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.
In this currently uncommentable environment as I mentioned in the last announcement, again I apologize for the inconvenience and hope things improve shortly. However, I also have to mention that some time over the last 48 hours, "Kayo Kyoku Plus" has been able to garner 25 million views in the nearly fifteen years that it's been up and running, so I along with Kayo Grace and Mr. Calico would like to thank you for all of the viewings, comments and discussions since 2012.
And what more appropriate article is there than Saki Kubota's（久保田早紀）"Ku-gatsu no Iro" (The Colour of September) considering where and when we are in the calendar year? A track on the singer-songwriter's third albumNovember 1980"Saudade" (the one that starts off with Kubota's big hit "Ihojin"（異邦人）from 1979), it's quite the spirited City Pop tune spritzed with a generous amount of Latin disco thanks to the singer's words and music along with Mitsuo Hagita's（萩田光雄）arrangement. I also think the song also has that feeling of early 1970s American drama soundtrack dealing with the footloose-and-fancy-free jet set.
Good heavens! It's September already! Time sure has flown in 2026. But as it is, autumn is just around the corner, school will be starting up again here and NHK will officially announce that the Kohaku Utagassen will be broadcast once more on December 31st. Ironically, though, for a summer that really hasn't been all that blazing hot this year in Toronto, today's been a really hazy and humid affair. But no worries, things will cool down by this long weekend.
Anyways, I'm dusting off the KKP category of The First once again. I began this one with "The First -- J-Canuck" almost a decade ago with a rambling recounting of some of the first Japanese songs that I heard and then a few years later, I posted "The Firsts by J-Canuck" where I selected some of my other firsts via genre. Other writers on the blog have also chimed in with their firsts.
Well, being whimsical me and acknowledging the fact that today is September 1st, I've decided to put up some of the first songs I heard by five artists. I also acknowledge that I'm putting up a couple of examples of "September" since I'm so shamelessly enthralled by them nearly fifty years following their release, but I'll defend myself with Blog Founder's Prerogative.
Yup, this was my first exposure to the legendary guys at Earth Wind & Fire thanks to my pink SONY radio. I always wondered why these guys were so funkily devoted to the ninth month of the year but the disco and the dancing kept distracting my (soul) train of thought. I hope the guys at Area 51 have another great time this year, too.
The whole Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）thing began with this song on "Sounds of Japan". It put my whole impression of aidoru voices in a different perspective because up until this tune, I'd thought that female Japanese singers had to sing up in the ionosphere. I actually thought Mariya was Mario for a few days because her vocals were so low. As the years and decades have passed, I've come to realize that her "September" is pretty unique: a combination of 50s/60s girl pop, a bit of disco and contemporary pop.
I always remember my first and for Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）, it was "Kinku". I hadn't known anything about the singer or the image that her handlers had wanted to convey (misunderstood punk student) or the fact that the song was an example of techno aidoru music. At the time, it struck me as being this enigmatic and dramatic tune sung by a teenage girl whose vocals also went down to the basement.
If EPO had actually gone with her first choice for a career path which was (I believe) a gym teacher, she would have had her young charges whipped into shape with that boomer voice of hers. Thankfully for me and the rest of her fans, she has used her vocals to provide brightness and spark into the music sphere. Her surrounding musical arrangement has frequently followed suit. "U, Fu, Fu, Fu" may come off as one of the most unusual titles in Japanese pop, but the entire song can have the power to transport listeners to happy and joyful 80s Tokyo.
Indeed, it was neither "Christmas Eve" nor any of his City Pop classics that served as the introduction to Tatsuro Yamashita's（山下達郎）works. It was the theme song to the 1990 TBS drama"Yuwaku"（誘惑）that caught my ear due to its class and moodiness...and that trombone! Who was bringing a trombone solo into a late 80s pop tune? It wasn't City Pop per se but it sure was urban and urbane.
Tokyo Cheapo on YouTube has presented the wonders of Odaiba (Rainbow Town) on Tokyo Bay. I've been to the area many times while I was living in Japan and it's chock-filled with stores, restaurants and places to see. But what makes things rather sobering is what is written on every signboard talking about Odaiba in Odaiba: if there's a huge Shindo 7 earthquake, the ground will tend to liquefy because the area is built on reclaimed land and garbage. Enjoy your visit!
It does make me wonder what that area by Tokyo Bay looked like back at the turn of the decade going from the 1970s to the 1980s. Was it basically like Toronto by Lake Ontario at around the same time when there was nothing but industrial factories and millions of dead fish floating on the water? Well, many years later, the waterfront of my hometown became the tourist spot of Harbourfront and obviously Odaiba popped up for Tokyo also as this very attractive place to live and visit.
At that turn of the decade, singer-songwriter Yuko Shibuya（渋谷祐子）released her 1980 album"Made in Japan", an LP that I've referred to a few times already including for one track "5AM wa Violet Pink de"（5AMはバイオレット・ピンクで）. I also have this track from "Made in Japan" titled "Sail Away" which is this welcoming City Pop song with flying disco strings as Shibuya invites listeners to take off on a pleasant tropical cruise with her. As the strings do a whirlwind effect at the end, there's even a trombone solo to bring some of that old-fashioned romance into the proceedings. Shibuya provided the melody while Machiko Ryu（竜真知子）was the lyricist.
It's been a rather sad week for music fans overall. Last week, I posted a ZZ Top song for Reminiscings of Youth due to the passing of band drummer Frank Beard. And now in the last 48 hours, we've lost superstar Dolly Parton and the great Tim Curry, both at the age of 80. I'll be posting about both people today for a special double ROY.
I have mentioned this in past KKP articles but our family used to watch a fair bit of country music television decades ago including "Hee Haw" in America and "The Tommy Hunter Show" up here in Canada. And a number of times, we got to see the force of nature that was Dolly Parton in the 1970s. Yes, she jumped out on the stage like a particularly buxom Annie Oakley with the big hair and long nails, and even more than her music, she was able to win people over with that friendly charm that practically invited everyone over to her place for dinner and dancing.
And then at the turn of the decade, the 1980 movie "9 to 5" was released which starred Parton, Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda as three harassed employees of a scummy boss played by Dabney Coleman. Sadly, I don't remember much from the film aside from Coleman getting his comeuppance and Tomlin's dream sequence which featured her as Snow White. However, what has remained with me up to now is the upbeat and surprisingly short theme song by Parton herself. "9 to 5" hit the record store shelves in November 1980 and I remember it for the singer's happy-go-lucky vocals, the intrepid pounding piano and Parton's nails clacking away like a typewriter.
"9 to 5" hit the top of the charts in both Canada and the United States. It was nominated for Best Original Song at the Oscars and three other awards at the Grammys. I also saw that even Buckingham Palace paid tribute to Parton with the King's Guard providing their own version of the song. I offer my condolences to Parton's family, friends and fans.
The song was released on November 3rd 1980 so what was hitting the top of the Oricon chart on that day?
As I've mentioned in the past, I've sometimes used the 5th and final slot for my articles on Urban Contemporary Fridays to place something a little out of the ordinary. This time, I'm going with an Author's Picks devoted to songs that have some form of Friday or Saturday in the titles since we're going to transition from Friday into Saturday in a few hours, and not surprisingly, a lot of these songs are City Pop in nature. Friday night is the time in Japan to whip off the tie and go crazy at an izakaya or karaoke box while Saturday could be more of the same or maybe friends can meet up for brunch or coffee in the morning. One song actually doesn't haven't a Friday or Saturday in its title but I figure that "Pay Day" by EPO is close enough to a celebratory Friday to get an honorary nod. Anyways, have a good weekend everyone!
Well, more than a dozen years following my article on Junko Yagami's（八神純子）seminal sophomore April 1979 album, "Sugao no Watashi"（素顔の私）, I'm giving myself a Gibbs slap upside the back of my head once more. At this rate, I may have to be mindful of concussion protocols.
Now, the reason for once more going into self-flagellation mode is that even though I had provided quite a few tracks in the article for "Sugao no Watashi", I had also neglected one particular track, "Sotto Ato kara" (Quietly, Afterwards) which is quite the City Pop tune as well. Written and composed by the singer and arranged by bassist Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）. Escorted by a phalanx of disco strings and boppy bass, the dreamy and sultry vocals of Yagami lead the way through streets and highways of late 1970s Tokyo in all their splendor...and pollution probably as well. But let's not dwell on the photochemical and instead focus on the romantic aspects of what life could have been like in Shinjuku, Roppongi or Akasaka around half a century ago.
About a month ago, I brought aboard Teresa Noda（テレサ野田）and her third and final single from 1979,"Tropical Love". She may not have had a long career under her stage name (her real name is Tamaki Saionji（西園寺環）) but she did bring an interesting mix of reggae and disco into this particular single.
The same folks behind "Tropical Love": lyricist Kazumi Yasui（安井かずみ）, composer Kazuhiko Kato（加藤和彦）and arranger Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）, were also responsible for the B-side, "Yellow Moon". This one still keeps things within that relaxing mixture of reggae and disco but the pacing is even more laidback and Noda's voicing is more intimate as if the setting were an intentionally isolated table in some breezy bar in Falsworth. However, from Yasui's lyrics, the relationship has gone kaput and those vocals, though remaining soft and pliable, throw out a rather solid message of rejection.
It was just this morning when I saw commenter Brian Mitchell noticing that there were indeed a lot of songs in Japan with the word kanashii（悲しい）or kanashimi（悲しみ）or some variant. They refer to sadness or loneliness and it would fit in with the kayo kyoku tendency to bring up a lot of sad stories within the lyrics albeit the music supporting them has often been quite cheerful. Well, I've opted to show off an Author's Picks (not complete by any means) of these songs which are mostly upbeat except for one. I refused though to post a thumbnail of a sad face...I went with something more symbolic, namely a Wikimedia Commons photo by User Kenlin of someone pouring some sake for someone having the blues.
It's indeed a Friday night as I type this so I'm sure younger and more energetic folks than I are enjoying their time dining, dancing and drinking somewhere out there. Temperatures are more reasonable and seasonable in the evenings now.
A few years ago, I posted an article regarding the band Lucky Kilimanjaro and their 2021"Ame ga Furu nara Odoreba Ii ja nai"（雨が降るなら踊ればいいじゃない）, noting that vocalist and songwriter Yukimaru Kumaki（熊木幸丸）and his guys love to bring in the Neo-City Pop and disco. Well, one of their earlier songs from their one and only mini-album as an indies act, the July 2015"FULLCOLOR", can be said to the ideal mix of those two styles. "Burning Friday Night" which was written by Kumaki and composed by the entire band has a hint of an old song by The Emotions but through the gauzy filter of Sakanaction（サカナクション）. So, maybe no disco strings per se but the beat is certainly disco-friendly.
I still don't know a lot about the vocal group Crest Four Singers aside from the fact that they had started out in the 1970s with Tsunehiro/Norihiro Uchida（内田典宏）as a folk/Mood Kayo group before female vocalist Kazumi Kaai（かあいかずみ）joined. Then, the group went more into the jazz and urban contemporary.
At this point, Crest Four Singers released two albums with their debut being the 1978 "The Crest Four Singers" (the definite article, you might say? Sorry, that was a "Doctor Who" joke), and I've yet to hear the entire album (as provided above) but it seems as if the group was fully in thrall to their jazzier side by this point. At 4:15 of the video is the second track, "Elise", a rum punch of a song with influences that seemingly fly in from Santana, Henry Mancini and disco. Kaai shapes her vocals like a seen-it-all and done-it-all heiress in the lap of luxury while Uchida and the rest of the Singers provide some French in some funky harmony. Listening to the coolness of "Elise", I just kinda wonder why I never heard about Crest Four Singers at the same frequency of fellow vocal acts Hi-Fi Set and Circus.
Recently going over "Light Mellow ~ Beams", I've come across a few tracks on the compilation that I never thought to cover on the blog, so shame on me for that oversight.
One of those former neglected songs from "Beams" is Izumi Kobayashi（小林泉）& Flying Mimi Band's "My Beach Samba", originally from her March 1978 debut album"ORANGE SKY－Endless Summer". Written, composed and arranged by Kobayashi herself, it's a fun and perky and Latin jazzyCity Pop number of the 1970s with inclusion of that decade's aural symbol of the genre...the keyboard haze effect. Speaking of keyboards, I think that is indeed Kobayashi just going crazy on her instrument near the end. Not to be outdone, I have to mention the saxophone and guitar solos, too.
PS. Well, it looks like my memory is failing me. I did write up something on the album proper back in 2019 and that also included my comments on "My Beach Samba". But hey, any song is worth another look.
Being summer, it's festival season in Japan and I know that it's in full swing whenever I hear about or see Tokyo's Sumida River Fireworks Festival on the final Saturday of July. I've seen it on television from the air-conditioned comfort of my Ichikawa apartment and around thirty years ago, I actually saw it with my own eyes from the apartment of a student who generously invited teachers and fellow classmates over for a fireworks party. We were very fortunate in that the apartment was right by the Sumida River in Asakusa where I used to work, so the fireworks literally exploded right over our heads. Getting back home, though, was quite the adventure in time and physics.
Festivals in Japan also mean bon odori...the great communal dance around the raised stage all draped in red and white like the colours of the Japanese flag. Nothing says the dog days of summer than doing those rhythmic steps while sporting a colourful yukata and geta while a min'yo is being sung and performed on stage.
However, in the last several years, there has been some relaxation of the rules in terms of the music, so instead of the traditional stuff, examples of kayo kyoku and J-Pop have been used to get the crowds all roused up and dancing. Thanks to an NHK report yesterday, I was rather inspired to put up this list that I got from a far bigger list on Line Music. Yes, you can dance to these in the Bon Odori style!
Not sure what the situation is regarding the huge billowing mass of forest fire smoke that's been coming down into Southern Ontario for the past few days. Apparently, some winds were supposed to give us some respite from the smaze before returning tonight. Well, so far, I've got the window open but I haven't exactly been coughing up my lungs yet, so maybe this is a good development.
Anyways, I have another song by Tokimeki Records. Up to now, I've collected a small group of their songs which have been covers of some of the City Pop classics. But this time, the unit has come up with an original tune "Tsuki wa Mirror Ball" (Under the Mirror Moon) which came out in June. Still, as usual, a featured female vocalist is on the mike and her name is Mai Zaitsu（財津マイ）. I couldn't find out anything at all about her although she's been depicted as an anime character thus far in Yahoo Images. Her voice is nice and smoky alongside the Neo-City Pop showing some of that nocturnal bouncy rhythm (maybe good for the car stereo). The only other question that I have about the singer is whether she is a relative of Tulip singer-songwriter Kazuo Zaitsu（財津和夫）.
For some reason, I'd been under the impression that actress-singer Teresa Noda（テレサ野田）had already been on KKP but apparently not; this is her first appearance on the blog, so I bid her welcome. Maybe it was something about the name or a similarity in album/single covers.
Anyways, Noda hails from Okinawa as the daughter of a second-generation Japanese-American man and a Japanese woman (according to her J-Wiki profile, she had been far better in English than Japanese). She made her debut as an actress in the early 1970s and it would be another several years before she began recording those singles she released with the first one coming out in 1977. Incidentally, she's had a number of different stage names during her career including her real name of Tamaki Saionji（西園寺環）.
Her third and final single under the name of Teresa Noda to date is "Tropical Love" from May 1979 which was created by the golden duo of lyricist Kazumi Yasui（安井かずみ）and composer Kazuhiko Kato（加藤和彦）with Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）behind the arrangement. I'm not sure if it would be considered City Pop, but it does have those disco strings and a strong reggae beat. Noda does have a resonant and attractively creamy voice here.
To any and all American readers of "Kayo Kyoku Plus", Happy Fourth of July and also a Happy Sestercentennial (250th birthday). I recall that three years ago, I also provided a special list of America-related songs on July the 4th and mentioned that we would have to do something about 2026. Well, the day is here.
And so, this is my "America" Tunes 2. Unlike the first one which mostly dealt with songs that had "America" in their titles, I'm being a bit more geographically precise so I'll be listing those numbers referring specifically to states and cities. Without further ado then:
Well, it was quite a time in Toronto over the past few weeks. This World Cup that had been talked about for years and years finally showed up and ended with one of the mighty showstopping games of the tournament between Portugal and Croatia last night. I'm not a big soccer fan but even I had known that Portugal and Croatia would be a huge spectacle and it was. And up until then, Toronto got to see some massive fan parades downtown in the afternoons including the one represented by Germany above. But now that my hometown has finished its contribution to World Cup 2026, Toronto Stadium is now losing its extra seats and being reconverted back to ol' BMO Field.
Coincidentally, speaking of afternoon parades, I have here singer-songwriter Shikao Suga's（スガシカオ）"Gogo no Parade" (Afternoon Parade). Suga was actually on yesterday's "Premium Talk" segment of NHK's "Asaichi"（あさイチ）morning information show and he got to perform what I had thought was some new material. As it turned out, it was more of his old hits including "Gogo no Parade".
When it comes to Suga's discography, I've known him primarily for "Progress", the theme song for NHK's long-running documentary series "Professional ~ Shigoto no Ryuugi"（プロフェッショナル 仕事の流儀...The Professionals ~ The Style of Work）, and the big hit that he provided SMAP with, "Yozora no Mukou"（夜空ノムコウ）. I'd had no idea that he did have a taste for disco (as do I) but he got that itch that he needed to scratch, so he whipped up the fun "Gogo no Parade".
Released as Suga's 21st single in September 2006, he wanted to go for the disco gusto, so he contacted former Simply Red drummer Gota Yashiki（屋敷豪太）. Of course, disco needs strings so Yashiki himself got in touch with the production team behind Jamiroquai with the result being that the London Session Orchestra lent a hand. Put up that disco ball! Not only was Yashiki on the drums but the late singer-songwriter Nobuo Ariga（有賀啓雄）was on the bass.
"Gogo no Parade" hit No. 23 on Oricon. It was also used as a theme song for a number of projects including a real estate firm commercial, a movie and a music variety show. As for the music video, it was filmed at a wedding reception hall in Atsugi City, Kanagawa Prefecture. Just the place for some group summer fun.
Back in the spring of 2023, I posted an article on a very obscure singer, Izumi Sara（沙羅いづみ）, and her B-side"Heartbreak City"（ハート・ブレイク・シティ）which was a pretty amiable disco City Pop tune.
Well, today to start off this edition of Urban Contemporary Friday on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I have the A-side this time, "Spacy Love" which seems to amp up the disco and the brass. Along with the disco, there is the City Pop and maybe even some exotic kayoin the intro. Written by same duo behind "Heartbreak City", lyricist Fumiko Okada（岡田富美子）and composer/arranger Kunihiko Suzuki（鈴木邦彦）, the writer on Hip Tank Records gave their assessment of the song (translation by Google Translate):
"...a charmingly unpolished cult Japanese disco track—a medium-tempo, spacey disco number with a melody that evokes an oriental atmosphere...".
Perhaps there is a bit of a backhand swing in that compliment but I think that brass has some Yuji Ohno（大野雄二）or Spectrum vibes, and to be honest, I sometimes feel that the horns came in from a particular Ryohei Yamanashi（山梨良平）tune from the future or were inspired by Maynard Ferguson. Hip Tank Records also treats "Spacy Love" as one of those rare cult singles so if any of you City Pop fans can get a copy of it anywhere, consider yourselves fortunate.
Well, first off, I should recognize the fact that 80s aidoru and actress Kyoko Koizumi（小泉今日子）celebrated her 60th birthday earlier this year. Hopefully, her kanreki has gone well.
Less than a month ago, I featured Kyon-Kyon in techno dance mode through her 1989 song "Micro Wave"（マイクロWAVE）. Today, I'm heading back to her early days as an aidoru with her third single "Hitori Machikado"(Alone on the Corner) which was released in September 1982. I'd been accustomed to hearing Koizumi as this rather sassy-sounding teenybopper so hearing "Hitori Machikado", a song of being alone once again with only a seashell brooch as the final symbol of a former relationship, was interesting because the lass sounds less sass and more conventional high-falutin' aidoru.
Written by Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）and composed by Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）, I'm never going to turn down a disco beat in an aidoru tune and it's got those fleet-footed strings that occupied many of such a tune. "Hitori Machikado" peaked at No. 13 on Oricon. Another piece of trivia is that this single was Koizumi's first truly original song since the first two singles including her debut"Watashi no 16-sai"(私の16才）were actually cover songs of previously recorded tunes by other singers.
According to the J-Wiki article on the song, it picked up a number of awards including a Gold Prize at the Shinjuku Music Festival for that year. During the finale of that festival though, Koizumi was pelted with a raw egg which hit her on the head by some disgruntled person in the audience. Apparently, Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）, who had been the runner-up for the Gold, immediately came to her assistance.
I hadn't quite understood what the music video for Nik Kershaw's January 1984 hit "Wouldn't It Be Good?" was all about but dang, I really did enjoy the New Wave song. I finally realized that Kershaw had been acting as some alien curious about what humans were like and after having a good tasting, decided that they weren't all that healthy after all and scampered back off to his home planet.
Still, as I said, "Wouldn't It Be Good?" was a good load of fun to listen to, and just for YMOfan04's benefit, I can explain that the synths used were a PPG Wave 2.2 and a Yamaha DX7. It made for quite an interesting riff, and I was surprised to find out that the cool instrumental bridge in the extended version was actually an "orchestra of electric guitars" rather than a bank of synth-horns which now makes things even cooler.
I'd probably say that I heard "Wouldn't It Be Good?" more on the radio than saw the video on TV. The radio back then was giving it a whole lot of heavy airplay. In Canada, it hit No. 9 on RPM and in the United States, it only got as high as No. 46. Meanwhile in Kershaw's UK, it peaked at No. 4 on the OCC.
So, what was occupying the Oricon charts a few days following the release of "Wouldn't It Be Good?" in the world? I have Nos. 5, 6 and 7.
The disco/R&B band A Taste of Honey has had residency on KKP since the blog was three weeks old. I was tackling one of the great kayo classics in "Ue wo Muite Arukou"(上を向いて歩こう）, aka "Sukiyaki", when I also mentioned that A Taste of Honey provided their own cover on the song in the early 1980s...which proved to be their second and final hit in their career thus far.
However, as commendable as their elegant cover of the iconic Kyu Sakamoto（坂本九）song was, their first big hit has been the one that has been usually recognized when it comes to A Taste of Honey. The strange thing is that when I first heard their 1978 debut single"Boogie Oogie Oogie", it was through a TV performance of this song by then-teen sibling stars Kristy and Jimmy McNichol on some sort of nighttime special. With the whole mainstream disco craze, the McNichols' popularity at the time, and the novelty song-esque nature of that title, I actually did assume that this was the McNichols' tune, front and centre.
And yes, the above has Kristy and Jimmy, but no, it isn't for "Boogie Oogie Oogie".
So, it was actually many years later that I found out the truth that "Boogie Oogie Oogie" was by A Taste of Honey, and yeah as performed by Janice-Marie Johnson (and Hazel Payne) while slapping that bass hard and wearing those heels, maybe even the folks who were thinking that disco started to suck would have been willing to give a reprieve to this one. Heck, if I had been born a decade earlier, I probably would have been rarin' to run to my nearest disco and hit the dance floor. My dancing would have sucked for sure but I would have had oodles of fun doing so.
"Boogie Oogie Oogie" was not only a hit on the dance floor but also a hit outside of it as well. It hit No. 1 on Billboard's pop, disco and soul charts in September 1978, and according to the Wikipedia article for the song, it also became the first certified Platinum single in the history of Capitol Records by selling over 2 million records. I would probably posit that the chairman's office became a disco dance floor in celebration.
So, we've got one of the primo disco songs coming out in 1978. What else was winning at the Japan Record Awards that year?
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