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.
According to a book on Group Sounds band The Tigers（ザ・タイガース）published in 2013, this single by the band led by Kenji Sawada（沢田研二）wasn't a huge hit. Of course, the best was yet to come for these guys, as they say.
And yet, I remember this song's melody very well since I probably heard it on a number of TV retrospectives on GS bands over the years. This happens to be The Tigers' debut single"Boku no Mary"(My Mary) which was released in February 1967, and it's notable for its mournful lyrics about a fateful encounter with the titular Mary and the breeziness of the strings. Perhaps it was the melancholy nature of the song that dampened sales but I don't think it did too badly by scoring a No. 12 on the rankings by the journal "Young Music"; the Oricon chart was still a year or several months away from coming into being. Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）and Koichi Sugiyama（すぎやまこういち）were in charge of lyrics and music respectively.
Man, that is some precious footage of The Tigers performing "Boku no Mary". Well, anyways, I figure since I've got their 2nd and 3rd singles up on KKP, it was time to post their very first single as well.
Considering that I've become a lapsed Trekkie in recent years, I completely forgot that tomorrow will be 60 years to the day since the very first "Star Trek" episode was televised on NBC.
It was the episode "Man Trap" that started the whole ball rolling on September 8th 1966...in America. But the crazy thing I found out very recently was that Canada had actually cut to the chase by broadcasting "Man Trap" two days earlier on September 6th on CTV at 7:30 pm. That's a little early in the evening to be showing a man-killing salt vampire but hey, maybe Gene Roddenberry was feeling a bit daring.
It is a holiday Monday so it is time for a special Reminiscings of Youth but several years previously, I already posted an article on Alexander Courage'soriginal theme for "Star Trek" so I was kinda knocking my head about what I could do to pay further tribute to the series. And then, an idea struck me.💡
On September 15th 1967, the second season began with "Amok Time", the episode where we first got a taste of Mr. Spock's culture including the ultimate example of Vulcan randiness, pon farr. It all climaxes (sorry, pun intended...haha) with a battle to the death between Spock and Captain Kirk. I always love a good battle with a lirpa and an ahn-woon.
Also, accompanying the fight was composer Gerald Fried's music that may rival Courage's theme as the most recognized piece of music from "Star Trek" even for non-Trekkies. Titled officially as "The Ritual/Ancient Battle/2nd Kroykah", I'd just like to call it the "Star Trek" fight music. It kinda has that atmosphere of gladiator games and no-holds-barred hand-to-hand combat with the dissonant horns and rapid-fire percussion. No wonder it was used for a lot of other fight scenes in the show since.
I gained quite the smile when I heard the fight music being used again on one episode of the current series "Strange New Worlds" a few seasons ago.
Gerald Fried (February 13, 1928 – February 17, 2023) was a composer and conductor who created scores for many TV shows and movies from the 1950s to the 2010s, and I read on his Wikipedia file, he provided music for the original "Mission: Impossible" TV series, "Gilligan's Island", "My Three Sons", etc. So, basically I had plenty of Fried (aural) food even before I was five years old. Anyways, LLAP!
Not to say that I'm an X-Man or anyone like that, but earlier today as I was entering my usual digestion-induced nap, I got a little spark in my head about whether there would be an obituary regarding someone in the music industry, and annually, there have been a few. As it turns out, less than an hour ago, I was watching the morning news on NHK and the report came out that veteran lyricist Jun Hashimoto had passed away on May 21st at the age of 86 due to cirrhosis.
Since I began this blog back in 2012, as someone who hadn't been too up on lyricists, arrangers and composers at the time, Hashimoto's name was one that I came across fairly often especially in the early years of KKP. And according to both J-Wiki and NHK, he had written approximately 2000 songs of which a little over 70 have been covered here. He worked with a number of composers during his career which lasted close to 60 years but it was his collaborations with the late Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）that produced a lot of those kayo kyoku hits.
Born on July 8th 1939, Hashimoto was born Junsuke Yoda（与田凖介 ）, the son of famed poet and children's book author Junichi Yoda（与田凖一）, in Tokyo. He started learning about lyric writing on his own while studying at Aoyama Gakuin University, and he eventually came under the wing of composer Koichi Sugiyama（すぎやまこういち）in 1961. Some years later in 1966, his first stint at lyrics which ended up as a record was "Kiiroi Lemon"（黄色いレモン...Yellow Lemon） by another Sugiyama protege, singer Koichi Fuji（藤浩一）who would later become Masato Shimon（子門真人）. It was also Tsutsumi's first stint at composing a record as well under Sugiyama's wing. Thus, the source of all those Hashimoto/Tsutsumi hits can be tracked back here.
Of course, a couple of years later, Hashimoto and Tsutsumi would pen their first evergreen kayo hit, "Blue Light Yokohama"（ブルーライト・ヨコハマ）by Ayumi Ishida（いしだあゆみ）.
The lights of the city are really beautiful, aren't they? Yokohama, Blue Light Yokohama The two of us are so happy
As always, those words of love Yokohama, Blue Light Yokohama Give those words to me
A year previously though, Hashimoto with Jackey Yoshikawa and his Blue Comets member and composer Tadao Inoue（井上忠夫）came up with "Blue Chateau"（ブルー・シャトウ）, arguably the Group Sounds band's most famous hit from 1967. In fact, NHK reported that Hashimoto was instrumental to the GS boom of those late 1960s.
Surrounded by the woods and the springs There quietly sleeps the Blue Chateau You are waiting for me The dark and lonely Blue Chateau
Another Group Sounds hit that Hashimoto wrote was "Amairo no Kami no Otome"（亜麻色の髪の少女）by The Village Singers (ヴィレッジ・シンガーズ) in 1968 with his mentor and composer Sugiyama behind the melody.
The wind gently folds the long flaxen hair The girl holds the white bouquet to her chest As she comes down the hill as if with wings To her kind boyfriend she goes Her singing voice cheerful because she's in love
Even with the end of the Group Sounds period in the early 1970s, Hashimoto would continue to pen the hits including the popular duet song "Canada Kara no Tegami"(カナダからの手紙）in 1978 with Masaaki Hirao（平尾昌晃） , who also composed it, and Yoko Hatanaka（畑中葉子）. Yeah, to think I pummeled the heck out of that one at karaoke, and it was a Hashimoto classic!
Love letter from Canada If by chance, we were together How much fun we would have on this trip Love letter from Canada
Hashimoto and Hirao would work together again soon after and this time, it would be for the theme song of one of the most famous anime series ever created, "Ginga Tetsudo 999"（銀河鉄道999）as sung mightily by Isao Sasaki（ささきいさお）.
The train comes out of the darkness into the sea of light It's the endless universe where dreams scatter Let's cross the bridge of stars People will always search for happiness As if they were voyagers
My last entry here involves Hashimoto's dalliance with City Pop, and I'm not sure how far down the rabbit hole he went but he and Tsutsumi worked together here as well to make Hiromi Iwasaki's（岩崎宏美)"Street Dancer" in 1980.
As I keep my sunglasses on I gaze at the flow of time Weekend The neon at noon, the glittering streets Stuffing my face with a hamburger Seeking the sprit of youth Together
Of course, this article isn't anywhere near as comprehensive as I would like it to be. However, I did want to pay homage to the man in some fashion and hopefully some of you can take a look at the other articles of songs that Hashimoto wrote over his decades in the music business. My condolences to his family, friends, fans and many fellow songwriters in the industry.
Just for the record, the above YouTube video comes from the channel Going Awesome Places with Will Tang and he's showing off some of the wonderful things to do in Alberta's Banff and Lake Louise, a place that I got to visit all the way back in 1990.
I mentioned in a recent Xmas-based article on KKP that not all Canadians want to celebrate the Holidays in their own country. Perhaps it's something about the fact that walking daily in a winter wonderland with the temperature at a slightly cool -280 degrees and the winds coming in at a breezy Mach 2 might not be the most enjoyable environment. 🧊🥶
I know that folks do like to head down south for days, weeks and even months at a time but I wanted to sate my curiosity about where Canadians like to go during winter once and for all. And I was surprised to find out that at least some of my fellow countrymen do like to keep things within the Great White North while others do desire something more tropical. As such, possessing that whimsical nature which often powers my Author's Picks, I've come up with five destinations while providing the appropriate songs to accompany them.
(1967) Jackey Yoshikawa and His Blue Comets -- Blue Chateau（ブルー・シャトウ）
My very first article on singer-actress Jun Mayuzumi（黛ジュン）was back in 2016 when I wrote up on her 1968 hit "Tenshi no Yuwaku"（天使の誘惑）. I categorized it as one of the most cheerful Mood Kayo that I had ever heard.
I also noted in that article about Mayuzumi's debut single"Koi no Hallelujah" (Love Hallelujah) which was released in February 1967. And once again, referring back to "Tenshi no Yuwaku", this was actually a restart for Mayuzumi since she had actually debuted back in 1964 under her first stage name of Junko Watanabe（渡辺順子） (same pronunciation as her real name「渡邊順子」but with one kanji different). Anyways, this single representing a new start with a new record company has all that jangly nature of a Group Sounds tune. It was a very successful hit for Mayuzumi as it sold well over a million records by 1968.
"Koi no Hallelujah" was written by Rei Nakanishi（なかにし礼）as one of his earliest works and it was composed by Kunihiko Suzuki（鈴木邦彦）. According to the J-Wiki article on the song, Nakanishi had been spurred on to include the word "hallelujah" from his own emotions as a little boy years previously after arriving in the coastal city of Huludao, People's Republic of China as a refugee. His lyrics are also imbued with his feelings toward his old hometown in Manchuria and against war.
In November 1994, a cover version of "Koi no Hallelujah" was released as Yoko Oginome's（荻野目洋子）33rd single. The original GS arrangement was replaced with a dance-club R&B vibe (with a goodly amount of orchestra hits), and it scored a No. 76 ranking on Oricon. Oginome's take was used as the campaign song for Noevir Cosmetics.
Being Friday, I would usually be putting up my spate of urban contemporary tunes onto the blog, but I hope you'll permit me one change here. Singer and actor Yukio Hashi passed away at the age of 82 yesterday on September 4th. My parents and I were watching an NHK news flash when the announcement came out which garnered a joint gasp from all of us. In the last couple of years, we had seen him announce his retirement from show business in 2023, even going to the extent of searching for a young singer to take on the name of Yukio Hashi and continue his music. But due to popular demand, the original Hashi rescinded that retirement exactly a year later. I don't know if many of us who've enjoyed enka and Mood Kayo knew that he was sick but he had been diagnosed with an Alzheimer's-type disease earlier this year and that may have been a factor in his passing along with pneumonia according to the latest report on J-Wiki.
Hashi's death is especially poignant as he not only was one of the three young Turks in Japanese pop culture's first Gosanke trio alongside Kazuo Funaki（舟木一夫）and Teruhiko Saigo（西郷輝彦）, but in our household, I came to realize that a number of his records were part of my father's collection. So, his voice was a familiar one on the stereo although I wouldn't know who he really was until many years later. The Tokyo-born singer was mostly known for his enka and Mood Kayo classics but he could also put out songs that were outside of those traditional genres...songs that would also become very popular over the decades.
I'm going to put up the songs that I knew as a kid at home. My condolences go to Hashi's family, friends, and many fans.
With my occasional exhortations to KKP viewers to never forget those 45" single B-sides, I did wonder about the B-side of one very famous song. And that song on the A-side is Hibari Misora's（美空ひばり）"Makkana Taiyo"（真赤な太陽）from May 1967. Of course, that hit had the Queen of Kayo Kyoku going all go-go with help from Group Sounds band Jackey Yoshikawa and The Blue Comets.
Well, I discovered that the B-side for "Makkana Taiyo" was quite a different animal. "Yasashii Ai no Uta"(A Gentle Love Song) is a more playful tune with Misora being quite the teasing lover in vocal delivery thanks to Sou Nishizawa's（西沢爽）lyrics. Meanwhile, the melody and arrangement are very much jazz mambo due to Makoto Saeki（佐伯亮）. It all sounds Tito Puente but in this case, Nobuo Hara（原信夫）, who had come up with the music for "Makkana Taiyo", lent his swinging band Sharps and Flats（シャープス&フラッツ）to the cause.
It is (or was in Japan) July 7th 2025 which means another day to celebrate Tanabata, commemorating the star-crossed lovers Orihime and Hikoboshi. This year, though, is particularly auspicious because July 7th is falling in the 7th year of Reiwa (another way of saying 2025 in Japan) and so people noticing that it is the 7th day of the 7th month in the 7th year, much hay has been made out of it. For example, couples have been flooding their local city halls to register their marriages today and in a lot of supermarkets, some products have been priced at 777 yen.
Now, I've done my commemorating of the holiday sometimes on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" for specific songs in the past, but this time, I've decided to become a little more ambitious by applying a few gimmicks to this Author's Pick.
First off, let's provide three songs that have something to do with the number 7.
(1967) The Echoes and The Misuzu Children's Choral Group -- Theme from Ultra Seven （ウルトラセブンの歌）
It is indeed another Hump Day here so why not perk things up a tad? We often celebrate anniversaries such as birthdays here and we're gonna do so once again with Kayo Grace Kyoku and Mr. Calico.
The news was coming that the 20th anniversary of YouTube was near but I hadn't realized that it was actually today. However indeed, on April 23rd 2005, the first YouTube video was uploaded onto the new site with one of the co-founders Jawed Karim putting up a 19-second presentation of his very calm observation of elephants at the San Diego Zoo. Of course, from such humble beginnings, a video empire evolved including tons of music from over the past century, recipe videos from home, soothing ASMR stuff and vicarious drives all over the world among other imaginative ideas.
Also because "Kayo Kyoku Plus" could only work with the representation of Japanese songs from now and yesteryear existing on YouTube, I have to extend my gratitude to all those uploaders over the years (although perhaps certain companies and artists may not be thrilled). It was always my feeling that a Japanese music blog wouldn't work with just some prose about the songs that I knew and loved; the actual songs just had to be there for listening.
I had actually considered only putting up the Top 10 list of singles for April 23rd 2005 but seeing that most of the top 10 were unknown to me, I quickly ditched that idea. Instead, what I will do is provide songs by certain artists that were released in the 20th year of their time in show business (checked J-Wiki), whether or not they were put out as official 20th-anniversary songs.
Well, the Osaka Expo is now fully underway. Back last week, I posted a Kaori Mizumori（水森かおり）enka in commemoration of the event, and earlier today, NHK's "Uta Con"（うたコン ）provided a song festival for Osaka in tribute as well. I realized then that I may not have put up a list of Osaka-based kayo kyoku on KKP as of yet, and checking some of the key files, I apparently have not done so. Therefore, without further ado, here are some of those songs, a few of which were featured on "Uta Con".
A few decades ago, someone had the bright idea to enshrine the third Monday of January as Blue Monday, the saddest day of the year. As much as folks and maybe even authorities have tried to debunk it, the concept has remained stuck to pop culture like hawk talons on a fish. Ironically, a lot of those credit card and utility bills have poured into my mailbox today.
Well, Monday is bad enough but a Blue Monday calls for some help and perhaps I can humbly provide some "blue" songs that can have you swaying, skipping, grooving or even dancing. Enjoy!
Merry Christmas to one and all! I'm hoping that all of you who may be reading this are enjoying December 25th with family and friends and savoring the amity and smells of the season (turkey, potatoes and the like). The Kyoku family is certainly doing and so, and I believe that they'll be having an appropriate get-together later on tonight.
For the final Xmas 2024 entry on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I've decided to go with a special Reminiscings of Youth song, and what better song to put on here than "White Christmas". Now of course, Bing Crosby is the traditional representative for this perennially sung Yuletide tune but I did want to begin with chanteuse Barbra Streisand because she wasn't only on that early 1970s Ronco compilation LP "A Christmas Gift" that my parents got me, but she was the first entertainer that I heard to sing the Irving Berlin classic while including that mystery first verse that's been usually omitted in other renderings of the song because it just took away (if briefly) that feeling of snow and cold and Christmas atmosphere. Apparently, Streisand's version was first heard on her 1967 album"A Christmas Album", and it's a solemn yet hopeful rendition.
"White Christmas" was first brought to ears in the 1942 holiday-themed musical "Holiday Inn" starring Crosby and Fred Astaire. It was one of many songs that was featured in this flick regarding Crosby's character's whimsical pursuit of running a countryside hotel that was only open on national holidays.
But "Holiday Inn" was a movie that I wouldn't discover until far into my life (actually, it was the Xmas episode of "SCTV" that introduced me to the existence of "Holiday Inn"). Before then, I had been accustomed to hearing it on those Crosby TV specials annually, Elvis Presley's cover of it, and then the movie "White Christmas" (directed by Michael Curtiz, the same guy behind the legendary "Casablanca") which came out in October 1954. Reading through the Wikipedia article on it, I'm not sure whether "White Christmas" the movie had been meant as a direct reconstruction of "Holiday Inn" despite the key presence of a countryside inn.
The movie was an annual ritual in my television life, especially at a time when I had known no other Turner Classic Movies-friendly Xmas flick at the time; "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Miracle on 42nd Street" would come to my attention many years later. "White Christmas" had a bigger main cast than "Holiday Inn" and between the bookends of the rendition of the song, the movie was chock-filled with some great song-and-dance moments (I've already talked about "Snow"here) such as "The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing" with Danny Kaye and Vera-Ellen, and may I say that Kaye was a great addition in terms of both his dancing and comedic prowess compared to Astaire who wouldn't join this movie and Donald O'Connor who had to bow out due to illness.
Of course, there is also the whole "Sisters" bit with the Haynes Sisters and then the parody by Bing and Danny. I'd always wondered whether the latter was ad-libbed since the laughter from the guys looked so genuine. And as it turned out, it was.
Is it a perfect Xmas movie? Maybe not...there were a few scenes in there that had me thinking "Yep, it was way back in the mid-20th century, wasn't it?" but that was then and this is now. Also, I've never been a fan of that latter-half manufactured tiff between Bob and Betty but I guess the writers felt that there had to be some conflict when things may have gotten too cozy for the couples too soon. Still, after not having seen "White Christmas" in many years now, I wouldn't mind taking another gander at it someday.
In any case, what are some other big songs from Japan that were hitting the airwaves in 1954?
Akira Fuse（布施明）appeared on "Uta Con"（うたコン）today. He usually comes onto the show about two or three times a year, by my reckoning and he looks mighty fine for a 76-year-old. In fact, the hosts acknowledged the fact that Fuse is celebrating his 60th anniversary in show business.
As I mentioned long ago in one of my early articles on Fuse, the man is one of a handful of singers that has that booming voice which can really project. I remember one commenter who complained that Fuse was frankly just booming all of his vocals off the walls in recent appearances which annoyed the heck out of him. To be honest, I once wondered if I ever had the opportunity to meet the singer, would he end up greeting me through two walls and the outer shell of the house? 😏
But in any case, one song that popped up in the short montage of his work was his March 1967 single"Koi"(Love). He was still technically a teenager at 19 in Japan when he sang of the wide spectrum of emotions that bursts out when exposed to love so I'm not sure whether he had already been fully aware of its implications and consequences. But getting out of that complicated circumstance, "Koi" has a tango-esque arrangement thanks to Masaaki Hirao's（平尾昌晃）melody; he also took care of the lyrics with Tetsu Mizushima（水島哲）.
It's interesting comparing the original recording with his later renditions of "Koi". Fuse was downright hesitant and halting with his delivery on the record but later on, it seems that experience and confidence brought some of the boom into his future performances. However even so, he's not quite as forceful as he is with some of his other hits.
Oricon was still not up and running when "Koi" had its own success, but it sold 700,000 records and Fuse received his first invitation onto the Kohaku Utagassen at the end of 1967 to perform this one.
Welcome to another weekly article of Reminiscings of Youth. A few years ago, I posted up the theme from the first "Casino Royale"(1967), the hot mess of a 007 spoof starring David Niven and Peter Sellers which nonetheless inspired Mike Myers'"Austin Powers" franchise. As I said in that article, I have seen the movie once and then bits and pieces on YouTube. However, what I've appreciated most about the flick is the music and that Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass theme penned by the amazing Burt Bacharach that is so infused with the Swinging 60s of Great Britain. If I were ever to get to London someday on a vacation and somehow got a Savile Row suit, I would love to walk up and down the streets with that song in my ears.
However, there was one scene in "Casino Royale" that also caught my attention because of the music and, well, Ursula Andress. I remember she was hopping all about with a bunch of shocking pink feathers and I guess the above footage only shows the seconds or so before that one scene. At the same time, there was the music which was jazzy and oh-so-sexy with a breathy voice that squeezed out "The Look of Love" as if a woman in Bubble Era Japan were trying to get out of her bodicon dress. I think the scene and the song play off of each other very well because of the languid pacing out of both of them, and considering the lunacy that precedes and follows in "Casino Royale", Sellers and Andress having a little intimate fun makes for a pretty calming oasis.
Dusty Springfield was someone that I had heard of before when I was a kid in the 1970s because of those K-Tel LP compilation commercials on television but the song that featured her (can't remember the title) had her sound a whole lot different than those vocals on "The Look of Love". The bossa nova jazz was woven together by Burt Bacharach with Hal David taking care of the lyrics, and it was even nominated for a Best Song Oscar in 1968.
Jazz pianist and vocalist Diana Krall is one of many artists who have covered "The Look of Love", and it's included as the title track for her September 2011 album. The original version was released in April 1967, so what were three songs from Japan that got their release at around the same time?
Last night, for the first time in a long while, my family watched the venerable rakugo-ka variety series, NTV's "Shoten"（笑点...Laughing Points）, on Jme. And as it turned out, it was the penultimate episode (from earlier this spring) of one of the longest-serving Japanese comic storytellers, Kikuo Hayashiya（林家木久扇）in the bright yellow garb. He had been on the show since 1969 so it was basically a 55-year run for him. I'm hoping that he's enjoying his retirement.
Considering that "Shoten" has been around since 1966, change has been an inevitable part of the program including change in the comedians on the zabuton over the decades. That was also the case with the theme song for "Shoten". The current comical theme song penned by Hachidai Nakamura（中村八大） has been around for so long (since around Hayashiya's arrival on the show) that people can be forgiven if they thought that it has been the only theme.
But such was not the case. For the first several months of "Shoten", there was apparently no theme and I gather that the show went straight into the hijinks without any music, but then from January 1967, the first theme song made its appearance known as this jaunty and jazzy minyo-style song done to an orchestra. Known as "Shoten Ondo" (The Laughing Points Song), it was recorded by the original group of rakugo-ka known as the Shoten Group（笑点グループ）with the lead vocalist being the first host himself, Tatekawa Danshi VII（立川談志）. The lyrics were provided by Tatekawa with the melody composed by Naoshi Miyazaki（宮崎尚志）. "Shoten Ondo" would last for almost three years before the more familiar theme song replaced it in late 1969 with the departure of Tatekawa from "Shoten".
As is usually the case for me, I was doing my round of maintenance among the articles last night when I came across Noelle's 2016 article for "A rundown of the 48th Omoide no Melody (第48回 思い出のメロディー) Part 2". A few of the videos got taken down by YouTube so I had to replace them.
One such video was for Noelle's description of the performance by one of the guests on the annual NHK special who happened to be singer-songwriter Ichiro Araki（荒木一郎）. She had been expecting to hear Araki's "Itoshi no Macks ~ Macks A Go Go"(Macks, My Love) because she enjoyed actor/singer Hiroshi Tachi's（舘ひろし）cover version, but instead the original singer went with his debut single, "Sora ni Hoshi ga aru youni"(空に星があるように) .
We're going with something from seven years ago, but I'm not going to see one of my friends and fellow writers be disappointed, so allow me to bring "Itoshi no Macks" onto the KKP screen. This was his fifth single from May 1967, and true to the Group Sounds boom that was happening in the latter half of that decade, Araki made some adjustments to the melody and arrangement so that he was jangling it like any GS band. The entire song is a love paean to some lady named Macks (get that red dress for her, Ichiro!), perhaps short for Maxine or Maxie. And yep, the lyrics have the name down as "Macks" and not "Max" which I had assumed at first.
"Itoshi no Macks" may have been Araki's first big hit as it sold 1.25 million copies by some time in 1968 and got him his sole invitation to the 1967 edition of the Kohaku Utagassen. This was before the Oricon charts came out but I could imagine that the song would have hit No. 1.
To commemorate his 10th anniversary in the music business in 1976, Araki released through what was once Trio Records a revised version of "Itoshi no Macks". This one still retains the GS flavour but as the song progresses, there is more of a silky Mood Kayo element added through strings and sax.
Ahh...here is the Tachi cover which was his 1991 single. I could only find this video but it sounds like there is a bit more of a rock sheen to this one.
Years ago, when I was doing my usual hemispheric voyage between Tokyo and Toronto, I opted to watch one of the offered choices for movies on a plane. Of course, to make me forget that I was flying in a pressurized tin can thousands of metres above the land and sea, I opted to catch a movie that involved a lot of flying...mind you in outer space. That movie was the 1998 redux of the old TV series "Lost in Space" starring the late John Hurt and Gary Oldman. I had a basic idea of what the original 1960s show (1965-1968) was all about but unlike another sci-fi franchise from that decade, "Star Trek", I never became a fan although I was aware of the Robot and the goofily villainous Dr. Smith. The movie did have its charms including a new Robot and some nice effects, but it was just a timewaster with the characters spewing technobabble that appeared to have been lifted straight from "Star Trek".
It says something when the really good part of the movie is the ending credits with a pretty kickass theme by electronica band Apollo 440. At the time, I just had no idea that the group had based it on the second theme song for the original series.
Listening to both the first and second theme songs, yeah, I agree that the latter was the better one for being more upbeat and adventurous. It was used for the third and final season of "Lost in Space" from September 1967, and it's a nice touch to have that visual countdown at the beginning of each episode of Season 3 just to add to the excitement. To add to the epic nature of this story, both themes were composed by one Johnny Williams (cool, daddy-o!), aka master movie soundtrack maker John Williams.
Of course, Williams is already on the blog for "Star Wars" and I noted in that ROY article that the music legend had already been making his mark in the industry during the 1960s, but at the time, I hadn't really realized that the man who was also behind the great music behind "Superman", "Indiana Jones", "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", etc. had a decade previously come up with cool television theme tunes for those pulpy sci-fi shows including "Land of the Giants" and "Lost in Space". It must have been great training for Williams because even back then, those TV themes were also thrilling blood-pumpers.
I have to admit though that as much as I discovered this Williams theme via an electronica band cover decades later, the same goes with "Star Wars". Months before I finally got to listen to the original overture, I'd first discovered that movie's theme from the disco cover by Meco, so I gather that I will have to talk about disco "Star Wars" in a future ROY.
Anyways, I could only find one single in Japan that was released in the same month that the newer and more improved "Lost in Space" theme made its presence known.
Masayoshi Tsuruoka & Tokyo Romantica -- Otaru no Hito yo （小樽のひとよ）
Last week, "Uta Con"（うたコン）had its tribute to the Queen of Kayo Kyoku, Hibari Misora（美空ひばり）. So, I posted a song by her in my own tribute on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" later that day. Well, earlier today, legendary composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）, who would have been 84 last week (he had passed away back in 2020), got his own themed segment for a good part of the "Uta Con" episode and therefore I will post a song by him.
With the usual 13-hour time difference and getting the show live, I was actually having breakfast away from the television so I could only hear the montage of his hit compositions so I'll probably be watching the NHK program again during its rerun later tonight. Yep, Tsutsumi is indeed a favourite of mine and in fact, the first Creator article on KKP was on him.
As I've mentioned on the blog over the years, Tsutsumi had long earned the label of being the "He created THAT?!" composer. So many songs of different styles over so many decades. Today, I decided to go way back when he was nearly 27 and he composed his second single alongside lyricist Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）, a frequent songwriting partner of his back in the day. That was "Makka na Boots"(Deep Red Boots) for singer-actress Nana Kinomi（木の実ナナ）when she was all of 20.
Listening to this, people (including myself) can marvel that he was creating and arranging the go-go dance type material of those 1960s. According to the J-Wiki article for "Makka na Boots", which I don't think was featured in the "Uta Con" montage, it was put together as a solo singer Group Sounds effort but apparently, there were folks who also likened it to an Italian pop song of the day. However it's interpreted I can imagine young Kinomi dancing away in those long scarlet boots on some stand on a music-variety show while singing it.
Of course, I've known Kinomi for a karaoke favourite from much later in her career.
Welcome to the weekend. And yes, just to make this clear...this is indeed a song concerning kayo kyoku legend Hiroshi Itsuki（五木ひろし）. But in those early struggling years before he made his breakthrough with the silky "Yokohama Tasogare"（よこはま・たそがれ）in 1971, the entertainer had been paying his dues as a 1960s teenager trying to break into the music industry. The man born as Kazuo Matsuyama（松山数夫）in Fukui Prefecture was going through a few stage names before Hiroshi Itsuki stuck with him for several decades.
Back in 2017, I posted his debut single from May 1965, "Shinjuku Eki kara"（新宿駅から）when he first started out as Masaru Matsuyama（松山まさる）. Reviewing the song once more, I felt that the future Itsuki was coming out as a kayo kyoku crooner. He would release five more singles as Matsuyama up to early 1966 but I'm not sure whether he kept that style.
Then from 1967 for three singles, he got a new name Eiichi Ichijo（一条英一）and made his re-debut with "Ore wo Nakaseru Yoru no Ame" (The Evening Rain Makes Me Cry) which was released in March that year. Just on the cusp of turning 19, I guess the powers-that-be behind his career decided to have him start out as a really guttural-sounding Mood Kayo singer as if he'd drunk half a distillery (not to accuse him of underage drinking in Japan...the lad looked really cherubic on the cover of the 45") before he got behind the mike. That plinking guitar really set the tone of love doing someone wrong (and truthfully, it also reminded me of "Perry Mason"). The lyrics were provided by Choei Shiratori（白鳥朝詠）, who'd been with the singer when he was still Masaru Matsuyama, and apparently the music was composed by the singer himself under the name of Matsuyama, so he really knew the licks for a Mood Kayo tune. Unfortunately, his time as Ichijo wasn't a particularly successful one so he had another go with another name name and another song in 1969. I'll probably cover that one, too...eventually.
I'm sure that present-day Itsuki has covered his old songs under his different names and that has been the case with "Ore wo Nakaseru Yoru no Ame" here. It's interesting to hear him cover it again but under the Itsuki voice that we fans have been so familiar with for so long.
As a J-moppet in the mid-1960s, there were two images on television that terrified me back under sofa cushions and behind my parents. One was the first face of Balok from the original "Star Trek" episode, "The Corbomite Maneuver".
Of course, I hadn't been aware of the episode at the time but terrifying Balok was used as the final still photo for the ending credits during the second season of "Star Trek". Not sure why my parents, who were never sci-fi fans, just happened to have the show on at the time when those credits popped up. I can only gather that they were getting back at me for filling up my diapers a little too often.
The other image that probably was responsible for me filling up my diapers was good ol' Rover from "The Prisoner". How does a white bouncy balloon become something this scary? I don't know but the producers pulled it off. It especially frightened me when Rover caught an errant Villager and the camera just had to show the victim screaming through the balloon.
"The Prisoner" starring Patrick McGoohan (whose face frankly scared me too) was one of those one-of-a-kind programs that has become legend despite only having a one-season run between September 1967 and February 1968. There was no way at the time that I could have understood the overarching philosophical and political themes at play. It was always Rover and that pre-commercial shot of Number 6's head racing toward the camera before prison bars stopped it. In fact, it wasn't until some fifteen years later when reruns of "The Prisoner" began playing on the local "The All-Night Show" that I could begin to understand what was really going on between Number 6 and all those Number 2s. And at the same time, I could also finally hear the theme song.
I only learned about this in the last few days but the composer for "The Prisoner" theme song was Ron Grainer who is already on KKP's Reminiscings of Youth series because of his work on the theme for "Doctor Who" which he accomplished with Delia Derbyshire. The other big surprise was that the original version of "The Prisoner" theme was a far more sedate deal known as "The Age of Elegance", and yep, it definitely sounded elegant, but show producer McGoohan was having none of that and he kept pushing Grainer to speed it up (I guess "Faster...more intense" wasn't just George Lucas' mantra). It finally did speed up to become this boss and very 1960s brassy tour de force tune that was unlike anything for James Bond or Napoleon Solo. The British always did brass right back in the day. I guess in a way, the theme was reflective of Number 6 himself: elegant, fast, brash and cunning.
By the way, I've been hearing rumours that Christopher Nolan may be interested in doing a cinematic version of "The Prisoner". If there's any director who can pick up on the challenge, it would be Nolan although I wasn't quite as enthused about "Tenet". Anyways, who was picking up on the Japan Record Awards hardware in 1967?
Grand Prize: Jackey Yoshikawa and His Blue Comets -- Blue Chateau（ブルー・シャトウ）
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