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.
A friend of mine went to Japan for vacation about a month ago. Last time we spoke he was on the train headed to Osaka. While he was planning his trip he had asked me to hook him up with a Osaka playlist for when he got there. Of course I included the essential hits by Masaki Ueda, but I also found him some other great artists like Takajin Yashiki, and Masahiro Kuwana. One common theme I find with Osaka music is that they really love the blues. Which makes sense since I'm pretty sure they had a big Blues Rock scene back in the 70s, spearheaded by bands like West Road Blues Band, Funny Company, and Ukadan. Here's some of my favorites, let me know if I should have recommended others.
Osaka Big River Blues (大阪ビッグ・リバー・ブルース) by Ukadan
Sweet Home Osaka by Funny Company
Your Osaka (あんたの大阪 ) by Hako Yamazaki (She's from Oita Prefecture but its still a nice song)
Since coming to Osaka (大阪へ出て来てから) byJunji Ariyama (有山じゅんじ) and Masaki Ueda 上田正樹
おそうじ Obachan by Ukadan
As a bonus, here's an updated version of Since coming to Osaka from 2007. much jazzier while still retaining the honky-tonk nature.
Unfortunately, I have to start this week of KKP with another fuhou（訃報）. She wasn't a singer...at least, not a professional one, but Tamao Nakamura（中村玉緒）had been an actress and entertainer since 1953. She had also been the wife of the burly actor Shintaro Katsu（勝新太郎）who didn't suffer fools gladly and suffered media and medical experts even less apparently. Nakamura passed away on June 9th at the age of 86 from pneumonia.
However, I got to know Nakamura through her appearances on commercials and variety shows where she usually played the role of a sweet-tempered kimono-wearing lady with a slightly dotty personality. And the main show that I knew her from was TBS'"Sanma no Super Karakuri TV"（さんまのSUPERからくりTV...Sanma's Super Tricky TV） which lasted from 1992 to 2014. Broadcast on Sunday nights, it was basically the big Kansai comedian, Sanma Akashiya（明石家さんま）, talking trash with his regular panel of tarento including Nakamura while various segments played out on the telly.
Nakamura would often be involved in some of those segments herself with the usual humorous results as her personality would allow.
As would be the case for any long-running variety series on Japanese TV, "Sanma no Super Karakuri TV" had its fairly long list of ending themes. The first one of those was "Iezu no I Love You" (The "I Love You" That I Can't Say) by the late singer-songwriter KAN who left this mortal coil about three years ago. Released in March 1992 as his 12th single, "Iezu no I Love You" was written and composed by the singer with Akihiko Matsumoto（松本晃彦）handling the arrangement. It's an adorable and slightly jazzy tune that would have a lovably hangdog expression as a face...which matches with KAN's visage.
It reached No. 13 on Oricon and was a track on KAN's "Girl to Love" album which was actually released in June 1988, so I gather that "Iezu no I Love You" was a very belated release from that LP. The album did quite modestly by scoring a No. 86 ranking, but that was before the singer hit the big time with "Ai wa Katsu"（愛は勝つ）a few years later.
In any case, my condolences to Nakamura's family, friends and many fans.
Haven't seen J-funkster Toshinobu Kubota（久保田利伸）for a while. Hope he's doing fine wherever he is. From time to time, I come across an old song and I react "Why hadn't I written about this one before? I've known it for ages!". It seems like the windmills of my mind have had some rips in the vanes recently.
Anyways, with Kubota, I rediscovered "Dance If You Want It". I remember hearing and listening to it all the way back in my university days and then during my stint on the JET Programme in the 1980s going into the 1990s. It's got quite the funky strut but I'm wondering if this would fall under the New Jack Swing category as well (I'll be waiting for opinions). Written by Kubota and Masumi Kawamura（川村真澄） with the former also handling the melody, it was the lead track on his September 1988 3rd album"Such a Funky Thang!" (and he looks terrifyingly happy on the cover) and apparently it was so catchy that a few months later, the song got its own mini-album or maxi-single treatment which hit No. 2.
You're getting the 2-for-1 deal today with singer-songwriter Senri Oe（大江千里）. Yup, two songs in one article...neither of which I have heard from him before.
First off, I was curious about how Oe when he was a pop star in the 1980s got his start since I've known him from the latter half of that decade and I've known him for his distinctive upbeat sound. Well, he made his debut in May 1983 with the single "Wallabee Nugi Sutete"(Kick Off Those Wallabees).
From Amazon
I think right from the start Oe has had that happy "Aw, gosh!" pop/rock style with "Wallabee Nugi Sutete" which struck me as being quite fast, and then I discovered that it's barely over three minutes. Couldn't ask for a poppier song. Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）arranged everything by the way.
Personally, I've never worn a pair of Wallabees before but they certainly look comfortable. However, Oe's encouraging the guys to take them off, ostensibly to have that beachside barefoot walk with the girls they like. "Wallabee Nugi Sutete" didn't seem to make it onto the Oricon charts but for those Oe fans, this should be part of their collection. The song was also included on the singer's debut album which came out the same month as the single "WAKU WAKU" and according to the J-Wiki article, "Wallabee" had some big guns in the recording studio such as bassist-songwriter Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）and drummer Jun Aoyama（青山純）.
Seeing the music video for the song, I'm convinced that I had seen it before decades ago when the Canadian music show "The New Music" did a special on the music of Japan. They showed a part of this video, specifically the part where Oe was walking on the audiotape in the middle of it.
I'd already had Oe's debut single in the backlog for a few weeks when I discovered that one of his later singles has become part of the "Ganbare! Nakamura-kun!!"（ガンバレ! 中村くん!!）ending theme family. His 14th single"Glory Days" gloriously finished off a nerve-racking Episode 10 of ever-tense Nakamura-kun waiting to get an autograph from his favourite manga author.
Oh, isn't that an adorable pair look for Nakamura and Hirose! Anyways, "Glory Days" was released in August 1988 and once again, Omura was there to arrange Oe's words and music. It was also a part of his 10th album "1234" which not only hit No. 6 on Oricon but was voted Best Album of the Year at the 3rd Annual Japan Gold Disk Awards.
I can say that the above looks just like the first telephone that I ever saw in my apartment in the late 1960s. The good ol' rotary phone. Never got to use the even older model where people had to crank it up and yell "Maisie! Is that you? I'm calling Pennsylvania 65000!".
Earlier today, the first article for Urban Contemporary Friday on KKP was Mariko Tone's（刀根麻里子）"Private Number" and that got me thinking that among the many different themes I've had for Author's Picks, one common object that I had yet to highlight was the telephone. And yet, as soon as I put up "Private Number", suddenly all these phone-themed tunes came back to mind. So, to finish my contributions today, I'm putting up my telephone or denwa songs. Not all of them are City Pop, mind you, but enough of them are including the one with City Pop's most famous number.
Another blistering day out there. As such, this has been the earliest that our family has pulled out the air conditioner and activated it. Mind you, from tomorrow, the high temperatures will plummet like rocks for the rest of the week, but that's OK. We'll be happy to have the AC on standby for the eventual summer that does arrive.
A couple of days ago, I was watching "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本のうた）and encountered a new song that I hadn't heard before titled "Sentimental Carnival" by Teruhiko Aoi（あおい輝彦）. Listening to it on the show and then hearing it on YouTube, I had assumed that it was a Group Sounds/pop creation from the 1960s, only to realize that Aoi had released it as his 14th single in June 1977. Yes, the very first "Star Wars" movie is older than this song.
But as written and composed by Toshiro Abe（阿部敏郎）, it's still quite the jangly and twist-happy tune. Yesterday, I wrote about The Tube's"Midnight Beach" and how the seashore at night can make for a romantic setting. Well, I gather that the same can be had for the annual carnival although folks will be a lot busier on the rides or just strolling hand-in-hand through the various games and concession stands. With the snappy arrangement by Shunichi Makaino（馬飼野俊一）, "Sentimental Carnival" was Aoi's final Top 10 hit, peaking at No. 8 and eventually becoming the 53rd-ranked single of 1977.
Eleven years later, "Sentimental Carnival" was covered by aidoru Miyoko Yoshimoto（芳本美代子）as her own 14th single in June 1988. As arranged by Shiro Sagisu（鷺巣詩郎）, it was given some snazzy contemporizing with synths, syn-drums and sharp horns, and it earned the snaggle-toothed lass a No. 20 ranking on Oricon. Maybe it's just me, but I think Yoshimoto's voice seems a fair bit more mature here.
Hello, J-Canuck here. We have another article by occasional contributor Fireminer. Following the video, he'll take over the narrative.
I sometimes peruse YouTube for retro Japanese commercials, which was how I came across this Xerox advert. The song being featured is “Tokyo Girl” by the American single Joleen Benoit. It is the first track on her 1988 Japan-exclusive album “Joleen”.
This is a crowd-pleaser. On top of a catchy AOR tune guided by the clapping, you put a gratuitous amount of saxophone for that 50s flair. It goes well with the sunny lyrics, which depict a boy pinning for a manic pixie-type of girl with so much allure. Furthermore, “Tokyo Girl” and the rest of the album were performed by experienced artists who were pretty well-known in the easy listening world like Andrea Robinson (backing vocal), Joey Carbone (keyboardist) and Michael Thompson (guitarist). It is not a surprise that the song jumped to first place on the Oricon Western music chart in September 1988. Having the young actress Yuki Matsushita (松下 由樹) danced to your song in the Xerox commercial helped too.
As for the singer, Joleen Benoit was from the city of Farmington, Minnesota. She became Miss Minnesota in 1973 and toured with the United Service Organizations (USO) for a period of time. Her first single, 1986 “Forgotten Man”, was even about servicemen returning home. Joleen was also one of the people responsible for creating the Minnesotan supergroup “Women Who Cook”. The band was put together for the PBS Nighttimes Variety Show which Joleen was the host of. They even performed in the Soviet Union on a peace tour! You can read about the band here.
Joleen eventually released a follow-up single called “Tokyo Woman” (1990). I can not find anything about that single as well as the subsequent releases, but her last single was in 1999. Joleen then worked as a CBS Host for several years. I found her Facebook and YouTube page, but the former has been set to private while the latter has been inactive for years.
No particularly good reason to do so but I just wanted to post up another Author's Picks with the theme today being "good" songs. That is to say, songs with "good" in the title and they are good songs, to boot. Plus, it is a Sunday so a lot of whimsy to share.
I've heard of the manga "What's Michael?" before and apparently it deals with the adventures of a rather unique portly cat whose name is not Garfield. But that's pretty much all of it. I only heard recently that there was even an anime done between 1988 and 1989.
Aidoru and tarento Mami Yamase（山瀬まみ）was given the assignment to sing the two sets of opening and ending themes for "What's Michael?". The first of these songs that I encountered was the first ending theme "Hoshizora no Etranger"(Starry Sky Stranger) that was written by Ben Uozumi（魚住勉）and composed/arranged by Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）. Having a happy Eurobeat approach, Yamase once again shows that her singing voice is just delightful and very different from the somewhat strangulated spoken voice she used on screen for most of her time on television.
"Hoshizora no Etranger" was released as Yamase's 8th single in May 1988. On the B-side was the first opening theme for the anime, "Michael Ondo"(The Michael Folk Song) which was created by Uozumi and Makaino once again. Given a contemporized and especially playful version of a Japanese folk song arrangement, Yamase demonstrates a mixture of her singing voice and that spoken voice (or a lighter version of it).
Happy Friday! We're at the end of another work week so as far as "Kayo Kyoku Plus" is concerned, it's time for some urban contemporary material. A few nights ago before I went to sleep, I decided to listen to the late Miho Nakayama's（中山美穂）"angel hearts" album from December 1988.
I'd expected "angel hearts" to launch with a bang such as one of her dance-pop numbers created by Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）...although Kadomatsu had nothing to do with this album. Actually, the only biggest constant in the songwriting crew is Chinfa Kan（康珍化）, but for this first song, "Sweetest Lover", it was Miporin herself that came up with the lyrics of dedication to the love of one's life; mind you, she went under the pen name of Mizuho Kitayama（北山瑞穂）. The very tender soulful ballad melody was created by another singer-songwriter who also left us very prematurely, CINDY, with Ichizo Seo（瀬尾一三）handling the arrangement.
"Sweetest Lover" sounds like a nice comfortable way to ease into the waters of "angel hearts" and the style of the song reminds me some of the balladry that was coming out back in those 80s in the States. I'll have to see if I can cover the rest of the album but I'll have to re-listen to it once more; it did too good a job of sending me off to La-La Land.
It's another Hump Day here on Kayo Kyoku Plus, but I have to admit that it's looking really nice outside although the temperatures are still below seasonal. Anyways, let's a little whimsical with another Author's Picks, and this week, I just wanted to give my tribute and congratulations to the astronauts aboard Artemis II (along with Nutella) who are now en route back to Earth after doing that whip around the Moon.
Back in September, I'd already done my first batch of Moon Songs commemorating the autumn lunar festival, so this will be Moon Songs 2, but I don't have quite enough moon-themed songs that I know off the top of my head (although some of them may have already been posted on the blog...my memory isn't that good anymore). As such, I've cordially invited some other tunes with titles of a planetary nature within the Sol System.
Oh, dopey me. I'm four days late in wishing singer-songwriter Mariya Takeuchi a Happy Birthday! But here's hoping that her family enjoyed themselves on the special day. Last year (when I did remember her birthday), I acknowledged the day with a Yutaka Kimura Speaks translated piece about the singer. When I thought about whether to do a Creator article about her, I quickly realized that I had already done one back in 2019.
However for that first entry, I introduced some songs created by Takeuchi in that article that had never been covered before. Well, then, I decided that for this one, I'll bring the comfort food...songs by her that have their own articles from way back when just to remind viewers about what she has given other singers. And of course, this is by no means a comprehensive list.
Hello, J-Canuck here. I've got another article via Fireminer. Enjoy!
In my previous post about TM NETWORK’s“Come On Everybody”, I briefly touched on their concept album “CAROL ~A DAY IN A GIRL'S LIFE 1991~”. It’s time for me to touch another song from that album, the incredible “BEYOND THE TIME ~Möbius no Sora wo Koete~” (BEYOND THE TIME ~Beyond the Möbius Universe~ BEYOND THE TIME ~メビウスの宇宙を越えて~).
Bandai approached Tetsuya Komuro (小室哲哉) in 1987 about writing the theme song for their upcoming anime film “Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack”(機動戦士ガンダム 逆襲のシャア). Yoshiyuki Tomino (富野 由悠季), the creator of “Mobile Suit Gundam” and the film’s director, sat down and talked to Komuro about the movie and his musical vision for it. It should be noted that Tomino already had some experience as a lyricist under the pseudonym Rin Iogi (井荻麟).
Any analysis of “BEYOND THE TIME” can’t be complete without touching on “Char's Counterattack” first. The film is the culmination of the saga starring the protagonist and antagonist of the original Gundam, Amuro Ray (アムロ レイ) and Char Aznable (シャア アズナブル). On the backdrop of a giant asteroid descending upon Earth and threatening a nuclear winter, the two men clash while reflecting upon the road that has brought them there, their failures, regrets, neuroses, hope and despair. And looming over all is the question of can humanity ever learn to overcome their flaws and march toward a more humane future, or are they destined to forever be trapped in a Möbius loop of personal failures and civilization-wide self-destruction.
It was written that Komuro came up with the melody for “BEYOND THE TIME” in just 20 minutes, having been inspired by Tomino’s vision of a naniwa-bushi (浪花節) on the cosmic stage. The string instruments in particular are meant to represent the voices of humans, and the way their sound interfaces with the synthesizer can be thought to symbolize the friction and the pull humanity feels when they interact with universalist ideas.
The lyricist for “BEYOND THE TIME” was singer-songwriter Mitsuko Komuro (小室みつ子) who also wrote the lyrics for several TM Network (including “Get Wild”) tracks under the penname Kari Saimon (西門 加里). She correctly identified that “Char’s Counterattack” was the crystallization of the entire Gundam franchise till that point. The lyric focuses on two themes: “Humanity repeats their sins” and “Beyond the claims of justice and freedom, men fought to protect those they love.” Just like the film itself, the lyrics are full of hope for humans to one day learn to connect with each other and be able to change the seemingly-inevitable encroaching ruin.
TM Network recorded “BEYOND THE TIME” while on the road for their Kiss JapanTM NETWORK Tour '87〜'88 (November 9, 1987 to February 26, 1988). They released the song as a single on March 5, 1988, 7 days before the film’s theatrical debut. Both the film and its theme song enjoyed a great reception.
“BEYOND THE TIME” since its release has been covered by many singers, and TM Network also re-recorded it several times, most recently as the song appeared as the outro theme for episode 11 of the latest Gundam series “Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX” (機動戦士Gundam GQuuuuuuX). The show was co-written by famous director Hideaki Anno (庵野 秀明) who actually worked as a mecha designer for “Char's Counterattack” (you can read more about his involvement in this excellent article.) So yes, things do go full cycle sometimes.
I’ve always maintained the position that “Char’s Counterattack” is a good movie if you’re casually familiar with the original Gundam plotline. But if you’ve bought into the Amuro vs. Char rivalry and connected with the saga on an emotional level, then the movie is a masterpiece. Yoshiyuki Tomino’s animated works are flawed, but they have a timeless quality thanks to his excellent psychoanalysis and hope in humanity’s ability to connect and forgive. I think that “BEYOND THE TIME” is also timeless for the same reasons. I welcome the fact that it will continue to haunt us for a long time and remind us that there is still hope ahead.
I want to end this article on a hopeful note, so I’ll bring up the story that an SD card containing the song was brought to the International Space Station (ISS) on December 21, 2021 as part of a promotion for Nikkei, inc.’s protein crystallization in space service Kirara. The SD card was returned to Earth on January 25, 2022 with a certificate that it stayed on the ISS.
Once again, we have come to Hump Day and at least here in Toronto, it certainly feels and looks like a Hump Day meteorologically speaking. It's all gray, dreary and drizzly out there. So, let's try for something or someone very up with people and happiness. And I was thinking about Misato Watanabe. I hadn't written about her in quite a while and I realized while going through her KKP file, I had yet to provide my own favourite tunes by her.
Of course, I'm going to start with his one since this is the first song by her that I came to know her by. I think it's also safe to say that "My Revolution" is one of the pop songs of the 1980s in Japan. I will always remember the original music video where she showed herself basically as a human anime figure with that huge hair and just-as-huge eyes.
As I mentioned in the actual article for the song, I misunderstood the meaning of the song...initially assuming that this was some commemorative tune in Misato's career. It was really just about the protagonist's look back on her own decade as a working woman. Still, I'm sure that the singer herself has used the song for her own anniversaries. I don't know of too many tunes that are both elegiac and celebratory.
I think next to "My Revolution", "Summetime Blues" is the Misato tune that I'll always remember her for. It sounds both old-fashioned and contemporary at the same time, and obviously, it has her up-with-people pizzazz. And indeed, it was used as the campaign song for what is now the Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Company...gotta keep the insured healthy and happy through the gift of music.
As much as my favourites are along the pop vein, I know that Misato has had the vocals and movement style of a happy and hard rocker. "Koi Suru Punks" (Punks in Love) is one reflection of that from her 1990 "Tokyo" album. Nope, it was never put out as a single but I'm sticking with this one because it is so much fun to hear with ska and rock thrown into the cosmic blender like so much kale for a smoothie.
This is another non-single track...this time for the 1991 album "Lucky", and it's a perennial favourite to be played when the Holidays approach. It may be a domestic creation with Misato herself behind the lyrics, but whenever I listen to it, I just get those Phil Spector Wall of Sound thoughts from the 1960s. Merry Christmas, indeed.🎄
Any particular Misato favourites from your end? Let us know. Ah, one PS...she'll be celebrating her 60th birthday later in July.
Awww...isn't this adorable? This was a commercial for one of my favourite drinks, Calpis, and the title for this ad includes the name of the young girl talking, Saori Tsuchiya（土家里織）. According to her J-Wiki file, she did this in 1972. when she was all of three years old; it was the same year that I visited Japan for the first time and discovered the famous refreshment.
Tsuchiya happens to come from a family of thespians including her parents: Shinjiro Ehara（江原真二郎）and Hitomi Nakahara（中原ひとみ）, and throughout her childhood, she would appear in a long-running series of commercials for Lion White & White Toothpaste alongside her famous parents for about a decade into the 1980s. She literally grew up in front of Japan's eyes.
Her acting career began in the late 1980s but it didn't lead to a similarly long singing career though. In fact, Tsuchiya released only two singles; one was a duet with legendary singer-songwriter Masaaki Hirao（平尾昌晃）in 1987 and then there was her one-and-only solo effort released in June 1988, "BOY". Today, I have the B-side, "Nantoka Shite"(Do Something About It) which was written by Shun Taguchi（田口俊）, composed by Masamichi Sugi（杉真理）and arranged by Kazuo Otani（大谷和夫）. It's a pretty blippy-bloppy synthpop tune with a rollicking rhythm.
Another new face to add to the files of "Kayo Kyoku Plus", Yoshimi Yokosuka（横須賀昌美）has been recognized on J-Wiki as a model and an actress from Ishikawa Prefecture who began her career in 1980 as a Shiseido commercial model. However, she also branched out into music starting in 1981 with only four singles up to 1988.
Her third single was "Breathless" which was released in May 1988. Written by Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）, composed by Kisaburo Suzuki（鈴木キサブロー）and arranged by Kazuo Otani（大谷和夫）, it's quite the dance-pop-friendly sort of song, and I'm not sure, but would this also be considered to be part of Eurobeat? I'll have to find out from commenters. In any case, for someone who seems to have been considered as a thespian and model, her vocals weren't too shabby.
I've often referred to the Japanese asset price bubble which arguably lasted from around 1986 to 1991. Commonly it's known as the Bubble Era and it originated from the effects of the Plaza Accord signed at New York City's Plaza Hotel by representatives of various countries including Japan and the United States. Basically, the US dollar was depreciated against the currencies of the other nations, and from the following year, a huge influence was felt in Japan with asset prices skyrocketing and economic activity bubbling away like my pot of boiling pasta.
When I visited Japan in 1981 and started studying about the country in those early 1980s, I'd already thought that the economic party-hearty atmosphere arrived. I saw glossy magazines from the nation showing what was a pretty nice life among the citizens and certainly borrowing all of those videotapes of Japanese TV shows with their commercials emphasized those feelings.
But then it was in the late 1980s when I was fully into my time at the University of Toronto that I read the craziness of buying million-dollar golf club memberships, sidewalk tiles that were more expensive than whole cities outside of Japan, and sprinkling gold flakes on broiled eel on rice. I got to Japan once more in 1989 at the tail end of the Bubble Era although I was working deep into the countryside so it wasn't quite that often that I experienced the grand Tokyo life.
In terms of Japanese popular music, and specifically City Pop, I thought that during those late 1980s, there was a certain additional swagger in City Pop which encompassed a lot of genres including disco, soul, and Latin. During that time, I think that there was also a goodly injection of sophisticated pop and horn-based jazz. And I've often made use of the phrase "champagne-and-caviar" when describing some of those tunes because whenever I heard them, it wasn't just about walking the streets of Tokyo; it was also about partaking in the various high-priced and high-life establishments on those streets of Tokyo. There still was the groove to be sure but there was also some of that Henry Mancini swing jazziness grafted onto the City Pop tunes. And since I love both groove and Mancini, I've remained a happy camper when it comes to the songs of the Bubble Era.
Of course, the party came to a crashing end at the beginning of the 1990s and music took a new tangent but I still look fondly at the City Pop that came out then. So yes, I'm also a nostalgic guy about the uber-genre. And as such, I thought that it would be nice to provide a summary of some of those champagne-and-caviar City Pop songs. One of the songs on the list actually came out a few years before the Plaza Accord but I still think it fits the bill in terms of the overall feeling. Anyways, have a good weekend.
PS If any of you have your own favourites that you think would fit the champagne-and-caviar platter, please let us know!
Azusa Nakamura（中村あずさ）is an actress, emcee and tarento who I used to see all the time on dramas and variety shows when I was living in Japan. She stood out for that wide-as-the-Mississippi smile and those twinkling eyes.
Little did I know though that she had released a few singles in the 1980s at least, although I should have known since anyone who's anyone on television in Japan was famous enough to be obliged to cut a few records here and there. And sure enough, Nakamura did sing behind the mike although her J-Wiki account doesn't mention anything about singles although there is a mention of a 1990 album.
However, YouTuber DJ Squall mentions that the above was her 2nd single from December 1988, "Fu......". And please, before anyone imagines that Ms. Nakamura was gauche enough to almost throw out a well-worn swear word as a song title, she's actually giving out a sigh as the title...kinda like "Whew!". I couldn't find the lyrics by singer-songwriter Mayo Shouno（庄野真代）but I could imagine that with the refined Riviera-friendly melody that was also provided by Ms. Shouno, who knows a fair bit about exotic kayoherself, the song might be all about the ups and downs of romance. As for the cover showing the singer being caught in the act of something, I'm not judging.
Last Friday, I provided an article featuring Side A of Midori Hara's（原みどり）sophomore album from March 1988, "KO・KO・RO・NOTE"(Heart Note) . It's been a production that's surprised me with the singer tackling some of the more urban contemporary genres such as City Pop. Today, I'm finishing up with the Side B tracks. Unless noted, everything here is by Hara.
This starts with "too young" which was written by Yu Aku（阿久悠）with Hara providing the melody which Masahiro Ikumi（幾見雅博）arranged (and in fact, he arranged all of the tracks). It starts off feeling as if David Foster got his hands on the song and it then continues onto a West Coast AOR vein. If you ever wondered what such a song would sound like if YUKI from Judy & Mary or NOKKO from Rebecca had gotten behind the mike, then today is your lucky day (though it's ironic then that today is Friday the 13th).
"Iro no Nai Movie"（色のない Movie...Colourless Movie） is a wholly Hara creation whose verses are underlaid with a bit of reggae before going into a city strut chorus. The singer herself takes on a slightly more plaintive and sultrier direction with her vocals. There's also some really nice guitar work here in the intro and instrumental bridge.
The penultimate track has a pretty existential title. "Yojigen Kuukan Ryokou"（四次元空間旅行...Trip Through Four-Dimensional Space） has that feeling of a relaxing jazz standard with a wood bass figuring prominently in the arrangement, although the presence of the Fender Rhodes or electric piano keeps things in the contemporary. So, would the title be referring to a regular trip through time and space?
For the final track of "KO・KO・RO・NOTE", "Tsuyoku Dakishimeteite mo Sayonara"（強く抱きしめていてもSa・Yo・Na・Ra...Holding You Tight Even If It's Goodbye）, the poignancy is in the piano as Hara delivers a heartfelt ballad about saying goodbye although the feelings for each other are still there. Just like the final track on Side A, "Itami"（痛み...Pain）, I can get that hint of gospel blues which makes me wonder what would it have been like if an actual organ had been used instead of the piano.
As I've mentioned, "KO・KO・RO・NOTE" is quite the delightful surprise from thirty-eight years ago by Hara. For those who like their 80s City Pop and some more genres, you can give this one the good ol' college try.
Well, it's been quite a day already although I'm typing this before noon. The Winter Olympics are on, the Super Bowl will probably upstage that later tonight, Japan's Lower House elections have resulted in an LDP steamroller, and our long-awaited and long-suffering LRT here in Toronto finally launched about six years late. All a little overwhelming on a Sunday to be sure and I wouldn't mind a little solace right now.
I haven't posted a Sing Like Talking article for well over a year although Chikuzen Sato's（佐藤竹善）group is one of my favourite bands, and with all of the attention on singers' career anniversaries in last year's Kohaku Utagassen, SLT, which I believe has yet to be seen on NHK's Shibuya stage on New Year's Eve, celebrated its 40th anniversary last year. Unfortunately, any celebrations were probably muted to a great degree due to the passing of SLT guitarist Tomohiko Nishimura（西村智彦）in June 2025.
The other surprise is that I have yet to put up an Author's Picks on my favourite Sing Like Talking tunes. And this one was difficult because the band is so smooth in a number of genres, whether it be funk, AOR, straight pop, etc. and they've had a lot of great songs in my estimation. But I've got my five favourites here...although realistically, they are four favourites by SLT itself and one by Sato from his "Cornerstones" album series (it is too cool to pass up).
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