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.
Considering that we seem to be getting our jollies out of putting up those Author's Picks over the past several days, I might as well post something related to parties. After all in North America at least, tonight is the biggest party night of the year. So, let us bring over some song titles with "party" in them.
The cases are rare on KKP, but there are singers whose entire portfolios on this blog basically talk on their one-and-only album. Takako Mamiya（間宮貴子）is one such person and the other is a fellow City Pop chanteuse by the name of singer-songwriter Amy.
I covered her 1983 album"Amy" some years ago of which one song is "Dance in Dream". And I have another one here called "Ame Iro no Screen"(Rain Colour Screen). Written by Shun Taguchi（田口俊）and composed by the singer herself, it's so City Pop with the bass and keyboards that it hurts and listeners should find themselves suddenly wearing pink polo shirts and fluffy white cardigans wrapped around their waists. They may even get that sudden urge to walk down a seashore at sunset or sunrise like Amy herself on the album cover.
Once again, I'm adding to the Amy file here on KKP that not only takes care of her career but also that sole album of hers, "Amy" from 1983.
"Dance in Dream" is the penultimate track from "Amy" and it was written and composed by Hiroshi Suzuki（鈴木浩）with arrangement by Masaki Matsubara（松原正樹）. I had initially wondered whether Suzuki here was the jazz trombonist Hiroshi Suzuki（鈴木弘）but I realized that the kanji for the first name was different. Then, there is the Hiroshi Suzuki whose kanji matches and is also a composer, but he was only around 18 years old in 1983 and would later join the Neo-Acoustic band b-flower whose music is a totally different kettle of fish. I'm not saying that it's impossible that it could be the same guy but I think it's pretty unlikely.
And that is because Amy's"Amy" is all about the City Pop and AOR. "Dance in Dream" has a few drops of tropical punch added to the beachside warmth of a melody that seems to weave somewhere between City Pop and AOR. I'll have to go through the rest of Amy's tracks once more, but I think out of all of them, "Dance in Dream" seems to get the most aidoru-esque vocals out of the singer although that's just my opinion.
I've mentioned it for her song "Party Night" but I did find "Mr. Cool", Amy's 2nd single from 1983 and the A-side to the former.
"Mr. Cool" has more of the AOR than the City Pop and it has that some of that lovely breeze coming in from the West Coast. I also enjoy the background chorus which indeed sounds like some of that wind wafting through. I'd say that "Mr. Cool" would have been the perfect jingle for a spearmint gum commercial.
According to the JASRAC database, "Mr. Cool" was written by Naoko Nishio（西尾尚子）and composed by City Pop stalwart Kengo Kurozumi（黒住憲五）. The song is also a track on Amy's self-titled album from the same year.
It won't be too long before the year-end season of parties takes place in Japan. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if some of them take place in the next couple of weeks at some izakaya or high-priced restaurant. Of course, over here, we've got the round of Xmas parties and then New Year's Eve parties to look forward to (or not). I don't really go to a lot of those anymore but there is the one with the anime buddy and our other friends which will probably be happening in the first half of December. A good time is usually had by all but we certainly don't do the hashigo (barhopping) anymore; a little too old on that front now.
Earlier in the year, I mentioned about this City Pop singer who may be even more mysterious than Takako Mamiya（間宮貴子）in terms of her current whereabouts. This would be Amy（エイミー）...just the single name known...who may have only put out one album and a couple of singles all in 1983. Idol.ne.jp mentions her lone album "Amy" and says that it is her first album, hinting that there may have been a follow-up effort but I have yet to come across such a second album.
In any case, here is another track from "Amy", and that is "Party Night", a perfectly good title for a song that straddles the line between AOR and City Pop. Written by Naoko Nishio（西尾尚子）and composed by singer-songwriter Yoichi Takizawa（滝沢洋一）with arrangement by Masaki Matsubara（松原正樹）, "Party Night" sounds more like a daytime tune but I'll let that observation go since I do like those horns and that jazzy guitar. The song was also the B-side to Amy's 2nd single"Mr. Cool", a song which is also included on the album.
Let's see whether there is a remastered version of "Amy" out there for Xmas.
Well, I was checking into one of my social media accounts when someone from the City Pop community inquired about this singer named Amy（エイミー）with a killer album of the genre. Apparently, there was close to no information about her anywhere online.
There are a few of her songs on YouTube from her possibly one-and-only album, the self-titled "Amy" from 1983. So I tried out a couple of the tracks. Here is "Ni-Juu-Go-ji"（25時...25:00）which is a mix of light and mellow urban with a Doobie Brothers riff in the refrain. In a way, I think the song incorporates a lot of the American AOR tropes.
According to one site's meager information on Amy (I can't even find her full name!), she's been recognized as a City Pop aidoru...perhaps along the same lines of Momoko Kikuchi(?). She released two singles and this album, all in 1983, and the opening track for "Amy" is her debut single"Shunkan Shojo"（瞬間少女...Girl of the Moment）which was released in March of that year.
Listening to "Ni-Juu-Go-ji", it was hard for me to think of Amy as an aidoru because of the nature of the melody and her voice which is nice and light and silky. But then, on hearing "Shunkan Shojo", although she still has that steady voice, the melody by City Pop singer Kengo Kurosumi（黒住憲五）is actually not too far away from being what I would expect an aidoru to sing on a single's B-side or somewhere in the middle of an album lineup. It's not super-perky and uptempo, but it isn't a lovelorn ballad, either. Naoko Nishio（西尾尚子）provided the lyrics to this one. Unfortunately, I couldn't find out who was behind "Ni-Juu-Go-ji".
"Amy" was produced by guitarist Masaki Matsubara（松原正樹）and according to the uploader for the videos, Jake H. Concepcion was probably the one providing the sax solo for "Ni-Juu-Go-ji". I'm gonna have to try out some of the other tracks. It would be nice if I can purchase the album but I hear that it's in haiban status, and in all likelihood, this was the only album she released. Possibly, she's someone like the mysterious Takako Mamiya（間宮貴子）...a singer who basically disappeared from the spotlight. However, I did have some rather despairing thoughts about Mamiya and not being able to get "Love Trip" because of her obscurity, too, only to find out that the resurgence in her popularity meant I could get my own copy of "Love Trip" and see a whole bunch of other copies at Tower Records in both Shibuya and Shinjuku back during my 2017 trip. So, let us not despair quite yet about "Amy".
