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.
Back in late July, I posted an article regarding the late Yuji Ohno's（大野雄二）"Wavelet"（ウエイブリット）, which was the B-side to "Inubue no Tehma"(The Theme for "Inubue"). "Inubue" (Dog Whistle) was the 1978 TV adaptation of a suspense novel by Jugou Nishimura（西村寿行）about a man and his faithful dog who track down the kidnappers who grabbed his kid. Considering that most of the show took place in the woods, I was surprised that something so jazzy and City Poppy could be applied to something like this.
I did mention in that article that I would have a posting about the A-side in August. Well once again, I broke that promise which means you folks shouldn't trust what I write in terms of dates and I will never make such guarantees again. So, I ought to say something rather generic like "soon".
Anyways, "Inubue no Tehma" is another classy and refined instrumental by Ohno but I think there's also that hint of suspense in the arrangement as well (although there is also a hopeful-sounding "middle eight" section). Hearing it a few times now and perhaps adding a sharp horn section, this could have made for a fine opening for those Quinn Martin detective shows in the States back in the 1970s.
The first time I wrote about the late great jazz fusion guitarist and composerRyo Kawasaki（川崎燎）was back in 2020 when I posted an article on his "Raisins" from his 1976 album"Juice", and from listening to the song, I got the impression that he really liked the rock and funk side of fusion.
Well, a couple of years later, Kawasaki and American jazz pianist Joanne Brackeen collaborated on their own album of duets titled "Trinkets and Things". Brackeen composed all of the seven tracks except for the first track which was also the title track. Kawasaki handled this one and "Trinkets and Things" goes into a more tropical and jazzier direction which flows through the beaches and Tiki bars with much aplomb. Although it's mostly an instrumental, there are a couple of parts where a female singer provides some accomplished vocalese but for the life of me, I couldn't track down who she was.
Good heavens! It's September already! Time sure has flown in 2026. But as it is, autumn is just around the corner, school will be starting up again here and NHK will officially announce that the Kohaku Utagassen will be broadcast once more on December 31st. Ironically, though, for a summer that really hasn't been all that blazing hot this year in Toronto, today's been a really hazy and humid affair. But no worries, things will cool down by this long weekend.
Anyways, I'm dusting off the KKP category of The First once again. I began this one with "The First -- J-Canuck" almost a decade ago with a rambling recounting of some of the first Japanese songs that I heard and then a few years later, I posted "The Firsts by J-Canuck" where I selected some of my other firsts via genre. Other writers on the blog have also chimed in with their firsts.
Well, being whimsical me and acknowledging the fact that today is September 1st, I've decided to put up some of the first songs I heard by five artists. I also acknowledge that I'm putting up a couple of examples of "September" since I'm so shamelessly enthralled by them nearly fifty years following their release, but I'll defend myself with Blog Founder's Prerogative.
Yup, this was my first exposure to the legendary guys at Earth Wind & Fire thanks to my pink SONY radio. I always wondered why these guys were so funkily devoted to the ninth month of the year but the disco and the dancing kept distracting my (soul) train of thought. I hope the guys at Area 51 have another great time this year, too.
The whole Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）thing began with this song on "Sounds of Japan". It put my whole impression of aidoru voices in a different perspective because up until this tune, I'd thought that female Japanese singers had to sing up in the ionosphere. I actually thought Mariya was Mario for a few days because her vocals were so low. As the years and decades have passed, I've come to realize that her "September" is pretty unique: a combination of 50s/60s girl pop, a bit of disco and contemporary pop.
I always remember my first and for Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）, it was "Kinku". I hadn't known anything about the singer or the image that her handlers had wanted to convey (misunderstood punk student) or the fact that the song was an example of techno aidoru music. At the time, it struck me as being this enigmatic and dramatic tune sung by a teenage girl whose vocals also went down to the basement.
If EPO had actually gone with her first choice for a career path which was (I believe) a gym teacher, she would have had her young charges whipped into shape with that boomer voice of hers. Thankfully for me and the rest of her fans, she has used her vocals to provide brightness and spark into the music sphere. Her surrounding musical arrangement has frequently followed suit. "U, Fu, Fu, Fu" may come off as one of the most unusual titles in Japanese pop, but the entire song can have the power to transport listeners to happy and joyful 80s Tokyo.
Indeed, it was neither "Christmas Eve" nor any of his City Pop classics that served as the introduction to Tatsuro Yamashita's（山下達郎）works. It was the theme song to the 1990 TBS drama"Yuwaku"（誘惑）that caught my ear due to its class and moodiness...and that trombone! Who was bringing a trombone solo into a late 80s pop tune? It wasn't City Pop per se but it sure was urban and urbane.
I've got the fan on in my room, my feet are slightly achy and I'm feeling a bit tired for a fellow in his 60s with his aging bones. One reason for this: I went downtown earlier this morning to see what was up with the annual August Fan Expo which started officially last night and will be continuing until Sunday evening. I hadn't been there in over a decade so it was something to see that the anime section has ballooned over the past ten years and the number of visitors has done the same thing.
Anyways, I wanted to start with something peaceful and I remember yesterday putting up Early Byrds'"Ocean Song" and then Naomi Sugimura's（杉村尚美）"Tasogare ni Last Scene"（黄昏にラストシーン）with their jazz-fusion and bossa nova respectively. Well, I got a song there that combines the two genres. It's called "Dream Away" and it's available on the November 1978 record "Sunny Place Carnival" by the band Samba Carioca (although the debut album has a misspelling on the cover). "Dream Away" is the aural salve to heal me of my aches and pains...well, some of them anyways.
The band got its start in 1975 when they were backing singer-songwriter Kiyoshi Hasegawa（長谷川きよし）at the Shimo-Kitazawa and Shinjuku branches of the Loft live houses as they played monthly in their Sunday Samba Sessions. In the beginning, there were flutist Nozomu Nakatani（中谷望）, bassist Toru Hirano（平野融）and percussionist Yuuji Yoshikawa（吉川祐二）before drummer Antonio Ishida（アントニオ石田）and guitarist Masami Sato（佐藤正美）joined. In 1977, Hasegawa broke up the band but they almost immediately reintegrated, taking on the name of Samba Carioca（サンバ・カリオカ）, a unit that would focus on samba and bossa nova. They would continue releasing several albums up to 1984 during which they reduced their name to just Carioca.
Y'know...try as I might, I always confuse the heck out of myself with the singer-songwriters Ichizo Seo（瀬尾一三）and Shozo Ise（伊勢正三）. It sure doesn't help that they are contemporaries and that they not only worked basically within the same sphere of music from the 1970s but they have collaborated together. Plus, there's something about the pronunciation of both of those names. One commenter even caught me on that when he noticed that I'd mistaken one for the other on one article. But let's not get all scrambly about this on Urban Contemporary Fridays, shall we?
Let's start with the cool song "Koozue wo Tsuku Onna"(The Woman Resting Her Hand on Her Cheek) which was folk duo Kaze's（風）4th single from December 1976. The aforementioned Shozo Ise, who was one-half of the duo along with Kazuhisa Okubo（大久保一久）, wrote and composed this one with the urban boogie-like rhythm and the languid rock guitar...definitely not folk. Meanwhile, the aforementioned Ichizo Seo arranged the song into something that I'd like to use as a temporal touchstone to what City Pop was like back in the early days when it felt like it could accompany anyone walking among the skyscrapers of Tokyo. The single reached No. 40 on Oricon and was included as a track on Kaze's November 1976 album"Windless Blue" which hit No. 3 on the charts and ended up as the 17th-ranked album of 1977.
Arranger Seo, who has been involved with just about everyone and anyone includingAnri（杏里） and Michiru Kojima（児島未散）, came up with the second of his own solo albums "The Golden Section ~ Kaze Instrumental Album" in 1978. This particular one is an instrumental tribute with includes his take on Kaze's "Hoozue wo Tsuku Onna" right from the top. It has a much more laidback, more romantic and jazzier feeling as if the walking is over and it's now straight to drinking in one of the bars located inside one of those skyscrapers. I would say that it could even find a spot in a soundtrack of one of those Japanese cop shows.
I still don't know a lot about the vocal group Crest Four Singers aside from the fact that they had started out in the 1970s with Tsunehiro/Norihiro Uchida（内田典宏）as a folk/Mood Kayo group before female vocalist Kazumi Kaai（かあいかずみ）joined. Then, the group went more into the jazz and urban contemporary.
At this point, Crest Four Singers released two albums with their debut being the 1978 "The Crest Four Singers" (the definite article, you might say? Sorry, that was a "Doctor Who" joke), and I've yet to hear the entire album (as provided above) but it seems as if the group was fully in thrall to their jazzier side by this point. At 4:15 of the video is the second track, "Elise", a rum punch of a song with influences that seemingly fly in from Santana, Henry Mancini and disco. Kaai shapes her vocals like a seen-it-all and done-it-all heiress in the lap of luxury while Uchida and the rest of the Singers provide some French in some funky harmony. Listening to the coolness of "Elise", I just kinda wonder why I never heard about Crest Four Singers at the same frequency of fellow vocal acts Hi-Fi Set and Circus.
It's been a long day and one reason that I'm doing my two articles rather late tonight is that I was out for most of the day today. Yep, I caught "Spider-Man: Brand New Day". And I have to say that this may not only be the best of the "Spider-Man" franchise (up there with the second Tobey Maguire movie) but one of the best Marvel movies, period. It certainly stands out and away from the first three Tom Holland movies. But that's all I'm going to say.
Now, I had thought I gave my tribute to the movie through the official theme song commemorating the release of "Brand New Day" in Japan, Mrs. GREEN APPLE's"Brand New" back last Saturday. However, I wanted to see if I could find one more Japanese pop song that had an association with Your Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man. Of course, I've already covered the opening and ending theme songs for Toei's own "Spider-Man" show from 1978.
But scrolling down the J-Wiki article for the show, I also found an insert dance song that had been used in Episode 7 of the one-season series. Apparently, some band named Kotaro Kobayashi（小林幸太郎）& BB5 came up with "Spider-Man Boogie". With lyricist Shozo Uehara（上原正三）and composer Chuumei Watanabe（渡辺宙明）creating the rollicking rock and roll number, it's short and sweet. And one other YouTuber wanted to add a little more to the song in terms of visuals.
Hey, Maguire had his time on the dance floor...er, street. And of course, Holland has his background in dancing. Andrew Garfield...where are you?
Recently going over "Light Mellow ~ Beams", I've come across a few tracks on the compilation that I never thought to cover on the blog, so shame on me for that oversight.
One of those former neglected songs from "Beams" is Izumi Kobayashi（小林泉）& Flying Mimi Band's "My Beach Samba", originally from her March 1978 debut album"ORANGE SKY－Endless Summer". Written, composed and arranged by Kobayashi herself, it's a fun and perky and Latin jazzyCity Pop number of the 1970s with inclusion of that decade's aural symbol of the genre...the keyboard haze effect. Speaking of keyboards, I think that is indeed Kobayashi just going crazy on her instrument near the end. Not to be outdone, I have to mention the saxophone and guitar solos, too.
PS. Well, it looks like my memory is failing me. I did write up something on the album proper back in 2019 and that also included my comments on "My Beach Samba". But hey, any song is worth another look.
Whenever I think of canine heroes, my memories reveal "Lassie" (Rin Tin Tin was just way before even my time) from the 1960s. I remember watching some of the TV series as a kid and though I can't really remember the theme song, I can make out enough of it that it was an instrumental with a faintly classical arrangement.
In 1976, novelist Jugou Nishimura（西村寿行）wrote "Inubue"（犬笛...Dog Whistle） whose plot entailed a child kidnapping and the father who used his trusty dog via a dog whistle to track down his kid and the dastardly folks behind the crime. Apparently, the novel had quite the legs since it would be made into a movie in 1978 followed by three television adaptations in 1978, 1990 and 2002. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any footage from any of those TV shows or the movie so the poster up at the top is the best I could do.
For the 1978 TV adaptation that was an 8-week summer series on NTV, the recently departed Yuji Ohno（大野雄二）was placed in charge of the music. I'll do the official ending theme by him next month but for today, I'll go with the B-side of the single, the shibui "Wavelet". The first time I heard this, I thought that this was awfully urban and urbane for a thriller that seems to take place in the deep woods, and it's not everyday that an adventure involving a kid and a dog sounds like something from "Lupin III". But hey, it's Ohno and he was the master of the jazzier side of City Pop, so if the kid and the dog wanna hit a Shinjuku hotel top bar for mocktails (I wouldn't dare say cocktails) after filming, I'm not judging. 👍
To any and all American readers of "Kayo Kyoku Plus", Happy Fourth of July and also a Happy Sestercentennial (250th birthday). I recall that three years ago, I also provided a special list of America-related songs on July the 4th and mentioned that we would have to do something about 2026. Well, the day is here.
And so, this is my "America" Tunes 2. Unlike the first one which mostly dealt with songs that had "America" in their titles, I'm being a bit more geographically precise so I'll be listing those numbers referring specifically to states and cities. Without further ado then:
Yes, the above video was so soothing that despite its ten-second run time, I almost got hooked into its sneaky clutches. Beware the glitter!
But you should be totally OK with this video showing singer-songwriter Yuko Sugita's（杉田優子）"Kira Kira" which coincidentally enough means "Glitter". For one thing, "Kira Kira" was written and composed by Sugita herself and despite what the title might imply considering its release in 1978, it's not a disco number at all. In fact, I'd say that it belongs more on the farm with its most congenial and cheerful arrangement of country, although I can still hear the synthy haze effect of City Pop and some other electronic keyboard stuff. The song was a track on Sugita's album "Monsoon Baby" along with "Senritsu"（旋律）.
Going back to my youth, I remember those over-and-over reruns of "Uchuu Senkan Yamato"（宇宙戦艦ヤマト...Space Cruiser Yamato）, aka "Star Blazers" outside of Japan, with the original seasons of the Iscandar mission and the Comet Empire saga. That penultimate episode of the latter season when it looked like the evil Prince Zoldar and his empire finally crumbled only to reveal a Super Star Destroyer filled with absolute revenge arguably represented one of the greatest anime cliffhangers.
Of course, sticking with the "Star Blazers" line, the finale had to wrap up some loose threads along with the main one involving the Comet Empire. What happens to the crew of the Argo and what of helmsman Mark Venture who supposedly gave up his life in defense of the ship a few episodes earlier? And what of Trelaina of Telazart, the sylph-like whistleblower who began the entire story and ended up falling for Mark?
Well, in the original "Yamato" series, Trelaina was actually named Teresa which I guess sounded exotic enough for Japanese viewers (although the late singer Teresa Teng was already well-known in Japan), although folks in North America must have wondered whether if the lass had sisters named Mabel and Connie. Anyways, along with the iconic Comet Empire theme done by the legendary composer Hiroshi Miyagawa（宮川泰）, another constant musical piece in the second season was Teresa's own theme titled "Teresa no Tameiki"(Teresa's Sighs).
The song as I remember it was a sad and lonely one for Teresa and even her relationship with Mark was all too brief before she seemingly had to make the ultimate sacrifice for Earth. On Christmas Day1978, Miyagawa released a concept album connected with "Yamato" titled "Fumetsu no Uchuu Senkan Yamato: New Disco Arrange"（不滅の宇宙戦艦ヤマト ニュー・ディスコ・アレンジ...The Indestructible Space Cruiser Yamato: New Disco Arrangement） where some of those familiar tracks from the series received some more syncopated oomph. I don't think the treatment given to "Teresa no Tameiki" is particularly disco but it's more of a mild City Pop thing with some of that haunting voice which was common to a fair number of Miyagawa pieces in anime. Had to laugh a little at the name of the group performing the tracks: Yamato Discotheque Orchestra.
Indeed, it has been breezing here today and this is such a relief after the stifling heat and humidity from yesterday. Just kinda wish that I could get some of those breezes here in my room.
This brings me to my next article for today, Masayoshi Takanaka's（高中正義）cover of "Breezin'" from his November 1978 album"ON Guitar". When I was scrolling up and down Takanaka's J-Wiki file for the album, I couldn't find it in the usual place but then I did find it within his brief list of concept albums. "ON Guitar" was Takanaka's instructional album about how to play the guitar (I can only imagine just from hearing "Breezin'" that this is more for the advanced students). Considering how popular the musician has become recently via X/Twitter, perhaps he should consider re-releasing the concept stuff.
Anyways, as I said above, Takanaka is covering "Breezin'" which was originally created by American singer and musician Bobby Womack and then recorded by Hungarian jazz guitarist Gábor Szabó for the latter's 1971 album "High Contrast". Compared to the original, Takanaka wanted to add a bit more of a festival atmosphere to his version. Definitely good for the beach set.
For the album, Yellow Magic Orchestra's drummer Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏）and bassist Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）helped as part of the backup band. Interestingly enough, "ON Guitar" was released on the same day as YMO's debut album.
From the same edition of NHK's "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本のうた）from which I discovered Sayuri Ishikawa's（石川さゆり）"Daikon no Hana"（だいこんの花）and wrote about it earlier today, I also heard for the first time Goro Noguchi's（野口五郎）"Good Luck".
It's been called one of Noguchi's earliest forays into J-AOR/City Pop that was released as his 28th single in September 1978. I'd probably go with the former genre myself, with it having that breezy 70s West Coast feeling thanks to that shimmering electric guitar which is reminiscent of the one accompanying Julio Iglesias' cover of "Begin the Beguine". Written by Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）and composed by Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）, Noguchi sings the step-by-step process of having that one last overnight tryst with a lover before he leaves her apartment forever. I gather that the good luck here is more about the farewell wishes to his paramour more than any fine fortune he may have had.
"Good Luck" won a Gold prize at that year's Japan Record Awards and earned Noguchi an invitation to the 1978 Kohaku Utagassen. The song was also the singer's final entry into the Oricon Top 10 as it peaked at No. 4 and eventually became the 70th-ranked single of the year.
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.
The disco/R&B band A Taste of Honey has had residency on KKP since the blog was three weeks old. I was tackling one of the great kayo classics in "Ue wo Muite Arukou"(上を向いて歩こう）, aka "Sukiyaki", when I also mentioned that A Taste of Honey provided their own cover on the song in the early 1980s...which proved to be their second and final hit in their career thus far.
However, as commendable as their elegant cover of the iconic Kyu Sakamoto（坂本九）song was, their first big hit has been the one that has been usually recognized when it comes to A Taste of Honey. The strange thing is that when I first heard their 1978 debut single"Boogie Oogie Oogie", it was through a TV performance of this song by then-teen sibling stars Kristy and Jimmy McNichol on some sort of nighttime special. With the whole mainstream disco craze, the McNichols' popularity at the time, and the novelty song-esque nature of that title, I actually did assume that this was the McNichols' tune, front and centre.
And yes, the above has Kristy and Jimmy, but no, it isn't for "Boogie Oogie Oogie".
So, it was actually many years later that I found out the truth that "Boogie Oogie Oogie" was by A Taste of Honey, and yeah as performed by Janice-Marie Johnson (and Hazel Payne) while slapping that bass hard and wearing those heels, maybe even the folks who were thinking that disco started to suck would have been willing to give a reprieve to this one. Heck, if I had been born a decade earlier, I probably would have been rarin' to run to my nearest disco and hit the dance floor. My dancing would have sucked for sure but I would have had oodles of fun doing so.
"Boogie Oogie Oogie" was not only a hit on the dance floor but also a hit outside of it as well. It hit No. 1 on Billboard's pop, disco and soul charts in September 1978, and according to the Wikipedia article for the song, it also became the first certified Platinum single in the history of Capitol Records by selling over 2 million records. I would probably posit that the chairman's office became a disco dance floor in celebration.
So, we've got one of the primo disco songs coming out in 1978. What else was winning at the Japan Record Awards that year?
Since J-Canuck did a list of New York themed songs, its only fair I do one for Los Angeles. Being an LA native I have a pretty good ear for what captures the essence of LA (the good and the bad lol).
L.A. Night by Yasuko Agawa (佐藤康子)
This is what we like to call a "certified hood classic". Recorded in 1984 for jazz singer Yasuko Agawa's album Gravy, this was written and produced by Augie Johnson, who also wrote Light of the World's 'London Town'. If it wasn't for a few key differences, their practically the same song. but L.A. Night is definitely better out of the two, with stronger bass & drums and a catchier hook. LA Night captures the laidback G-funk energy perfectly all while taking a snapshot of an LA that no longer exists, she even gives a shout out to the Raiders!
Streets Are Hot by Miho Fujiwara (藤原美穂)
The very appropriate theme from the obscure OVA movie California Crisis. Super funky, upbeat with some soulful singing from Fujiwara, this a great song for riding your bike down Manhattan Beach.
Hollywood Illusion by Himiko Kikuchi (菊池 ひみこ)
As someone who used to work in Hollywood as an intern for a few big studios, I cant definitely say that Hollywood is in fact an illusion. But this song captures the idea of Hollywood perfectly. Kikuchi manages to capture the glamourous veil of tinsel town perfectly, to the point where this would be the perfect intro to an 80s sitcom filmed in front of a live studio audience. If Hollywood had a theme song... well to be fair I think it already has a few. But I think this song should be it.
Painted Woman by Eric Tagg & Masaki Matsubara (松原正樹)
This one was another tough choice, but I think Painted Woman the euphoniums album is another great choice for a Hollywood anthem. on top of that it's also a peak specimen of West Coast AOR sound.
The final song in my list deserves its own article. In the meantime, enjoy my Los Angeles themed City-Pop mix.
Last Friday, when I put up Iruka's（イルカ）"NYC wa Toosugite"（NYCは遠すぎて）, I realized that there have been a number of New York-themed tunes posted up here on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" over the years. And since we have those "America" tunes that I posted as an Author's Picks back in 2023, why not become even more localized and go straight to the Big Apple? A couple of them on that list ("Kennedy Airport" and "Purpletown") could comfortably belong on this list but since they're already up there, it wasn't too difficult to find two more. But without further ado, here are my five New York tunes.
Earlier today, I received word from commenter and contributor Fireminer that musician and composer/arranger Yuji Ohno had passed away on May 4th from natural causes at the age of 84 according to newspaper reports just coming out today.
Whenever I heard his name, the music that automatically flowed through my head was jazz...whiskey-on-the-rocks jazz with lots of pizzazz. And of course, that means his iconic theme from the anime "Lupin The 3rd"（ルパン三世）comes pounding to mind. There have been a variety of versions of that theme but at the core of them all is a song that was just perfectly made for the bumbling if charming thief.
Born on May 30th 1941 in the city of Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture, he started playing the piano during elementary school and formed his own unit in high school while schooling himself on the joys of jazz music. He became a member of Keio University's Light Music Society, the school's big band of the genre while studying in the Faculty of Law. His first work for the public came out in 1966 for a record featuring singer/actor Yuzo Kayama（加山雄三）.
Sometime in the early 1970s, Ohno opted to take a break from piano playing and focus on composition. His first album "Sound Adventure Act.1" came out in 1975 and the above video has the whole album with the first track being the propulsive "Too High".
Ohno would create his brand of exciting music which took in disco, City Pop and jazz among other genres, and in the same year as "Sound Adventure Act. 1", he was also responsible for making most of the tracks on Hatsumi Shibata's（しばたはつみ）2nd album, "Singer Lady", including the title track whose lyrics were created by Takahiro or Masahiro Takeda（武田全弘）. Evidently, Shibata wanted some sort of melodic calling card for herself and Ohno provided one that pretty much bashed down the door.
The J-Wiki article for Ohno features a long list of clients who he whipped up songs for, ranging from Hi-Fi Set（ハイファイセット）and Circus（サーカス）to SMAP and Sayuri Ishikawa（石川さゆり）. He was also in the business of making music for not only singers but also for commercials, TV soundtracks and anime. For example, the aforementioned Hi-Fi Set got to record one of his compositions "America Monogatari"（あめりか物語）in 1978 which was used for a Japan Air Lines campaign.
One of his TV works was the opening theme for "Daigekito Mad Police '80"（大激闘マッドポリス'80）under the collaborative name of You & Explosion Band. It's a kickass tune to match a kickass special police squad. All I can say is that the horns should have been paid time-and-a-half for their work here.
For all of his swaggering and staggering jazz, Ohno probably surprised quite a few people including myself when he composed the tenderhearted "Chiisana Tabi" (小さな旅）for NHK's long-running documentary travelogue series. Here, Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）provided a sung version of the song for her album "Wa Ga Ma Ma" in 1986.
As for one more entry here, I only found out about this in the last few minutes, but apparently Ohno also provided his own tribute to the American cop series "CHiPs" through a 1981 album which included a really disco take on the original theme by John Parker (in fact, I'd probably say it sounds closer to Alan Silvestri's handling of the theme from Season 2 onwards). I didn't watch too much of the series compared to other cop shows but I recall the theme being pretty darn cool.
We lost one of the big guns in Japanese pop composition today. My condolences go to Ohno's family, friends and many fans out there. Play your "Lupin III" theme today if you've got it.
Near the end of last month, commenter Francois informed me of a Linda Yamamoto（山本リンダ）song that I hadn't heard before titled "Crazy Baby", so I decided to investigate.
"Crazy Baby" is actually the B-side to Yamamoto's 37th single from February 1978, "Minato no Soul" (Harbour Soul) and just seeing the title had me intrigued enough to tackle this one first. And yup, it's certainly got that strutting soul as the chorus pipes up like horns on a ship as they rattle off some of the major ports around Japan such as Yokohama. This was written by Akira Ito（伊藤アキラ）and composed/arranged by Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）, no slouch when it comes to the City Pop department. Some nice horns come in near the end as well.
The disco continues with "Crazy Baby" and once again, it was the team of Ito and Hayashi behind this B-side which is a little peppier than "Minato no Soul". Francois and I also noted the sexy and soft kittenish vocals by Yamamoto for both songs compared to the Charo-like voice on her classic "Nerai Uchi"（狙いうち）from a few years earlier. But then again, I think Yamamoto did something similar for her debut single"Kommachauna"（こまっちゃうナ）although not as softly.
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