Yukio Hashi -- Zekken No. 1 Start da（ゼッケンNO.1スタートだ）

Wikimedia Commons
via Harry Pot

It's been a month since veteran singer and actor Yukio Hashi（橋幸夫）passed away at the age of 82, and I think the kayo kyoku world has still been mourning his loss. One thing I've noticed as I've posted his music up onto the blog over the past several years, especially his hits from the 1960s is that at one point from the mid-1960s at least, the powers-that-be above and surrounding him seemed to have wanted to give him that tough athletic image in both music and movies. His 1964 hit "Koi wo Suru nara"（恋をするなら）had viewers imagining him hanging ten off of a surfboard and I think they saw him do just that, too, in the movie "Kodoku"（孤独...Loneliness） which had the song as the theme tune. The following year, there was also "Ano Ko to Boku ~ Swim Swim Swim"（あの娘と僕-スイム・スイム・スイム-）with an accompanying movie which had young Hashi hitting the pool.

In between those two examples of his discography, there was his 56th single "Zekken No. 1 Start da" (It's the Start of Racer No. 1) which has him in the milieu of a Grand Prix race although no movie was adapted from it. Released in September 1964, the song does literally bring in the sounds and imagined sights of race time. As with the above two songs, "Zekken No. 1 Start da" was written by Takao Saeki（佐伯孝夫）and composed by Tadashi Yoshida（吉田正）as an example of Rhythm Kayo（リズム歌謡）, perhaps a proto-version of Group Sounds and something that was used to perhaps shake up the career of Hashi a bit more after earlier sweeter hits such as "Itsudemo Yume wo"（いつでも夢を）.

This was still in the pre-Oricon age so no ranking information, although I think that considering "Zekken No. 1 Start da" sold 240,000 records by May 1965, Hashi probably would have scored a Top 10 ranking at least. His Rhythm Kayo material just adds another dimension to his discography when compared to the solemn "Muhyou"（霧氷）and the jaunty "Koi no Mexican Rock" （恋のメキシカン・ロック）. To add one more thing, "Zekken No. 1 Start da" also happens to be one of my long-lost songs from my early memories. I hadn't heard this one since I was literally a baby and what got me to remember it once again was the roaring tires and that accordion which signified the urgency of the race.