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.
Credits
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.
Sad to say, but it's been a little over eleven years since I've visited my old residential neighbourhood surrounding the Tozai Line's Minami-Gyotoku Station（南行徳駅）. I dropped by there back in the fall of 2014 but didn't do the same for my most recent trip there in 2017. I wonder if there has been much change in the past decade in terms of stores and restaurants. I hope that the Tonki tonkatsu place is still there; that was always one of my favourites when I didn't particularly want to cook anything for dinner but wasn't in the mood for konbini bento. There was also the patisserie just down the subway mall that I often frequented.
The old neighbourhood in Ichikawa City, Chiba Prefecture was what I was thinking of as I was listening to singer-songwriter Iruka's（イルカ）adorable "Juu-Nen Mae no Kimi no Machi" (Your Old Town of Ten Years Ago). It's the folksy B-side to the City Pop A-side of her November 1980 15th single"Yoake no Goodbye"（夜明けのグッドバイ）. I figure that I first heard this most cordial country waltz on an episode of "Sounds of Japan" as Iruka reminisces about the ol' hometown and what/who has changed over the decade. The song also strikes me as one where the flute got a cracking solo.
The song was used for a commercial involving Sincol, a company specializing in indoor furnishings. However, the video above features the company using another Iruka song from a year later.
It was at the end of 2022 when I posted the first article regarding the band 99.99...which is supposed to be called Four-Nine. Their April 1982 debut self-titled album"99.99" had a stylistic split with half of the tracks following a progressive rock/technopop line (Type A) while the other half was following fusion (Type B). The first track on Side A"Amazin' & Amusin'" sounded like Type B to me.
Track No. 4 is "Through The Night, Toward The Light" may have actually ended Side A so I gather that Side A was indeed the Type B side. Written and composed by keyboardist Masei Hattori（服部ませい）, it feels like a jam session being filtered through Steely Dan and Santana arrangements. Perhaps that is Hattori helping on the fleet-flooted vocals but I do believe that the female voice is being provided by Suzi Kim who was also behind the mike for "Amazin' & Amusin'". I even think that the vocals are so nimble that I'm wondering if Hattori and Kim were going for their own form of vocalese.
Well, this brings back some sentimental memories. The bunch of us often went to this combination of Hard Rock Cafe and Tony Roma's at the end of an alley off the main street of Roppongi in Tokyo. There was really no worry about the alley being dark; the neon firing away off the building housing the two restaurants was more than enough to light the way.
Back in 2024, I posted an article featuring singer-songwriter Kingo Hamada's（濱田金吾）fourth single from November 1981, "N.Y. City Marathon". If I ever do an Author's Picks based on New York City, this is one song that I will definitely feature. However, tonight's article and the last article for tonight is the B-side"Sentimental Moment". A happy-go-lucky song that contains some City Pop verses and an AOR chorus, this was created by Hamada with Kazuko Kobayashi's（小林和子）lyrics.
Speaking about those lyrics, it seems to deal with a guy surprised (and probably secretly delighted) that a woman from his past that he's never quite gotten over has darkened his doorstep once more. A second chance and a sentimental moment. Judging from the very upbeat chorus, I imagine that the reunion has been successful and they're both bounding down the highway in a cherry-red convertible.
In the relevant J-Wiki article for this particular song by chanteuse Yuiko Tsubokura（坪倉唯子）, she sang this on TV Asahi's "Music Station" while still in her wild costume as the squeaky-voiced singer for B.B. Queens. Maybe they were reprising their hit song "Odoru Ponpokorin"（おどるポンポコリン）. Anyways, I would have loved to have seen the expressions on everyone's faces while she was creamily singing it. Well, we can all check the video below out.
No squeaky voice here for her 4th solo single"Je t'aime" which came out in January 1993 and definitely no hint of "Odoru Ponpokorin". This is a classy urban ballad that sounds as if it should have been the ending theme for a drama. Guess what? It was...it finished each episode of the NTV drama "Jealousy"（ジェラシー）. Written by Akira Ohtsu（大津あきら）and composed by Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎）, this sophisticated pop song was Tsubokura's highest-ranking single when it hit No. 25 on Oricon.
Good evening. As I mentioned in yesterday's articles, I was busy today meeting friends for lunch, some of whom I hadn't seen in a few years. Of course, with all of the drizzle and gloom outside, it was the perfect day to tuck into a bowl of Black Garlic Ramen at Santouka. I've always said that it's the wintry days that have the ramen tasting especially great.
A few years ago, I introduced a singer named Emi Shirasaya（白鞘慧海）on the blog who had an initial career singing R&B during the 1990s before trying her luck in the United States in 2001. Her early stage had her going by a couple of names with me showcasing her second of two singles in 1997 under the Shirasaya（しらさやえみ）name.
Her first four singles between 1995 and 1997 were released under the name Chiemi（千恵美）. However, the song of this article actually resides in her debut album from October 1995, "C". "Anata ni Ima Aitai no" (I Wanna Meet You Now) is a snazzy urban tune that shows off some more power in her husky vocals along with some of that City Pop of the 1990s; the Bubble Era may have been long gone by that time, but it sure didn't feel that way in the music with those synth horns and the devil-may-care arrangement. ATSUKO came up with the lyrics while Seikou Nagaoka（長岡成貢）was the composer here.
Although today has had a slightly changed schedule to accommodate my busier one tomorrow, I still haven't forgotten that Thursdays are devoted to regular Reminiscings of Youth songs. We did have the special holiday edition earlier this week, so here's the regular one.
So, it's nice to have the Queen of Quiet Storm herself, Anita Baker, back on the blog. I became a fan from the 1980s but she kept on going well into the 1990s and beyond. I have her first four albums but didn't continue the collection of her discography after heading to Japan. Well, some years during my odyssey there, I was either in Tower Records or HMV when I discovered her 2002 BEST compilation,"The Best of Anita Baker", and it took me all of a second to make the purchase.
Along with those hit songs from her early albums, there were some new ones that I hadn't heard by Ms. Baker, and one of them was "I Apologize" which was a October 1994 single. I may have been eight years late but better late than never. And it was another soulful smash for me and in my humble opinion, it was the standout new song for me. Created by Baker, Gordon Chambers and Barry J. Eastmond, it's a heartfelt tribute to the one action in a relationship that might be extremely difficult but absolutely necessary. I've spoken to enough married students to get that impression.
On Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, "I Apologize" hit No. 8. And perhaps I should apologize since I didn't realize that Baker just celebrated her birthday last month on the 26th. In any case, what was also being released in October 1994 in Japan?
One of the earliest Mood Kayo-based articles that I ever put up on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" was Yujiro Ishihara's（石原裕次郎）1977"Brandy Glass"（ブランデーグラス）which was about as dramatic as one could get with that cigarette-and-whiskey-soaked voice along with the background chorus and trumpet. It didn't open the door wide for my jump into the bar-and-tryst-filled Japanese music genre at the time that I first heard it in the early 1980s, but it did stick to me for many years until I finally admitted my liking for Mood Kayo.
Of course, with "Brandy Glass" being the typical 45" single, there was a B-side to be heard as well. So, I finally listened to "Ashiato"(Footsteps) which was the flip side to the original single when it was released in April 1977. Somewhat more lighthearted than the A-side, it was also a different genre: more old-style club jazz standard that would attract someone like Nat King Cole to do an English version of it. It was the same songwriters behind "Brandy Glass" who tackled "Ashiato": lyricist Yoko Yamaguchi（山口洋子）and composer Mitsuru Kotani（小谷充）with the song being about Ishihara musing about a wistfully lost opportunity: seeing the lady she loved getting married to someone else without him being able to express his opinions to her. All he can do now is to wish her well. The song would be perfect for a 50s or 60s nightclub aside from a weirdly inserted twee synthesizer or something like that.
"Ashiato" was the original B-side to "Brandy Glass". However, in a later reissue of the single in 1979, the B-side ended up being "Koi no Machi Sapporo"（恋の街札幌）which was a 1972 single by the Tough Guy.
As a sad sign of the times, another establishment close to my friends and myself is going into liquidation proceedings right now. My anime buddy who's also a big guitar enthusiast often went down to Steve's Music Store in the Queen West area of downtown Toronto to check out the guitars and any other equipment. Well, if he wants to pick up any final things there, he's gonna have to put a rush on.
It's a bit of a melancholy way to start off an article about a very reassuring tune, but I had to go with something. Regardless, here is "Deanna" by Tokyoite jazz/fusion guitarist Yoshiaki Masuo（増尾好秋）. Although he never got any formal training in the instrument, according to his website's biography section, he was the son of a jazz band leader and then he took up the guitar by himself when he was 15. Obviously the talent and affinity for music was passed down to him. While he was playing away at the Waseda University jazz club, he was discovered by theSadao Watanabe（渡辺貞夫）, saxophonist extraordinaire, and recruited into his own band in 1967. Masuo's first album would come out a couple of years later titled "Barcelona no Kaze"（バルセロナの風...The Winds of Barcelona）.
In 1980, his album "The Song is You and Me" was released, and it had at least a couple of notable guests helping out: Yutaka Yokokura（横倉裕）, and the jazz fusion duo The Brecker Brothers. One of the tracks is the soothing "Deanna", penned by drummer Tony Cintron Jr., which sounds readymade for some sipping cocktails at sunset. If you've had a bad day, this should take some of the edge off. As for the mime tuxedo that Masuo is wearing on the album cover, I'm not too sure about that. However, he's being kind to the canary on his finger, so I'll give him that.
Some bright lights from the neighbourhood of Ameyoko in Tokyo just to let readers know that I'm starting the Urban Contemporary Friday for at least a couple of songs early on a Thursday because I will be busy tomorrow for a good chunk of the day doing other things. I occasionally have a life outside of KKP.
I was going to post up an article regarding punipunidenki's（ぷにぷに電機） "Zurukunai?"（ずるくない？）from 2021, only to find out that I had already jumped the gun on that one a couple of years ago. I was slightly deflated there but I was then able to find this one by the Neo-City Pop songstress which goes even earlier into her discography. June 2019, to be exact.
"Kimi wa Queen"(You are a Queen), which was written and composed by punipunidenki and given additional songwriting credits by composers Mikeneko Homeless and Shin Sakiura, is pretty much as advertised. It's a bouncy urban tune about someone liking and then lusting over a lady in Tokyo. Not surprisingly, the singer herself is taking a walk throughout the bright lights and big city of one of the world's largest metropolises while her singing is happily tripping the light fantastic on those streets.
He passed away only relatively recently in 2023 at the age of 85, but Bill Salugawas a comedian who was part of the improv troupe The Ace Trucking Company. He'd been performing since the 1960s but the one character that certain generations will always remember him for was the nattily-attired Raymond J. Johnson Jr. His schtick was that whenever anyone called him Mr. Johnson, he would take umbrage and rattle off all of the different permutations of his name that he preferred to be addressed by. I did see him on the old variety shows on television and commercials doing that bit. Typically, it goes like this (and this is from his Wikipedia profile):
"NOOO!!! You don't have to call me Johnson! My name is Raymond J. Johnson Jr. Now you can call me Ray, or you can call me J, or you can call me Johnny, or you can call me Sonny, or you can call me Junie, or you can call me Ray J, or you can call me RJ, or you can call me RJJ, or you can call me RJJ Jr. . . but you doesn't hasta call me Johnson!"
And that is who I was reminded about when I first heard about 80s aidoru Kaori Moritani（守谷香）. Now, a number of celebrities in Japan have gone through multiple name changes in their careers, including enka legend Hiroshi Itsuki（五木ひろし）, and so on that note, the Aichi Prefecture-born Moritani isn't any different but for some reason, Moritani just sparked my image of Raymond J. Johnson although the lass is far prettier. Along with the above name, she's also gone by a different reading of that family name which is Kaori Moriya in different configurations of kanji and hiragana（守谷佳央理、もりや かおり）. She's also gone by Kaori Morizumi（守純かほり）and even, briefly, WANKU.
Her first six singles, in fact, were recorded under her name of Kaori Moritani, and for the purposes of this article, here is the B-side for her May 1987 debut single"Yokokuhen"（予告編...Trailers）, "Chiffon no Tsubasa" (Chiffon Wings). It is indeed a cutesy aidoru tune but with some of that Doobie Bros. bounce thrown in to help launch things. You can thank composer Takashi Ike（池毅）and arranger Ichizo Seo（瀬尾一三）for that along with lyricist Rui Serizawa（芹沢類）. It managed to reach No. 12 on Oricon.
One other notable piece of trivia regarding Ms. Moritani is that she had once been married to TOSHI, one of the members of X Japan, for several years. She even left show business to help run her husband's entertainment agency. As of right now, she is going by the name of Kaori Moriya.
When it comes to anyone named Rumiko on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", we have a few of them but usually my mind goes straight to singer/actress Rumiko Koyanagi（小柳ルミ子）.
But then some months ago, I discovered this song by singer-songwriter Rumiko Tanaka（田中ルミ子）and I just went "Why have I not ever heard of this lady before?!". She's got one of those ethereal clear-as-a-bell beauty voices and the song here has one of my favourite instrumental combinations of strings and piano. "Furui Miyako no Onna no You ni"(Like a Woman from the Old City) is a track on her 1979 album "Up and Fly" and it's got a wonderfully lush intro that leads into a song that makes one want to stop and smell the flowers. Plus, it's got a brief electric guitar solo that reminds me why I got into Japanese pop music in the first place. The melody was provided by her while the lyrics were written by Masatoshi Hayashi（林まさとし）.
I was able to find some information on Tanaka on her website. She was born in Kure City, Hiroshima Prefecture and first showed her musical prowess publicly by providing a song for a 1977 NHK documentary. Her official debut came in 1979 so I assume that "Up and Fly" was her first album. Since then, she has been teaching vocals and composition at a music school.
I realize that I should have done this yesterday when the Lunar New Year began but it was getting late into the night and I was just too tired. Anyways, perhaps it's just as well that I'm doing this today on Hump Day when I need to get some energy expended especially on a dreary stormy day. So, allow me to give my Happy Lunar New Year greetings to everyone who's celebrating it this week and they include some of my friends and some of my brother's in-laws. Hopefully, you have eaten very well so far.
To be frank, I'm kinda surprised that I hadn't done an Author's Picks based on the Lunar New Year before but that simply means that I get to do it today when folks are celebrating the Year of the Horse. My picks here don't have any significantly deep meaning aside from the fact that they include song titles connected to areas whose populations would celebrate the holiday. Among the five I'm listing here, three of them already have their own articles on KKP, while the last two are newbies, so I guess this article is a hybridization of an Author's Picks and a regular posting.
The entries above and below are the newbies as I mentioned at the top and they're being included now since I had been looking for these songs on YouTube for years (and giving up) before they finally popped up. I actually borrowed Naoko Kawai's （河合奈保子）March 1985 11th studio album"Stardust Garden ~ Sennen Teien"（STARDUST GARDEN -千・年・庭・園-...Millennium Garden） from a friend back in my university days but never got my own copy, and the one song that I remember from it is "Chinatown Rhapsody" which also has the English subtitle of "Missin' Girl" which hints at some sort of neighbourhood intrigue. Written by Masao Urino（売野雅勇）, composed by Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）and arranged by Hiroshi Shinkawa（新川博）, the song goes at a good clip with a certain mysterious aura imbued throughout. I do like that twanging instrument in the intro.
(1987) Koji Tamaki -- Hong Kong
Honestly speaking, I hadn't gotten a great impression of Koji Tamaki's（玉木浩二) "Hong Kong" in the intro which sounded like a combination of a soundtrack from an episode of "Doctor Who" deep into the 1980s when the show was frankly going downhill and a little smidgen of a Pet Shop Boys tune. Now that I've gotten to hear it for the first time in many years, "Hong Kong" still won't enter my Top 5 Tamaki songs but it's a pretty tight and sexy song thanks to his considerable vocals and the simmering arrangement by Chris Cameron. Tamaki was responsible for melody while Goro Matsui（松井五郎）provided the lyrics.
I'd never seen the music video for "Hong Kong" before and it appears that the director was going for a Neo-Noir look in the titular city with Tamaki cutting quite the figure as someone reminiscent of the late actor Yusaku Matsuda（松田優作）. Tamaki's naturally saturnine looks can have viewers wondering about which side he's working for. "Hong Kong" is a part of his debut solo album"All I Do" which was released in August 1987 and peaked at No. 2 on Oricon.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. If my first encounter of 1980s aidoru Minako Honda（本田美奈子）hadn't been that horribly off-tune rendition of one of her hits on one of the 80s music shows, I would have been far more entranced by the late singer.
For example, listening to her third single from August 1985, "Aoi Shuumatsu"(Blue Weekend), I just thought that Honda had a wonderfully clear and upbeat delivery surrounded by Kyohei Tsutsumi's（筒美京平） melody and arranged in a happy-go-lucky synth-heavy style by Motoki Funayama（船山基紀）. On the other hand, Masao Urino's（売野雅勇）lyrics relate a tale of a couple who didn't have the happiest trip to the beach that day. But hey, it's a Japanese pop song so happy music paired with sad words isn't any surprise. For me, this is pure aidoru Honda without the dance club or rock trappings that I would often hear from her music during that decade. The song reached No. 23 on Oricon.
Well, this is something that will make Torontonians groan once more...and just in time for the weekly Hump Day, too. I think I mentioned yesterday or the day before that folks here are about ready to flee winter and embrace spring. I'm also willing to give up on the snow but knowing my Toronto, I figure that we're still due for at least one more blizzard. And one is indeed coming tomorrow with the snow fortified with some ice pellets, to boot.
I thought it would be apropos then that I put up this article surrounding enka singer Ayako Fuji's（藤あや子） 11th single from February 1998, "Yuki Shin Shin". As for the translation of the title, it could be "Silent Snow" or "Frigid Snow" depending on the definitions I found on Jisho.org. The lyrics by Miyuki Ishimoto（石本美由起）tend to support the latter meaning as Fuji sings about the snow relentlessly falling down and blowing all about so the poor person out there is getting pelted with needles of frozen water. Cryo-self-flagellation, so to speak.
Of course, with winter in Japanese music often being depicted as the nadir of romance, Ishimoto's lyrics are also talking about the protagonist going through absolute hell as he/she is on the verge of losing that special someone. Satoshi Hinokibara（桧原さとし）was responsible for the dramatic melody. "Yuki Shin Shin" managed to hit No. 36 on Oricon, and Fuji sang it twice on the Kohaku Utagassen in 1998 and 2006.
The file for aidoru Mikako Hashimoto（橋本美加子）is still a small one but I remember when Marcos V. launched it back in 2018 with her Eurobeat"Touch My Heart"from 1987. A few more songs were added including "Mellow Season"（メロウ・シーズン）which was her debut single from March 1985.
A new addition is here in the form of Hashimoto's 2nd single"Aoi Tokimeki" (A Blue Thrill) which was released in June 1985, and like "Mellow Season", it follows the conventional 1980s aidoru line. Written by SHOW and composed by Seishiro Kusunose（楠瀬誠志郎）, I'm still a sucker for those twinkling synths and the smooth strings. "Aoi Tokimeki" did rather modestly by scoring a No. 47 ranking at its peak and it was used for a Ban antiperspirant commercial.
Today is Family Day and much of Canada is celebrating this regional holiday (under different names depending on the province), although since it's not a federal holiday, we should still be getting our mail. We did have our family get-together last night with some fine platters of sushi.
No matter the level of holiday though, it still means that it's time for a special Reminiscings of Youth article, and under the theme of Family Day, I thought it would be appropriate to bring in one of my fondly-remembered TV theme songs. "The Brady Bunch" was one of the many sitcoms that peppered my childhood through its first run and then reruns. If I recall, it was on Friday nights on ABC for the first half of the 1970s and from what I saw on the Wikipedia page for it, it was never a ratings winner despite its longevity but then Friday nights were usually seen as the death slot of TV shows.
"The Brady Bunch" was the quintessential family half-hour sitcom back in the day. There was nothing controversial about it...just each of the kids having their easily solvable problems and then getting help from the parents, Mike and Carol, and perhaps even their maid Alice. There were some plot lines that I remember from the series which lasted from 1969 to 1974 such as the gang heading to Hawaii and the Grand Canyon, the truth about Jesse James, the kids cutting their own hit songs, and the one depicted above where little Bobby gets his first kiss from a schoolmate portrayed by Melissa Sue Anderson who would become even more famous as one of the Ingalls' daughters on "Little House on the Prairie". In addition, the kids literally grew up right in front of our eyes and even Mike and Carol eventually got groovier with the times in their fashion and hairstyles.
Of course, there is the famous opening credits sequence with the nine squares showing off the parents, kids and Alice with the sweetly sung theme song which delivered how this blended family got together in the first place. However, my memories of "The Brady Bunch" began from the second season when the actors portraying the children sang the theme for the rest of the series. For some reason, reruns of the first season wouldn't start playing on TV here in Toronto until several years later, and it was pretty amazing seeing how young and 60s everyone looked back then. The first season's rendition of the theme was recorded by a sunshine pop band known as the Peppermint Trolley Company with series producer Sherwood Schwarz and prolific composer Frank DeVol (probably one of the great inspirers for Shibuya-kei to be born) creating the song. No matter who sang the theme, it still remains very hummable; I was doing some of that myself while typing this.
After "The Brady Bunch" got cancelled in the spring of 1974, the show was a regular rerun on many a channel, and it seems as if there were folks who wanted to bring it back in some shape or other. I remember "The Brady Bunch Variety Hour" and the animated series starring the kids. And a decade later, there was even "The Brady Brides" and eventually a film franchise taking a parodic approach. There was even "The Bradys", a dramedy sequel that lasted all of a month in 1990; I hadn't even heard of that one since I was in Japan that year.
"The Brady Bunch" did get aired in Japan on Fuji-TV between 1970 and 1971 under the title "Yukai na Brady-ke"（ゆかいなブレディー家）which translates into "The Happy Bradys", and yes, they certainly were. I couldn't find any footage of the Fuji-TV version; the only thing I could find was this Japanese-subbed commercial that aired during the Super Bowl of 2015. Yup, it was epic. And good heavens...there was that episode about Marcia getting her nose broken by a football!
So, with the show premiering on September 26th 1969, what was at the top of the Oricon list at around that time? Here are the Top 3 from September 29th.
A few years ago, I posted an article regarding chaotic techno band Denki Groove's（電気グルーヴ）cover of Yellow Magic Orchestra's"Cosmic Surfin'". This was a coupling song to the band's debut single"Mud Ebis" from October 1991.
Well, I finally got to see the music video for "Mud Ebis" and even from the beginning, Takkyu Ishino（石野卓球）and his gang relished their roles as the wild and crazy guys of Japanese music. I gotta admit though that the three members looked so young and clean-shaven back then, although that was the least weird part of the video.
As for the title of the song, "Ebis" refers to the Japanese god of money, Ebisu. However, the "Mud" part I'm not sure, unless it actually means "mad" or "insane". According to the J-Wiki article for "Mud Ebis", Ishino wanted to provide his own comical indictment on the pampered children of the nouveau riche but the lyrics weren't meant to be taken that seriously.
I think I'm talking for a lot of Torontonians here, but I'm ready to call for an early spring as soon as possible, especially after getting one of the wintriest of winters in about a decade. However, I've been a Torontonian long enough to know that we probably have at least one more blizzard on the way before things finally start warming up.
Well, anyways, let us segue to "Blizzard". If that title sounds familiar to you, then you must be a Yuming（ユーミン）fan since the original version by her was part and parcel of her winning 1984 album "No Side". I already wrote about that song back in KKP's inaugural year of 2012, so here is a cover version by the good folks at Tokimeki Records with vocalist Hikari（ひかり）behind the mike.
This cover version was released in January 2022 and though it most likely won't replace the original in fans' minds, it's still a nice Neo-City Pop version of the Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由実）classic. Sorry for the pun, but it's quite the chill version, and there seem to be so many synthesizers helping out there that I will also place the technopop label onto it as well.
Continuing on the Valentine's Day theme from the previous article and also sifting through those old B-sides, I did find something from Sayuri Kokusho's（国生さゆり）classic February 1986 single "Valentine Kiss"(バレンタイン・キッス) via JTM's write-up on the song all the way back in 2013.
As cute as "Valentine Kiss" is, the B-side "Koi wa Ring Ring Ring"(Love is Ring Ring Ring) is more of a frantic sugar-high as a young lass is trying her darndest to contact her beau on the phone but he's too busy talking to someone else. Who could that someone be? Stress levels and conspiracy theories abound like bunnies! As with "Valentine Kiss", "Koi wa Ring Ring Ring" was written by Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）and arranged by Jun Sato（佐藤準）, but this time, the melody was provided by Hideya Nakazaki（中崎英也）who gave a fine illustration of how the lass was going out of her mind with the rock guitar, the sparkly synths and the rapid-fire percussion.
The song is also available on Kokusho's 1st album"Pep Talk" which was released in July 1986. It hit No. 2 on Oricon.
Kayo Grace is once again in the giving mood because it is Valentine's Day after all. In the past, I've already given my lists for "love" songs and "valentine" tunes, so we'll keep things simple this year and focus on an individual song.
Remembering that one of the songs on the "love" list was Off-Course's（オフコース）"I Love You", I decided to check whether the love extended onto the B-side of this 1981 single. Sure enough, I was right. There is "Yoru wa Futari de"(The Two of Us Tonight), a song that has probably never made it onto any album by the band.
It's certainly a new one to me. Written by Mitsutoshi Ambe（安部光俊）and Yasuhiro Suzuki（鈴木康博）with Suzuki also taking care of the melody, the verses and the chorus seem to take on different moods with the former hinting at some uncertainty in the relationship while the latter reassures that things are perfectly fine since the two in the title are two in the bed. Ahem. The music has that AOR feeling especially with some of that TOTO-esque piano pounding.
I've often referred to the Japanese asset price bubble which arguably lasted from around 1986 to 1991. Commonly it's known as the Bubble Era and it originated from the effects of the Plaza Accord signed at New York City's Plaza Hotel by representatives of various countries including Japan and the United States. Basically, the US dollar was depreciated against the currencies of the other nations, and from the following year, a huge influence was felt in Japan with asset prices skyrocketing and economic activity bubbling away like my pot of boiling pasta.
When I visited Japan in 1981 and started studying about the country in those early 1980s, I'd already thought that the economic party-hearty atmosphere arrived. I saw glossy magazines from the nation showing what was a pretty nice life among the citizens and certainly borrowing all of those videotapes of Japanese TV shows with their commercials emphasized those feelings.
But then it was in the late 1980s when I was fully into my time at the University of Toronto that I read the craziness of buying million-dollar golf club memberships, sidewalk tiles that were more expensive than whole cities outside of Japan, and sprinkling gold flakes on broiled eel on rice. I got to Japan once more in 1989 at the tail end of the Bubble Era although I was working deep into the countryside so it wasn't quite that often that I experienced the grand Tokyo life.
In terms of Japanese popular music, and specifically City Pop, I thought that during those late 1980s, there was a certain additional swagger in City Pop which encompassed a lot of genres including disco, soul, and Latin. During that time, I think that there was also a goodly injection of sophisticated pop and horn-based jazz. And I've often made use of the phrase "champagne-and-caviar" when describing some of those tunes because whenever I heard them, it wasn't just about walking the streets of Tokyo; it was also about partaking in the various high-priced and high-life establishments on those streets of Tokyo. There still was the groove to be sure but there was also some of that Henry Mancini swing jazziness grafted onto the City Pop tunes. And since I love both groove and Mancini, I've remained a happy camper when it comes to the songs of the Bubble Era.
Of course, the party came to a crashing end at the beginning of the 1990s and music took a new tangent but I still look fondly at the City Pop that came out then. So yes, I'm also a nostalgic guy about the uber-genre. And as such, I thought that it would be nice to provide a summary of some of those champagne-and-caviar City Pop songs. One of the songs on the list actually came out a few years before the Plaza Accord but I still think it fits the bill in terms of the overall feeling. Anyways, have a good weekend.
PS If any of you have your own favourites that you think would fit the champagne-and-caviar platter, please let us know!
I do not know anything by this artist June Shibuya. In fact, when I attempted to throw his/her name into the search engine, the local AI mentioned that June in Shibuya can get rather humid, which is something that I know quite well already.
Well, anyways, Shibuya and their group Hi-Fi Skyline released a mini-album titled "Midnight Fusion Oasis" last month in January. I just listened to the first track "Signal", and the signal that I got here was that Shibuya must really like the legendary fusion band The Square (or as it is known now, T-Square). "Signal" has got that Square feeling with some further amping-up along the lines of Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）. If there is any further information about Shibuya, please let me know.
Azusa Nakamura（中村あずさ）is an actress, emcee and tarento who I used to see all the time on dramas and variety shows when I was living in Japan. She stood out for that wide-as-the-Mississippi smile and those twinkling eyes.
Little did I know though that she had released a few singles in the 1980s at least, although I should have known since anyone who's anyone on television in Japan was famous enough to be obliged to cut a few records here and there. And sure enough, Nakamura did sing behind the mike although her J-Wiki account doesn't mention anything about singles although there is a mention of a 1990 album.
However, YouTuber DJ Squall mentions that the above was her 2nd single from December 1988, "Fu......". And please, before anyone imagines that Ms. Nakamura was gauche enough to almost throw out a well-worn swear word as a song title, she's actually giving out a sigh as the title...kinda like "Whew!". I couldn't find the lyrics by singer-songwriter Mayo Shouno（庄野真代）but I could imagine that with the refined Riviera-friendly melody that was also provided by Ms. Shouno, who knows a fair bit about exotic kayoherself, the song might be all about the ups and downs of romance. As for the cover showing the singer being caught in the act of something, I'm not judging.
Last Friday, I provided an article featuring Side A of Midori Hara's（原みどり）sophomore album from March 1988, "KO・KO・RO・NOTE"(Heart Note) . It's been a production that's surprised me with the singer tackling some of the more urban contemporary genres such as City Pop. Today, I'm finishing up with the Side B tracks. Unless noted, everything here is by Hara.
This starts with "too young" which was written by Yu Aku（阿久悠）with Hara providing the melody which Masahiro Ikumi（幾見雅博）arranged (and in fact, he arranged all of the tracks). It starts off feeling as if David Foster got his hands on the song and it then continues onto a West Coast AOR vein. If you ever wondered what such a song would sound like if YUKI from Judy & Mary or NOKKO from Rebecca had gotten behind the mike, then today is your lucky day (though it's ironic then that today is Friday the 13th).
"Iro no Nai Movie"（色のない Movie...Colourless Movie） is a wholly Hara creation whose verses are underlaid with a bit of reggae before going into a city strut chorus. The singer herself takes on a slightly more plaintive and sultrier direction with her vocals. There's also some really nice guitar work here in the intro and instrumental bridge.
The penultimate track has a pretty existential title. "Yojigen Kuukan Ryokou"（四次元空間旅行...Trip Through Four-Dimensional Space） has that feeling of a relaxing jazz standard with a wood bass figuring prominently in the arrangement, although the presence of the Fender Rhodes or electric piano keeps things in the contemporary. So, would the title be referring to a regular trip through time and space?
For the final track of "KO・KO・RO・NOTE", "Tsuyoku Dakishimeteite mo Sayonara"（強く抱きしめていてもSa・Yo・Na・Ra...Holding You Tight Even If It's Goodbye）, the poignancy is in the piano as Hara delivers a heartfelt ballad about saying goodbye although the feelings for each other are still there. Just like the final track on Side A, "Itami"（痛み...Pain）, I can get that hint of gospel blues which makes me wonder what would it have been like if an actual organ had been used instead of the piano.
As I've mentioned, "KO・KO・RO・NOTE" is quite the delightful surprise from thirty-eight years ago by Hara. For those who like their 80s City Pop and some more genres, you can give this one the good ol' college try.
I don't usually see sunrises this deeply red. Was this a warning?
Anyways, I'm starting Urban Contemporary Fridays on KKP with singer-songwriter Kyohei Nishida（西田恭平）. I first mentioned him back in 2022 with his 1981 "No Return My Love"（ノーリターン・マイラブ）, a downright downtown City Pop number of the evening.
Well, from his album "Kyohei ~ Medium Star"（恭平・ミディアム スター）, I have another track titled "Sunday Morning" (and thank you, Marty, for putting this one up) which stands somewhat opposite from "No Return My Love" in terms of overall tone. As the title shows, it sounds like a morning brunch-friendly City Pop tune with a hint of bossa nova/Margaritaville melody and satisfying morning-after wooziness, thanks to the Fender Rhodes and the languid strings. Time for that Eggs Benedict!
The same folks from "No Return My Love" were also responsible for "Sunday Morning": lyricist Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）and composer Nishida. I also found out that Tadashige Matsui（松井忠重） was responsible for overall arrangement. Looking at that cover of Nishida and the statuesque young lady beside him, I'm reminded of one thing that Jedi Master Yoda may have said: "Size matters not".
Once again, the car stereo last weekend brought another song ripe for Reminiscings of Youth this week. I got to hear Belinda Carlisle's"Heaven is a Place on Earth" for the first time in a while. So, of course, I started remembering when it was first released in September 1987. The Go-Gos lead singer was already well into her solo career when this one came out and both the song and the music video were long runners on radio and television respectively. Considering the context of the title, I had thought that there were religious implications although it sounded like the ultimate cool and catchy power pop song for kiddies.
The fact that there were kids bouncing globes assisted in that impression but also seeing Belinda making out with that guy made me think "OK, kids...avert those eyes!". Speaking of which, the song and that video has quite the revelatory Hollywood background. For one thing, that guy just happened to be the singer's husband, Morgan Mason, who not only was the child of actors James Mason and Pamela Mason but held a key role in Ronald Reagan's administration in the early 1980s. The late thespian Diane Keaton directed the video, and the backup singers included Michelle Phillips of the sunshine pop band of the 1960s, The Mamas & The Papas, her daughter Chynna Phillips of Wilson Phillips and songwriter Diane Warren. Even the actual writers of "Heaven is a Place on Earth", Rick Nowels and Ellen Shipley were also behind the mikes backing Belinda up.
"Heaven is a Place on Earth" hit No. 3 on Canada's RPM and No. 1 on America's Billboard chart. It also hit the top spot in countries such as Ireland and South Africa. So, let us see what was being released at the same time in September 1987 in Japan.
I've heard of the manga "Ashita no Joe"（あしたのジョー...Tomorrow's Joe）and know of its anime adaptation which has become iconic for that final scene of the main character leaving this mortal coil in the best way possible. However, I hadn't known about the live-action adaptation that was released in 1970. The man who played the titular boxer was actor/singer Shoji Ishibashi（石橋正次）who hails from Osaka, and he was featured on the big and small screen up to the end of the 20th century, although his time as a stage actor has continued up to nearly the present day.
Ishibashi also had a music career that spanned from 1970 to 1978 with 19 singles and 10 albums under his belt. One of his big hits was his third single from January 1972, "Yoake no Teishajo"(Sunrise Station) which managed to stay at No. 1 for three consecutive weeks, sold 493,000 records and ended up as the 11th-ranking single of the year. Written by Haruki Tango（丹古晴己）and composed by Gendai Kanou（叶弦大）, it's a bittersweet ballad of the times with the boss rhythm and the sorrowful background chorus as Ishibashi sings about a couple having to tragically and reluctantly separate under unclear circumstances although their love for each other is crystal clear. The song was successful enough that it also earned Ishibashi his one and only invitation to NHK's Kohaku Utagassen at the end of 1972.
Spoke with fellow KKP administrator and contributor Marcos V. some days ago, and by the way, the above is a shot of Rio de Janeiro from his camera. Of all the things that have been happening here in my frigid city and around the world, Marcos reminded me that another major event will be starting up once more from tomorrow on the 13th. And that is the annual Carnival in Brazil. Tomorrow also happens to be Friday the 13th so I'm not sure if there is any significance of that day coinciding with the start of Carnival.
Just by coincidence, I came across this song in the last number of days. "Rio no Carnival" (Rio's Carnival) is the latest single by singer Rio Azato（東里梨生）which was released just last month. A combination of Brazilian samba and Okinawan melodies, I was left somewhat surprised that I hadn't heard this natural affinity between the two types of music before. With the very upbeat feeling and the whoops and the cute cover for the single, I wonder if "Rio no Carnival" could even make for an ending theme of some anime. Words and music were provided by Shimon (Jaa BourBonz).
Azato herself hails from Ishigaki City in Okinawa, and with Yu Ishigaki（石垣優）, the two of them formed the pop and folk unit Yanawarabaa（やなわらばー）in 2003. The band lasted until 2020 after which Azato continued on a solo career path.
When I heard this pleasant song on the most recent episode of NHK's "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）the other day, I assumed that it was one of the veteran enka singers who had tackled this way back since it had that certain old kayo sound. Not surprisingly, I'm once again having crow for dinner.🐦⬛
Nope, when I looked up this tune via J-Wiki afterwards, I found out that "Shinchi Waltz", a laidback enka about the commercial area of Shinchi in Osaka, had actually been recorded by a comedy trio by the name of Let's Go Sanbiki（レツゴー三匹）. Written by Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）and composed by Tadashi Yoshida（吉田正）, "Shinchi Waltz" was released as the trio's second single in 1973. From what I can glean from Hashimoto's lyrics, it's all about love gained and lost in the titular neighbourhood. And with the titular dance, there is that rhythmical flow in the melody that almost approaches that of a lullaby. The song was a hit, selling around 100,000 records.
Despite the three fellows, Let's Go Shouji（レツゴー 正児）, Let's Go Jun（レツゴー じゅん）and Let's Go Chousaku（レツゴー 長作）, being shown on the single cover, I only hear one of them singing away. Maybe the other two couldn't sing a note to save their lives but they were there in the recording booth as moral support. Anyways, although I was surprised to find out the identity of the singer behind "Shinchi Waltz", I also remembered that comedy groups in Japan are not unknown to cut records. The manzai duo Saruganseki（猿岩石）and the group Imo Kin Trio（イモ欽トリオ）are just two examples I know that have had their hits.
Let's Go Sanbiki first got started in 1968 when Shouji, Jun and then-member Let's Go Isshuu（レツゴー 一修）had trained within a comedy troupe known as Rookie Bakusho Gakudan（ルーキー爆笑劇団）. Their name came about from a Nagoya yakitori restaurant called Sanbiki that they had frequented but added the phrase "Let's Go" for further oomph. Isshuu would leave the team a year later and was immediately replaced by Chousaku. Let's Go Sanbiki would last until the early 1990s when they would go on indefinite hiatus but with the passing of Jun in 2014, the trio would officially break up.
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