A little over three years ago, I did a ROY article on Naked Eyes' "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me" which was a New Wave version of an old Burt Bacharach and Hal David easy-listening ditty that I used to hear on AM radio all the time. Not only was I surprised but I was actually quite gobsmacked that a song like this could be made into a synthpop example of coolness.
Well, Naked Eyes pulled off another hit several months after that one. On April Fool's Day in 1983, they released "Promises, Promises" which I remember getting a lot of airplay on the radio and plenty of TV play on the music video shows. I will always remember that svelte young woman drying off her hair to the synthy jazz-soul. "Promises, Promises" hit No. 13 on Canada's RPM while in the States, it reached No. 11. On the Wikipedia article for the song, I read that Madonna even provided background vocals for the extended versions of it.
Up at Straw-Wara, I discovered that three hit tunes from Japan were also released on the same day as "Promises, Promises".
Anzen Chitai -- Las Vegas Typhoon（ラスベガス・タイフーン）
Yu Hayami -- Natsu Iro no Nancy (夏色のナンシー）
Rats & Star -- Me Gumi no Hito （め組のひと）
I know I have heard that guitar riff during the first 17 seconds of "Promises, Promises," but I do not remember ever hearing the rest of the song. Anzen Chitai's 「Las Vegas Typhoon」 is just so cool and nostalgic somehow. Yu Hayami and Rats & Stars’ songs are both super catchy! Although I would say that "Me Gumi no Hito " is probably the most widely known or recognizable song on this list.
ReplyDeleteThat guitar riff has been living rent-free in my head for the past few days. "Las Vegas Typhoon" strikes me as being an underrated tune for Anzen Chitai, probably because it had come out before their first big hit, "Wine Red no Kokoro".
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