Masahiko Kondo -- Highteen Boogie（ハイティーン・ブギ）

 

I've known about 80s aidoru Masahiko Kondo（近藤真彦）ever since I started getting into Japanese pop music as a teen myself, and so I got to know some of his big hits such as "Blue Jeans Memory"（ブルー・ジーンズ・メモリー）and "Gingiragin ni Sarigenaku"（ギンギラギンにさりげなく）through the usual sources of videotaped music shows and karaoke outings. However, this particular song kinda fell through the cracks although I kept seeing it in ranking lists and Matchy's long discography.

So, I'm talking about his 7th single from June 1982, "Highteen Boogie". Strangely enough, I never saw him perform it on videotaped editions of "The Best 10" or hear anyone at Kuri, our old karaoke hangout here in Toronto, perform it. Up until recently, it was simply a title on the Matchy list. Well, I finally listened to it and found it to be the typically Matchy rumbly rock n' roll song although I think perhaps one observation is that the kid sounded perhaps a little more high-tone and slightly softer despite the shark-powered driving arrangement.

And speaking of the creation, Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）was behind the lyrics while Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）took care of music and arrangement. In fact, Matchy also had some additional help from other Tats associates in the form of Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）and EPO as the backing chorus. It hit No. 1 for a few weeks after its release and ended up as the 7th-ranked single of 1982. Apparently, Yamashita has covered the song live in concerts himself although no official recorded version of the song exists.

The song was the theme song for "Highteen Boogie" the movie which was released in early August 1982 with the Tanokin Trio: Matchy, Toshihiko Tahara（田原俊彦）and Yoshio Nomura（野村義男） starring. Matchy plays a high school-age motorcycle-riding street tough who wants to go straight due to the charms of an orphaned teen girl but fate apparently has other purposes for him. Matsumoto's lyrics talk about young Sho's redemption through love and perhaps the aforementioned softer vocal approach reflects that.