strawberry Submarine under an indies label.
Over a decade ago, I posted an article on Saburo Kitajima's（北島三郎）debut single from 1962, "Bungacha Bushi"（ブンガチャ節）. Kitajima has recently retired as the Grand Old Man of Enka but back in those early 1960s, he was merely a 26-year-old man getting his start in the music industry, so on hearing that his first song was getting banned due to some innuendo within the lyrics, he must have wondered whether he was heading back to the salt mines, figuratively speaking. He didn't have to worry too long, though.
In any case, I have his B-side here and it was created by the same duo behind "Bungacha Bushi", lyricist Tetsuro Hoshino（星野哲郎）and composer Toru Funamura（船村徹）. "Nakimushi Yokocho"(Crybaby Alley), just from the English translation of the title, might sound like something rock n' roll but as was the case with the A-side, it's a fairly galumphing kayo kyoku that still makes me wonder whether it can also be categorized as an upbeat enka tune despite all of the Western instrumentation. Lyrically speaking, it seems to be about the life in the inner city and all that reside there including the local gangster element.
It's still nice and summery out there but the heat and humidity have climbed down a tad so there's even a bit more pleasantness with the walking out there.
Yesterday on Urban Contemporary Friday, I featured a recent song by Natsu Summer titled "Orange Airmail". Interestingly enough, decades earlier, singer-songwriter Saki Kubota（久保田早紀）came up with a song that was almost identically titled except that it had an extra word. The song du jour is "Orange Airmail Special".
A track on Kubota's 4th album from May 1981, "Airmail Special", it was composed by Kubota with Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）as the lyricist and Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）as the arranger. Usually with Kubota, who now goes by the name of Sayuri Kume（久米小百合）, she was often associated with exotic kayo or City Pop. With "Orange Airmail Special" though, it strikes me as being more straight pop, although a case can be made with that electric guitar in there that it's achieved the rockier side of AOR. But hearing this one by Kubota, it did feel rather refreshing.
I couldn't quite believe it when I realized that I had yet to cover this particular AOR classic, especially since I did post Ambrosia's "Biggest Part of Me" all the way back in 2021. Time to give myself a Gibbs slap up the back of the head!
Both "Biggest Part of Me" and this song were included on those BRIO compact disc compilations of those nostalgic radio-friendly AOR tunes that I'd bought years ago in Japan. And this song here is "Is It You?" by jazz guitarist Lee Ritenour and his languid playing, with Eric Tagg providing the mellow vocals. Ritenour, Tagg and another AOR veteran Bill Champlin created "Is It You?" for Ritenour's 1981 album "RIT". And indeed, the song saw some fairly high rotation on the radio stations here when I was a teen. It hit No. 35 on Canada's RPM charts while in America, it reached No. 15.
Ritenour was a name that had kept floating here and there within my musical consciousness for years before I finally found out who he was...kinda like Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）whose name had possessed this rather legendary presence before I bought her BEST compilation years later. He, like many other folks in the American music industry, had also helped a lot of Japanese artists such as Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）and the fusion band Casiopea（カシオペア）.
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