Akira Nishikino -- Begin the Beguine（ビギン・ザ・ビギン）

 

"Begin the Beguine" is the old standard that was concocted by the legendary songwriter Cole Porter back in 1935, and its various iterations have been with me since I was literally a baby. For one thing, the sultry nightclub-friendly Ann-Margret cover with a touch of bossa nova in its jazz (although a beguine is a form of slow rhumba) was on that RCA Victor "50 Years Of Hits In Stereo" set that my parents had gotten along with the stereo.

Since then, I've also gotten familiar with Julio Iglesias' 1981 take on "Begin the Beguine" which was arranged in the disco fashion although disco was pretty much dead (or hibernating) by that point, I gather. The song even made its way onto NHK's 1983 edition of the Kohaku Utagassen when both Red and White teams got together for their usual kick-out-the-doors musical tribute. Porter would have loved it. Too bad that it hasn't gotten onto YouTube.

Entertainer Akira Nishikino（錦野旦）, who I've known primarily for his 1971 hit "Sora ni Taiyo ga Aru Kagiri" （空に太陽がある限り）, followed Iglesias' Latin disco style and recorded his own Japanese-language take on "Begin the Beguine". This was Nishikino's 27th single from June 1982 with Masako Arikawa（有川正沙子）providing the Japanese lyrics and the great Katsuhisa Hattori（服部克久） arranging everything pretty closely to the Iglesias version.

Akira Nishikino -- Mou Koi Nanoka（もう恋なのか）

For those who are into the old kayo, whenever the name Akira Nishikino（錦野旦）pops up, the usual song that appears in memories is his zesty 3rd single "Sora ni Taiyo ga Aru Kagiri"（空に太陽がある限り）, written and composed by the late songwriter Kuranosuke Hamaguchi（浜口庫之助）.

Of course, when Nishikino does appear on various programs (he doesn't show up as much as he used to) such as NHK's "Uta Con"（うたコン）, "Sora ni Taiyo ga Aru Kagiri" would be the go-to performance. However, on the "Uta Con" episode back on July 10th, which was devoted to the works of his old master, Nishikino not only sang his most famous hit but also his debut single from May 1970, "Mou Koi Nanoka" (Is This Love?).

It's always a treat when a veteran singer who seems to always go with his biggest hit on music shows finally decides to dig into his/her discography vaults and performs something that I had yet to hear. That was indeed the case with "Mou Koi Nanoka".

As was the case with "Sora ni Taiyo ga Aru Kagiri", "Mou Koi Nanoka" was also a HamaKura creation for his padawan (whose name at the time was written down in hiragana: にしきのあきら), and the song struck me for its innocent and questioning melody which matched the young Nishikino's words of figuring out this strange emotion roiling inside him. An interesting thing was that when the native of Oita Prefecture was given his promotion to the public, his catchphrase was "The Sony Enka Knight"（ソニー演歌の騎士）.

"Mou Koi Nanoka" does evoke images of cherry blossom petals and romantic walks near temples and ancient arched bridges, but at this point, I can't really say that the arrangement here places it as an enka tune. It just sounds like a romantic kayo ballad. And quite a successful one, to boot. It didn't break the Top 10 on Oricon but peaked at a respectable No. 24, selling a tad over 150,000 records. He also won Best New Artist honours at the Japan Record Awards and his first of 6 invitations to the Kohaku Utagassen during the 1970s.

Akira Nishikino -- Sora ni Taiyo ga Aru Kagiri （空に太陽がある限り）

To me, Akira Nishikino（錦野旦）has been one of those middle-aged tarento that often pops up on variety shows to take part in hilarious obstacle courses along with manzai comedians or to sample dishes at restaurants all over Japan with other TV personalities. He cut a somewhat goofily cool figure, often wearing garb from his heyday in the early 70s and sporting an old-style bouffant hairstyle. And occasionally, I heard a few words from a song that seemed to follow him whenever he appeared on those shows:

Aishiteru, totemo (愛してる、とても....I love you so much)

This was Nishikino's big hit, "Sora ni Taiyo ga Aru Kagiri"(As Long As The Sun Is In The Sky), and over 40 years ago, he was an aidoru singer who had female fans ranging from their teens to their thirties (not surprising due to his good looks and his height of 177 cm). His 3rd single, released in March 1971, reached No. 3 on the Oricon weeklies and has since become a theme song of his.

Nishikino originally hailed from Oita Prefecture in Kyushu. Through his dance teacher father, he was able to get a job working at a cabaret club, Napoli, in Beppu City in the same prefecture where he sang and played the trumpet and the bass. And after a couple of more introductions, he ended up working for songwriter Kuranosuke Hamaguchi（浜口庫之助） (who wrote hits for the Group Sounds band The Spiders and Mike Maki's "Bara ga Saita") in Tokyo as his driver while taking intensive singing lessons. Eventually, through Hamaguchi's representing agency, Nishikino got his debut in 1970.