When I first encountered Hideki Saijo's（西城秀樹）45th single from June 1983, "Night Game", I thought that it was a return to form for the virile young aidoru of the 1970s. There was the aggressive arrangement and Saijo going all out with his voice. But instead of the bare torso, the wild expression and the long hair, there was the man all decked out in a nice suit, calm demeanor and short hair on the cover of the single. Still, I could also hear "Night Game" as a pop-rock holler-happy tune.
What I was to find out was that Saijo's "Night Game" was a cover of Graham Bonnet's original song from 1981, "Night Games". I don't know anything about this singer from England, but his version sounds a bit more stately and measured. It got up to No. 6 on the UK Singles chart while the Saijo cover reached No. 19 on Oricon, selling 85000 records. According to the J-Wiki article for the Japanese take, when Bonnet had visited Japan, he actually ended up buying Saijo's record.
Just listened to both the original and Hideki Saijo's cover, and I don't know, but for me, these almost sound like two completely different songs. Maybe it is the arrangement or the atmosphere, but Hideki Saijo's cover sounds a bit brighter and more cheerful to my ears for some reason.
ReplyDeleteYeah, there's a bit more frantic urgency to Saijo's version.
Delete