Anita Baker -- I Apologize

Kingkongphoto & www.celebrity-photos.com
via Wikimedia Commons

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?

access -- SCANDALOUS BLUE

Sharam Q -- Single Bed（シングルベッド）

Yumi Matsutoya -- Haru yo, Koi （春よ、来い）

Five Favourite Songs by Sing Like Talking

Amazon.ca

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).

(1988) Juu-Ichi Gatsu no Kioku ～Raining Blues （11 月の記憶）

(1991) Steps of Love

(1994) Together

(1995) Mitsumeru Ai de (みつめる愛で) 

(2007) Hatsukoi (初恋）

Those 14th Singles (Happy 14th, Kayo Kyoku Plus!)

Wikimedia Commons

 

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.

(1982) Southern All Stars -- Chako no Kaigan Monogatari （チャコの海岸物語）

(1983) Seiko Matsuda -- Glass no Ringo（ガラスの林檎）

(1983) Anri -- Kanashimi ga Tomaranai (悲しみがとまらない）

(1986) Akina Nakamori -- Desire

(1994) SMAP -- Ganbarimasho （がんばりましょう）

Seiko Sato -- Kono Koi ga Subete（この恋がすべて）

 

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.

J-Canuck's Favourite Duets

 

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）

(1982) Takao Kisugi and Kaori Momoi -- Nejireta Heart de (ねじれたハートで）

(1984) Sachiko Kobayashi & Katsuhiko Miki -- Moshikashite Part 2 （もしかして・パート２）

(1994) Masayuki Suzuki & Momoko Kikuchi -- Shibuya de Go-ji (渋谷で5時）

Mitsuko Komuro -- Get Wild

 

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.

Katsutoshi Morizono -- Day Dream

 

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.

Jun Mayuzumi -- Koi no Hallelujah（恋のハレルヤ）

Wikimedia Commons

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.

Tomiko Kobayashi -- Kono Hi no Ame wo Wasurenai（この日の雨を忘れない）

 

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.

bridge -- Pool Side Music

Wikimedia Commons

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.

Keitarou Takanami -- 1DK no Nagisa（1DKの渚）

From the site OHEYAGO

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.

Akemi Kakihara -- Taiyo no Shita de（太陽の下で）

 

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.

Kei Uehara -- Watashi wo Omoidashite ~ Raison d'etre（私を思い出して）

 

(1:10:34)

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. 

Junko Yagami -- Tatoe Kanawanai Yume demo Kore de Ii（たとえ叶わない夢でもこれでいい）

 

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!

Chiyono Yoshino -- Birthday Eve

 

The last time I wrote about singer Chiyono Yoshino（吉野千代乃）was in late 2022, so I figured it was time to get her back up onto "Kayo Kyoku Plus". And when I discovered that it was Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）taking care of the composition and arrangement for this particular song, it suddenly demanded my attention.

"Birthday Eve" is a track on Yoshino's one-and-only album under the Toshiba EMI label, "Crescent Moon" which was released back in October 1994. Arisu Sato（佐藤ありす）is the lyricist for this pleasant song that kinda hovers between pop and 1990s City Pop. Perhaps it alights on the sophisticated pop leaf of this specific plant. In any case, I love Yoshino's vocals here and some of those cool key changes.

Mikio Sakai -- Taisetsu no Kimi e to（大切な君へと）

 

It was exactly a month ago that I put up Miwako Fujitani's（藤谷美和子）"Dry Flower"（ドライフラワー）, a love ballad that was used for the intriguing short-lived late-night Fuji-TV program "OIOI TOKYO TASTE ROOMS". As you probably have guessed, I have an old affinity for the show as something stylish that helped me to sleep when I first began my long odyssey in Japan from the mid-1990s.

A pity, though, that I could only find two YouTube videos with complete episodes of "ROOMS" and I've already used both of them in KKP posts. However, I have found yet another ballad that was utilized for the show, and it's by a singer-songwriter that I had never heard of before. Mikio Sakai（酒井ミキオ）hails from Hokkaido and made his major debut in February 1994. His second single, the subject of this article, was "Taisetsu no Kimi e to" (To My Precious You) which was released in October that same year. 

The wintry romance feelings are there in the lyrics and the overall vibe of "Taisetsu no Kimi e to", and the arrangement feels like a typical 90s love ballad that could be used in a lot of dramas...especially, dramas on Fuji-TV at the time. In fact, Sakai provided songs as themes for a number of dramas, variety shows and anime. His most recent single came out in 2015.

Miwako Fujitani -- Dry Flower（ドライフラワー）

 

At this writing, I think there are only two or so of these YouTube videos showing "OIOI TOKYO TASTE ROOMS", so they are quite precious. Now, I've mentioned this show a couple of times in the past, going all the way back to 2013, and I have to make some clarifications here since I was rather loose with my details. For one thing, I referred to the show as just "Rooms"; well, the full name is now above us. For the second thing, I'd assumed that the show ran on for a few years when in fact, it was just for a year on late-night Fuji-TV between 1994 and 1995.

But I guess such was the impressive style and panache that the producers behind "OIOI TOKYO TASTE ROOMS" placed onto this mere 10-minute vignette that it was like getting that video version of a great midnight snack. And indeed, the program ran at around the 12:30 am time period as it focused on the more interesting apartment layouts of urbanites ranging from their late teens to thirties. Having a passing interest in architecture and interior décor, I have to admit that it was some late-night catnip to me as I watched from the comfort of my futon.

Of course, being sponsored by the department store Marui, having the show get into viewers' eyes and minds probably had them snoozing and perhaps dreaming of furniture and other interior goods that they could get from stylish Marui itself. If I'm not mistaken, there was also a rather bizarre segment of about a minute in length in which a famous actress or female Fuji-TV announcer in character or even a viewer would leave a phone message on some existential matter.

However, it was the ending theme that did catch my ear, and in the past, I have posted about a couple of those themes: Kenjiro Sakiya's（崎谷健次郎）"ROOMS" and Kaya Saeki's（佐伯伽耶）"Perfume wo Nokosenai" （パフュームを残せない）. Today's theme is "Dry Flower" which was singer/actress Miwako Fujitani's（藤谷美和子）July 1994 2nd single following her hit duet with the late Yoshiaki Ohuchi（大内義昭）, "Ai ga Umareta Hi"（愛が生まれた日）which had been released earlier in February. Written by Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）and composed by Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）, although I have put on the City Pop label for it because of its overall urbaneness, it doesn't have that usual groove but it does have some of that sophisticated pop and dramatic balladry. I'd say that it fit the "OIOI ROOMS" ethos quite well with the resident of that refined apartment or condo sighing about love and all that jazz. Still, after waking up the following morning, I didn't get that urge to buy a tapestry or a OIOI bookshelf.

Spring Songs

 

The first day of spring supposedly arrived at 5:01 am this morning. It's not exactly warmer out there and in fact, it's looking downright gray but I'll take everyone's word for it. As my friend tells me annually, here in Toronto, we will never be sure of spring's arrival until May.

Anyways, I didn't realize it until yesterday but I had yet to put up an Author's Pick on spring-titled songs so here are some of them although I'm sure that there are plenty of those out there in the kayo kyoku/J-Pop zeitgeist. 

(1976) Candies -- Haru Ichiban (春一番）

(1977) Masao Sen -- Kitaguni no Haru (北国の春）

(1983) Yoshie Kashiwabara -- Haru Nanoni (春なのに）

(1994) Yumi Matsutoya -- Haru yo, Koi （春よ、来い）

(1997) Takako Matsu -- Ashita, Haru ga Kitara（明日、春が来たら）

C.C. Girls -- Party Time

 

OK, I would like to note that the above photo of the Kyoku family has its members carrying glasses of non-alcoholic grape juice...not champagne. I don't want to be accused of catering to delinquent behaviour. Anyways, I would like to state to the Japanese: 「新年明けましておめでとうございます。」since they're now well into 2025. As I'm typing this though, we here in the Eastern Standard Time zone are still about eight hours away from making that transition. Yup, I did watch the Kohaku Utagassen but I will hold off on any opinions for at least a day until other folks have had a chance to see any reruns of it.

The New Year's holidays in Japan may be a more solemn and family-oriented occasion but of course here in North America, New Year's Eve is probably the biggest party night of the year. So as such, I thought it would be nice to add this song to the blog's coffers. 

"Party Time" was C.C. Girls' 8th single from April 1994 and yeah, you can enjoy it with real champagne. Written by Mami Takubo（田久保真見）, composed by Ichiro Hada（羽田一郎）and arranged by Hiroshi Shinkawa（新川博）, it's appropriately sparkling fun times condensed into a 4-minute song with some rock here and perhaps some Eurobeat feeling. Hopefully, all of you going out tonight to ring in the New Year will have a good and safe time.

SPANK HAPPY -- Ohayou（お早う）

 

Good morning (although I'm typing this 7 minutes shy of noon)! I hope on this Boxing Day that you are satisfyingly still digesting your Xmas dinner from last night. I was fortunate enough to have plenty of protein in the form of turkey and roast beef, and then some apple pie to finish up. Ended up with a couple of cups of coffee, too, although I'm surprised to say that I was still actually able to get a good night's sleep.

It was a couple of years ago that I first introduced the eclectic band SPANK HAPPY with Midori Hara（原みどり）as the vocalist during the 1990s. The group has had a long history a goodly number of genres that they covered, especially in those early days in the 90s. When I posted about a couple of songs, "Boku wa Gakki"（僕は楽器）and "Hashiri Naku Otome"（走り泣く乙女）, both from 1994, they struck me as weaving between late 60s Beatles and Japanese pop/rock unit Judy & Mary.

Also from 1994, September 1994 to be exact, I found this final track from their album "My Name is...". "Ohayou" (Mornin'!) is yet another song of SPANK HAPPY that is catchy but quite different from the previous two songs that I mentioned. It's some happy pop rollicking against a backdrop of a House music rhythm, although it also decides to explore a bit near the end. But overall, it feels like something that the 80s synthpop band PSY-S would have whipped up in the late 1980s.