J-Canuck's Days of the Week

By Abby the Pup via Wikimedia Commons

And here I thought that all I needed for a bit of suspense during the Holidays was to watch "Die Hard". However, it looks like the next couple of days in Toronto will be seeing wind warnings which could lead to power outages. Not great during a cold time like now. A lot of folks here including myself still remember the Ice Storm of 2013 which knocked most of the city out for at least a couple of days and many for many days after that.

Still, I'm gonna still slog my way to 1000 articles as best I can. I've got another Author's Picks based on days of the week since I recall that certain Japanese songs have used days of the week in their titles and even their own artist names. All but one of the songs that will be included in the list are already represented on the blog.

(1998) Monday Michiru -- You Make Me

(2006) Ossan -- Kayoubi（火曜日）

(1991) Hideaki Tokunaga -- Wednesday Moon

(1993) Pizzicato Five -- Yasashii Mokuyoubi（優しい木曜日）

Yup, "Yasashii Mokuyoubi" (Sweet Thursday) is the odd group out this time, but it is most certainly not an odd song. It's a very pretty tune by Pizzicato Five evoking a pleasant spring walk in Paris on that day. With the feeling of Shibuya-kei, the Divine Ms. Maki Nomiya（野宮真貴）vocally gives her version of a waltz along the Seine. I had a bit of a time tracking this down regarding when the song was originally released but thankfully its inclusion in "The Band of 20th Century: Nippon Columbia Years 1991-2001" gave me the big hint. It was just a matter of looking up those albums under Columbia and finding out that "Yasashii Mokuyoubi" had been placed in the June 1993 album "Bossa Nova 2001"（ボサ・ノヴァ2001）.

(1992) Dreams Come True -- Kessen wa Kin'youbi (決戦は金曜日）

(1982) EPO -- Doyou no Yoru wa Paradise (土曜の夜はパラダイス）

(2009) Chikuzen Sato -- Sunny Sunday Morning '09

Chikuzen Sato -- Ame no Regret（雨のリグレット）

 

The above is Chikuzen Sato's（佐藤竹善）first foray into his "Cornerstones" set of solo albums which first came out in 1995, so if he's going to be releasing another one next year, the lead singer behind Sing Like Talking will be celebrating his 30th anniversary with his pet project of cover tunes. Unfortunately at this point, I only have his first one.

His eighth album from the series, "radio JAOR ～Cornerstones 8～" was released back in October 2022. I was able to find this one track which is a cover of Junichi Inagaki's（稲垣潤一）1982 debut single "Ame no Regret" (Rainy Regret) which was written by Reiko Yukawa（湯川れい子）and composed by Off-Course member Kazuhiko Matsuo（松尾一彦）.

The arrangement isn't all that different from the Inagaki original (and I just posted something about him yesterday) aside from some steelier synthesizers, and I think Sato may have tried to emulate Inagaki's delivery to a fault. I've been accustomed to the laidback crooning of Inagaki but Sato is one singer who I've known and admired for his boppier and soulful vocals so to hear him fairly drone out that first verse was a tad jarring, I have to admit. However by the end, it was the good ol' Sato making himself heard again. The album, by the way, reached No. 22 on Oricon.

Off-Course/Chikuzen Sato/Bank Band -- Umarekuru Kodomo-tachi no Tame ni（生まれ来る子供たちのために）

 

I'll probably have to put out a warning right here and say that this song and its covers will most likely have readers come down with a bad case of excess lacrimal fluid output (Google it). I am talking about Off-Course's（オフコース）18th single released in March 1980, "Umarekuru Kodomo-tachi no Tame ni" (For the Sake of the Children to be Born).

The intro really preps listeners since it feels like the coming of an especially tenderhearted ballad, and of course (no pun intended), vocalist and songwriter Kazumasa Oda（小田和正）can wring tears out of a block of granite with that voice of his. According to the J-Wiki article for the song, he had been wondering about where Japan was heading after what had come before, probably referring to the war and the postwar rebuilding, and perhaps he wasn't completely satisfied. 

"Umarekuru Kodomo-tachi no Tame ni" did only modestly on the Oricon charts by peaking at No. 48. However, I think that it is the perfect song to contemplate our time, place and status on Earth, and 42 years after its release, it still contains plenty of resonance. The song also showed up on the band's "Three and Two" released in October 1979 which hit No. 2.

Oda's friend, Chikuzen Sato（佐藤竹善）from Sing Like Talking, did a cover of the song as his 5th solo single in November 2002. It's also a track on "Cornerstones 2", the second album in his series of covers which was released a month later and hit No. 14.

Then a few years later in November 2005, there was another cover of "Umarekuru Kodomo-tachi no Tame ni" done by Bank Band as their first limited digital download single. Bank Band has been around since 2004 as this super band centering around Mr. Children vocalist Kazutoshi Sakurai（桜井和寿）and music producer Takeshi Kobayashi（小林武史）on keyboards. Their cover was used as the ending theme for the 2005 live-action TV version of the famous "Hotaru no Haka"（火垂るの墓...Grave of the Fireflies） whose anime has probably reduced the toughest drill sergeants into puddles of brine. I can't even imagine what this song and this drama did to viewers. Still, out of the three listed here in this article, I just have to go with the original Off-Course single.

Christopher Cross -- Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)/Chikuzen Sato -- Tokyo City Serenade（トーキョー・シティ・セレナーデ）

 

All that cackling by Dudley Moore's rich kid Arthur Bach aside, the opening for the 1981 comedy "Arthur" really showed the romantic and sophisticated side of The Big Apple, despite it being known as The World's Most Dangerous City at the time. It was one of the biggest movies of that year, getting four Oscar nominations and winning two, one for Best Supporting Actor for John Gielgud as the incredibly snarky Hobson. I think my brother ended up watching "Arthur" a couple of times, but ironically, I never caught it even once at the theatre, settling for certain scenes on TV reruns. Maybe I wasn't such a Moore fan, although he did get his past acclaim through other comedies such as "Foul Play" and "10".

However, that theme song "Best That You Can Do", which is more popularly known as "Arthur's Theme", has stuck me with me throughout the decades, and I can say that this has also been one of my musical touchstones. "Arthur" had come out midway during my Japanese language school graduation trip in July 1981 and then Christopher Cross' single was released the following month. And as much as I had Yellow Magic Orchestra and Jun Horie's（堀江淳）"Memory Glass" on the brain at the time, the theme song for that movie became another familiar thing to hear on the radio when I returned to Canada.

Although Cross already had a few hits out there such as "Ride Like The Wind" and "Sailing" in the previous year, it was really "Arthur's Theme" that first tugged on my heartstrings when it came to his music. That opening piano, the lush orchestral arrangement and the singer's high-toned boyish voice ensured that the song was cemented in my memories. Thinking of it now, I think that having Cross sing the theme was a mark of genius since his delivery gave a certain child-like quality to "Arthur's Theme" for the movie which was about a figurative kid in a man's body finally growing up. But the song was and is still first-rate urbane romantic melody and that specific lyric about being between the moon and New York City still sends that chill up and down the spine.

Unsurprisingly then, Cross had quite the cream of the crop in terms of collaborators. Burt Bacharach and his wife at the time, Carole Bayer Sager, along with Peter Allen, whose ex-wife Liza Minnelli starred with Moore in "Arthur" all helped in creating the song that earned a Best Original Song Oscar. Then, there were the musicians including Cross: saxophonist Ernie Watts, drummer Jeff Porcaro and guitarist Steve Lukather among other stars. It hit No. 1 on Billboard and No. 2 on RPM in Canada.

The reason that I'm doing this ROY article on a Friday after the usual Thursday one last night was that recently I'd discovered the cover version of "Arthur's Theme" by Sing Like Talking vocalist Chikuzen Sato（佐藤竹善）, and yep, I realize that I did do an SLT article to start off today's spate of articles. I figured that if I was going to give time to Sato's cover, then I might as well give the original by Cross the ROY treatment since I'd been planning to do so sometime.

Now in Japan, "Arthur's Theme" was given the title of "New York City Serenade"（ニューヨーク・シティ・セレナーデ）when it was given its due there, and so Sato's cover has been retitled "Tokyo City Serenade" for his October 2004 album of covers "The Hits ~ Cornerstones 3", which peaked at No. 4 on Oricon. Sato's voice is great as usual but I think that his take on Cross' song gets a tad too ambitious in the rearrangement so the execution isn't 100%.

Speaking of those hits in Japan, I'll give you the Top 3 of August 1981 as reported from the Oricon site.

1. Seiko Matsuda -- Shiroi Parasol （白いパラソル）

2. Yumi Matsutoya -- Mamotte Agetai（守ってあげたい）

3. Jun Horie -- Memory Glass（メモリーグラス）

Chikuzen Sato & Hiromi Iwasaki -- I.O.U. Me

 

As we come to the end of another weekend, perhaps something soothing to prepare for the rigors of another work week is in order. So, why not come up with another lovely Chikuzen Sato（佐藤竹善）song? I'm really going to have to listen to his 1995 "Cornerstones" album once again to remind myself of some of the gems on his first solo album away from Sing Like Talking.

For all of those Sato fans, "Cornerstones" as you know is the series of albums of cover songs by Sato with some help from his fellow singing contemporaries. I've already written about a few of the tracks from the first album (which peaked at No. 5 on Oricon) over the years including the first track "No One There" which was originally recorded by Eric Tagg.

Over here, we have a duet featuring Sato and the sweet sounds of Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）as they sing "I.O.U. Me", a cover of the 1987 single by BeBe & CeCe Winans. Let me say that I don't think anyone is going to top the Winans' original but Iwasaki and Sato still do a fine job with this slightly slower rendition of the soulful love song. I mean, I'm happy enough as it is that these two amazing vocal talents did come together to perform "I.O.U. Me" which was created by Billy Sprague, Keith Thomas, Michael Rapp, and Tom Hemby.

Chikuzen Sato -- Golden Lady

 

Although I own a couple of Stevie Wonder BEST compilations with the usual inclusions of "For Once In My Life" and "Isn't She Lovely" among other hits, I now have to consider my own advice for folks who've asked me about exploring the works of a Japanese singer. I've sometimes recommended that they get a BEST compilation of their discography and then begin tracking down the original albums since they may have buried gems that never got onto the BEST stuff.

Case in point: the track "Golden Lady" in Wonder's 1973 "Innervisions" considered to be one of his very best albums and perhaps even one of the best albums of all time according to the Wikipedia writeup. "Innervisions" covered a lot of hot-button issues including drug abuse and racism, and Wonder even saved some vitriol for then-US President Richard Nixon. "Golden Lady" was one of the few tracks that was simply a pure love song and it is a song that never made it onto either of those BEST compilations that I have. Apparently, it follows the Cuban montuno style according to the article devoted to "Golden Lady" itself. Wonder's melody is its usual soulful spectacle but I was also initially struck by how relatively subdued he was in the vocals.

Incredibly enough, I only found out about Wonder's original from Chikuzen Sato's（佐藤竹善）cover of "Golden Lady" in his 2012 album of cover tunes "Free as a Bird - CORNERSTONES 5 -". It's a much more oomphed-up take with plenty of brass, and I'm wondering if it's almost on the level of a dance tune. Of course, if there's anyone in Japan who can tackle a Wonder tune with aplomb, it is Sato, although I also think Toshinobu Kubota（久保田利伸）is another choice. "CORNERSTONES 5" also has another lovely track "Sunny Sunday Morning '09" which I've written about.

The "Innervisions" article in Wikipedia also noted that only a few days after its release, Wonder was involved in a horrific auto accident that could have killed him. Fortunately for him and the world, he recovered to provide plenty more of the music that would make him a legend.

Harumi Tsuyuzaki & Chikuzen Sato -- In This Love

Knowing about the wonders of the vocals of both singer-songwriters Chikuzen Sato（佐藤竹善）and Harumi Tsuyuzaki（露崎春女）, and then seeing the latter help out on backing chorus for the former's band, Sing Like Talking, through a couple of YouTube videos, I figured that the two of them would have to have done an official duet together.

But of course, that was definitely the case. For Tsuyuzaki's first album "Harumi Tsuyuzaki" released in November 1995, there is a track titled "In This Love" with her and Sato performing a ballad arranged as if it had come from a decade before. I thought that there was something very Whitney Houston or Peter Cetera or David Foster. In addition, those vocals are just amazing...a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup of Japanese romantic balladry.

I'm not sure when those Sing Like Talking YouTube videos featuring Tsuyuzaki in backup had been originally filmed but I can only speculate that it must have been very early in her career. With a wonderful voice like that, there was no way that she could stay in the background for long.

Chikuzen Sato -- Sunny Sunday Morning '09

It's a very summery Sunday morning as I write this. The fan is already on here as things have become fairly stuffy in the old abode.

Allow me to start with something classy and appropriate to go with your Sunday breakfast/brunch. I found this smooth and jazzy number called "Sunny Sunday Morning '09" as performed by J-AOR crooner extraordinaire Chikuzen Sato（佐藤竹善）and composed by veteran Katsuhisa Hattori（服部克久）. This was a track on Sato's 5th album in his "Cornerstones" series of cover songs with the subtitle of "Free as a Bird" back in November 2012. However, the song had been recorded three years earlier as a track on Hattori's 50th anniversary album "Hattori Katsuhisa Ongakuka Seikatsu Go-juu Shuunen Kinen Concert"（服部克久音楽家生活50周年記念コンサート...Katsuhisa Hattori's Songwriter Life 50th Anniversary Memorial Concert）.

That lovely harmonica, the silky strings and the soft guitar accompany Sato in something that reminds me of some of those jazz standards from my childhood and television experiences. I couldn't find out who provided the lyrics for "Sunny Sunday Morning '09", but I can imagine that it was Sato. As for the cover of "Cornerstones 5", I would probably eschew the cigar and booze that Sato is holding and go for something healthier...like tons of bacon, sausage and other processed meats along with the Eggs Benedict slathered in Hollandaise Sauce.😈😈

Oh, and by the way, for another Sunday-themed tune, you can try out Yutaka Yokokura's（横倉裕）"Warm & Sunny Sunday Morning" from 1988.

Sinon feat. Chikuzen Sato -- mystery

Always like a good soulful song. Always like the vocal stylings of Chikuzen Sato（佐藤竹善）from Sing Like Talking. Happily enough, I've often gotten both at the same time.

No mystery then about my affinity for this song, though it is called "mystery". This is a duet between Sato and Aomori Prefecture-born singer Sinon（シノン）. A track from Sinon's 3rd album from 2017, "Trinity", it's an interesting blend of a smoothly flowing and mellow mid-tempo number that ought to go well from the speakers during Sunday brunch and an anchored beat that comes in and out like a suspense movie trying to butt in...kinda reminds me of a riff from Spandau Ballet's "Gold".

Nice duet especially since Sato also hails from Aomori Prefecture. According to the write-up at YouTube, singer-songwriter K was behind words and music. As for Sinon, she made her debut in 2013 with either the album "Suwari Gogochi no Ii Isu"（すわりごこちのいい椅子...A Comfortable Chair）or "Sukoshi Arukou yo"（すこし歩こうよ...Let's Walk A Bit） (depending on the page you go to on her website, the albums are switched in terms of their release timeline). Just from those titles, I get the impression that Sinon could be a specialist in very calming music.

Satoru Shionoya -- Let Love Lead Me feat. Chikuzen Sato

The making of this article takes me back to a very long time ago...probably over 20 years ago. I once had a friend who was such a fan of Barry Manilow that whenever she heard him singing something like "Mandy" or "I Write The Songs", she would just curl into a ball and perhaps mew. It was like watching a cat reacting to catnip. Now I wouldn't be so extroverted in my reaction to the R&B family DeBarge but I can certainly relate to it when I hear the oh-so-delectable "All This Love" which is one of my all-time favourite songs from the genre, hands down.

I'm getting the same reaction from pianist Satoru Shionoya's（塩谷哲）"Let Love Lead Me" which is a track from his 1995 "Salt II" (too bad it kinda reads like an old international defense treaty).

Ever since first hearing Shionoya's piano work on Sing Like Talking's fantastic "Mitsumeru Ai de"（みつめる愛で）on their "Discovery" album and then realizing that he was also a member of the Japanese salsa band Orquesta De La Luz, I've kept an eye (and ear) on him. I should actually reward myself by purchasing some of his solo albums such as "Salt II".

However, getting back to the song at hand, "Let Love Lead Me" gave me those oh-so-wonderful soul ballad vibes (or perhaps it could be Quiet Storm), thanks to Shionoya's mellow jazz and R&B piano tones and the soaring vocals of Chikuzen Sato（佐藤竹善）from SLT. The first time I heard this, something just shot up and down my back, and memories of the aforementioned DeBarge and Anita Baker came rushing back to me from the 1980s. And I realized once more how much I loved some of the mellower side of R&B from that decade. Shionoya and Sato make a great duo and in fact, the duo has gone to work a number of times through one single and a few albums as the unit Salt & Sugar.

It's hearing music such as "Let Love Lead Me" that has had me hoping that someday there might be a resurgence of Quiet Storm-type of music on both sides of the Pacific. Incidentally, along with Shionoya coming up with the marvelous melody, Cat Gray, who has been heavily involved with Sing Like Talking, provided the lyrics. A nice way to finish a Saturday night.

Kumi Showji with Chikuzen Sato -- Neverfading Love

Kumi Showji（障子久美）is a singer-songwriter from Shiga Prefecture whose name and visage I've seen in the pages of "Nihon no Josei Singer-Songwriter"（日本の女性シンガー・ソングライター...Japan's Female Singer-Songwriters）a few times but I never bothered to find out any of her material. But then, I came across this soulful little ballad with her and Sing Like Talking's Chikuzen Sato（佐藤竹善）called "Neverfading Love".

A track on her 5th album, "Scope of Soul" from 1993, I realized that I will always be a sucker for that urban contemporary/jazz arrangement, and when you have such nice vocals by Showji and Sato...well, perhaps it's time to give some of her YouTube videos more of a look-see. From what I've seen of her J-Wiki profile, Showji, who also wrote and composed "Neverfading Love", was mostly active in the 1990s, releasing 8 original albums and 7 singles.

Chikuzen Sato/Superfly -- Desperado

A few celebrities have passed on in the past several days. David Bowie was one with actor Alan Rickman coming very quickly after (loved him as the deliciously villainous Hans Gruber in the original "Die Hard"). And now I have found out that Glenn Frey of The Eagles also left this mortal coil earlier today.

I was not an Eagles fan but certainly through the karaoke bars and boxes, I've heard enough takes on "Hotel California", and the band was almost right up there with The Beatles, The Ventures and Carpenters in terms of popularity in Japan. In fact, the first teacher I worked with on the JET Programme was an Eagles fan and I think part of the reason for him being so musical was his love for the music of Frey and Don Henley. Of course, my connection with him was through his work in the 1980s with his pop hits of "The Heat Is On" and "You Belong To The City".

However one of the most hauntingly beautiful ballads that I have heard was "Desperado" as sung by Frey. My own rule on the blog as applies to me is not to feature the same singer twice in a month, but I wanted to give my own tribute to Frey through a couple of cover versions by Japanese artists, one who was just put up a few days ago.

Chikuzen Sato（佐藤竹善）gives an absolutely beautiful bluesy version of "Desperado" on his 1995 "Cornerstones" album. Perhaps not through his voice, but melodically, he may have been channeling Ray Charles though the synths were a bit twee.

Then, there is Superfly's version which came out on her 2010 album "Cover Songs: Complete 'Track 3'". I couldn't help but be reminded of Linda Ronstadt singing the song while listening to Superfly.

Of course, I will leave off the man himself. I'm not a religious person by any means but if I were, I can imagine that both Bowie and Frey must be having one heck of a jam session right now.

Chikuzen Sato -- Whatcha' Gonna Do For Me

As I mentioned in my last article, my household had a not-so-good day with a pipe burst and water coming through the ceiling. I need my comfort music so I am also going over to the fine pipes of Chikuzen Sato（佐藤竹善）tonight.

"Whatcha' Gonna Do For Me" is not only the title of Mr. Sato's cover of Chaka Khan's 1981 single, but it was also the question I had for a lot of folks today including the property manager, the head of the clean-up crew, superintendent, etc. But enough on that bad news. Compared to the original by the divine Ms. Khan, Sato's version is slightly more subdued but no less nice to listen to. It was one of the tracks on his first solo album, "Cornerstones" from 1995, which showcased some more of his vocal talents away from Sing Like Talking. I've already written about one other track on the album, "No One There".

Here is the original created by Ned Doheny and Hamish Stuart.

August 7 2020: You can also check out another earlier cover of the song by Kaoru Aizawa（相沢薫）.

Off Course -- Watashi no Onegai （私のお願い）

Well, it's getting close to the end of the year so I was starting to clean up the CD shelves a bit when I came across an old compilation album by the 70s/80s band Off Course（オフコース）titled "Off Course - Winter Collection".

On the album, I found a track called "Watashi no Onegai" (My Hope) which was written and composed by Kazumasa Oda（小田和正）. Originally, it was a track on the band's 8th album "We Are" from November 1980, and it's a straight-on love song without any of the bitterness or sadness that sometimes gets into an Off Course ballad. Oda just serenades his heart out for the girl of his dreams which probably had the band's fans frothing at the mouth and leaking tears whenever this was performed at the concerts.

I'm not even sure whether this was an official cover by Sing Like Talking's marvelous Chikuzen Sato（佐藤竹善）, but here he is giving his own fine version of "Watashi no Onegai" on the keyboards. Sato and Oda have worked together in the past, so I'm pretty sure the latter would approve of the former's performance.

Not quite sure how the ballad would fit into a winter album but I guess I can imagine the happy couple snuggling together in front of a fireplace around the Yuletide.

Chikuzen Sato/Daisuke Inoue/Junko Yamamoto -- I Feel Coke

I still remain a Coca-Cola fan after all these decades although my intake has been curtailed somewhat since I returned to Toronto back in 2011. My imbibing of the quintessential drink for hamburgers and pizza (with the accompanying increase in gas afterwards) probably started right from the 1970s just when the famous US commercial campaign jingle for Coke, the hippie-folkie "I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing In Perfect Harmony" wormed itself into millions of pairs of ears. Yes, people linked hands for world peace in tribute to a drink that can most likely melt enamel and internal organs.

Many years later when I was in thrall to my Japanophilia, I learned that the Japanese were also in thrall to Coke. And a certain advertising company over there came up with a simple Japlish (or Engrish) catchphrase that has lasted for years: I Feel Coke. Not "I feel like a Coke". That would be too drawn out and grammatically correct. Just those three words.

And there was a jingle under the same title whipped up by composer/saxophonist Daisuke Inoue（井上大輔）for the campaign which began in 1987 with lyrics by Toshiya Mizoguchi（溝口俊哉）. Unlike the world peace folkiness of "I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing In Perfect Harmony", "I Feel Coke" was all about happy happy fun fun even if it was during lunch break during a 12-hour day in Tokyo. And it was sung by soulful Chikuzen Sato（佐藤竹善）just at the time that his group Sing Like Talking was making inroads; couldn't have asked for a better calling card than his vocals here.

Although it was Sato's voice on the commercials, composer Inoue also had to get his two cents in with his own version, of course, with appropriate saxophone accompaniment. I think it's one of the few times that I've seen a yellow double-breasted suit work. Could be the lighting.

I only found out by accident but apparently Junko Yamamoto（山本潤子）of Hi-Fi Set also gave her own version of "I Feel Coke". As for Inoue, he was also behind songs such as "Hurricane" by The Chanels and "Taboo" by Hiromi Koide（小出広美）.

Chikuzen Sato/Eric Tagg -- No One There

I wrote an article several months ago about Chikuzen Sato's（佐藤竹善）cover of the AOR classic "What You Won't Do For Love" originally by Bobby Caldwell and the fact that it came from Sato's first album of covers, "Cornerstones" from 1995. Having become a fan of his work with Sing Like Talking, I just had to see what the smooth-singing Sato could do on his own.

Well, here is the opening track from "Cornerstones", "No One There". And it looks like Sato was rarin' to get crackin'. Starting with what sounds like a bit of steel drum calypso, he just gets into some of that wonderful AOR groove with that great voice of his. From this song, there isn't much different (at least, at that time) between his solo stuff and his work with SLT, but that's not a bad thing at all. He knows a great hook when he hears it, and I do love that electric guitar during the bridge.

As I said, "Cornerstones" is a cover album, and "No One There" is a cover of a song by singer-songwriter Eric Tagg. Released also as the first track on Tagg's 1982 album, "Dreamwalkin'", I only heard this for the first time tonight, and I'm rather kicking myself up the keester just some months before I enter my second half-century because I had never heard of this guy before. As regular readers of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" may have already surmised, I often gravitate to City Pop in Japan and its equivalent of radio-friendly AOR/adult contemporary music from the 70s and 80s. And listening to the original "No One There", there is much for me to enjoy in the arrangements. Visions of Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan and James Ingram are dancing around my head as I write this. There is no blistering guitar here but the keyboards and the soft horns are swoon-worthy for me.

There is an article about Tagg at a website dedicated to Canadian songwriter David Foster who has helped musicians in both Japan and North America, and in the article, the author mentions that Tagg should have been up there with folks like Daryl Hall and Luther Vandross. Instead, he is just one of those best-kept secrets. Of course, music and musicians are a very personal and subjective choice, so for me at least, I would agree that Tagg should have deserved a bit more profile. However, along with those leading lights already mentioned, I have to say that at least according to his vocals in "No One There", he sounds quite a bit like Kenny Loggins before he entered the "Danger Zone".

According to that same article, Tagg had some mighty fine help backing him up. Foster himself was on the keyboards, Nathan East on bass, Lee Ritenour on guitar and Jerry Hey and company on horns. All of them have been seen in the liner notes of a lot of Japanese singers' albums as well.

P.S. I just discovered that I did hear Eric Tagg all the way back in my salad days. It was on "Is It You?" (1981), an AM radio regular and I even have a copy of the song on one of my AOR compilations but the track was always listed under Lee Ritenour's name.

Chikuzen Sato/Bobby Caldwell -- What You Won't Do For Love

If there is one song that screams out Adult Contemporary, it's "What You Won't Do For Love" originally by Bobby Caldwell in 1978. I used to hear it oodles of times on the radio at home and in the car, and if there were a source song that was responsible for my attraction to the genre here and its equivalent of City Pop in Japan, it would be this tune.

Years later, having become a Sing Like Talking fan, I also became interested in Chikuzen Sato's （佐藤竹善）solo work, and so I bought the first of his "Cornerstones" series of albums which came out in January 1995. I bought it perhaps a couple of years later at a Yamano Music branch in JR Chiba Station while I was waiting for the bus that used to take me to those weekly corporate classes I used to teach at Sumitomo. Sato's stuff in this album at least seemed to push the singer into a more groove-rich, funk-happy place, and his cover of the Caldwell classic was a bit more R&B. Since SLT is seen as the domestic representative of AOR in Japan, I couldn't think of anyone better to tackle "What You Won't Do For Love" than Sato himself, and he acquits himself fine for the most part. I think he was just given a bit too much leeway at the end, though.

AOR is a legitimate section in any of the major music shops in Japan. Adult Oriented Rock brings to mind three other words: Big in Japan. For perhaps the same reasons that The Carpenters, ABBA and The Ventures have done even better in The Land of the Rising Sun, an entire cadre of singers whose repertoires would go well with a bottle of Perrier being poured into a highball has been gratefully accepted in that same land. Bobby Caldwell is therefore a god over there. And "What You Won't Do For Love" is his tribute song.

Stardust Revue -- Mokuren no Namida (木蘭の涙)

My memory of my first encounter with Stardust Revue (スターダスト・レビュー) is pretty vague and it's been a while ago. I do remember that they won me over quickly with their AOR and jazzy material from the 80's. So many memorable melodies in their catalogue. One of those is their 25th single, "Mokuren no Namida" (木蘭の涙...Tears of Magnolia), which came out in July 1993, though it originally appeared on the band's studio album "Sola" back in March that year. I had no idea how big that song was until I saw it performed numerous times on Japanese music programs by different singers and then came to Japan only to catch it on speakers in various stores I entered. In fact, they played it at a local supermarket just this past week. When the single originally came out, it peaked at #54 on Oricon weeklies and sold about 150,000 copies. Not exactly major hit material (considering how huge J-Pop sales generally were in those years), though it did chart for 20 weeks. Around the turn of the next decade, it was revived from the ashes thanks to the cover versions that started popping up everywhere. It eventually became one of the most recognizable songs by the band. In 2005, they re-released the single with a stripped-down acoustic arrangement, and that one peaked at #15. You can listen to it here.
My preference, however, is with the original. It has this nice oriental vibe that, according to this page, reminded the band of Shanghai when they first composed the melody. It's a gentle melancholic piece that (surprise surprise) laments the loss of the beloved. Kaname Nemoto (根本要) sings it so elegantly, and the bassist Kiyoshi Kakinuma (柿沼清史), who composed it, also lends his voice in the interlude. Love that part along with the saxophone. The page linked above offers a detailed blow-by-blow account from a radio talkshow on how the song was created. Here are two pieces of trivia I got from it. First, it was originally titled "Roman no Hanasaku Koro" (浪漫の花咲く頃...The Time When Romance Bloomed) and featured more saccharine lyrics, which lyricist Hiroshi Yamada (山田ひろし) thought would fit the Chinese-sounding melody. The members of Stardust Revue didn't like it much and asked Yamada to revise the song to make it more down-to-earth and genuine.

The other piece of info is that the intended protagonist was male. However, when it came to karaoke, both men and women would perform this comfortably. Must have something to do with gender-neutral pronouns and Nemoto's high voice. Now, I don't know for sure how loyally the Japanese follow this rule, but I heard that in karaoke women are not supposed to sing songs with a male perspective. (I gotta admit, I break it shamelessly all the time.) However, with this song, anyone could interpret it from whatever angle they wished. It's a universal and timeless heartbreak theme.

As I mentioned above, many artists have covered "Mokuren no Namida" so I'm going to highlight a few versions. Perhaps the most famous one is by Chikuzen Sato (佐藤竹善) with the vocal duo Kobukuro (コブクロ), which they released as a single in 2004. This arrangement is more straightforward AOR with all the guitars. Nemoto's voice will always be the one, but their interpretation is also good.

This is my first time embedding something from xiami, so hopefully it works (sorry but it's now disabled), because the 2002 cover by Satoru Sakamoto (坂本サトル) happens to be my favorite. It's all vocals and piano, similar to Stardust Revue's acoustic remake. Sakamoto's delivery is so piercing, it gives the song an extra layer of sadness. Another singer joins him as it goes along. You have to be a total newbie to kayo kyoku if you don't recognize that voice. :)

And last but not least is the vocal duo Alma Kaminiito (アルマカミニイト), who decided to turn it Spanish in 2012. I'm not sure what to think of this other than that their pronunciation is pretty good. I only came across this cover while doing research for the entry but hey... why not share.

Source: massimo_motti from blogs.yahoo.co.jp

Ryo Aska/Chikuzen Sato -- Hajimari wa Itsumo Ame （はじまりはいつも雨）

Ryo Aska's "Hajimari wa Itsumo Ame" (There's Always Rain In The Beginning) had me at "Hajimari", to paraphrase a line from an old Tom Cruise movie. A bit exaggerated, but even without knowing what the lyrics were about, I just remember this ballad hooking me immediately even as the commercial song for a Panasonic stereo component system. Just the way the melody and Aska's vocals wound its way through the song was remarkable. It took a bit of doing, but I was finally able to track down the title and eventually get the album that it was on, "Scene II".

The taller half of J-Pop's power duo of Chage & Aska had a banner year in 1991. C&A had a massive hit that year with their summer release of "Say Yes", but just a few months earlier, Aska had released "Hajimari wa Itsumo Ame" in March as his 3rd single as a solo artist. Originally, a self-cover of a song that he had penned for Akina Nakamori（中森明菜） was to have been the jingle for that commercial, but the production staff and even the folks at Panasonic were so enamoured with this new song that it wasn't too difficult a decision to have it put in instead. Aska took care of both the music and lyrics, and I can now understand why the appeal was so great on a literal level as well. The singer just so tenderly sang about how much in love he was with this girl, even noting how wonderful her name was and how much rain there was when they first met. It wouldn't surprise me if a lot of lovelorn guys would go to this ballad to serenade their significant others under the window. As for the official video above, I think there's a lot to be said romantically about Aska making that call in the rain in an actual old-fashioned phone booth instead of just speaking into a tiny cellphone.

"Hajimari wa Itsumo Ame" went as far as the No. 2 spot on the charts, and sold a little over a million copies. And it secured the No. 5 ranking for the whole year, compared to the even more successful "Say Yes" which became the No. 2 song of 1991 which sold close to 3 million discs. A good year, indeed.

https://itunes.apple.com/jp/album/the-hits-cornerstone-3/74493856

(excerpt only)

For his 2004 album, "THE HITS -- CORNERSTONES 3", Chikuzen Sato（佐藤竹善）gave his own softer version of the song. It almost sounds unplugged, and the arrangement is distinctly Sato, considering his work with Sing Like Talking. 

(Sorry but the video has been taken down.)

Beni gives her own English-language version of "Hajimari wa Itsumo Ame", although the video is very brief.

And this was the Panasonic commercial (at 00:42) that had plenty of hearts-a-throbbing.

Aska -- Scene II

GAO/Chikuzen Sato -- Sayonara (サヨナラ)

When GAO debuted as a singer through the NHK BS music program Young Battle, she revealed neither her real name nor her birth year. Her gender was a mystery at first, too, and she was clever enough to take advantage of her androgynous looks and husky voice to conceal the fact. I've read on one blog that when press tried to ask her whether she was male or female, she would answer "neither". Who knows if this story actually happened, but it seems plausible. In 1992, however, when her single Sayonara (サヨナラ) became a huge hit, Kohaku Utagassen producers asked her to perform on the show at the end of the year, which would mean that she had to make a choice between joining the "red" (female) team or the "white" (male) team. GAO accepted the offer and chose the former, thus revealing her identity.

As for "Sayonara", it's a sublime rock ballad that will probably get stuck in your ears for hours after you listen to it. It's interesting how GAO's voice and image can even make a love song "genderless", but that's what gives it a wide appeal, I think. Written by GAO and composed by Ikki Kai, it shot to No. 3 spot on Oricon weeklies and became the 16th-ranked single of 1992 and the 97th-ranked single on 1993, selling over a million copies total. The song eventually overshadowed the artist herself, making her a one-hit-wonder figure. I've listened to her other material from the early 90's and warmly recommend it to those who enjoy "Sayonara".

A number of artists have covered the song through the years, but I couldn't resist highlighting Chikuzen Sato's（佐藤竹善）take on it from 2007. His version sounds refreshingly down-to-earth compared to the original.

Image source: cdjournal