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.
Holly Cole has graced the pages of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" before when I introduced her via her seasonal "The Christmas Blues" which she released back in 1989. In fact, it was through a ROY article that she got through and once again, I'm giving her the same treatment here and now.
As I said in that article, in terms of Canadian jazz singers, before Michael Bublé and before Diana Krall, there was Holly Cole. I mentioned there that I had been back in Toronto on vacation during my time on the JET Programme, and most likely through Canada's MuchMusic video channel, I'd seen Cole for the first time through a music video whose song title I couldn't remember at the time.
Well, I remember now. I mean, I certainly remember the video with Cole looking like the ultimate torch song singer in a dramatically black strapless gown on a dimly-lit soundstage as she cooed the song into our ears while backed up by a classy combination of pianist and wood bassist. That song was "Talk to Me, Baby" which was originally written and recorded by singer-songwriter Johnny Mercer and composed by Bobby Dolan back in 1964 for the Broadway musical "Foxy". Cole's sultrier version was recorded onto her 1st full album"Girl Talk" from 1990.
Also, listen to Mercer himself take on his creation. His take has a bit more of the swing orchestra behind him.
Well, since only a year was given for the release of Cole's "Girl Talk", let's show the usual Japanese comparison with a few of the winners at that year's Japan Record Awards -- Pop/Rock Division.
When it comes to regular anime starring naughty-but-ultimately-decent children (I hope), it's been "Chibi Maruko-chan"（ちびまる子ちゃん）due to TV Japan's weekly broadcasts, although I used to watch "Sazae-san"（サザエさん）when I was living in Ichikawa. However, I did see glimpses of the infamous "Crayon Shin-chan"（クレヨンしんちゃん）featuring bratty Shinnosuke Nohara who not only can act up like any demanding five-year-old but is more than ready to show off his butt and other body parts. I remember one episode where he had a major crush on real-life 90s sexy girl group C.C. Girls.
I gather then that it's not too much of a surprise that the pop group B.B. Queens（B.B.クィーンズ）, which had come up with the enduring theme song for the aforementioned "Chibi Maruko-chan", "Odoru Ponpokorin"（おどるポンポコリン）in 1990, was also responsible for the second opening theme for "Crayon Shin-chan", "Yume no End wa Itsumo Mezamashi!" (I Always Wake Up At the End of a Dream!). Nifty opening credits, by the way.
Having known B.B. Queens for basically "Odoru Ponpokorin" and "Gingira Paradise"（ギンギラパラダイス）which was used for a ski equipment commercial, it's nice to encounter a new song by the guys. Written by Daiko Nagato（長戸大幸）, composed by Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎）and arranged by Takeshi Hayama（葉山たけし）, "Yume no End wa Itsumo Mezamashi!" retains that B.B. Queens zaniness but also has some 1960s pop flavour. Another observation is that the basic melody has a slight resemblance to the one for "Yume Ippai"（ゆめいっぱい）, the very first opening theme for "Chibi Maruko-chan", and that song was also composed by Oda.
The song was released as B.B. Queens' 6th single in November 1992, and it peaked at No. 64 on Oricon.
Earlier this afternoon, NHK's "Gogo Uta"（ごごウタ）was on and one of the guests happened to be a Chinese-born singer, Enrei（媛麗）, who gave this performance of a ballad titled "Good-by morning". Usually the program features a lot of enka and Mood Kayo, but this particular number was more on the pops side, and the way that Enrei sang it reminded me of some of the songs by 80s singer Ruiko Kurahashi（倉橋ルイ子）.
Thinking that it was a new song (and obviously not reading the songwriter information that usually pops up at the bottom of the screen), I decided to look it up on YouTube and J-Wiki. Although I couldn't find out anything about Enrei, I did discover that the singer was actually doing a cover whose origins were in the 1970s.
1976, to be exact. I saw the video that you see above and saw the singer's name as Sandy. But looking at the woman on the cover, I thought it could have been Sandii as in Sandii & The Sunsetz, a band that I had always identified as a New Wave group, certainly from the song that I had written about, "Battery" from 1986.
Indeed that Sandii and the Sandy for this song were one and the same (real name being Aya Suzuki/鈴木あや). Starting her career in show business as a pin-up girl in the early 1970s, she also released a few singles under the name Sandi Ai（サンディー・アイ）and then Sandy O'Neil. Included in those was "Good-by morning" which earned her a top prize in singing at the 7th World Popular Song Festival in 1976.
With lyrics by singer-songwriter Mayo Shouno（庄野真代）and music by Kaoru Nakajima（なかじまかおる・中島薫）, the original "Good-by morning" has that plaintive tone as a man tries to fix things with his love although it's not at all certain whether he will be successful. However, he's going to do his darnedest while the meaning of that title hangs over his head. The melody, though, sounds pretty hopeful with a hint of blues in there.
I don't know how "Good-by morning" did back then, but apparently it has been covered by a variety of artists over the years. One example was in November 1992 when blues singer Fusanosuke Kondo（近藤房之助）and Keiko Utoku（宇徳敬子）from the trio Mi-Ke did a duet version of the song with the title written in English. I like this version even better since it has quite a bit more blues feeling and it reminds me of an Eagles ballad. The single peaked at No. 19 on Oricon and is available as a track on Utoku's BEST album, "THE BEST 'eternity'" from December 2003.
Now with both Kondo and Utoku having collaborated as part of B.B. Queens (Mi-Ke was the backing chorus trio for the group), that group decided to go for its own version in 2011 as a track in the 25th anniversary edition single of their most famous song "Odoru Ponpokorin"（おどるポンポコリン）. This take definitely has more of a 50s doo-wop style.
Incredible how curiosity into a song on a kayo show can reveal a whole lot about its history.
Along with all of the Xmas/New Year's festivities and the announcement of the Kohaku Utagassen lineup, another pop cultural sign that the year is nigh is the presentation of "Shingo/Ryukogo Taisho"（新語・流行語大賞）or The New Words & Trendy Words Awards. Man, do the Japanese love their buzzwords and catchphrases! Among the words lauded in 2018 at the 35th edition were "So da ne~!"（そだねー...Yup!/Ya got that right!）by a women's curling team and "e-Sports".
Well, I kinda figured one thing. I know that there were quite a few songs associated with these various popular words of their year so I just considered scrolling through the official website for the awards and seeing what I could find. Of course, with the Heisei Era finishing up at the end of April, I decided to keep my focus from 1989 onwards for the most part so here are 9 songs attached with some of those Heisei trendy words and 1 that I decided to throw in for nostalgia's sake.
Considering that the Japanese have loved their trendy turns of phrase for years, I was a bit surprised that the awards only started up in 1984. I'm sure that the original producers must have knocked themselves upside the head and proclaimed "Why didn't we think of this sooner?" In any case, one of the first winners of the award (and this is the lone Showa Era nostalgic entry) was "Oshin-drome"（オシンドローム...Oshin Syndrome） to commemorate the massive international popularity of this NHK morning serial "Oshin"（おしん） (1983) about a woman who had grown up through unimaginably harsh circumstances to own her chain of successful stores.
Not being a serial drama fan, I was always in my room studying but I could hear my parents sniffling away as they watched another tear-drenched episode on their rental VHS tapes. And each episode would being with that wistful instrumental theme song by Koichi Sakata（坂田晃一）. I heard that "Oshin" became a huge hit even in Southeast Asia, and I even saw then-President Ronald Reagan give an address to Japan, making reference to the show although he pronounced the title as "ocean".
Yup, in the first (not-whole) year of Heisei, just as the first cracks were appearing in that Big Shiny Bubble, this commercial jingle for the Regain vitamin drink exhorted the masses to work their asses...off under the slogan "24-ji kan tatakae masu ka?"（24時間タタカエマスカ...Can you battle it out for 24 hours?）. It didn't stop the Bubble from bursting but "Yuuki no Shirushi"（勇気のしるし）was a huge success and probably got actor Saburo Tokito（時任三郎）his first hit as a singer. It even got attention from CNN.
"Chibi Maruko-chan"（ちびまる子ちゃん）the anime and manga by the late Momoko Sakura（さくらももこ） became a thing in this year, and even the famous ending theme (now the opening theme) by B.B. Queens ended up as the No. 1 single of the year on Oricon and in the karaoke rooms. Watching the show on Sunday nights, the anime has become as indispensable as "Sazae-chan"（サザエちゃん）on the Fuji-TV schedule.
Aye...who could remember that fateful scene of Tetsuya Takeda's（武田鉄矢）nebbishy character foolishly stepping in front of a truck and screaming at Atsuko Asano（浅野温子）, "Boku wa shinimashehhhhn!"（僕は死にましぇ～ん...I'M NOT GONNA DIIIIIE!）in 1991's "Hyaku-ikkai-me no Propose"（１０１回目のプロポーズ...The 101st Proposal） just to show how much he will not end up disappearing from her life? That proclamation got the prize that year although I rather wonder when Takeda showed up to get his prize whether he asked men not to jump in front of motor vehicles. Still, the opening theme "Say Yes" by Chage & Aska flew off the shelves to catapult it into Oricon history as the 7th-ranked single of all time.
5. EAST END×YURI -- DA.YO.NE (12th edition ~ 1995)
For the sake of truth-in-advertising, the full phrase that got EAST END X YURI their award in 1995 was "DA.YO.NE, MAICCA" after their two hit songs, but it's that first tune of "DA.YO.NE" that the hip-hop unit has become famous for. Simply couldn't get the song out of my head and ears, no matter how much I tried. It was that pervasive all over media and that didn't include all of the dialectal variants that also got released.
I'm sure that a lot of Namie Amuro's（安室奈美恵）fans really wanted to cry when she announced her retirement from show business a couple of years ago. Yup "Amurer"（アムラー）was another prize-winning word from 1996 when young ladies wanted to emulate the Okinawan superstar's looks right down to those platform boots. I'm not sure if I had seen too many Amurers walking into my branch of NOVA in Asakusa way back when, but I do remember seeing a lot of those boots. Not that I had a boot fetish or anything like that, ahem.
7. Pirates -- INCANTATION (15th Edition ~ 1998)
One of the reasons that I decided to come up with this list was this comical duo of busty tarento known as Pirates（パイレーツ）who gained their 15 minutes of fame for this one catchphrase, "Dachuuno!"（だっちゅーの...What I'm Saying Is）as they bent over in their low-cut wardrobe. Again as any of the trendy words for that year proved, it was one of those phrases that was everywhere in the media zeitgeist, and therefore, Yoshimi Asada and Haruka Nishimoto（浅田好未、西本はるか）were everywhere as well.
Plus, I vaguely remember that their fame meant going into the recording booth to spit out some singles. Their first one of four singles was "INCANTATION" released in March 1998. Written by Sho Saegusa（三枝翔...not sure about the pronunciation of the last name） and composed by Kazuhisa Yamaguchi（山口一久）, it had that slightly sultry feel, but that's all I can really say about it.
To think, a trio of dumplings became famous for getting the top single of 1999. "Dango San Kyodai"（だんご３兄弟）by Dango Gasshodan is a catchy tune, to be sure, though, and if I could re-title the song, I would put it as the Dango Tango. And yup, "Dango San Kyodai" was one of the 1999 winners, too. Japanese confectioners were probably placing their down payments on some nice real estate after getting all sorts of business after customers had seen the video.
At a time when corporate workers were getting mightily worried about getting laid off, perhaps the cover of Kyu Sakamoto's（坂本九）"Ashita ga aru sa"（明日があるさ）by Re:Japan's motley crew of Yoshimoto Kogyo comedians may have helped provide some solace. Plus, the friendly nature of the song must have made for a fine trigger for a massive singalong that year at the karaoke boxes.
Well, considering that "PPAP" went well beyond Japan's borders and tickled the humour of one Canadian superstar and dragged one other Canadian superstar into a parody, I think that it was a done deal for the song to get a prize a couple of years ago. Reading the description at the website for the trendy words, even those guys aren't sure what triggered the song's popularity.😁
From May, it will be a new reign era. I'm sure that there will be some buzzwords, catchphrases and trendy words formed and bandied about like candy from May to December, though.
It didn't take the gimmick band B.B. Queens all that long before they came up with a follow-up single to their blockbuster hit, "Odoru Ponpokorin"（おどるポンポコリン）.Their 2nd single was "Gingira Paradise"(Sparkling Paradise), a doo-woppy tune released in December 1990 that was used as a campaign song for Victoria, a sports apparel shop that was famous for ski wear...just in time to get those young folk up on the slopes during the Holidays.
The top video is the 2011 version with a bit of a ska beat while the one above is the original. "Gingira Paradise" may not have matched the debut, but it still did quite well, reaching as high as No. 2 on Oricon. And even more importantly, the melody just couldn't let go of my brain when I was teaching in the classroom.
It's not B.B. Queens here but it is a Victoria commercial from that year.
People know when the weekend is almost up when the 6 p.m. hour arrives on Fuji-TV on Sunday night, and the twin anime of "Chibi Maruko-chan"（ちびまる子ちゃん）and "Sazae-san"（サザエさん）start up.
"Chibi Maruko-chan"(Tiny Little Maruko) was a shojo manga first created in 1986 by Momoko Sakura（さくらももこ）, and depicts the life of a young and slightly cheeky girl named Maruko Sakura in suburban Japan of the mid-1970s. It was basically a semi-autobiographical account of the author's life as a girl back in those days. As with the much older "Sazae-san" series, it gained its popularity due to its nostalgic, down-home style. In 1990, Fuji-TV picked "Chibi Maruko-chan"up as an anime series for an initial run of 2 years, and then started it up again in 1995. In terms of ratings, the show attained a whopping 39.9% of the audience, the highest ratings ever garnered by an anime at that time.
The original ending theme of the show also enjoyed similar fame. "Odoru Ponpokorin"(Dancing Ponpokorin) was composed by singer Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎） (known for composing hits for rocker Nanase Aikawa and summer band TUBE) and written by Momoko Sakura herself. And the band making their first single all come alive was the unit B.B Queens, a happy-go-lucky amalgam of otherwise serious musicians.
The band name was a riff on the blues singer B.B. King. The main vocal is Osaka-born Yuiko Tsubokura（坪倉唯子）who has had a career since 1979 as a studio musician and backup vocal (Miyuki Nakajima, Misato Watanabe) but also has had her own solo career as a pop singer. For "Odoru Ponpokorin", Tsubokura sings it as if she were Chibi Maruko-chan, and looks like a combination of Mrs. Doubtfire and former First Lady of Japan Miyuki Hatoyama.
Her partner is Fusanosuke Kondo（近藤房之助）, a blues-and-rock singer who hails from Aichi Prefecture and has been in the music business since 1976 when he started with the band BREAK DOWN. He barks his vocals in a loud rasp and looks like a psychedelic Snidely Whiplash. The trio of backup vocals for B.B. Queens ended up becoming the neo-retro group Mi-ke a couple of years later. Both Kondo and Tsubokura have their own songs on YouTube, and they sound very, very different.
Here are the ending credits to the original run of "Chibi Maruko-chan" in 1990. As I said, "Odoru Ponpokorin" became a huge hit when it was released in April. It was the No. 1 song for July and September, and eventually became the No. 1 song of the year, staying on the charts for 54 straight weeks. The creators of the song, Oda and Sakura earned Japan Music Awards, and of course, an appearance on the Kohaku Utagassen was a foregone conclusion. It sold close to 2 million discs as a single and is included on the band's debut album, "We are B.B. Queens" which got as high as No. 32 on the Oricon weeklies. And of course, I'm sure karaoke box and bar owners were also very grateful to the band.
