Polkadot Stingray -- Sakasama（逆様）

 

As I mentioned last night in the latest Oricon Singles list article, I had been outside for a good chunk of the day yesterday and that was because I went down to the Art Gallery of Ontario. Now, I'm not a huge art guy but this was only my second time there and the last time I was at the AGO was 50 years ago back in 1976 when I was an elementary school student. So I figured that it was time for another visit.

I took my congenial walk through the various rooms and spaces and I also encountered good ol' Henry Moore's sculptures. For me, the AGO is Moore and Moore is the AGO since one of his bronze works once greeted anyone who arrived at the gallery. One of the few things that I remember from the field trip with my school over to the AGO was being separated into pairs with each pair given a huge dark fabric bag for which one partner would enter and make some sort of Henry Moore-esque shape under the direction of the other partner. Considering my partner's name was Nancy, I was VERY careful about not touching her in the wrong places but luckily, she was a good sport. Not sure if such an activity would be allowed today but those were the 70s for you.

The one exhibit I was keen on seeing was famous Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Mirrored Room. She's the artist who's had the real big thing for polka dots and I was a little disappointed that the room was the only example of her works that I could experience aside from one other large mural around the corner. Regardless, I had to leave my coat and bag outside of the IMR but I could take my camera in there and I was given one minute alone to contemplate the environment. Nope, no polka dots but there were plenty of shiny round things to see.

Speaking of polka dots...and yes, there is a song here...I have Polkadot Stingray's latest which happens to be another snazzy jazzy number titled "Sakasama" (Upside Down). For some reason, this anime season has been filling up with these danceable (at least, in one's room) theme tunes. I just wrote about Penthouse's "Ichi, Ni, San"（一二三）for the show "Mairimashita! Iruma-kun"（魔入りました!入間くん...Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun）, and now this is "Sakasama" which ends each episode of the anime adaptation of the manga "Koori no Jouheki"（氷の城壁...The Ramparts of Ice） which seems to be another show about a student slowly coming out of one's shell. I will never turn my head away from an intrepid Big Band swing thing. There are a few more Polkdadot Stingray songs on KKP starting with T-cat's article on "Telecaster Stripe" (テレキャスター･ストライプ) from about nine years ago.

Just one last thing about my trip to the art gallery. My lunch happened to be a refrigerated turkey-and-havarti croissant. With the chai latte, the whole thing cost me almost as much as my general admission to the AGO! Well, at least, it was good and filling. And the visit was also a pleasant one. If any of my art-inclined friends ever came to Toronto, I would take them there.

Tokyo Songs

 

I'm just off by a week here but it was a little over a year ago that I posted "Osaka Songs", a list of Osaka-titled tunes, and crazily enough, in all those 53 weeks since then, I hadn't put up anything called "Tokyo Songs". Little old me had naturally assumed that I'd already done so. Nope, that isn't true. Kinda wild considering that I'd just recently written about Takajin Yashiki's（やしきたかじん）"Tokyo"（東京）. Well, that changes today. Quite the wide range of kayo, too!

(1959) Frank Nagai and Kazuko Matsuo -- Tokyo Nightclub （東京ナイトクラブ）

(1980) Shogo Hamada -- Tokyo （東京）

(1980) Kenji Sawada -- TOKIO

(1980) Tetsuji Hayashi -- Goodbye Tokyo（グッドバイTOKYO）

(1981) Mioko Yamaguchi -- Tokyo Lover（東京LOVER）

(1987) Megumi Mori -- Tokio Town （東京街）

Oricon Single Rankings for April 22nd 1968

 

It's been one of those days where I was out for most of it (explanation next time) and so I'm doing my second of two postings as usual close to the midnight hour. Therefore, I'm not exactly filled with energy right now. I'll have to settle with putting up some rankings and since it's close enough to April 22nd, why not go with April 22nd 1968?

1.  The Tigers                       Hana no Kubikazari

2.  Bee Gees                         Massachusetts

3.  Yukari Ito                         Koi no Shizuku

4.  The Tempters                   Kamisama Onegai

5.  Tomoko Ogawa               Yuube no Himitsu

6.  The Folk Crusaders          Kanashikute Yarikirenai

7.  Village Singers                 Amairo no Kami no Otome

8.  The Monkees                   Daydream Believer

9.  The Spiders                      Ano Toki Kimi wa Wakakatta

10.  Shinichi Mori                Sakariba Blues

Eiichi Ichijo (Hiroshi Itsuki) -- Hatoba no Mari（波止場のマリー）

 

In the old days of NHK's various incarnations of its weekly kayo kyoku show such as "Kayo Concert", hosts, staff and guests would occasionally come up with a theme night. The theme could be based on a samurai drama with the singers all dressed up in historical garb or it could be a bunch of guys out on the town in Shinjuku or Akasaka with one of the female veteran chanteuses as the proprietress of the popular drinking hole. The sets would be quite elaborately set up.

Since the COVID days though, I think those big theme nights have largely shrunk in design and frequency, perhaps due to health and/or budgetary concerns. Still, tonight's "Uta Con"（うたコン）brought out the theme of the annual welcome party for the newbies of a company with everybody getting involved including legendary kayo singer Hiroshi Itsuki（五木ひろし）as the generous and wise (if perhaps a tad longwinded) president.

Not surprisingly, Itsuki, who is now celebrating his 55th year in show business, had the final song of the night, and as has been the gimmick for the last few weeks, the staff placed a small trivia question regarding Itsuki as he was performing. As Itsuki fans know, the singer had gone through a number of stage names early in his career in the late 1960s before the name Hiroshi Itsuki was the final one he needed for sustained success. The question was "Which stage name did he have for only one day?", and the answer was "Jun Nakagawa（中川淳）" which explains why I haven't seen any songs under that name in his J-Wiki discography.

Still, let's go to one of his songs under the past stage name of Eiichi Ichijo（一条英一）. I have posted one song when Itsuki was Ichijo, and that was his first single under that name, "Ore wo Nakaseru Yoru no Ame"（俺を泣かせる夜の雨）from 1967. That was more of a Mood Kayo number but his third and final single under Ichijo was "Hatoba no Mari" (Marie on the Waterfront) which was released in April 1968 and it's quite a different animal.

Written by Kaoru Mizuki（水木かおる）and composed by Hideyuki Fujiwara（藤原秀行）, if I could use the 1980s-and-beyond genre New Adult Music, I probably would. It's quite the mix of enka with a jangly Group Sounds arrangement including a really boozy saxophone. My other observation is how consistently high-toned Ichijo is here along with a plaintiveness that reminds me of a young Shinichi Mori（森進一）who was breaking out at around the same time.

Apparently, "Hatoba no Mari" didn't sell but the man hung on for a few more name changes and singles, before he finally hit pay dirt with "Yokohama Tasogare"（よこはま・たそがれ）.

Nobuyuki Hanawa & Okayu -- Ai no Michikusa（愛の道草）

 

Unlike "Uta Con"（うたコン）and "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）, it's not as easy to catch "Hayauta"（はやウタ）on Jme since it seems to be thrown in anywhere on the schedule. Specifically in our case, it's scheduled at times when we are neither awake or otherwise available to watch it. 

But we finally did catch an episode last night after the usual "Asaichi"（あさイチ）, and it was quite a good one. Almost all of the guests were performing stuff that seemed to be arranged in the old kayo kyoku style including this one here.

We don't really hear much about Mood Kayo these days in contemporary Japanese popular music, and the duets are most likely even rarer than appearances of the typical Mood Kayo groups. However, there was one such couple on "Hayauta" last night and it was a combination that I wouldn't have imagined. Singer-songwriter Okayu（おかゆ）, who's been this beautiful nagashi（流し）, or traveling balladeer through the drinking establishment-lined avenues of Tokyo, paired up with the funny man of the comedic duo Knights（ナイツ）, Nobuyuki Hanawa（塙宣之）, to perform the song "Ai no Michikusa". Now, michikusa is defined as "loitering on the way somewhere" according to Jisho.org, but I think "Loitering of Love" loses a lot of its romantic appeal (and may actually hint at something illegal), and the feeling within Okayu and Yasunari Izuma's（出馬康成）lyrics is of a hand-in-hand congenial walk through the shitamachi area of the nation's capital, so why not go with "Love Stroll"?

This is the first time that Izuma's name has been mentioned within the pages of KKP but it should be remembered here because he also happens to be a movie director. In fact, he has directed the movie of the same title as the song of note which stars Okayu and Hanawa as a couple with the former playing the proprietress of a typically tiny nomiya（飲み屋）. According to J-Wiki, the movie "Ai no Michikusa" will be shown later this autumn. In any case, Okayu's melody strikes that Mood Kayo feeling of yesteryear with the frenetically plucked Spanish guitar leading the way. 

Tomoko Soryo -- Kirameita Hibi（きらめいた日々）

 

Happy Monday! Although the temperatures are back below freezing again, the skies are brilliant out there, so can't complain too much. It does go to show that there is a sage piece of advice for Torontonians and that is to never put away your winter tires or clothing until May. I have personally seen snow falling in May but that was decades ago.

There has been a lot going on out there in the world and that includes a fairly powerful earthquake that rocked Hokkaido and the Tohoku area earlier today. I woke up and turned on Jme to see that there had been ongoing NHK coverage of the quake and the ensuing tsunami warning and watches for several hours. Hopefully, everyone there is hanging in there OK.

Perhaps we can start with something a little calming and cosmopolitan, and this would be singer-songwriter Tomoko Soryo's（惣領智子）3rd single from 1977, "Kirameita Hibi" (Sparkling Days). I can feel the City Pop in there but Soryo's creation is quite subtle so that I can also place it as a calm blue ocean of a New Music lullaby. Perhaps the soulful "Kirameita Hibi" can be an example of how folks born in the 21st century feel that strange sense of nostalgia for 1970s or 1980s City Pop. The single was also included in the singer's "City Lights by the Moonlight" album from the same year.

Kenji Ozawa & Scha Dara Parr -- Kon'ya wa Boogie Back（今夜はブギー・バック）

 

Looks like the good times are still rolling with "Ganbare! Nakamura-kun!!"（ガンバレ!中村くん!!...Go for It, Nakamura!）with not just the main show but also with the ending credit sequences which include the songs of yesteryear (specifically, those of the Showa and Heisei eras). We've already gotten Kozo Murashita's（村下孝蔵） "Hatsukoi" (初恋）and Da Bubblegum Brothers' "Won't Be Long" for Episodes 1 and 2 respectively.

The ending of Episode 3 has gone into the hip-hop field this time apparently, so the target song here is "Kon'ya wa Boogie Back"  (Tonight is Boogie Back) which was the March 1994 7th single for hip-hop group Scha Dara Parr with Kenji Ozawa（小沢健二）, formerly of Flipper's Guitar. It was pretty interesting hearing Ozawa going rap but then again, I've learned that he's tried all sorts of genres including jazz and of course, Shibuya-kei when he was with Flipper's Guitar.

Incidentally, there are two versions of "Boogie Back": the "smooth rap" and the "nice vocal" takes of which the former has Scha Dara Parr taking the lead while the latter has Ozawa behind the mike most of the time.

The thing is that the first time I ever listened to "Kon'ya wa Boogie Back", it was not through the original artists. It was actually listening to some musical guests covering the song on the late-night Saturday music variety show "Love Love Aishiteiru" (Love Love 愛している....Love Love I Love You） hosted by the Kinki Kids. At the time, I hadn't heard a whole lot of Japanese rap although we were just on the cusp of a big J-R&B boom from the late 1990s, so I wanted to hear the original with Ozawa and Scha Dara Parr.

"Boogie Back" was written and composed by Ozawa and the three members of Scha Dara Parr: Bose, Ani and Shinco. It peaked at No. 15 on Oricon (selling over half a million copies), and it looks like it has had plenty of covers done over the last thirty years. The song also samples En Vogue's "Give It Up, Turn It Loose" from 1992.

Apparently, the end of Episode 4 features a song by The Barbee Boys that I hadn't experienced before. That'll get its due then.

Miwako Saito -- Koibito wa Itsudemo（恋人はいつでも）

 

Hope you're having a good Sunday after getting filled up with your bacon, eggs and pancakes. I'm still digesting mine so forgive the post-breakfast drowsiness.

Singer-songwriter Miwako Saito（斉藤美和子）first came to my knowledge through Scott's "Holly Jolly X'masu" podcast when she performed a cover of Kaoru Sudo's（須藤薫）"Anata dake I Love You"（あなただけ I LOVE YOU） on the 1997 compilation album "Winter Gift Pops". My curiosity peaked by the song and her vocals, I dug a little deeper and found out that Saito had her own bands from the 1980s including Tango Europe（タンゴ・ヨーロッパ）which kinda struck me as a prototype of Princess Princess.

Saito also had her solo career and this is where a contact from a fellow named Koki Matsumura reminded me of that. He introduced me to "Koibito wa Itsudemo" (Lover Always Do) which was the singer's debut single from 1986. With Saito and Chuuji Akagi（赤城忠治）providing the lyrics and the latter also composing the tune, it's a fun and quirky pop song with a bit of New Wave in there. And in a way, the song might have heralded the coming wave of sunny Girl Pop which would come within a half-decade through singers such as Mariko Nagai（永井真理子）. It's definitely its own song in terms of an intro that takes its sweet time and the overall length which goes over six minutes.

Saito would release three more singles up to 1988 along with a combination of albums and mini-albums from 1988 to 1999.

Misaki Iwasa -- Aikagi（合鍵）

By Daderot via Wikimedia Commons

I've encountered a number of tropes within Japanese pop music over the years of doing "Kayo Kyoku Plus". Another one has to do with aikagi or duplicate key/passkey.  I've noticed that there are quite a few songs with the title "Aikagi". One was by Hatsumi Shibata（しばたはつみ）which happened to be her debut single in 1974 and there's another one by Mayumi Itsuwa（五輪真弓）that I have yet to cover. 

The whole rigamarole regarding passkeys has to do with the illicit affair which is a common lyrical plot in the various romantic ballads, enka and Mood Kayo numbers. Fans have loved to listen vicariously and dangerously as men and women throw caution to the wind and have those romances in their special hotels or homes...of course, accessible by that guilty duplicate key. 🔑

It was just last weekend on NHK's "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）when I heard enka singer Misaki Iwasa（岩佐美咲）perform her latest single titled naturally enough "Aikagi". Released in February this year, her 12th single is a bittersweet ballad about the aftermath of an affair in which the heroine has kept the titular key although there is no longer anyone to meet in the secret love nest. Written by AKB 48 mastermind Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）and composed by Saburo Takada（高田三郎）, I guess it's safe to say that this could be considered a Neo-enka or New Adult Music with some Latin and sophisticated pop mixed in with the traditional stuff.  Strangely enough, Akimoto weaves a very similar story to the one concocted by Fumiko Okada（岡田冨美子）for Shibata's "Aikagi", so I guess that anything titled "Aikagi" isn't going to be necessarily very happy.

I've also come to realize that this is only the second Iwasa article that I've written with her name on the byline after my first posting of her 4th single "Hatsuzake"（初酒）back in 2015. The scary thing is that my articles on "Hatsuzake" and Shibata's "Aikagi" were posted within a day of each other in February of that year. Cue spooky music. Anyways, Iwasa's "Aikagi" broke through the Oricon Top 10 to peak at No. 7.

Nami Shimada -- Pastel Blue no Tameiki（パステル・ブルーのためいき）

 

Welcome to another KKP weekend. It's a little chillier if also a little humid, so I'm more than happy to be typing this while the windows are open.

1980s aidoru Nami Shimada（島田奈美）hit her peak in terms of Oricon when she released her May 1987 single "Uchiki na Cupid"（内気なキューピッド）. It hit No. 7 and so did the follow-up single "Pastel Blue no Tameiki" (Pastel Blue Sighes) which came out a few months later in August. Written by Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）, composed by Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）and arranged by Motoki Funayama（船山基紀）, it's a soaring aidoru tune with Shimada's high-toned vocals and it feels like it's describing a fantastical scene involving the lass herself. Couldn't ask anymore from songwriters when it comes to an aidoru song, and heck, she even looks like a chiffon cake in the video below.😁

Yuka Noda -- City Girl

 

This is going to age me even more considerably but when I read or see the phrase "City Girl", I think of Marlo Thomas in "That Girl" or Audrey Hepburn in "Breakfast at Tiffany's", although both ladies have their differences in looks and personality.

It was back in 2024 when I noted keyboardist Yuka Noda（野田ユカ）through a couple of tracks on her 1989 album "Carib no Yume"（カリブの夢）. I covered the title track, which was some fine Caribbean fusion, and the funk-and-jazz "Manhattan Blue". Well, from this album, we now have "City Girl" which was composed by Eriko Tsukayama（塚山エリコ）who had also created the title track and continues with the funk and jazz from "Manhattan Blue". "City Girl" sounds like the perfect theme song for Barney Miller's wife as she's shopping around The Big Apple while her husband is out fighting crime.

Mikiko Noda -- Awai Kisetsu no Sunglass（淡い季節のサングラス）

 

During that trip to the hospital yesterday, I was warned by my mother that the wait until my father completed the examination could be a long one. I didn't think it would be that bad (and it wasn't), but I still brought over my copy of "Obscure City Pop CDs 1986-2006" to peruse.

Singer Mikiko Noda（野田幹子）popped up a fair bit among the pages of "Obscure City Pop CDs", so technically, she wasn't really all that obscure. But all that aside, I decided to check out some more of her discography since it was from the book that I discovered a few of her delights. One was her "Awai Kisetsu no Sunglass" (Sunglasses of the Fleeting Season) from her 7th album of November 1991, "Rose C'est La Vie".

That song title sounds quite French New Wave which would make it an appropriate track to include into an album titled "Rose C'est La Vie". However, it isn't brooding jazz at all here. Keyboardist Masao or Hatao Kusuba（崩場将夫）was the composer while Masami Tozawa（戸沢暢美）was the lyricist for this song (and probably all of the other tracks on "Rose C'est La Vie") that has been described as residing in the area between City Pop and Girl Pop. There is a certain amount of panache and innocence combining within "Awai Kisetsu no Sunglass" and with those synthesizers of the time crashing in, I get reminders of what Miki Imai（今井美樹）was like in the same year. Just a young lady having her time out on the town.

Penthouse -- Ichi, Ni, San（一二三）

Amazon.jp

I'm not sure how the Spring 2026 season for anime has been accepted by fans so far, but I have to say that in terms of handling the theme songs, there have been some interesting and fun choices. "Ganbare! Nakamura-kun!!"（ガンバレ!中村くん!!...Go for It, Nakamura!）not only has funkster Yasuyuki Okamura（岡村靖幸）back on the dance floor but it's also gone for bringing back the oldies for each ending. Then there is Keisuke Kuwata's（桑田佳祐）mix of his signature style and some European pizzazz for his contribution to "Akane-banashi"（あかね噺...Akane's Story）.

Then we have the fourth season of the anime adaptation of the fantasy manga "Mairimashita! Iruma-kun"（魔入りました!入間くん...Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun）. To be honest, I've never seen this in either format but judging from the opening credit sequence and the theme song, they sure make it enticing. I could imagine the first few opening sequences being fairly serious and then with this one, the producers opted to have the characters go for some fun instead.

And that is because of "Ichi, Ni, San" (One, Two, Three) by the City Soul band Penthouse. I've already posted a few articles on them and they really go down to town with this one which was released as their latest single earlier this month. Guitarist Shintaro Namioka（浪岡真太郎）was the composer of the snazzy jazzy melody and he shares co-writing credits with bassist Takuma Ohara（大原拓真）. Namioka and co-vocalist Maho Oshima（大島真帆）threaten to blow the roof off the house here.

Yuuichi Ikuzawa -- Racer

 

I gotta admit that Yuuichi Ikuzawa's（生沢佑一）"Racer" which belongs to his first solo album "Mysterious" from 1983 is one of the more intriguing City Pop songs that I've encountered. Starting off like a romantic tune belonging to a soundtrack on a 1950s Douglas Sirk melodrama, "Racer" then hits the familiar City Pop road with plenty of brass and chorus to fuel the singer's vocals. 

The arrangement, however, also sounds similar to a very languid West Coast take on "Xanadu" as if the characters from the Olivia Newton-John movie decided to take five and hang ten along the California shore. That's quite a bit of style stuffed into a track that's a fair bit less than three minutes. Masako Arikawa（有川正沙子）, who helped out on Akira Terao's（寺尾聡）"Reflections", wrote the lyrics while Keiichi Katagiri（片桐圭一）took care of the music.

Meiko Nakahara -- Emotion

 

The weather is looking fine out there for once this week after most of it being gray and drizzly. We're looking at 18-degree C highs and wouldn't you know it...the condo still continues to pump heat into our units. And with our luck, it'll probably stay that way until early May.🥵

Still, let's start our Urban Contemporary Friday off right with something to enjoy on the dance floor. Not sure if those City Pop dance parties are still being held down in the United States, but anyways, I have singer-songwriter Meiko Nakahara's（中原めいこ）"Emotion" from her July 1984 album "Lotos". Written and composed by the singer with Hiroshi Shinkawa（新川博）handling the arrangement, it's a short and sweet brassy funk fest with some vocoder (?)-filled wah-wah adding an interesting angle to the proceedings. 

Lisa Ono -- Bésame Mucho

 

As I mentioned earlier today, I had to help out Dad and it all went smoothly. However in the last few years, public transit here has been getting a reputation for being less safe than it used to be so accompanying him down meant that I had to be somewhat paranoid and keep a good eye peeled on the bus and subway. I didn't feel it at the time but after getting home, I suddenly got hit with some of the fatigue and stresses of the day's nervousness and alertness levels.

So it was nice to see that bossa nova artist Lisa Ono（小野リサ）had appeared on the NHK morning information show "Asaichi"（あさイチ）to sing a few of those soothing songs. Nothing like some bossa to take the edge off. She sang a Portuguese version of "Hana wa Saku"（花は咲く）which was of course created within Japan. Then, after the interview, she went on to perform "One-Note Samba" and then as soon as it started, my ears were hit with Muzak and the Japanese line appeared at the top of the screen stating that due to copyright concerns, viewers weren't allowed to hear it.

AAUGH! My face scrunched up so that parts of it ended up in the fifth dimension and I couldn't help but blurt out "REALLY?!". I knew about TV Japan's and then Jme's recent policy of being unable to have non-Japanese songs heard on any shows on the streaming network; heck, there's even a page on Jme's website stating this. But I still had to scream internally "Jme, I swear....". Ah, the frustration...🤬

Well, I guess I'll just have to get my relaxation from putting up one of my own Ono tunes and this time, that would be her take on the classic Cuban bolero "Bésame Mucho". Hailing from her August 2005 album "Romance Latino vol.3", "Bésame Mucho" has done much to bring down my blood pressure from earlier tonight. Mucho gracias, YouTube!

The Muppets -- The Muppet Show Theme

 

It's safe to say that generations of people have grown up with "Sesame Street" including yours truly. Since 1969, I got to know about the safest and friendliest inner city neighbourhood in existence and its mix of human and Muppet residents ranging from Gordon and Susan to Ernie and Bert. But arguably, it can be said that one of those characters made it big outside of the area and that would be Kermit the Frog.

In fact, I think Kermit was able to inherit a huge if somewhat dilapidated playhouse and a new cast of characters (Miss Piggy, Gonzo, Bunsen Honeydew, Beaker, Fozzie, etc.) along with some famous human guests to create "The Muppet Show" in 1976. Of the many guests that appeared on the show, I remember Roger Moore, Elton John and Mark Hamill. I can't quite remember when on the weekly TV slate it appeared on CBC but it was must-see TV for me for a good long while during those five years.

Strangely enough, this is where I first got to know Gilda Radner. Gilda WHO was what I'd thought when I saw her in the above sketch. I hadn't started watching "Saturday Night Live" back then since I simply wasn't allowed to stay up past 10 back then so it would be a few years before realizing that she'd been part of the Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time Players. Also one other interesting observation is that I think this sketch with the snobby carrot was perhaps the only time that I'd ever seen Gilda sing.

Of course, there were the regular segments on the show such as "At the Dance" where the participants got to crack wise while tripping the light fantastic on the ballroom floor. I think it may have been inspired by a similar segment from the American comedy-variety show "Laugh-In". 

But one thing that was the constant (although it also evolved throughout the years) was the theme song. Matching its Vaudevillian setting, the "Muppet Show" theme by Jim Henson and Sam Pottle was good ol' smacking jazz. It just welcomed all of us in like the friendliest usher in the house and I'm sure the kids loved to hum and sing to it. I have to admit hearing and seeing the intro again in that recent "Muppet Show" redux special brought some thrills back to me.

I kinda wonder what it must have been like to work with Peter Sellers. Anyways, the show premiered on September 5th 1976, so what was at the top of the Oricon chart on the 6th? We have the Top 3.

1. Teruhiko Aoi -- Anata dake wo (あなただけを)

2. Momoe Yamaguchi -- Yokosuka Story （横須賀ストーリー）

3. Kozue Saito -- Yamaguchi Sanchi no Tsutomu-kun（山口さんちのツトム君）

Arisa Mizuki -- Promise to Promise

 

Earlier this morning, I accompanied my father down to the hospital. Nothing serious; only his semi-annual eye check and everything was copacetic. Plus, I had some really good pizza in the hospital food court after the examination. I'll have to try a few more slices next time.

I was considering what to start today's batch of kayo kyoku with and I figured that with the hospital visit, I would start looking up some of the theme songs for the numerous hospital shows that have been on Japanese TV over the many decades. Basically, the medical drama over there, as it is over here in Canada and the US, is an absolute staple of scripted works on the telly. 

To be honest, I've never followed Arisa Mizuki's（観月ありさ）discography or filmography all that intently during the past few decades. She started out as this rather tall and willowy innocent in her early years and then in the last several years, she has morphed into suffer-no-fools-gladly roles that show off her steely will and power as folks like police squad leaders. 

However, in between those two phases, there was that middle phase where Mizuki landed her franchise role as a goofy and clumsy young lady trying to become the best nurse as one could be. And thus came her Izumi Asakura（朝倉いずみ）who made an impression upon me as the live-action version of Usagi Tsukino, aka Sailor Moon. "Nurse no O-shigoto"（ナースのお仕事...The Duties of a Nurse） was a Fuji-TV series that lasted four regular seasons and a few specials here and there up to 2014.

But Season 1 began in 1996 and so the first theme song for "Nurse no O-shigoto" was "Promise to Promise" as sung by Mizuki herself as her 12th single, released in July that year. Written and composed by Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）with Takahiro Maeda（前田たかひろ）helping out on lyrics, this was a pretty calming and button-down song about sticking with things no matter how tough they get, and Mizuki the singer therefore contrasts with Mizuki-as-Asakura. Asakura might be spilling tongue dispensers all over the ward but there is still a little bit of that calm blue ocean of Mizuki to right the ship. To be honest, the first time I heard this song was when one of the other cast members sang it during the blooper reel of the show.  "Promise to Promise" scored a No. 17 ranking on Oricon and sold about 150,000 copies.

Katsumi -- It's My JAL

 

Yup, good ol' Richard Gere. Of course, he'd long been one of Hollywood's biggest stars which also meant that he just had to do one of those stylish if enigmatic commercials for Japan. He may have done ads for other brands but I will always know him for the ones that he did for Japan Air Lines. Yeah, I fly JAL. Well, not really. I wish I could, though.

It speaks to how long I've been doing "Kayo Kyoku Plus" when I actually get nostalgic about not just the song in question but also the article that I wrote for it. Yes, I fondly remember the article that I did for singer-songwriter Katsumi's "Just Time Girl" from April 1991, a song that I also fondly remember as one of the last ones I would hear within Japan before heading home from the JET Programme later that summer. 

Well, he followed that one with his 5th single in June, "It's My JAL". While Katsumi wrote the lyrics, veteran composer Kisaburo Suzuki（鈴木キサブロー）took care of the melody which followed the singer's penchant for synth-driven upbeat tunes. I think "Just Time Girl" will always be my Katsumi tune but "It's My JAL" isn't too shabby either. In fact, it made it up to No. 3 on Oricon.

Isao Sasaki & Koorogi '73 -- Himitsu Sentai Gorenger（秘密戦隊ゴレンジャー）

 

It was about a decade ago when I posted an article on the first opening theme song for the 1970s tokusatsu hero show "Himitsu Sentai Gorenger"（秘密戦隊ゴレンジャー...Secret Task Force Five Rangers）. Quaint is how I would put it considering I began the article with my assessment of the superhero movies coming out in 2016 at that point. My opinions on those MCEU and DCEU movies haven't changed, and the first "Dr. Strange" flick did turn out to be a solid if not incredible addition to the Marvel franchise. Well since then, let's say that Phase 5 of the master plan behind the MCEU hasn't been all that impressive to me although I'm hoping for great things for the new "Spider-Man" and "Avengers" entries later this year.

I was talking about the conventional comic book movies back then when I wrote about "Susume! Gorenger"（進め! ゴレンジャー）. A few years later came the televised adaptation of "The Boys" which has managed to attract, entrance and shock the heck out of the pop culture fandom, and it's coming to a close with this final season that's on right now, and the video above is what I'm thumbnailing this article with. I don't subscribe to Amazon Prime Video but there has already been a ton of video evidence on the first few episodes shown along with reaction videos, and yep, the producers and the cast have managed to continue to pop viewers' eyeballs. 

Let's go back to the 1970s then and Japan in particular when these hero programs had no shades of gray or hidden agendas at least not on the heroic side. Good was good and evil was evil, and so go the team members of the Five Rangers. 

Usually when I saw and heard these tokusatsu programs, the opening theme was peppy, brassy and appropriately courageous while the closing them was more ballad-like and introspective. However, the first ending theme for "Himitsu Sentai Gorenger", the simply titled "Himitsu Sentai Gorenger", just keeps up the upbeat times of being a superhero of punching and sweep-kicking the henchmen (plus the kids must have loved emulating the onomatopoeia!). As was the case with the "Susume! Gorenger", the legendary Isao Sasaki（ささきいさお）manned the microphone but this time he was backed up by Koorogi '73（こおろぎ'73）instead of the Columbia Yurikago Kai (コロムビアゆりかご会), I guess, for a bit more gravitas in the delivery. Master tokusatsu composer Chumei Watanabe（渡辺宙明）was behind the music while at least one of the originating Toei Company producers wrote the lyrics under the collective pseudonym of Saburo Yatsude（八手三郎）. "Himitsu Sentai Gorenger" was the B-side to the original "Susume! Gorenger" single released in April 1975.

Yuko Tomita -- Yokohama Kaze no Station（YOKOHAMA風のステイション）

 

I'm hoping that Yokohama has been able to enjoy sights like the above in the Minato Mirai 21 area. I always liked this part of the famed international port. Plus, hey, there's a lot of foodie opportunities there, too. I still remember that all-garlic restaurant in one of the towers. My friend and I were absolutely guaranteed of seats on the train back home.🧄

Well, it's time for another Yokohama-based song and this time, I have singer-songwriter Yuko Tomita's（とみたゆう子）February 1986 single "Yokohama Kaze no Station" (Yokohama Windy Station). Just judging from the cover of the fetching Ms. Tomita in her black party dress and the overall design, I figured that this particular song was also a track on her album from the same month "Moulin Rouge".

Last year, I covered Tomita's final track from "Moulin Rouge", "Silk-Hat-Club" which was this light and happy techno jazz tune, and it seems as if the synthesizers were out to party as well for this album. "Yokohama Kaze no Station" appears as the second track on the A-side and indeed the keyboards are in play here as well, but the style is more 1950s or 1960s pop love song (like the crystalline instrumental bridge, by the way) as sung by Connie Francis, thanks to Mitsuo Hagita's（萩田光雄）arrangement.

Sympathy Nervous -- Sympathetic Nerves

 

Recently, thanks to the success of "Project Hail Mary", I've been reminded of my latent fascination for exobiology. Seeing the adorable Rocky the Eridian have a fine relationship with Dr. Grace has made me wonder what life would be like on very different planets from Earth.

I doubt that Yoshifumi Niinuma（新沼好文）, the man behind the project known as Sympathy Nervous, was thinking about exobiology when he came up with the track "Sympathetic Nerves" for his self-titled album of 1980. Still, listening to this song which lasts almost ten minutes, it's hard for my roving imagination not to come up with the premise of two digital life forms interacting with each other; one's a rather large and belligerent fellow while the other guy is a small but pesky blip. Then again, I can also imagine this being a rather dark version of a soundtrack to any of the video games that were getting popular with teens like me back in the late 70s and early 80s like Pac-Man and Asteroids. One more theory is that "Sympathetic Nerves" may actually be good for your sympathetic nerves. Only ten minutes a day!😀

Momoe Yamaguchi -- Zettai Zetsumei（絶体絶命）

 

Japanese television loves to use its fair share of musical cues within programs such as variety shows. For example, if there is an instance where a couple of celebrities are about to come to a screaming match or physical blows (mostly joking...mostly), Tomoyasu Hotei's（布袋寅泰）famous "Battle Without Honor or Humanity" roars in like an oncoming storm.

Well, I think another song intro which is much older than Hotei's classic could have been another perfect shredding guitar cue, and I have to admit that I have to give myself another Gibbs slap upside the back of my head since I had unintentionally omitted it from the pages of KKP for years and years. When it comes to Momoe Yamaguchi's（山口百恵）"Zettai Zetsumei", her 23rd single from August 1978, I put it up there with her "Imitation Gold"（イミテイション・ゴールド）and "Playback Part 2" （プレイバック・パート２）as the 70s aidoru's songs of fury...as in "Hell hath no fury than a woman scorned".

"Zettai Zetsumei" can be interpreted as "desperate situation" or "stalemate", and both definitions can set the scene described by Yoko Aki's（阿木燿子）lyrics of irate showdown and her husband Ryudo Uzaki's（宇崎竜童）hard rocking confrontation music. You see, we have a love/hate triangle at a cafe somewhere in which at least one of the women has finally had enough of the status quo, and she and the other woman are giving the ultimatum to the guy they share. Who will win? Who will lose? And are there any sharp utensils nearby? You'd be surprised at how much damage a butter knife can do. 

Even the cover of the single has Momoe looking terrifying. She looks like she's saying "Oh, really? THAT'S what you're going with?". Ay, carumba! "Zettai Zetsumei" peaked at No. 3 and ended up as the 34th-ranked single of the year. It's also a track on the singer's September 1978 15th studio album "Dramatic"（ドラマチック）which went as high as No. 6 on Oricon.

Takajin Yashiki -- Tokyo（東京）

 

Takajin Yashiki（やしきたかじん）left quite the legend behind when he passed away about a dozen years ago, and evidently, anyone who has ever met him knew where he/she stood with him fairly quickly. Of course, there was the whole thing about him not liking Tokyo or Tokyoites, but as I mentioned in my first article on the late singer "Yappa Sukiyanen"（やっぱ好きやねん）, I think it was more that he disliked certain media corporations in Tokyo and their ways rather than a blanket hatred for the city.

Speaking of his signature "Yappa Sukiyanen" from 1986, which seems to be the one song of his that still gets performed by some of his friends such as Yoshimi Tendo（天童よしみ）, I was surprised to realize that his April 1993 20th single "Tokyo" was his biggest hit, according to the song's J-Wiki entry. I actually first heard it last night on the weekly episode of "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）, and my eyebrows soared up on seeing the title and who the singer was considering what I noted in the first paragraph. However, I reminded himself that Yashiki didn't have any particular axe to grind when it came to Japan's capital itself.

Written by Neko Oikawa（及川眠子）and composed by Akihiko Kawakami（川上明彦）, Yashiki seemed to grab onto the words and music like a football and run to the end zone with it. It's quite the Latin-tinged pop song of greatly regretting that lost love in Tokyo, although going through the Kansai dialect-friendly lyrics, I sometimes wonder whether the protagonist was actually heartbreakingly lamenting no longer being in Tokyo anymore. 

"Tokyo" got no higher than No. 52 on Oricon and initially, sales weren't all that brisk. However, over the next few weeks, the requests to radio stations started flooding in and pretty soon, Takajin got noticed once more not just in the Osaka area but all throughout the nation.

Fuyumi Sakamoto -- Rashomon（羅生門）

 

Frankly speaking, I can count the number of Akira Kurosawa（黒澤明）movies that I've seen on one hand. I've heard about a lot of them but I've only watched "The Seven Samurai" and his final work "Madadayo" in 1993. I've also seen clips from "Ran" and "Ikiru", but that's about it. I have yet to see "Rashomon" but its storytelling device has become so influential that I've seen it being used in TV shows ranging from "Happy Days" to "Star Trek: The Next Generation".

You can imagine my surprise then when on a recent episode of "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）, enka veteran Fuyumi Sakamoto（坂本冬美）appeared on the stage to sing a song titled "Rashomon". I wondered whether Sakamoto had been intending to pay tribute to the Kurosawa classic. 

Written by Souko Niimoto（新本創子）, composed by Keisuke Hama（浜圭介）and arranged by Kei Wakakusa（若草恵）, this was actually released as Sakamoto's 33rd single from June 2006. "Rashomon" launches with an intro that I thought was going to make this a classical/enka fusion thereby having this land into the genre of New Adult Music but then as the song goes on, the compass takes things into full enka. However one listens to it though, it is dramatic right down to Sakamoto's kobushi. As for the music video, I thought that this was more "Kill Bill" than "Rashomon" the movie. The song peaked at No. 29 on Oricon.

Plus-Tech Squeeze Box -- Kitchen Shock

 

For the purposes of this song, I had been searching for any bloopers from any of the famous cooking shows on Japanese television. I distinctly remember that there was one such program with former aidoru hosts Ikue Sakakibara（榊原郁恵）and Miyuki Imori（井森美幸）getting themselves into a pickle in the kitchen one time, but alas, I couldn't find it on YouTube. However, I can settle for the above video of a lady cheerfully admitting to carbonizing her gratin. Well, at least, it has one thing going for it...it sounds delightfully crispy.

A YouTube commenter noted that "Kitchen Shock" by the technopop unit Plus-Tech Squeeze Box has an intro that sounds as if it should have been made into a theme song for a cooking show on Japanese TV...perhaps a comedic one. But instead, this happy-go-lucky number of techno-Shibuya-kei skippiness was placed onto a December 2004 compilation titled "Contemode V.A. 2". "Kitchen Shock" itself doesn't appear on any of the unit's own albums.

The video below is from YouTuber Orange Glider who gives his take on what makes Plus-Tech Squeeze Box tick. Enjoy!

Wataru Takada -- Jitensha ni Notte（自転車にのって）

Norbert Nagel via Wikimedia Commons

 

The weather is improving so bicycles are coming out once again here in Toronto after a long winter. I'm sure the same thing is happening in Japan depending on the area.

But over there, I've heard that a rash of new bicycle regulations have come into force which could earn those unaware the dreaded blue ticket and fines. And according to NHK, there are probably many who are in the dark about how intricate some of those new laws are.

Coincidentally, on one of the NHK music shows, I recently heard a pretty rustic song called "Jitensha ni Notte" (Getting on the Bicycle). It was something that I hadn't listened to before so I looked into it. This was the May 1971 5th single by folk singer-songwriter Wataru Takada（高田渡）and it sounds like something that reflected a typical ride through a friendly town neighbourhood. It's short, sweet and the melody line during the singing of the verses reminds me of the old kids' song "I've Been Working on the Railroad".

Takada was born in Gifu Prefecture in 1949 in a family that had been rich due to their lumber merchant grandfather, but their fortune was wiped out because of a massive earthquake and stock market failures. After the death of his mother, Takada's father ended up taking him and his brothers to Tokyo with no particular destination in mind and they all lived in poverty in the Fukagawa district. In the 1960s, he would pick up the ukulele and start getting into folk music. His career would begin in earnest in 1968 and several singles and albums would be released. He passed away in April 2005 at the age of 56 from heart failure.

Nobuko Sendou -- Hiromi: Kiken na Yokan（Hiromi -危険な予感-）

 

Just for fun, I punched into the Bing Image Creator, "A dangerous premonition in the style of Picasso". The above is what I got and well, ugh! Maybe it's a good thing that this not be seen past midnight in a dark room. But feel free to psychoanalyze it all you want.

Fortunately, the song that has that very title "Hiromi: Kiken na Yokan" (Hiromi: A Dangerous Premonition) sounds a lot more benign...almost to an aidoru level. This was recorded by actress-singer Nobuko Sendou（仙道敦子）as her 2nd single in October 1984, and though I haven't bothered to dig deep into Yuko Murakami's（村上悠子）lyrics, the melody composed and arranged by Ken Sato（佐藤健）is brisk and pleasant if somewhat urgent. I don't know who this Hiromi is, but she might need some help from the Equalizer.

The first time I posted a Nobuko Sendou article, it was back in late 2024 for her 1987 "Umi no Mieru Mado"（海の見える窓） and I compared her singing style to Miki Imai's（今井美樹）vocals. Imai herself was also coming up the ranks as an actress and singer, so to speak, at around the same time. Even with this early sophomore single, I can still make the comparison between Sendou and Imai since I think "Kiken na Yokan" could have also been sung by the latter lady early in her own career.

Something Merely Whimsical for a Friday: NHK's Song Picks for Corporate Entrance Ceremonies by Decade

 

The above video shows a variety of entrance ceremonies for the new recruits at various companies throughout Japan, including All Nippon Airways at 1:55. Yes, it is April and so the corporate entities are throwing out the red carpet and all of the rigamarole to welcome the fresh newbies

I was watching the NHK morning news earlier tonight and there was a feature on the ceremonies, and the reporters did an interesting thing by showing the evolution of the corporate entrance ceremony throughout the decades from the 1960s to the 1990s, and for each decade, they put up a representative pop song. Just out of my sense of whimsy, I'm going to put these up here, too.

(1960s) Yukio Hashi and Sayuri Yoshinaga -- Itsudemo Yume wo（いつでも夢を）

(1970s) Koichi Morita and The Top Gallants -- Seishun Jidai （青春時代）

(1980s) Akina Nakamori -- Shojo A （少女Ａ）

(1990s) KAN -- Ai wa Katsu (愛は勝つ）

Now, the above were selected by NHK so they wouldn't come under Author's Picks. That label is for us KKP writers. However, I am throwing in my lone choice for an inspiring song to help encourage the new workers.

(1990s) Daiji Man Brothers Band -- Sore ga Daiji （それが大事）

Ado -- All-Night Radio（オールナイトレディオ）

 

A few nights ago, I was wondering about all-night radio after having taken another look back at my article on my fantasy radio show. I then punched in "All-Night Radio" into the YouTube search engine. I'd been expecting at least a few excerpts on how the DJs sounded back then on their midnight-6 am shows, but I got nothing. Instead, though, I did get a lot of videos featuring singer-songwriter Ado and something "All-Night Radio".

Well, this was interesting, I thought. Up to now, I've always seen her as the enigmatic rock chanteuse who can soar up and down the vocal range like an express elevator powered by a ramjet. But with "All-Night Radio", which was released as her October 2023 single, it actually sounded like a very perky and upbeat pop tune that was ready-made for radio. In fact, it came across as a disco-inflected Neo-City Pop song that could have a lot of nightcrawlers cheerfully turning up that dial. Mind you, it may be a little too upbeat for the beginning or middle of a 6-hour all-night broadcast. Perhaps this could be the song to finish it off just when the sun peeks over the horizon in the morning.

Created by Mitchie M., "All-Night Radio" was used as the theme song for some sort of stage play on the Nippon Broadcasting System radio station, and its lyrics happen to be about getting ready for that radio show. There's even a shoutout to Mood Kayo and Frank Nagai（フランク永井）. The song reached No. 12 on Oricon.