Laura Branigan -- The Lucky One

 

I mentioned in my previous article that today is a national holiday here in Canada, so of course, that means we have a special Reminiscings of Youth article regarding some of my cherished songs from my own yesteryear. And once again, we have the late and lovely Laura Branigan to bring back some of my 1980s musical memories.

Of course, I'll always remember "Gloria" and her take on the ballad "How Am I Supposed To Live Without You?", but during the early half of the decade, she had some of her other minor hits crossing into the radiosphere. One single of hers from July 1984 was "The Lucky One". Starting off like a David Foster tune (it was actually created by Bruce Roberts), it quickly went into a mid-tempo pop-rock  number along the lines of a Heart-ish song. 

All of my memories about "The Lucky One" were from the radio since I had never seen the music video until today. Apparently, the producers were interested in having Laura go through a contemporary version of "My Fair Lady"; she's not too bad with the comedic chops, either. "The Lucky One" went to No. 53 on the Canadian charts while in the United States, it did better by peaking at No. 20.

So, what was coming out on top of the Oricon charts in July 1984? We have Nos. 2, 3 and 4.

2. Asami Kobayashi -- Ame Oto wa Chopin no Shirabe （雨音はショパンの調べ）

(cover version)

3. Hiroko Yakushimaru -- Main Theme （メイン・テーマ）

4. Yuko Ishikawa & Chage -- Futari no Ai Land （ふたりの愛ランド）

Cyndi Lauper -- She Bop

 

Let me preface this regular Reminiscings of Youth entry by saying that I was never the sharpest billiard ball in the rack. And as I've mentioned in the past on the blog, I didn't pay much attention to lyrics as I did to the melody when it came to music. In the 1980s, I was enjoying the waves and waves of music that were crashing on my shore from both Japan and the West. Cyndi Lauper, the Unusual Girl, was one of the regulars that came onto land via radio and music video. 

A little over a year ago, I did a ROY on her 1983 classic "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" which I had discovered was a cover version of the original by Robert Hazard in 1979. I was a big fan of the song and then the melancholy ballad "Time After Time" came to our eyes and ears. That was OK but then I got really interested in her 3rd single from her debut album "She's So Unusual", "She Bop", which was released in July 1984.

For me, it was the fact that the original single already sounded like one of the coolest dance remixes before even getting the remix treatment, including those amazing rumbling deep synths. I guess "She Bop" can be considered to be one of my early aural earworms following the sight of the Ceti Alpha Eel on "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan". So, it was always me trying to catch "She Bop" on the radio as often as I could and then when the official weird and wonderful music video came out, it was pretty much all hands on di...deck.

But then after reading some newspaper and magazine articles on the hit which peaked (climaxed?) at No. 3 in both Canada and the United States, I rather reacted "Say what now?!". I took another closer look at the music video, and I realized that "She Bop" was all about mastering one's domain (look up "Seinfeld"). Ahh, well. I was still looking long and hard for a remix version of the song and I was lucky to finally hear it on the Saturday all-night remix programs on the radio. Hey, nearly 40 years later, "She Bop" still gleefully explodes. 

Anyways, now that we're past the PG-rated double entendres, what was on Oricon's Top 10 list for July 1984? We have Nos. 2, 3 and 4.

2. Asami Kobayashi -- Ame Oto wa Chopin no Shirabe （雨音はショパンの調べ）

(with special guest star Yumi Matsutoya since all of Kobayashi's renditions have been scrubbed from YouTube)

3. Hiroko Yakushimaru -- Main Theme （メイン・テーマ）

4. Yuko Ishikawa & Chage -- Futari no Ai Land （ふたりの愛ランド）

Chage -- Tokyo Tower (トウキョータワー)

Many Happy Returns indeed.

With the recent spate of popular non-enka/kayokyoku singers from the 70's to the 90's appearing on "Uta Kon", it got me eager to see who's gonna be the next "special guest", so to speak, on the next week. While most of my hopes lied in Hiroshi Tachi and Anzen Chitai/Koji Tamaki - Southern All Stars is too wild for "Uta Kon" - I had (sadly) forgotten about this one fellow whom had once been a favourite of mine until I saw the lineup for this week on the "Uta Kon" homepage.

I was extremely pleased to see Chage as one of the guests. I really did not expect him to be on this show. I had waited way too long to see him on TV! And man, I couldn't help but smile when seeing those familiar shades and hat this evening. I wouldn't say I was emotional, but it felt like I had been reunited with an old friend. However, as happy as I was, it felt bittersweet. Not because he only sang one song, but... ... It would have been twice as great if the other half of the duo were present. Oh, well.

Moving on, while I generally listen to ASKA's solo works often, I do occasionally tune in to what Chage has to offer. And I have to say that their musical styles are quite differing, with Chage putting out stuff that are usually more edgy and rock-centric (from what I know). One such song that I feel shows this edgy side is "Tokyo Tower", with a laid-back pace accompanied by the sharp electric guitar wailing behind the strumming of the acoustic guitar. As for the the singer-songwriter's lyrics, I'm not entirely sure about it's meaning, but it seems that the main character wants to bring his love to the iconic red structure. I haven't been up the Tokyo Tower, but I wonder if the view is similar to what I saw from this tall building in Shinjuku (can't remember what it's called).

Ah, "Tokyo Tower" reminds me of the times when I had to take the bus home back during my first couple of years in secondary school (grades 7-8). The melody really went well with the cityscape whizzing by below a somewhat overcast sky.

"Tokyo Tower" was released on 30th September 1998 as Chage's first solo single. I'm not sure how well it did on the charts, but the album containing the track, "2nd", released on 21st October of the same year, managed to peak at 15th place on the Oricon weeklies. In 2009, Chage did a self-cover of "Tokyo Tower" in the album "Many Happy Returns", which came in at 22nd place on the Oricon weeklies. The picture at the start of the article is from "Many Happy Returns", by the way.

Yuko Ishikawa & Chage -- Futari no Ai Land （ふたりの愛ランド）

Another old Kuri favourite here. I'm not sure about now, but way back when, "Futari no Ai Land"(Loveland for Two) was that cute peppy summer duet song that a lot of folks liked to tackle even before mass quantities were imbibed in the lounge. Cute and peppy.....a bit of a surprise then when I found out that one-half of the original duo behind this cross-cultural pun of a title was Chage（チャゲ）....the quieter partner of Chage & Aska. He's quite a bit more lively here partnering with singer-songwriter Yuko Ishikawa（石川優子）.

Chage was responsible for writing and composing "Futari no Ai Land" with Goro Matsui（松井五郎） (who was usually associated with Anzen Chitai) helping out on lyrical duties. Another cross-cultural pun was born within the words here; Chage had wanted to insert the word "coconuts", but someone told him that there were no coconut trees in Okinawa (the song was used for the 1984 JAL Okinawa campaign commercials). Rather obsessed with keeping that coconut in there, Chage somewhat sarcastically (according to J-Wiki) created a rather clever pun by placing the homophonic lyric "Koko natsu" as in "Koko wa natsu"(ここは夏...Here is summer!) Necessity is the mother of invention, indeed.

"Futari no Ai Land" came out in April 1984 and peaked at No. 3. Selling just under 440,000 records, it became the song of the summer for that year. For the entire year, it was the 16th-ranked song.

And here is the aforementioned commercial.