Akai Tori/Nana Mizuki -- Akai Hana Shiroi Hana（赤い花白い花）

Another Hump Day is passing us by so perhaps something a little more sedate would be nice tonight. I've dug out a sweet and lilting ballad by folk group Akai Tori（赤い鳥）called "Akai Hana Shiroi Hana" (Red Flowers, White Flowers).

Created by Mie Nakabayashi（中林三恵）, the song is notable for the guitar work which sounds like running water in a brook while the vocals by Junko Arai（新居潤子）, who will go onto sing for vocal group Hi-Fi Set（ハイ・ファイ・セット）under her married name of Junko Yamamoto（山本潤子）, and Yasuyo Hirayama（平山泰代）, later of folk duo Kami Fusen（紙ふうせん）, gently describe the kind act of presenting flowers. No ulterior motives here...just an innocent and kind tune.

"Akai Hana Shiroi Hana" is the B-side to Akai Tori's 2nd single "Jinsei"（人生...Life）released in June 1970. The following year, it became a track on the group's 4th album from July 1971, "Takeda no Komori"（竹田の子守唄...Takeda's Lullaby）. The video of the old footage below has Yamamoto giving a solo performance. Strangely enough, if I'm not mistaken in my comprehension, she may have said that the songwriter was unknown at the time. It's a lovely performance.

Apparently, there was a cover version of "Akai Hana Shiroi Hana" performed by seiyuu Nana Mizuki（水樹奈々）in the 2019 anime retelling of Osamu Tezuka's（手塚治虫）"Dororo"（どろろ）. Mizuki played the virtuous but doomed character of Mio, and though I never saw the anime, just seeing this video had me getting all lumpy in the throat. Just want to make sure, though...the above is indeed Mizuki singing this?

NOVO/Akai Tori -- Mado ni Akari ga Tomoru Toki（窓に明りがともる時）

Ever since I first heard of NOVO back in spring this year via their wonderful cover of a Toi et Moi（トワ・エ・モア）commercial song, "Ai wo Sodateru"（愛を育てる）, I wondered about getting their 2013 album "Love Is There ~ NOVO Complete Works". And a couple of weeks ago, I finally pulled the trigger and purchased it from Tower Records. Just one thing...after the official e-mail from Tower that the order was being processed, those two weeks passed by without any word which is unusual. Then this morning, the folks there finally sent word that they were still trying to get a copy of it for which of course, the red alert sparked off in my head and disappointment has started to coalesce. From experience, that's usually not a great sign, although in one similar case, the CD was actually found and shipped.

Plus, there's the fact that Canada Post is going through rotating strike action right now so there is a load of mail and packages that's piling up everywhere at distribution points. The mail will get through but it will take several days and perhaps that will evolve into weeks. Not too great to hear as we approach the Holiday season.

But I will leave it at that and just hope that somehow I will be able to get the NOVO album. In any case, the final straw which happily broke the camel's back for me to decide on purchasing the CD was this song, "Mado ni Akari ga Tomoru Toki" (When The Light Comes On In The Window). This is another track from "Love Is There ~ NOVO Complete Works", and as with "Ai wo Sodateru", the original song was created by lyricist Michio Yamagami（山上路夫）and composer Kunihiko Murai（村井邦彦）for a 1970s folk group...this time it's Akai Tori（赤い鳥）.

As performed so lovingly by Yutaka Yokokura（横倉裕）and Diane Silverson (or Silberson), there is a feeling of 1960s Bacharach in Yokokura's arrangement as the two sing about putting that light in the window to welcome home a loved one...a nice thing to muse about especially when the days are getting shorter as they are now. But the song extends into the feeling of positivity for tomorrow and the hope that better days are ahead. At the end, though, "Mado" ends back in that cozy and warm house with the couple saying "Let's just enjoy the stew for dinner tonight".

As I said above, the original version was a folk/pop song by Akai Tori from their January 1973 album "Utsukushii Hoshi"（美しい星...A Beautiful Star）. I'm not sure but that may be the splendid Junko Yamamoto（山本潤子）as the main vocalist since she was part of the group; Yamamoto would later go off to form the vocal trio Hi-Fi Set（ハイ・ファイ・セット）. "Mado ni Akari ga Tomoru Toki" is slightly mellower here with some further assistance by some lovely honeyed horns.

According to J-Wiki, "Utsukushii Hoshi" has the dreaded haiban status, but now I'm interested in getting that BEST compilation by Akai Tori. The band is even more famous for first singing the high school chorus standard, "Tsubasa wo Kudasai"（翼をください）.

Ryoko Moriyama/Akai Tori/Toi et Moi/Mari Amachi -- Utsukushii Hoshi （美しい星）

Whilst I was in the midst of collecting these discs of 20th-century kayo kyoku around the turn of the century, I got Volume 3 of "Good Times Diva"(already profiled in the "Media" label) one day at Yamano Music in Ginza (also profiled under the same label). I usually just listened to a new disc in bed, and as I was nearing the end, this one track came up which caught my attention. "Utsukushii Hoshi"(Beautiful Star) by folk singer Ryoko Moriyama（森山良子） starts with a brass section sleepily waking up to a sunny day and then has the singer cheerfully delivering the lyrics as if they were part of a French oldie-but-goodie before going into a jazzy/gospel-like refrain. The lyrics, as would be the case with such a melody, talk of a happy couple relishing the fact that they live on this wonderful Earth and that each day and night should be savored like a fine wine. As sappy as that may sound, it's a short-but-lovely cheer-up tune.

The folk group Akai Tori （赤い鳥）did their cover of the song.

The Moriyama song was actually a B-side to her October 1972 17th single, "Sayonara no Sekai"（さよならの世界....The Goodbye World), but it can also be found on one of her BEST compilations....or Vol. 3 of "Good Times Diva" (just check out Amazon.jp). The folk duo, Toi et Moi, also did a slower cover version.

(Sorry but the video has been taken down.)

And 70s aidoru Mari Amachi（天地真理） gave her own straight-ahead cover. The song, by the way, was written by Michio Yamagami（山上路夫）, the prolific lyricist who had been responsible for Agnes Chan's "Hinageshi no Hana" and Akai Tori's "Tsubasa wo Kudasai" (both profiled). The composer was Kunihiko Murai（村井邦彦）who also had a hand in the latter song.

Akai Tori/Kaori Kawamura -- Tsubasa wo Kudasai （翼をください）

Some time ago, I wrote an entry on the song "American Feeling" by vocal group The Circus. The song was one of the mainstays during that part of the junior high school year known as "Gassho Konkuuru"（合唱コンクール....Chorus Group Competition) Season. During my 2 years teaching in my 2 junior high schools in northern Gunma, I would always hear the kids, led by the music teacher, sing in serious harmony as they prepared for the inter-school contests. Along with "American Feeling", another go-to song in the contests was "Die Moldau", one of the six symphonic poems created by Czech composer Bedrich Smetana in the late 19th century.

But there was one other popular song that had the students in Japan singing, and that was "Tsubasa wo Kudasai". The title literally means "Please Give Me Wings", but apparently it's more known as "Wings to Fly". This song was originally created in 1970 by lyricist Michio Yamakami （山上路夫）and composer Kunihiko Murai（村井邦彦） as an entry in a music festival contest in Mie Prefecture. However, the folk group, Akai Tori（赤い鳥）, asked if they could sing it just 2 hours before its recording. I guess the meaning of "wings"in the title was not lost on this new band since its name means "red birds". And it was also a good match in that the group gave the song that optimistic lift which would later be emulated by later generations of uniform-wearing students.　In 1971, it would release the song as the B-side to another song in February 1971.

Akai Tori will always be known as the leading group for this much-covered song. And even after it disbanded in 1974, its members branched out into their own successful projects. Vocal Junko Yamamoto（山本潤子） and bassist Shigeru Okawa（大川茂） started the vocal group Hi-Fi Set along with Yamamoto's husband, Toshihiko（山本俊彦）, who was also a guitarist in Akai Tori. Meanwhile, two other members would start up another group called Kami Fuusen（紙ふうせん）.

After hearing the song so much from the teachers' room that it took up permanent residency in my head, it was a pleasant surprise to hear this rock version one night near the end of my stay in Japan in 1991. Sung by the late Kaori Kawamura（川村かおり）, this fresh take on what had been given the anthemic approach was as if a few of those kids snuck out during rehearsal and treated it their own way. The song became a hit for Kawashima as it sold close to 300,000 copies.

But everyone has covered it over the decades....from Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里） to Kazumasa Oda（小田和正）. Even the Susan Boyle has given her own rendition.