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.
For the Friday edition of NHK's "Asaichi"（あさイチ）, we all got the delight of being serenaded by Takao Tajima（田島貴男）, aka Original Love. It was a reminder of how great a singer he has been for well over thirty years. Ever since I first heard one of his tunes on my friend's car radio, I've been hooked by his distinctive voice and his happy adoption of various genres including jazz, rock and soul.
Much to my surprise, I realized that I had yet to provide a Favourites list regarding Original Love so here it is to finish today's cadre of urban contemporary on KKP Friday! Have a great weekend!
It's been a couple of years since we last saw model-turned-singer Sara Hamamoto（浜本沙良）, so let's have her back onto the blog. I first started her file on KKP with her "Follow Me" from the July 1994 album"Puff" and immediately enjoyed it for its sophisticated pop feeling.
Well, another track from "Puff" is "Itsumo Eyes to Me"(Eyes to Me Always) which continues that particular vibe. Right from the get-go, there is that feeling of 1960s swinging British soul, something that Swingout Sister was famous for when they premiered back in the mid-1980s. There is some fine sinuous groove in this one and the impression that one doesn't have to move around at the speed of a Bullet Train to enjoy the city life.
As was the case with "Follow Me", lyricist Seriko Natsuno（夏野芹子）and composer Hitoshi Haba（羽場仁志）were behind "Itsumo Eyes to Me" which was also a coupling song on Hamamoto's debut single "Sayonara wa Tenshi no Hajimari"（さよならは天使のはじまり...Goodbye Means the Start of an Angel）. The late Nobuo Ariga（有賀啓雄）was the arranger here.
Over six years ago, I slightly lamented that I couldn't find guitarist-singer Yoshiyuki Sahashi's（佐橋佳幸） "Diary" on YouTube. I first discovered it on "Breeze", the very first disc of Toshikazu Kanazawa's（金澤寿和）series "Light Mellow" which had quite the run during the 2010s.
Mind you, I was able to find his "Frida's Freedom" on YouTube which made for a nice consolation prize, so to speak. I was listening to "Breeze" once more a few nights ago and afterwards, I decided to check if anything had changed in the status of certain tracks on the CD that hadn't made it onto the video site all those years ago. Well, I was happy to find out that Sahashi's "Diary" finally made it on there, although strangely, the "Yoshiyuki Sahashi -- Topic" page stated that it's been up there since 2017! I have to politely contest that.
But regardless, "Diary" is that guitar-driven tune that reminds me of those sunny 1970s and happier, more innocent times. There's something about the song that hits me as being rather Billy Joel of that decade. Just like "Frida's Freedom", it was originally a track on Sahashi's 1994 album"Trust Me". The guitarist came up with the breezy melody while Hiroshi Fukushima（福島浩）wrote the lyrics. Sahashi's file on KKP mostly has him in the "back office" as a songwriter, so "Diary" is just the second article with him on the byline while his "Frida's Freedom" is the first.
A few days ago, commenter and contributor Fireminer was asking about a particular Maki Ohguro（大黒摩季）song, and to be honest, it's been a few years since she's been up on the blog, so why not give this one a whirl?
It's nice to hear the ol' Ohguro arrangements of the 1990s (crashing synths and booming sax) again and her 7th single from January 1994, "Shiroi Gradation" was released between a couple of other singles that have been posted here: "Anata dake Mitsumeteru"（あなただけ見つめてる）and "Natsu ga Kuru"（夏が来る）. Takeshi Hayama（葉山たけし）was responsible for arranging all three songs.
Indeed, it's a very upbeat song written and composed by Ohguro, providing a surprisingly dark scenario (to me, anyways) of an erstwhile couple who've apparently drifted apart to the point of no return, although one of the duo still maintains a love for the other. As for the meaning of the title which I prefer to translate into "Shades of White" rather than "Gradations of White" (the latter sounds a little technical), the J-Wiki article simply says that the title really refers to the gradations of the heart...which doesn't really solidify things for me...and that gradations of white don't exist. What? What about pure white, creamy white, off-white for example?
But in the end, the title probably came into being because perhaps Ohguro had been asked to come up with a song for a Victoria Sporting Goods commercial, and with the January 1994 release, I can only think of skiing being the thing. The colour white in the title helped a lot, too.
Does she look like a bear to you?
Anyways, "Shiroi Gradation" peaked at No. 5 on Oricon and went Double Platinum. It ended the year as the 48th-ranked single. It is also a part of Ohguro's 4th album from November 1994, "Eien no Yume ni Mukatte"（永遠の夢に向かって...Towards the Eternal Dream） which hit No. 1 and became a million-seller.
One last piece of bitterly sweet humour regarding the single was given in the J-Wiki article. Apparently, the photographer and the director were biting their nails about the photos taken of Ohguro for the single jacket. She was referred to as looking like a bear or an old hag. On the surface, she laughed it off but she used a marker to draw some very vivid anime anger hash marks on her manager's palm. I'm surprised that she didn't use something sharper to carve something similar into the director's head.
Not sure whether the game show is still flourishing on Japanese TV. When I was living there, it still had a pretty strong hold across the channel spectrum on a weekly basis. One of the more popular ones was "Quiz Sekai wa SHOW by Shobai!!"（クイズ世界はSHOW by ショーバイ!!...The Quiz World is a Show by Trade!!）on NTV. I don't quite remember the various segments but there was the slot machine spin, and if I'm going just by the video above, a mere lucky spin can get one team a victory right off the bat.
The comical band Modern Choki Chokies（モダンチョキチョキズ）was one of many musical acts to contribute theme songs to "Quiz Sekai", and I remember the band providing some of their music as commercial jingles or theme songs to shows such as "Super Jockey"（スーパージョッキー）which was also on NTV. Modern Choki Chokies seemed to be up for any particular genre as long as they could firmly place tongue in cheek.
Well, MCC's contribution to "Quiz Sekai" was their 7th single from November 1994, "Suteki na Maana"(Wonderful Manna). From the title, I'd initially assumed that it was all about "wonderful manners" but then I remembered that "manners" isn't quite spelled that way in katakana. So I then went with some wonderful young lady named Manna. Anyways, Mari Hamada（濱田マリ）and company have opted for a late 60s/early 70s rock/funk style with all the trimmings in the music video above. In a way, "Suteki na Maana" reminds me of some of the music that Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里）provided. Fellow MCC vocalist Motoi Kishimoto（岸本基）was behind words and music with Ireme Yasuda（安田イレメ）helping out on the lyrics and then Hideya Nakazaki（中崎英也）assisting in the composition.
Looks like the good times are still rolling with "Ganbare! Nakamura-kun!!"（ガンバレ!中村くん!!...Go for It, Nakamura!）with not just the main show but also with the ending credit sequences which include the songs of yesteryear (specifically, those of the Showa and Heisei eras). We've already gotten Kozo Murashita's（村下孝蔵）"Hatsukoi"(初恋）and Da Bubblegum Brothers' "Won't Be Long" for Episodes 1 and 2 respectively.
The ending of Episode 3 has gone into the hip-hop field this time apparently, so the target song here is "Kon'ya wa Boogie Back" (Tonight is Boogie Back) which was the March 1994 7th single for hip-hop group Scha Dara Parr with Kenji Ozawa（小沢健二）, formerly of Flipper's Guitar. It was pretty interesting hearing Ozawa going rap but then again, I've learned that he's tried all sorts of genres including jazz and of course, Shibuya-kei when he was with Flipper's Guitar.
Incidentally, there are two versions of "Boogie Back": the "smooth rap" and the "nice vocal" takes of which the former has Scha Dara Parr taking the lead while the latter has Ozawa behind the mike most of the time.
The thing is that the first time I ever listened to "Kon'ya wa Boogie Back", it was not through the original artists. It was actually listening to some musical guests covering the song on the late-night Saturday music variety show "Love Love Aishiteiru" (Love Love 愛している....Love Love I Love You） hosted by the Kinki Kids. At the time, I hadn't heard a whole lot of Japanese rap although we were just on the cusp of a big J-R&B boom from the late 1990s, so I wanted to hear the original with Ozawa and Scha Dara Parr.
"Boogie Back" was written and composed by Ozawa and the three members of Scha Dara Parr: Bose, Ani and Shinco. It peaked at No. 15 on Oricon (selling over half a million copies), and it looks like it has had plenty of covers done over the last thirty years. The song also samples En Vogue's "Give It Up, Turn It Loose" from 1992.
Apparently, the end of Episode 4 features a song by The Barbee Boys that I hadn't experienced before. That'll get its due then.
Although today has had a slightly changed schedule to accommodate my busier one tomorrow, I still haven't forgotten that Thursdays are devoted to regular Reminiscings of Youth songs. We did have the special holiday edition earlier this week, so here's the regular one.
So, it's nice to have the Queen of Quiet Storm herself, Anita Baker, back on the blog. I became a fan from the 1980s but she kept on going well into the 1990s and beyond. I have her first four albums but didn't continue the collection of her discography after heading to Japan. Well, some years during my odyssey there, I was either in Tower Records or HMV when I discovered her 2002 BEST compilation,"The Best of Anita Baker", and it took me all of a second to make the purchase.
Along with those hit songs from her early albums, there were some new ones that I hadn't heard by Ms. Baker, and one of them was "I Apologize" which was a October 1994 single. I may have been eight years late but better late than never. And it was another soulful smash for me and in my humble opinion, it was the standout new song for me. Created by Baker, Gordon Chambers and Barry J. Eastmond, it's a heartfelt tribute to the one action in a relationship that might be extremely difficult but absolutely necessary. I've spoken to enough married students to get that impression.
On Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, "I Apologize" hit No. 8. And perhaps I should apologize since I didn't realize that Baker just celebrated her birthday last month on the 26th. In any case, what was also being released in October 1994 in Japan?
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).
Seeing that today is KKP's 14th birthday, one more thing that I've decided to post to celebrate is a short list of some of our regular singers' 14th singles.
Wow! The more you know, eh? All these years and I hadn't known that comedians Tsutomu Sekine（関根勤） and Kazuki Kosakai（小堺一機）had actually been a comedic duo. Of course, I knew them individually: Sekine has been a mainstay tarento on a ton of variety shows as well as a celebrity impressionist. Kosakai is someone I knew who had that long-running talk show on Fuji-TV during weekday afternoons. But apparently since 1981, the two of them were known as the duo Kosakin（コサキン）.
The two also had their own radio show "Kosakin de WOW!"（コサキンDEワァオ!）for about 28 years between 1981 and 2009 (with specials about once a year starting from 2020). They even had their own brief late-night variety show "Kosakinruu no Okonnaide, Kiite!!"（コサキンルーの怒んないで聞いて!!...Kosakinruu, Don't Get Angry, Just Listen!!）from 1993 to 1994.
The ending theme for that show was Seiko Sato's（佐藤聖子）"Kono Koi ga Subete" (All This Love) which can be found on her January 1994 album "Marvelous Act". Written by Yui Nishiwaki（西脇唯）and composed by Sato herself, it's quite the upbeat song for a late-night show that approaches 90s City Pop. I'd also think that it could have been fine adorning some prime-time show as well.
I figure that with the Holidays now in full swing in Japan, folks may be having their share of parties including those that occur at the karaoke boxes and bars of the nation. Maybe franchises such as Big Echo are doing volume business this week which may be quite long for people...perhaps as long as a week (yeah, I'm being a little sarcastic there). Of course, depending on the size and the average age of the group along with the type of songs that they tend to sing, there will be the duets to tackle.
Perhaps for the younger generation, that doesn't happen so often, since a lot of those duets occur in the enka and Mood Kayo genres. Plus, there is the matter of harmonizing which isn't all that easy. Not being a particularly great singer in my karaoke days in Japan, I don't think I ever dared ask any lady for a duet. However, listening to those duets on the stereo and now on YouTube is more my speed. Here are some of my favourites.
(1959) Frank Nagai and Kazuko Matsuo -- Tokyo Nightclub （東京ナイトクラブ）
(1982) Hiroshi Itsuki and Nana Kinomi -- Izakaya （居酒屋）
Along with a number of other anime and theme song pairings, "City Hunter" and "Get Wild" will never get tired. If there were a headstone on TM Network's grave, it would only need to say "Get Wild" and people would understand. On this blog, the legendary anison has at least three articles.
But before folks go to the shrine of composer Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）, let it be said that though he came up with the main melody, his namesake (and not relative) Mitsuko Komuro（小室みつ子）was the lyricist for "Get Wild". Kinda like how Tomoko Aran（亜蘭知子）ended up recording a lot of City Pop in the 1980s but provided her songwriting for the good-time summery pop of TUBE, Mitsuko was someone that I also knew for her City Pop singing such as with "Koi no Dancin'"（恋のダンシン）but is the wordsmith for the very different "Get Wild". I never treated "Get Wild" as a City Pop song despite it was for an anime that was stubbornly based in Shinjuku, Tokyo.
And Mitsuko Komuro's own cover of "Get Wild" isn't a City Pop song either. Her take is present on her November 1994 8th album"Simple Dreams". It still has the pop-rock edge in there but it's also a bit more contemplative and ethereal than the TM Network version. At this rate, perhaps I should make "Get Wild" its own category in Labels.
Up to this point, I had only put up one article for singer-guitarist Katsutoshi Morizono（森園勝敏）back in 2018 and that was for the laidback "Blue Funk"（ブルー・ファンク）on his 1980 "Escape" album.
Years may have gone by, but Morizono was still keeping things nice and chill if his "Day Dream" from his December 1994 album"Guitar Workshop Vol. 1" is of any indication. The groove is there and it's something that I could hear in a jam session with his comrades right inside that slightly ramshackle shop on the cover of the album (hopefully with that bovine out of the way). If anything, my anime buddy who's also into guitars would probably love to drop into the place.
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.
It was only recently that I discovered that singer-songwriter Tomiko Kobayashi（小林登美子）had unfortunately died in 2022 at the age of 52. My belated condolences to her family, friends and fans.
As with the other entries of Kobayashi on the blog, this song also belongs to her September 1994 album "Soul Wonderland". "Kono Hi no Ame wo Wasurenai" (Won't Forget Today's Rain) was written by Neko Oikawa（及川眠子）and composed by the singer herself with Motoki Funayama（船山基紀）as the arranger. At first, I wasn't quite sure about the categorization: just straight funky R&B or do I play the City Pop card? Of nothing wrong with it at all...it starts off as a funk/pop combination powered by Kobayashi's vocals, but then I do get that feeling of swinging horn City Pop of the 1990s when the feeling was that the Bubble Era had never ended.
Can't quite believe that it's approaching two years since I posted anything up by the genteel Shibuya-kei band bridge. So, just on that point, I'm more than willing to put up another article about one of their tunes, but also, the YouTube powers-that-be have also taken down one of their early songs "He She & I" and I couldn't find any other videos featuring it so I've had to put that article back into Draft mothballs.
Having to put an article back into mothballs doesn't sit well with me so I usually look for another song of the artist as a bit of counterattack, and happily, I was able to find this sunny song by bridge recently. Their second and final single, "Pool Side Music" from June 1994, was released as an advance single from their sophomore album"Preppy Kicks", and it's got that happy-go-lucky 60s pop feel. Band guitarist Nobuyuki Ohashi（大橋伸行）was responsible for words and music with Mami Otomo（大友真美）handling the vocals.
In Japan, apartments are described through a shorthand of numbers and letters so my old place in Ichikawa was known as a 2K, i.e. two rooms and a kitchen. For whatever reason, the bathroom was never included in the coding and it was just as well since it could have made things a bit more unwieldy. For the purposes of this article, the above floor plan is of a 1DK apartment somewhere in Tokyo: one room and a dining/kitchen space.
Of course, just having a floor plan won't give you a full picture of what a 1DK would be, so I've also included this video of YouTuber serori's own 1DK apartment. It's a whole lot more tastefully planned than my old place.
Anyways, I provided all that to introduce the song "1DK no Nagisa" (The Beach by the 1DK Apartment) that was written, composed and sung by Keitarou Takanami（高浪慶太郎）. He was a part of Pizzicato Five in its early years back in the 1980s and I first introduced his solo works via his 2021 synth-fully delicious reggae "Citypop Lullaby".
Just judging from that song, I had assumed that "1DK no Nagisa", which comes from his July 1994 album"Everybody's Out Of Town", was going to be something as eclectic or perhaps something Shibuya-kei because of his association with Pizzicato Five. However, I was surprised to discover that "1DK no Nagisa" is actually a very old-fashioned mellow AOR piece with a touch of soul. And it's quite the pleasant song that could accompany serori's video tour or any footage of a 1DK apartment right by the beach. Mind you, I can't even imagine how much a unit like that would go for in terms of rent.
And once again, welcome to another end of the work week here on KKP which means that it's Urban Contemporary Friday on the blog. It seems as if here in Toronto, we're enjoying those warm days but the nights are getting cooler which is normal for us, and the beginning of next week will be having highs just in the low 20s Celsius. So autumn is just around the corner.
It's been a while since we've had singer-songwriter Akemi Kakihara（柿原朱美）so it's nice to have her back. I consider her to be one of those artists of the late 1980s and early 1990s responsible for some very comfortable light pop of the time. I can put her beside singers such as Miki Imai（今井美樹）, Midori Karashima（辛島美登里）and Akiko Kobayashi（小林明子）, and so it's not surprising that Kakihara, or ak as she's been known for the past several years, has contributed a lot of her songs to Imai.
In June 1994, the singer came out with her sixth album"Taiyo no Shita de" (Under the Sun), and the first track happens to be the title track. Written and composed by her, I can't say that it's a City Pop, AOR or an R&B tune but it still has plenty of urbaneness and urbanity with a bit of bossa nova sprinkled into it. The marvelous sax solo in the middle lifts "Taiyo no Shita de" into sophisticated pop territory. I can also imagine Imai herself covering this one.
Late last month, I posted trf's "lights and any more" which was the opening theme to the 2007 anime adaptation of the long-running franchise "Wangan Midnight"（湾岸ミッドナイト...Bayshore Midnight）. It was an appropriately high-energy drink of a song sprinkled with some rock guitar.
Well, there was the early 1990s part of the franchise that was on video and in live-action. Specifically, there was "Wangan Midnight IV" which came out in 1993. The song that would finish the movie as you can check the time stamp for the video up on top was the official theme "Watashi wo Omoidashite ~ Raison d'etre"(Remember Me) by Kei Uehara（上原ケイ）. The soulful ballad was written by Masako Arikawa（有川正沙子）and composed by JADOES guitarist Kazumasa Denda（伝田一正）, and it was also part of an album titled "Wangan Midnight Flash Back ~ 8 Image Songs" which was released in 1994.
According to the Japanese music blog "Music Avenue", the album itself was produced by JADOES and it's basically the final product that the funk group created before disbanding. "Watashi wo Omoidashite" has so much nocturnal soul coursing through its veins thanks in part to that saxophone that pretty much everyone listening to it is obliged to lean against a brick wall (or an expensive sports car) outside at midnight and light up a cigarette while letting the curling smoke get reflected through the passing car lights. I also found out that Uehara is a stage name for Chizuru Urata（浦田千尋）who mainly acts and sings in musicals.
If someone were to ask me "Who has been one Japanese singer who has worked in the largest variety of genres?", I would answer quite quickly: Junko Yagami（八神純子）. She's not the only one but she's the one who readily comes to mind. Pop balladry, City Pop, bossa nova/samba, R&B, world music...perhaps I have missed one or two.
And now I can include 90s dance music (House, anyone?) to the list. In 1994, Yagami released her 16th album"Renaissance" in November 1994 and one of the tracks there is the very long-worded "Tatoe Kanawanai Yume demo Kore de Ii" (Even If It's a Dream That Won't Come True, That's Fine). Written by Yuuho Iwasato（岩里祐穂）and composed by Yagami, I'm not sure if she had been aiming for C+C Music Factory but she's thrown in everything but the kitchen sink into this one...dance, funk, Latin and jazz. And lyrically speaking, her protagonist is also going for broke trying to get this one guy. Life and love in Tokyo, ladies and gentlemen!
