Chieri Ito -- Mahou wo Kakete（魔法をかけて）

 

It's been a while since I put up an article regarding late 1980s aidoru Chieri Ito（伊藤智恵理）. The last time was back around Christmas 2020 when things weren't looking so chipper in the world at the time.

However, this particular track from Ito's debut album "Hello" from December 1987 is quite chipper. "Mahou wo Kakete" (Cast a Spell) made me wonder initially from the intro whether this was going to be a City Pop tune but instead it goes into a pretty jaunty aidoru state. Written by Masami Tozawa（戸沢暢美）and composed by Akira Nishihira, there are some pretty strong vocals from Ito, so I'm not surprised that she's been able to go beyond her aidoru years to take part in a number of projects in the 1990s and 2000s.

Art of Noise -- Dragnet

 

It's ironic...years before I started up the ROY series here on KKP, I still had been able to squeeze in great 80s collective Art of Noise into the blog with their "Legs" because the song had been used as the theme for veteran magician Mr. Marikku（Mr.マリック）and his "hand power". I even used the above thumbnail although I didn't even refer to "Dragnet" even though I gave some of their other hits a shoutout. But today, I finally give the band's second go at an iconic American crime show theme its just dues. However, I need to go through quite a bit of background.

Dum...de...DUM...DUM!

Yup, that musical cue isn't only one of the most famous musical cues in pop culture history, it's probably one of the first cues that I had ever heard and remembered as a toddler. Now, it wouldn't be for some years that I realized that the US police procedural program "Dragnet" had started as a radio program in 1949 before it became a long-running television show in the 1950s, both starring Jack Webb as the unflappable and intrepid Sergeant Joe Friday and a lot of others as his partners over the decades.

The whole franchise was famous for a number of tropes: the quick even-toned patter of Friday and his partner, Friday's narration of the progress of the case that episode, the description of Los Angeles, and the fact that the guys seemed to circulate like air through all of the police station's various departments. But my first exposure as a little boy to "Dragnet" was in its final years in the late 1960s when the older and portlier Friday was partnered with Officer Bill Gannon, played by veteran actor Harry Morgan.

Of course, there was that opening blast of ominous horns which launched the "Dragnet" song, one of the more recognizable themes in all of television. Officially titled "Danger Ahead" and composed by Walter Schumann, it not only struck me as foretelling of danger ahead but it also meant "Uh oh...police in back!". I've heard my old buddies in school intone it to signal big trouble...usually of a parental nature. 

"Dragnet" the original series finished its run very early in the 1970s and since then, cop shows evolved to show a more fallible side to their characters and even what they were up to outside of work hours. So it was with some surprise when I was already in university that a new movie version of "Dragnet" was hitting the big screen in 1987. I just saw the promotional picture of Dan Aykroyd as Joe Friday and Tom Hanks as new partner Pep Streebek, and thought "OMG! Are these guys actually going to do a serious movie?!". Aykroyd was the comedian from "Saturday Night Live" and "Ghostbusters", and Hanks at that time was also a comedic actor.

As it turned out, "Dragnet" in 1987 was a homage and a parody to the original Webb classic and the trailer above made that clear. Webb's Friday would never have reacted in the way that Aykroyd's Friday did when the car ran over his foot.

Then I found out through one of the music video shows that Art of Noise was tackling the iconic theme song for the movie. They did a great job with another legendary theme, "Peter Gunn", the previous year so I had great expectations. Well, to my initial disappointment, I wasn't all that impressed with the original version of AON's "Dragnet" theme. I mean, it was nice seeing the kid and her three buddies from the band's "Close to the Edit" don their California togs and have fun with scenes from the upcoming movie but in retrospect, this version seemed like a beta test take.

That didn't dissuade me from catching the movie though since I was interested in seeing how everyone involved, including Aykroyd and Hanks, would treat "Dragnet". As it turned out, the movie was OK but not great. I thought that Aykroyd gave an impressive and endearing Joe Friday impression, but like a number of comedies centering around successful characters from "Saturday Night Live" (with the exception of "Wayne's World" and the first "Blues Brothers"), "Dragnet" wasn't quite able to stretch out the story adequately beyond some of the funny gags.

But the intro was spectacular with it opening like a classic "Dragnet" TV episode under the narration of good ol' Joe and then the epic "Danger Ahead" horns and march. It was funny and awesome seeing Friday walk over to the station before the new version of the Art of Noise theme exploded on the screen. And this time, AON hit it out of the park with this dance remix version incorporating all of the jittery vocal excerpts. Before the advent of YouTube, I'd been searching for this take of the theme for years and years and so I was extremely happy for my ears to get reacquainted with it again.

I also have to say that the final scene of the movie was incredible and hilarious, too. 

The following year, Art of Noise released a number of remixes. I ended up getting one of my own.

"Dragnet" the movie was released in June 1987 so what were three of the singles that got released at the same time? Two of them were actually the debut singles for these singers.

Shonentai -- Kimi Dake ni （君だけに）

Maki Watase -- Pearl Monde Kiss (パールモンド・Kiss)

Chieri Ito -- Paradise Walker（パラダイス・ウォーカー）

Chieri Ito -- Merry Christmas

 

Of course, since we're now into December, Xmas is around the corner and Rocket Brown from "Come Along Radio" has put up his nearly 3-hour J-Xmas extravaganza on Mixcloud, so do please have a gander at that. I think I was 15 minutes into the broadcast when I heard the following number.

This is "Merry Christmas" from late 1980s aidoru Chieri Ito's（伊藤智恵理）debut album "Hello", and it's a pretty rollicking addition to the J-Xmas collection. Written by Masami Tozawa（戸沢暢美）and composed by Haruhiko Kawakami（川上明彦）, the one reason that I threw in the Eurobeat label in there was because of those banging synths in the intro and throughout the song, but otherwise, "Merry Christmas" relates itself as a pretty upbeat aidoru tune with a constantly driving beat. Maybe it could be something to listen to while putting up the decorations on the tree.

Also have a look-see at the two other Ito articles that have been put up so far: "Coconuts no Kataomoi" (ココナッツの片想い) by Marcos V. and then my story on "Paradise Walker"（パラダイス・ウォーカー）.

Chieri Ito -- Paradise Walker（パラダイス・ウォーカー）

My view of the 80s female aidoru scene all the way from Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）to Wink is that it was somewhat like a massive pyramid with the ones at the peak achieving pop superstardom, a second layer below with some more of those aidoru who never quite became supernovae but maintained enough popularity to keep releasing singles and make moves into TV as tarento. Then there is the humongous bottom layer where perhaps hundreds of teens were able to make their brief 15 minutes of fame for a handful of singles before quietly disappearing and retiring or transferring into other aspects of show business.

As much as I adore the upper echelons of 80s aidoru including Seiko-chan, Kyoko Koizumi（小泉今日子）and Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）, I've also had an interest in seeing and listening to at least a small fraction of those aidoru from the bottom layer. Perhaps, they may not have become stars but I've always wondered whether they did come up with some diamonds in the rough, so to speak.

Marcos V. was the fellow to first bring aidoru Chieri Ito（伊藤智恵理）to "Kayo Kyoku Plus" via her 5th single "Coconuts no Kataomoi"（ココナッツの片想い）. As he wrote, she was a minor aidoru who made her debut in June 1987 with "Paradise Walker". The song itself isn't particularly special (Oricon rank: 23 with 45,000 records sold) although there is some of that hint of what American pop music was like to me back in those days. However, I do like Ito's voice; I find it quite resonant. The late Masami Tozawa（戸沢暢美）and Ken Sato（佐藤健）created the song for her.

As it were, Ito released a total of 7 singles up to 1990 and 2 original albums. However, into the 1990s she did release 5 singles and 1 album under the new name of just Chieri, and even became the vocalist for the band The Rhythm Kings, releasing a couple of singles and albums with them.

Chieri Ito -- Coconuts no Kataomoi (ココナッツの片想い)

A minor 80s aidoru, Chieri Ito (伊藤智恵理) was never a name that I give proper attention. One song from her that I remeber having a good time with was “Coconuts no Kataomoi”, a single she released in July 1988.

“Coconuts no Kataomoi” is that strange fusion of aidoru pop, Latin rhythms and Eurobeat synths, something that was not uncommon at the time in Japan (I could spend some time remembering lots of songs that were created based on this formula, but my favourites are probably Miho Nakayama’s [中山美穂] “50/50” and CoCo’s “Sasayaka na Yuuwaku” [ささやかな誘惑], two songs I already covered here on the blog). One thing that quickly grabbed my attention was how violent the crashing synths were in certain parts. I almost can see the synth player slamming the keyboard to get this sound (well, it was not necessary to “hurt” the keyboard, but I like to imagine that just to add a little epicness to the song). Besides all the tension provided by this particular feature, it’s a Latin song as we all know very well, and that’s not bad. As for Chiemi, her vocals were not memorable at all, but just OK enough to add certain color to this forgotten gem.

Lyrics and music were done by Meiko Nakahara (中原めいこ), while the arrangement was done by Shiro Sagisu (鷺巣詩郎).

P.S. You can listen to the original version by Nakahara herself here.