A-ha -- Take On Me

 

Yellow Magic Orchestra gets my eternal gratitude for helping me not only get into technopop as it was used throughout music in Japan, but also into the synthpop and New Wave of bands outside of the nation of my ancestry during the 1980s.

One of those showstopper synthpop songs and frankly one of the legendary 80s songs, period, is A-ha's "Take On Me". Released three times with the latest being in September 1985, this Norwegian band came up with a melody that has been catchier than the most effective flypaper and is also notable for vocalist Morten Harket's ionosphere-scratching falsetto. It also didn't hurt that the song came with a music video that is still causing jaws to drop almost forty years later. The lines between reality and comic books got a whole lot more diaphanous as a result. It's not surprising that "...the video won six awards and was nominated for two others at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards." according to Wikipedia.

In the past few years, it looks like trailers for movies and television have been grazing on the pop music of yesteryear for songs to add that oomph. As such, we've had Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" being woven into the next "Ant-Man" sequel and New Order's "Blue Monday" getting into "Wonder Woman 1984", and in the past few months, "Take On Me" has had its role in the trailers for "The Last of Us".

Of course, the amazing pencil-drawn animation sequence from the video wasn't going to be left alone. It's been used in "Family Guy".

I also remember that the famous NBC cop show "Hill Street Blues" used the technique for one of their commercials. It's probably been used in other commercials that I have yet to see, and as I did for the "Hill Street Blues" ad, I would start singing out the synth intro for "Take On Me".

The song reached No. 2 in Canada whereas in the States, it hit No. 1. Incidentally, I was also a big fan of the extended remix whenever it came out on the radio dance shows on Saturday night. That synth bass was really rocking!

Now, what was hitting the Top 10 of Oricon in September 1985? We have Nos. 1, 3 and 5.

1. Anzen Chitai -- Kanashimi ni Sayonara （悲しみにさよなら）

3. Sonoko Kawai -- Namida no Jasmine Love（涙の茉莉花LOVE）

5. C-C-B -- Lucky Chance wo Mou Ichido （Lucky Chanceをもう一度）

C-C-B -- School Girl（スクール・ガール）

 

It's very sad to write but the deaths of figures in the Japanese music industry have continued.

I only found out myself via Twitter several minutes ago, but drummer Koji Ryu（笠浩二）from the 1980s pop/rock band C-C-B had passed away on December 14th due to a stroke while getting treatment for diabetes. He was only 60 years old. C-C-B was a band that I got to know during my university days via VHS tapes of those music ranking shows which were all the rage back in the 1980s and my good friend in the JCSA who was especially a fan of Ryu.

C-C-B was famous for their big hits "Romantic ga Tomaranai"（Romanticが止まらない）and "Lucky Chance wo Mou Ichido"（Lucky Chanceをもう一度）among others, and as I mentioned in the article for that first song, my friend would swoon at the sight of the very noticeable Ryu in his glasses and the dyed hair. When it comes to bands, it's all about appearance, appearance, appearance. But it was also about his very cute and chipper voice.

Between the release of "Romantic ga Tomaranai" and "Lucky Chance wa Mou Ichido" was their 4th single "School Girl", released in April 1985. The same songwriters for those two songs were also behind this one: lyricist Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）, composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）and arranger Motoki Funayama（船山基紀）. There was a battery of synths involved but the feeling of the song also included some doo-wop harmonizing and overall 50s music. "School Girl" was another Top 10 hit for C-C-B as it peaked at No. 6 and became the 52nd-ranked single for the year. It would appear on Volume 2 of "The Best of C-C-B" from September 1989.

My condolences to the family, friends and fans of Ryu.

Al Jarreau -- Moonlighting

 

Yes, Virginia....there was a Bruce Willis who had hair and a lot of jokes cracking out of him.

Indeed, decades before all of those action films where he's played deadly serious military officers and cops on the big screen, Willis used to play a wisecracking detective from New Jersey transplanted to Los Angeles on television for a few years in the 1980s. "Moonlighting" on ABC was a show that I first heard about from my brother during my university age; at the time, I was watching some episodes of "Remington Steele" on NBC, that other detective show (which I'll have to write about as well some time) with a distinctly different tone, and the star from that series went onto his own fame and fortune as an action star.

Although I did watch an episode of "Miami Vice" where he had played a monstrous gangster before he got his star-making role on "Moonlighting", Willis will always be detective David Addison even over his role of John McClane from the "Die Hard" franchise. I didn't much like the really mean fights between David and his partner-in-crimefighting, former model Maddie Hayes (played by Cybill Shepherd), but the ongoing banter of irritation between the two was fun to watch due to their very different personalities. Of course, I also adored the Blue Moon Detective Agency's receptionist, Agnes DiPesto (Allyce Beasley) and her iambic pentameter patter.

But I have to remember that this is the weekly Reminiscings of Youth article and not Reminiscings of "Moonlighting". That shouldn't be difficult, though, since after all, the theme song was by the one-and-only Al Jarreau. The opening credits with Jarreau's smooth-as-satin vocals and the smooth soulful melody by the singer and Lee Holdridge obviously weren't the only thing that brought me over to the series but they sure made it very inviting with those lovely scenes of LA. "Moonlighting" was both downtown and uptown, and I'm not surprised that YouTube commenters have been waxing and mooning over the 1980s on listening to it again.

Strangely enough, the actual single of "Moonlighting" with Al Jarreau wasn't released until 1987, so we basically had to rely on reruns of episodes to get our fix of the song. I was so happy when this got onto the radio, and I think a lot of listeners were, too, since it managed to reach No. 23 on America's Billboard and No. 38 on Canada's RPM, and No. 1 on the Adult Contemporary charts in both countries. The late Jarreau has had a lot of memorable songs on his plate, and I've already included his "Breakin' Away" as a ROY tune, but "Moonlighting" is probably the next song after that one that I've always cherished.

Although that single came out in 1987, we were hearing the theme since the show began in March 1985 so we'll go for that date in terms of what was hitting the top ranks of Oricon back then. Incidentally, the March debut for the show is an interesting one. Usually new and continuing seasons of programs begin in the fall in the United States, but I gather that "Moonlighting" was initially put in as a mid-season replacement for a show that had gotten cancelled, and I know that the first season was a trial run of only six episodes. But the half-dozen did the trick.

1. C-C-B -- Romantic ga Tomaranai （Romanticが止まらない）

2. Momoko Kikuchi -- Sotsugyo （卒業）

3. ALFEE -- Cinderella wa Nemurenai (シンデレラは眠れない)

In recent months, I've been aware that Willis has been having some medical issues so that he will have to probably end his long career. I hope that he can overcome them and have a successful recovery.

C-C-B -- Kuusou Kiss（空想Kiss）

 

On that same episode of "The Best 10" （ザ・ベストテン）where I discovered Kazuyuki Ozaki & Coastal City（尾崎和行＆コースタルシティー）the other night, I was reminded of not only the 1980s hit boy band C-C-B but also another hit tune of theirs, "Kuusou Kiss" (Daydream Kiss).

Just like another one of their successful songs, "Romantic ga Tomaranai"（Romanticが止まらない）, "Kuusou Kiss" was created by the big tandem of lyricist Takashi Matsumoto and composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（松本隆・筒美京平）as their 6th single in November 1985. A bit more whimsical and flirtatious than "Romantic ga Tomaranai", "Kuusou Kiss" involves a guy in the middle of an existential crisis as the two sides within him battle over whether he should try for that young lady who may just be unattainable for him. The one line that is the most memorable of the song is "Batsu-batsu, ano ko wa batsu-batsu, ki ga nai no sa"（Batsu-Batsu あの娘は Batsu-Batsu 気が無いのさ...Uh-uh, that girl is uh-uh. She's got no interest in you.）. So perhaps the pessimistic side wins out and he can only daydream up a kiss.

Well, whaddaya know? I could find a "The Best 10" clip with C-C-B performing "Kuusou Kiss" , although it's not from the episode that I'd caught on Sunday. In terms of vocals, it was bassist/leader Hideki Watanabe（渡辺英樹）and drummer Koji Ryu（笠浩二）, and that bass from Watanabe really comes out in both the recorded and live versions. "Kuusou Kiss" hit No. 3 on Oricon and ended up as the 28th-ranked single of 1986. Sorry to end this on a sad note, but Watanabe passed away in July 2015 from multiple-organ failure at the age of 55.

The Works of Motoki Funayama（船山基紀）

From Asahi Shimbun

In the last few months, I realized that I was doing a disservice to arranger Motoki Funayama by not mentioning him in a large number of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" articles. Although I had long been mentioning lyricists and composers, I never really included arrangers for whatever reason. However, the fact that I kept seeing his name in the songwriting notes for songs and I was reacting with a "What?! He arranged THIS song?" much in the way that I had first reacted on seeing the late composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）in a huge amount of kayo and J-Pop, I figured that the Tokyo-born Funayama had to get his due on KKP. The tipping point was when I was writing up "Oricon Top 5 Most Commercially Successful Arrangers", I discovered that he was the second-most prolific arranger after Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）. Keeping on the Tsutsumi connection, according to Funayama's J-Wiki biography, the arranger had the biggest association with Tsutsumi in terms of songs arranged.

Funayama was born in Meguro Ward, Tokyo in 1951 and from a young age, he had been interested in maps and sheet music, and on entering elementary school, he was on the bass drum in the school band. Jumping to his higher learning days, he attended the School of Political Science and Economics at Waseda University but kept his music connections by participating in the High Society Orchestra there where he was the concertmaster as he played the saxophone. However, according to the above video interview, Funayama mentions that he was absolutely horrible on the sax due to his inability to improvise...so I gather that jazz musician wasn't going to be one of his titles.

Once he became a junior at Waseda, he began working at the Yamaha Music Foundation including their Popular Song Contest where he learned the basics of music arrangement. Soon after, he dropped out of university and from 1974, he went on the path of a freelance composer and arranger.

(cover version)

According to J-Wiki, the first song that he arranged was "Azami-jou no Lullaby" （アザミ嬢のラライ）for singer-songwriter Miyuki Nakajima（中島みゆき）in 1975. Knowing Nakajima's distinct melodies and singing style, perhaps I can say that Funayama had a good hand in creating that style.

(short version)

Funayama's first big success was Kenji Sawada's（沢田研二）"Katte ni Shiyagare"（勝手にしやがれ）from 1977 for which the song earned a Japan Record Award Grand Prize. That dramatic bullfight intro probably has gone down as one of the more famous in kayo.

Ikue Sakakibara's（榊原郁恵）"Robot"（ロボット）from 1980 was one of those Tsutsumi/Funayama collaborations and it was another winner for both since Sakakibara ended up appearing on the Kohaku Utagassen because of its hit status. As such, Funayama was also willing to get into the synthpop craze of the time, and it's interesting in J-Wiki that following his stay between 1981 and 1983 in Los Angeles, he decided to purchase a Fairlight CMI synthesizer. He then incorporated some of that computer technology into the music for some of his other clients later into the decade.

One of the songs mentioned taking on that synthpop style is "Romantic ga Tomaranai"（Romanticが止まらない）by C-C-B in 1985. This was another Tsutsumi/Funayama collaboration with Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）as the lyricist. It is one of the band's trademark tunes and the arrangement was impressive enough that techno group Denki Groove（電気グルーヴ）adopted one riff from "Romantic ga Tomaranai" into their kakkoii "Nijuu-ichi Seiki mo Motetakute"（２１世紀もモテたくて）.

However, it wasn't all upbeat music with Funayama. He also arranged Mayumi Itsuwa's（五輪真弓）1980 hit "Koibito yo"（恋人よ） as this epic heartrending ballad dealing with an absolute end of an affair. The version above is fine, but I think the original recorded version with the strings hits the heart best. If there's an image created thanks to the arranger's work, it's that of the saddest person in the world lingering in a French café while the relentless rain represents the tracks of his tears. I wonder if an arranger comes up with those images as well when coming up with a way to illustrate a song to the finest degree.

There's no way that I could ever come close to totally encapsulating the oeuvre of Funayama's work no matter how grand I make this Creator article, so I will just include one more song here, and that would be Wink's "One Night in Heaven" from 1989. I have this one here because the arranger worked on so many of the duo's songs and I gather that his Fairlight CMI was helping out in the work behind this hit.

Anyways, more to search in the blog to see whether I have to put in the Motoki Funayama label. As of the 1990s, Funayama was also working on anison and commercial jingles along with songs by the various Johnny's groups. As of 2019, he has more than 2700 songs to his credit.

The Spiders/C-C-B -- Summer Girl （サマー・ガール）

On TV Japan just following the weekly "Uta Kon"（うたコン）on Tuesday nights, there has been that 10-minute vignette from NHK called "Ano Hito ni Aitai"（あの人に会いたい...I Want To Meet That Person）which focuses on a certain notable person who has left this mortal coil. Last night's focus was on Hiroshi Kamayatsu（かまやつひろし）, the singer and guitarist from Group Sounds band The Spiders（ザ・スパイダース）who had only passed away a few months ago in March.

Of course, a number of his songs during his time with The Spiders and on his own played in the background while we heard some of his comments over the decades. Most of the songs have already been covered in the pages of this blog, but I did hear something new, and that would be "Summer Girl" which came out in July 1966 as the band's 6th single. Written by Hiroto Sasaki（佐々木ひろと）and composed by Kamayatsu, the beach ballad has that bittersweet mood of love with a bit of appealing early Beatles rawness.

But I have to admit that the version by 80s pop band C-C-B is one of the few instances in which the cover actually sounds even better than the original. The arrangement by the band and Yasuo Sako（佐孝康夫）injects a lot of Beach Boys into C-C-B's take on summer love, and I have to say that the vocal delivery is a lot more solid, and it was a nice touch to have a Duane Eddy-like guitar instrumental in there, too. "Summer Girl" was included on C-C-B's 1985 album "Tanoshii Natsu Yasumi"（楽しい夏休み...Fun Summer Holiday）.

Akina Nakamori -- Futari Shizuka: "Tengawa Densetsu Satsujin Jiken" yori （二人静 -「天河伝説殺人事件」より）

As I mentioned in the article for Akina Nakamori's（中森明菜）comeback single in 1990, "Dear Friend", I thought that the surprising cheeriness in the summery song was somewhat forced. It didn't quite sound like the usual Akina, so when her next two singles came out, "Mizu ni Sashita Hana"（水に挿した花...Flowers in the Water）and the subject of this article, I felt that the singer was back to her darker sound, albeit with a more mature ring to the arrangements.

"Futari Shizuka: Tengawa Densetsu Satsujin Jiken yori" (Two Quiet: From The Case of the Tengawa Legend Murders) came out in March 1991, just a few months before I was to leave the JET Programme, and dang, boy, did I think that was one LONG title for a song. At the time, I had no idea about the background story for Akina's 26th single but felt that she was definitely taking a different tack from the female rock bands and uptempo synthpop that solo female singers were trying out at the time.

First thing was the Asian atmosphere in the intro before it gave way to the more undulating contemporary moodiness. It was almost as if Akina was trying out a potential James Bond theme to lure the franchise back to Japan (although at the time, 007 was not in a good state), but many years later, I found out that she was indeed singing a song that was the theme to a mystery/suspense movie actually titled "Tengawa Densetsu Satsujin Jiken".

With the official English title of "Noh Mask Murders" according to the Internet Movie Database (very little English-language information), the movie was released in March 1991. However, Akina's version wasn't used as the actual theme although it was used in the commercials.

The person who sang the theme was Makoto Sekiguchi（関口誠人）who had composed it under the title of "Tengawa Densetsu Satsujin Jiken" which was released a month before Akina's version. Listening to the video above, I thought I had heard that voice somewhere before; as it turns out, Sekiguchi was the guitarist and a vocalist for the cute 80s band CCB that my friend had been so gaga for. What was also a bit surprising was that this was the first time for the prolific Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）to have his lyrics attached to an Akina song, according to the liner notes in a later BEST compilation titled "Complete Singles Collections - First Ten Years: Rhino Premium Edition" from 2010. From what I could gather from his lyrics, it seems as if the singer was taking on the role of one of the characters from the movie itself.

"Futari Shizuka" peaked at No. 3 on Oricon and later became the 21st-ranked song of 1991. As for Sekiguchi's original version, it was his 6th single and was also on his 4th album from the same year, "Itazura"（悪戯...Mischief）.

C-C-B -- Lucky Chance wo Mou Ichido （Lucky Chanceをもう一度）

Wow! It's been 30 years and I completely forgot about this one. CCB's "Lucky Chance wo Mou Ichido" (One More Lucky Chance) is somewhere in one of my Wah Yueh-bought compilation tapes, and I believe I've seen the band perform it on one of the music shows.

And dang, listening to it again, I just realized how funkily catchy it is. Written by Takashi Matsumoto （松本隆）and composed by Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）as CCB's 5th single in August 1985, the famed songwriting duo had also been responsible for the band's first big hit, "Romantic ga Tomaranai"（Romanticが止まらない）, earlier in the year. "Lucky Chance" has a bit more of the funky synth giving it a melody that had me reminiscing about The Dazz Band, and another part of the appeal lays in the syncopated delivery of the lyrics. It's nowhere near rap but it certainly sounds interesting.

Although "Romantic ga Tomaranai" was the more successful single, CCB got onto the Kohaku Utagassen for 1985 for their first and only time with "Lucky Chance" as you can see above. It peaked at No. 3 and later became the 50th-ranked song for the year.

C-C-B -- Romantic ga Tomaranai （Romanticが止まらない）

Around the mid-80s onwards, there were plenty of boy bands whose members were instrument-capable. And they had their own musical niche: The Checkers gave tribute to the doo-wop 50s, The Omega Tribe crooned summer AOR and there was C-C-B which went for an interesting mix of cute pop/rock/punk.

However, C-C-B was first known as The Coconut Boys when they formed back in 1982. At the time, the members emulated the Group Sounds vibe of the 60s but their first two singles didn't chart. But with a change in personnel and a big shift in appearance, the band decided to also change their name to C-C-B.

Their 3rd single (and basically their last chance before a very hard decision was to have been made) was "Romantic ga Tomaranai"(Romantic Doesn't Stop), a pure pop ditty with elements of technopop and aidoru-like harmonies. I guess C-C-B may have beat pop duo Puffy by about a decade when it came to adopting the cute/punk esthetic. The boys changed into more day-glo outfits and hair. You might say it was almost a Doctor Who-like regeneration of sorts.

This video shows C-C-B in action with their guitars and syndrums. Arguably the most noticeable member was Koji Ryu（笠浩二）the drummer. He wasn't exactly tall and trim but with the shocking pink hair, Elton John glasses, and headset, he improbably had the girls swooning including an old university buddy here in Toronto from a quarter-century ago. Whenever a bunch of us visited her apartment, she always had this particular song playing at some point and she would purr "Koji....Koji....Koji...." I guess Koji's falsetto vocals and crinkly smile may also have been factors. For Ryu himself, though, there were some very rough days before the song was deemed a success. Having been selected to be the lead vocal, the pressure induced the poor lad to go through stomach pains and insomnia.

"Romantic ga Tomaranai" was made by veterans Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）(lyrics) and Kyohei Tsutsumi （筒美京平）(music), and released in January 1985. It went as far as No. 2 on the Oricon weeklies and ended up becoming the 4th-ranked song of the year, winning a Gold Prize at the year-end Japan Record Awards. The song was also chosen as the theme song for a TV drama. Not surprisingly, it's the song that C-C-B is most recognized for.　It is included on the band's 3rd album, "Suteki na Beat"(すてきなビート....Wonderful Beat).