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.
Ahh...yes. "Anchorman", the gift that keeps on giving through reaction videos and the actual movie itself. I recall that back in 2022, I thanked "Anchorman 2" for highlighting a 1976 song from my radio days titled "I'd Really Love to See You Tonight" by England Dan & John Ford Coley. Well, I got another one right from that year that got highlighted in the first movie.
And the wonderful thing is that the actual main cast was behind covering it. It was simultaneously hilarious and heartwarming as Ron Burgundy and his buds on the news team sang (in wonderful harmony) "Afternoon Delight" which was originally by Starland Vocal Band. Now back in those halcyon days of the 1970s, I was about as sweet, naive and thickheaded (probably still am) as Brick Tamland (and yes, I love lamp too), so I hadn't been aware of the hidden message of getting a "nooner" in the lyrics. "Afternoon Delight" was about a friendly country ditty that mystified me because it sounded as if someone were shooting fireworks in broad daylight...which probably was the case, figuratively speaking. Plus, there was that mighty guitar twang right after "...skyrockets in flight..." that made me able to remember the song after all these decades.
Perhaps there were a lot of nudges and winks at the Grammys that year as "Afternoon Delight" won for Best Vocal Arrangement and was nominated for Song of the Year and Best Pop Performance by a Group. It also hit No. 1 in both Canada and the United States. For one of those No. 1s, that was on July 10th 1976 which begs the question: What hit the top on Oricon on July 12th 1976? I have here Nos. 1, 3 and 4.
Alain Delon, French screen god, passed away today at the age of 88. He got a quick mention on the local news reports and news scrolls here but I'm sure that it was a "Stop the presses!" moment in France. Moreover, I'm fairly sure that he got a similar tribute in Japan because he was quite the attraction for a certain generation of young Japanese folks back in the day. When I first went to Japan in 1972 as a 6-year-old moppet, I was rather confused when acquaintances of my relatives kept jokingly referring to me as "Alain Delon", a name that I obviously didn't know back then. As everyone who has seen KKP via my Twitter and Facebook feeds already knows, my real first name is Allan and I've always wondered whether I was given that name since Mom may have been a fan of Delon. It's kinda tragic then that I never got my French namesake's good looks, charm, wit, charisma, rugged coolness...etc. etc.
Well, I decided to take a chance to see if a kayo kyoku singer had actually created a song with "Alain Delon" as part of the title. Looking through the JASRAC database, it was almost obscenely easy to find this song by singer-songwriter Akira Inaba（因幡晃）titled simply "Alain Delon" which was a track on his January 1979 5th album"Honoo"（静炎...Quiet Blaze）. Inaba's lyrics whimsically weave a story of a decent fellow who just can't seem to wrap his head around the fact that a young lady has the hots for him. He finally caves in at the end of the song by sheepishly stating that he's rather far from being the iconic actor from Sceaux, France but if the lass is more than welcoming, then how can he refuse?
Mitsuo Hagita's（萩田光雄）arrangement of the original melody by Inaba was done as if it had taken a vacation in some of the sunny climes where Delon himself filmed his scenes. I guess it hovers between a classy form of New Music and City Pop. But more interestingly, "Alain Delon" sounds not only like a prototype of what Tomita Lab（富田ラボ）would do twenty years later but a tune that Tomita Lab had made by traveling in his own TARDIS to the late 1970s. Go figure on that.
In any case, I offer my condolences to the family, friends and fans of Alain Delon.
First off, I saw the NHK live bulletin regarding the fairly sizable earthquake that jolted the Kanto region earlier today my time. I hope that everyone there is doing OK. From what I've been hearing from friends in the area, though, it looks like aside from the usual products falling from shelves and broken water mains, injuries have been minor so far.
Now, to our weekly Reminiscings of Youth feature for this week. Over the last few days, I've been catching this local commercial from our Toronto Transit Commission.
Then, I heard that the same nostalgic song was used for the Applebee's chain in the United States. In either case, it was a nice warm moment to show some promise of getting back to a near-normal life in the potential post-pandemic era.
It hits me and a lot of my generation even more since we all know that this is "Welcome Back" by John Sebastian, the former member of the band Lovin' Spoonful, and it was the theme song for the 1975-1979 US ABC sitcom, "Welcome Back, Kotter". The single itself wasn't released until March 1976, though.
I remember watching the show here and there in its first run and then in reruns. "Welcome Back, Kotter" struck me as being the comedic version of "To Sir, with Love". But instead of poised Sidney Poitier, the star was wisecracking actor/comedian Gabe Kaplan as Gabe Kotter, a former member of a group of high school malcontents known as the Sweathogs who comes back years later to teach at his alma mater, James Buchanan High School, and a new generation of Sweathogs.
Not sure if he was ever the official leader of the 1970s Sweathogs but Vinnie Barbarino certainly felt like the Grand Poobah of the guys which included Boom-Boom, Epstein and Arnold Horshack. Vinnie was played by a young John Travolta who had both cool charisma and dense goofiness in equal measure. I think that this was his breakthrough role that would later get him movie stardom in "Saturday Night Fever" (I believe that I did a ROY article on that movie's theme) and "Grease". Also in its heyday, there were some notable catchphrases that popped out into the pop culture realm such as "Up your nose with a rubber hose!", "Ooh, ooh, ooh!" and "Hi there!".
Perhaps the whole thing behind Sebastian's oh-so-comfy "Welcome Back" was that with the tension in some of these school-based movies with the teacher going up against the rowdy students, the producers probably wanted a song to let us viewers know that, yup, maybe these kids were Sweathogs but they were really lovable punks at heart who needed more love and nurturing. In any case, "Welcome Back, Kotter" became a quick hit for ABC and Sebastian soon found out that he therefore had a hit with the song, so having only meant to have "Welcome Back" as just that one-minute-and-change theme for the credits, he had to quickly add on some more music and lyrics to make it into a proper single. Indeed, the song hit the top spot on the Adult Contemporary charts in both the United States and Canada, and also did very well on the regular singles charts.
So, what did come out in March 1976 as singles, according to Showa Pops?
It was a dark and Sunday morning. Well, not exactly dark...the snow on the ground reflected plenty of light back despite the overcast situation. But to see a very wintry snowscape on April 15th almost a month into official spring has probably led a lot of my fellow Torontonians into some dark moods as they mutter internally and externally "When are we finally going to get warm?!" Supposedly, relief is on the way later next week.
(9:45)
That cover of singer-songwriter Akira Inaba's（因幡晃）2nd single, "Wakare"（別涙...Farewell Tears）from June 1976 accurately illustrates what my hair looked like as I went outside to pick up the newspaper this morning. However, it is the B-side that I am writing about here, "Sunday Morning". Cool, not cold, number about a week in the melancholy life of a fellow in the big city beginning with the titular day of the week.
I especially love the collage of bluesy guitar, dramatic strings and that shuffle arrangement. Probably was quite good to hear in a nightclub setting and it could make for a nice theme song for a hard-boiled detective in Japan. The melody does repeat over and over but that's the point of the musical exercise...just to reflect the gray mundaneness of metropolitan living. I can hear the Mickey Spillane voice-over now.
Not sure how well "Wakare" did on the charts but both it and "Sunday Morning" were included on Inaba's debut album"Nanka Ii Wasureta Yo De"（何か言い忘れたようで....I've Forgotten What To Say）. One of his most famous songs is also included, "Natsu ni Arigato"（夏にありがとう）.
I read over an article that I had written about folk singer Akira Inaba's（因幡晃）"Natsu ni Arigato"（夏にありがとう）all the way back in November 2013 and noted how wintry things had gotten. Well, I'm writing the second article about one of his songs and although things aren't quite as frosty cold today as they were back then, we Torontonians are currently getting our first taste of major snow.
In his J-Wiki bio, I read that after graduating from his high school in Akita Prefecture, Inaba soon started work as a mining engineer. However, I gather that his musical ambitions were living quite large and so he released his debut single in February 1976, "Wakatte Kudasai" (Please Understand). I mentioned this in "Natsu ni Arigato" but never listened to the song until this past week.
Man, does it start with some epic organ! There is a majesty in there which had me initially wondering whether this would be a folk song as Inaba has been categorized. Sure enough, the organ gives way to a gentle melancholy ballad about remembering a love lost around graduation. I'm not sure if songwriter Inaba had thought about him when coming up with his first impressive song but I think with that organ which keeps anchoring things, I couldn't help but think Edgar Allan Poe, specifically "The Raven" where the narrator's lost Lenore comes in. Perhaps that organ is emphasizing the fact that the protagonist has been truly haunted by the experience, seeing her face in other women.
It was interesting when I saw the above video on YouTube since the other recommended videos on the right side included songs by Mayumi Itsuwa（五輪真弓）and Kozo Murashita（村下孝蔵）. Indeed, those were the musicians that came to mind as I was listening to "Wakatte Kudasai". There is a lot of depth in the song that has a certain calming effect despite the sadness of the lyrics. It may act as a tonic for me if I have listened to a little too many aidoru or Japanese disco tunes.
Apparently, "Wakatte Kudasai" may not have made too much of a dent in the Oricon charts but it did win Inaba a prize at the Yamaha Popular Song Contest in 1975 which brought about his official debut.
Time for another attempt at a retrospective for a veteran songmaker, and the subject this time is Koji Makaino. For some reason, when I see or hear the name, I always think of one of his later compositions, "A-RA-SHI", the debut single for the current top band on the Johnny's Entertainment hill, Arashi（嵐）. But obviously he's been plying his trade from far back. The other thing that I've been struck with is his name itself which sounds pretty rare to me (according to one website dealing with Japanese names, it ranks in the 17,000s for the top 50,000 names). And when I did a bit of checking, I found out that "Makaino" may have originated in Shizuoka Prefecture, the land of green tea. However, songwriter Makaino was born and raised in neighbouring Aichi Prefecture which is the land of some of the more intriguing examples of Japanese comfort food such as miso katsu and ten-musu.
Koji Makaino was born in 1952 into a family associated with music. His father, Noboru Makaino（馬飼野昇）, was a composer of go-tochi songs (ご当地ソング...songs about specific cities and towns), and his older brother, Shunichi（馬飼野俊一）, also became a composer and arranger. The brothers' interest in music started from an early age as the family got involved in a tango band and also in the backup band for singer Yoshiko Ohtsu（大津美子）.
Makaino got his formal education in music at the Shobi College of Music in Tokyo although he dropped out to join a Group Sounds band, Blue Sharm（ブルー・シャルム）, in 1967. However, the band only lasted until 1970 and produced only 4 singles. A couple of years later, he started cutting his teeth on arrangement when he helped out on Hideki Saijo's（西城秀樹）3rd single, "Chance wa Ichido"（チャンスは一度...Just One Chance）, a short-but-sweet song that sounded like something from the go-go-boot friendly age of the 1960s. It managed to peak at No. 20 and from that point forwards, Makaino focused his talents on composition and arrangement.
From what I've gleaned from his long list of creations on his J-Wiki file, Makaino has done a lot of work for aidoru representing the last few decades of the 20th century and into the 21st. Another dynamic example of his aidoru work was "Yuki no Naka no Futari"（雪の中の二人...Couple in the Snow）for Megumi Asaoka（麻丘めぐみ）as her 10th single from December 1974 for which he was listed as composer. That song reached as high as No. 16 on Oricon.
However, Makaino didn't just keep himself on retainer for merely the teenyboppers. He has also created works in the Mood Kayo and straight pop genres with examples like Shigeru Matsuzaki's（松崎しげる）heart-on-a-sleeve ballad "Ai no Memory"（愛のメモリー）from 1977 and the cutesy kayo "Otoko to Onna no Love Game"（男と女のラブ・ゲーム）from 1987.
One other example of his non-aidoru compositions that I just found was the surprising union of 70s folk singer Akira Inaba（因幡晃）and late 80s/early 90s former aidoruShoko Aida（相田翔子）of Wink fame to perform "Kureta no Shiroi Suna"（クレタの白い砂...The White Sands of Crete）as Inaba's 34th single from April 2004 although it is also a track on Aida's 3rd solo album"This Is My Love" which was released much later in September 2013. Listening to this glossy ballad, I realized that Makaino has had quite the romanticist inside of him since "Ai no Memory".
Moving on...or back...to the 1980s, Makaino kept busy with the aidoru of a different breed then. He composed "100% Danjo Kousai"（100%男女交際...100% Boy-Girl Dating）for saucy Kyoko Koizumi（小泉今日子）in April 1986 as her 18th single. It's as perky as a Kyon-Kyon tune goes but it has some nice backing by the orchestra. As for the title, it had originally been "Akarui Danjo Kousai"（明るい男女交際...Cheerful Boy-Girl Dating） but was changed into "100%" during a delay in the release. According to the article for the song, Koizumi was far from pleased with the name change saying it was the worst on a radio program. Still the song hit No. 2 on the charts and was the 86th-ranked single for the year.
Geez, where have you been all of my life? I never heard of this Hikaru Genji（光GENJI）song until a few days ago, but man, I really like "Waratte yo"（笑ってよ...C'mon, Smile）. Makaino composed and arranged the band's final No. 1 hit which was released in November 1990 as its 11th single. It's got a lot of oomph with a spritz of Latin and a percussion that will hammer your ears into submission above a certain sound level. It became the 82nd-ranked single of the year.
Still a lot to explore about Makaino but in consideration of the limits of the number of categories I can place in the Labels section, I will have to stop it here with Yasuko Naito's（内藤やす子）"Omoide Boroboro"（想い出ぼろぼろ...Tattered Memories）. This was arranged by Makaino as Naito's 3rd single from September 1976 and it's also a fine discovery by me. I love the combination of the rock guitar with those soaring and shimmering strings. I've got an impression that Makaino liked to put in a nice layer of lushness into his arrangements, no matter what the genre was or who the singer was.
In fact, I like this last song so much, I will give it its own individual entry entry as soon as I can. There's a bit more I can add in my comments here in the body and also in the Labels.
This is another song that I was able to dig up from the proverbial vaults of "Sounds of Japan". As much as I love the hit songs from kayo kyoku and beyond, it's always wonderful when I can come across an unsung gem from the old Canadian Tire tapes.
Folk singer Akira Inaba（因幡晃）wrote and composed this sweet and quiet ballad as one of the tracks on his debut album, "Nanka Ii Wasureta Yo De"（何か言い忘れたようで....I've Forgotten What To Say）which was released in June 1976. "Natsu ni Arigato" may mean "Thanks to Summer" but I think it deserves to be played especially either at sunrise or sunset. With those strings, it can almost be a tribute to the horizon-placed sun. Considering how cold it's gotten here (It was -11 degrees Celsius this morning!), I feel that gratitude to that particular season right now.
Inaba was born in 1954 in Akita Prefecture. In 1975, he won a prize for excellence at the Yamaha Popular Song Contest with "Wakatte Kudasai"（わかって下さい...Please Understand）that would be officially released as his first single early in the following year. To date, he has released 36 singles and 34 albums. Strangely enough, theJ-Wiki write-up on the singer also included all of his likes, so to translate from over there: the minyo songs his father sings, his Mom's home cooking, alcohol (although he also likes those tiny yogurt-based Yakult drinks), regional cuisine, going to Hawaii with his family, and diamonds.
As for "Nanka Ii Wasureta Yo De", it cruised right up to No. 2 on the album charts, and became the 10th-ranked album for 1976 and even hung on throughout 1977 to become the 14th-ranked album.
