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.
As someone's who communicated in the Japanese language and enjoyed Japanese pop culture for so many decades, it's always been interesting how some of those gairaigo（外来語）have been adopted into regular usage within the nation where I used to live. For example, an air conditioner in Japan is known as the cooler, and the hood of the car is called the bonnet. Speaking of cars, the horn on one isn't called a horn in Japan; it's called the claxon (or klaxon). I've barely heard claxon used for anything in Canada although I think it's used more widely in the UK. In fact, my entry into the lexical usage of claxon was through Junichi Inagaki's（稲垣潤一）mellow ballad hit "Natsu no Claxon"（夏のクラクション）from 1983.
Well, this will be my second song discovery using the term claxon. And it's from another City Pop veteran who used the term for another ballad. "Claxon". The B-side to singer-songwriter EPO's breakthrough 1980 debut single, her cover of "Downtown", I actually did hear this through her debut album of the same name in March of that year.
Written and composed by the singer herself, "Claxon" seems to paint a bittersweet picture of two ships passing in the night via a gas station. EPO has always been great mixing the contemporary with the past in terms of musical stylings, and "Claxon" is no different. It feels like a nostalgic bobbysoxer ballad but there is also something there that says "Yep, it's the Japanese 80s alright!".
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.
(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）.
Happy Monday to all! We have another steamy week ahead of us here in the Greater Toronto area. And on top of that, the air quality is gonna suck for a bit while the smoke from forest fires up north invades our local atmosphere.
But we'll make the best of it. Anyways, it's not everyday that I can talk about an EPO song that's not within the 1980s pop or City Pop milieu, so it's great that I was able to stumble upon this January 1998 31st single of hers called "Wonderful Life". Her style has often been very upbeat and snazzy but this time, her creation is arranged through a swing jazz filter, and I think the genre was having a resurgence around that time.
Not surprisingly, "Wonderful Life" was used to adorn a Suntory beer commercial. Nothing like a beer to raise spirits, especially on hot days like these. The song was also on EPO's 16th album, "Soul Kitchen", which was released in March 1998.
Y'know, the other day, I saw this adorable little teaser from Sony Music Japan's YouTube channel.
Cartoon cutouts of the members of the legendary New Music band Sugar Babe（シュガー・ベイブ）appear and do some minimalistic moving around while their "Downtown" track is playing. Then the announcement comes out that their one and only "SONGS" album from April 25th 1975 is getting its special 50th anniversary release today.
Well, there was no way that I could let this one slide by KKP, especially on Urban Contemporary Friday. I did get my own special version of "SONGS" years ago at the old Shibuya RecoFan...I think it was the 30th anniversary edition and I wrote about the album way back in 2013, so that's all said and done. Plus, I had even written about the arguably most famous track "Downtown" more than a year previously in the first few weeks of the blog's existence.
However, as I said above, I'm not about to ignore the significance of this opportunity. Therefore, I've opted to provide as many of the cover versions of "Downtown" as created by composer Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）and lyricist Ginji Ito（伊藤銀次）that I've known and written about here including one that I discovered only last night.
As for why "Downtown" has been popular among listeners and musicians alike, I mentioned in the original article for the song that my favourite version among the covers has been EPO's 1980 City Pop take since it was not only the first version that I had ever heard, but also because it was just a bright and happy and welcoming song about enjoying a Saturday night in the big city, aka Tokyo. And I think despite all of the different arrangements that "Downtown" has undergone depending on the band or singer, that feeling of optimism and fun hasn't been diminished. Starting with Sugar Babe, the song dares listeners to come to the metropolis. Imagine what it must have been like back in 1975 or 1980 with the Sugar Babe original and then the EPO cover respectively when Tokyo and Japan were further going up in the world and the economy.
Sugar Babe (1975)
I have to admit that the original by this band took a while to grow on me since I was so attached to the EPO cover version. However, I can say that Tatsuro's take is also some rollicking rock n' roll fun which sounds like the gang busking about in Shibuya or Shinjuku.
EPO (1980)
EPO's EPO-tastic version is something that I will always put up alongside Mariya's "Plastic Love" and Miki's "Mayonaka no Door" as a City Pop anthem. Whenever I listen to it, I get those images of West Shinjuku and its skyscrapers at sunset and how they eventually got me to come over to Japan finally.
Another City Pop Queen, Haruko Kuwana's（桑名晴子）cover of "Downtown" is available on her 1982 album"Moonlight Island". Compared to Sugar Babe's rollicking original and EPO's groovy cover, Kuwana's take goes into a funkier and just-as-fun direction but it is no less City Pop.
YMCK and DE DE MOUSE (2008)
Apologies to DE DE MOUSE that I couldn't include him in Labels but I got the warning from Blogger that I reached my 20-label limit; I'll compensate on the original article since until today, I hadn't known that the chip tune band YMCK had collaborated with DE DE MOUSE on this cute-as-all-heck techno cover.
Maaya Sakamoto's（坂本真綾）"Downtown" was a pretty cool take because it incorporated a couple of genres into one cover: ska and jazz. Plus, the fact that it was being used as the opening song of an anime brought me lots of joy since it would mean a new generation of folks were getting their share of this song.
Heck, even the contemporary aidoru group Juice=Juice was having their fun with "Downtown". Sounding like a spacy version of EPO's "Downtown", I wouldn't mind visiting Odaiba in Tokyo Bay while listening to this one as accompaniment. Nice oomphy percussion!
the band apart (2024)
And we come full circle with the latest version that I've gotten to know. the band apart has actually been around since 1998 and in July 2024, they came up with their "Downtown ep". Their take is more along the lines of Sugar Babe's original, and the bright and glossy music video above signifies what I've always imagined about the song vis a vis Tokyo. I'll see if I can find another song to cover by the band soon.
Strangely enough, April 25th is also an anniversary for another City Popclassic.
Well, this upcoming week will be a busy one as I get started on the Xmas shopping. As for the cards, since there is no sign that Canada Post will be ending its workers' strike anytime soon, my friends and family will probably have to settle for the digital Christmas cards this year.
Anyways, I'm keeping the "Winter Gift Pops" album series going that was continuing this time last month with Caoli Cano（かの香織）& Hiroshi Takano's（高野寛）"First Flight" and bringing another song from that album. Again, my thanks go to Scott from the podcast "Holly Jolly X'masu" since he first brought Masamichi Sugi's（杉真理）1997 compilation to our attention.
This time, the track of note is actually a cover of EPO's 1985 melancholy "Juu-ni Gatsu no April Fool"(December April Fool) by singer-songwriter Hiroyuki Izuta（伊豆田洋之）. Izuta is someone I mentioned earlier this year in June for his 1987 "Kodo no Distance"（鼓動のディスタンス）, a blend of City Pop and 80s pop/rock. Well, his cover of "Juu-ni Gatsu no April Fool" is a fine one as his version is a slightly R&B-inflected pop version which heads close to something unplugged although the technology is still there; this is in comparison with EPO's original Minnie Ripperton-soulful rendition. EPO even helps out in this new take as backup chorus.
A track that didn't make it onto Tatsuro Yamashita's（山下達郎）1979 "Moonglow" album, EPO herself added the lyrics to "Mayonaka ni Ni-do Bell Natte" (The Phone Rang Twice in the Middle of the Night). It has inherited and infused itself with the pop sense of Sugar Babe（シュガーベイブ）along with EPO's own attractiveness. The drummer here was Yutaka Uehara（上原裕）who had played for Sugar Babe in their later years. If history had changed just a little, perhaps this song would have made it onto a dream second album...would love to have listened to that!
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised"(2020).
Hi, J-Canuck here! Well, in another case of "Oh, goofy me!", I realized that I had never written about "Mayonaka ni Ni-do Bell Natte" at all because I had assumed that the song was "Nichiyou wa Bell ga Naru Mae ni"（日曜はベルが鳴る前に）which I did write about. However, it just means that I have a new song by the lovely EPO to hear for the first time.
Kimura mentioned that there is quite a bit of Sugar Babe in the pedigree of this song but I also think that it also reflects Tats' late 1970s solo efforts, too. It's a City Pop tune but this time about, "Mayonaka ni Ni-do Bell Natte" possesses that languid 1960s pop balladry or Beach Boys magic that Yamashita adored when he was a kid. Ironically, the basic rhythm reminds me of a slower form of Petula Clark's"Downtown". If I'm not mistaken, EPO and Sugar Babe had their own "Downtown" sometime earlier as well.😝
The above is a shot of Ami Hall in Shibuya, Tokyo. Since I took the shot all the way back in 2009, I'd forgotten what the place was for but according to its website, it's a rental space for offices and events.
Anyways, it's time to start off the weekly Urban Contemporary Fridays on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", and we start with a veteran from the original halcyon days of City Pop. EPO was behind words and music for "Koi no Hitohira"(Pieces of Love) which was her February 1991 single and a track from her 12th studio album, "Fire & Snow" that came out a month later.
Mind you, "Koi no Hitohira" isn't a City Pop song but it's been categorized on J-Wiki as synthpop and ambient jazz. Yeah, I can hear a synthesizer in there but I'm not sure of that former category. Perhaps it could be the latter but I don't know enough about that very specific genre to know for sure. However, I did pick up on the groovy early 1970s soul in there.
Not that I ever was a John Travolta on the disco floor myself, but Kayo Grace, I'm not sure if that is a disco move you're making there. But hey, who am I to criticize? You're enjoying yourself...that's the important thing.
Anyways, just out of a sense of whimsy...and "Kayo Kyoku Plus" has shown plenty of that over the past twelve years, I'm putting up some of my favourite disco-tinged tunes. Good times!
It was exactly a month ago that we launched the 2023 Xmas season at "Kayo Kyoku Plus" and the first official song was EPO's "Shiroi Machi Aoi Kage"（白い街 青い影）, so I think it would be appropriate if we ended the season with another EPO Xmas song.
First off, let me give some quick background information such as the above video by Karafuto Channel（樺太チャンネル）on YouTube. It shows the department store Le Trois（ル・トロワ）which is a local establishment in Sapporo, Hokkaido.
Well, Le Trois used to be the MALSA Department Store back in the 1980s and as a commercial jingle of the season for it, EPO wrote and composed a special song, "Twinkle Christmas". I found out about it for the first time on Scott's "Holly Jolly X'masu" podcast for the MIDI album compilation "Winter Tales 2" from 1992. On the podcast, it begins at 27:49 and Scott gives an interesting story about "Twinkle Christmas" since it was never officially a part of EPO's discography, and in fact, until "Winter Tales 2" was released, the only way that any EPO fan could get a copy of it was through somehow tracking down a promotional copy of the song that had never been meant for release in the stores.
With EPO handling the songwriting duties, the arrangement was left to Sapporo native Yasuharu Konishi（小西康陽）who had just begun Pizzicato Five, a group that was still some years away from becoming the Shibuya-kei darlings of the world. "Twinkle Christmas" has got quite the bouncy beat that had me thinking of ol' show-timey performances on television. The melody is upbeat but Scott mentions that the lyrics aren't all that happy since a woman is waiting for a Prince Charming with all of the Xmas frills in her apartment but in reality, everything is all in vain. So, basically skip happily to the traditional supermarket floor of MALSA and then end up picking up a Cup O' Noodle for one over there.
In any case, let's not all fret about that. Personally, I've got a turkey breast roasting in the oven right now with family coming over in a couple of hours. And I'm certainly hoping that all of you will continue to enjoy your Christmas as well. We'll see what happens next Xmas season with a potential new batch of J-Xmas tunes.
Ah, as a PS, this is the 1080th article for "Kayo Kyoku Plus" this year so we've just broken another record set last year with the largest number of articles in any one year. Perhaps we can go for the big 1100 by the end of 2023!
Happy weekend! Went out earlier today to meet an old friend from Winnipeg for lunch and then returned knowing that I have to launch the 2023 edition of the Xmas season on "Kayo Kyoku Plus". Allow me to bring in once more the unofficial mascot for the blog, Kayo Kyoku「旭花耀」who got her 2nd appearance last Tuesday. This time, though, she's here to also commemorate the Christmas season starting from today and lasting until the end of Christmas Day in a month. It won't be a daily thing but enough songs will be posted to make it clear.
Let's start off with EPO's "Shiroi Machi Aoi Kage"(White Streets, Blue Shadows) which was her 17th single from December 1988. I first heard it on Scott's "Holly Jolly X'masu" podcast from late September since the song was also a part of "Winter Tales" a J-Xmas song compilation that was actually released a month earlier in November by the record company MIDI. A concert version of "Shiroi Machi Aoi Kage" can also heard on the March 1989 "Sparks" which was her first live album.
Written and composed by EPO with Danny Schogger providing the arrangement, the song has got that hint of gospel soul, and as often is the case with a J-Xmas tune, the melody can be cheerful and/or romantic, but the lyrics tell of a breakup happening right on the street. That's a major ouch!😖 But it does sound beautiful especially with Hiroyasu Yaguchi's（矢口博康）saxophone solo. The single peaked at No. 97 on Oricon but "Sparks" did better by placing in at No. 44.
Last week on the regular Yutaka Kimura Speaks segment of Urban Contemporary Fridays, No. 29 was Mariya Takeuchi's（竹内まりや）"Gosenshi" which had been created by lyricist Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）and singer-composer Yasuhiro Abe（安部恭弘）for her 1980 album"Love Songs". It was a nice little doo-wop number matching Mariya's type of music back then.
Well, about 14 years later, Abe put out his album of covers, "Passage", in October 1994 with one of those tracks being a cover of "Gosenshi". This time, with Greg Adams arranging everything, Abe puts out his version with the backing of one smashing swing jazz orchestra. I was half-expecting an old NBC announcer to come on and say that the song was being performed at the top of the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in Manhattan. By the way, another song that I've covered from "Passage" is "Kuu na"（くーな）, a number that had been first performed by Masayuki Suzuki（鈴木雅之）.
Abe and songbird-songwriter EPO had apparently been on backup vocals for the Mariya original, so I gather that it was natural that the two of them would perform "Gosenshi". However, I don't think their version was officially put onto vinyl (which is too bad) but just put out there on a 1986 radio program. Coming in between the Takeuchi doo-wop original from 1980 and the all-out jazz Abe cover from 1994, this EPO-Abe performance is an amazing work that reminds me of some of the jazz vocal groups from the 1950s and 1960s such as Lambert, Hendricks & Ross. Heck, I would be thrilled if the current incarnation of the Manhattan Transfer would be able to cover it someday.
It's darn rare for me to put up a quartet of articles on a Tuesday and it's pretty darn unusual for me to post an article on a particular episode of any show, let alone NHK's "Uta Con". However, after having last week's broadcast of the kayo kyoku program cancelled on Japan TV because of all of the copyright concerns regarding Western musical tunes being covered in that one, we (and notably I) were given a memorable episode this week since a lot of the songs featured were ones that got me into this crazy musical world (and blog) in the first place. I just had to mention this episode and well, this is a blog after all. I can use it as a diary.
As I mentioned only some minutes ago in the previous article, there was the somber announcement that Yoshinori Monta（もんたよしのり）of Monta and Brothers had passed away on October 18th. However before and after that, I was able to catch a lot of the Japanese songs of my youth that got me interested in kayo kyoku, enka and all that jazz. A lot of it was powered by a tribute to singer-songwriter Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）with the appearance of the man himself along with guests EPO, Momoko Kikuchi（菊池桃子）, Sayuri Ishikawa（石川さゆり）, Masaki Ueda（上田正樹）and Hitomi Ishikawa（石川ひとみ）. In a way, it was like getting a sneak preview of that Hayashi tribute concert that will be happening in Tokyo on November 5th.
Being only a couple of months away from his 64th birthday in December, let me wish Nobuyuki Shimizu a very early Happy Birthday. My, he really cut a dapper figure on the cover of his sophomore solo album"Anything Goes" in 1982. It's been a long while since I posted a Creator article on the blog, and as I noted in Yasuhiro Abe's（安部恭弘）"Kanojo ni Dry na Martini wo"（彼女にドライなマティーニを）last Friday, I figured that Shimizu needed to get his due here soon.
The Tokyo-born Shimizu has had plenty of mentions on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" over the years. It's no surprise since he's not only a musician on the keyboards (main), guitar, bass and drums, having begun in the 1970s, but he has been a composer and an arranger since the 1980s. His connections with other figures in the Japanese music industry began very early in his life with one of his classmates in piano lessons being future fellow musician and songwriter Yuuji Toriyama（鳥山雄司）. Additionally, during his time at Tokyo Metropolitan Matsubara High School, he created a band with his kohai EPO, Yoshiyuki Sahashi（佐橋佳幸）and others after which he became a student of the late Latin jazz pianist Naoya Matsuoka（松岡直也）.
From my view, Shimizu has been one of the most prolific songwriters and arrangers in Japanese pop music, so I realized that I need to divvy up this tribute to him in two parts. The first half will go into his early days as a band man and then arranger entering the 1980s.
When I first wrote about Kinokuniya Band（紀ノ国屋バンド）in 2018, it was for this jazzy cover of Taeko Ohnuki's（大貫妙子）"4AM" on their one-and-only album "Street Sensation" (1979). What I hadn't realized until later was that a 17-year-old Shimizu was a part of the band when they started up in 1976. Afterwards, he would also act as a support musician for Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）, Ohnuki and Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）and become a general session musician.
Shimizu may be primarily known as someone who supports other singers but he has put out his own discography beginning with his 1980"Corner Top" album. From that one is the romantic and urbane "Sayonara Mata Itsuka". Enjoy the sunset! 🌇
Shimizu was also involved in another short-lived if slightly flashier urban contemporary band project, MASH, with their own self-titled album in 1981. This time, he was matched up with his mentor Matsuoka, vocalist Yumi Murata（村田有美）and drummer "Ponta" Murakami（村上秀一）.
The way the J-Wiki timeline posits, Shimizu's arranging career started with his kohai and former school bandmate EPO's classic "Downtown", her debut single. A marked contrast from the original Sugar Babe New Music/rock tune from the mid-1970s, the half-decade-later cover has that added funkiness with synthesizers that make her "Downtown" a City Pop favourite and not a technopop tune. It really did sound like a welcome to bright and sparkly Tokyo of the 1980s, and for me, the template was set for Shimizu's arrangement style at least where this decade was concerned.
EPO was a frequent client of Shimizu but so was another City Pop veteran, Yasuhiro Abe, beginning with his own debut single"You Got It!". The fantastic and wailing electric guitar leading the way has struck me as another Shimizu trope during that time. Abe and Shimizu co-arranged this one.
Well, the aforementioned Abe and Ohnuki helped out on backup vocals for this Shimizu-arranged "U, Fu, Fu, Fu", a huge hit for EPO. The singer and the arranger collaborated to shape the melody into this bright and cheerful tune matching her style with the help of the keyboards and strings. The strings near the end really send listeners soaring into the ether.
Composer Kazuhiko Kato（加藤和彦）and lyricist Kazumi Yasui（安井かずみ）created the most well-known song from the "Macross"（マクロス）anime franchise, and it was with Shimizu's arrangement that "Ai Oboeteimasuka?" became this epic aidoru-cute yet Zentraedi-destroying ballad. There wasn't anything urgent nor military about it at all; just a simple love song to the universe and a career-making song for Mari Iijima（飯島真理）.
Going back to almost a decade ago, former KKP contributor Jari Lehtinen provided a detailed article on former aidoru Nami Shimada（島田奈美）from the 1980s via one of her later tunes, "Onegai Kiss Me Again", when she had already gone for a more dance beat-friendly sound. By that point, I believe that she was going by her real name of Naoko Shimada（島田奈央子）.
Jari also did mention an earlier 5th single, "Uchiki na Cupid" (Shy Little Cupid), which was released in May 1987. This was more of the typical aidoru sound but I did go "Ah, naruhodo" when I realized that the melody and lyrics were created by City Pop chanteuse EPO. In fact, that background chorus is her voice. Nobuyuki Shimizu（清水信之）was responsible for the arrangement. In typical aidoru fashion, EPO's lyrics relate a young lady's wishes for that titular cupid to drop some magic powder on her so that she can find the man of her dreams who's gone off to college somewhere (perhaps private detectives were rather expensive on her budget).
"Uchiki na Cupid" peaked at No. 7 on Oricon which was the highest ranking that she earned on the Top 10 list. Jari has already mentioned that Shimada did go onto a plethora of other activities including being a DJ and a music journalist as well as hosting a jazz programme on radio. The video below has her guesting on another jazz show.
Happy Saturday folks! It's definitely feeling like winter out there although we're still about 11 days away from the official season opening day. Definitely had to bundle up.
Anyways, on to the business at hand. Although I hadn't been aware of it at the time, my first encounter with these gosanke（御三家）/sannin musume（三人娘）triads in Japanese popular music was most likely through reading that singer-songwriters EPO, Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）and Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）had been placed together in a grouping known as the RCA Sannin Musume (The Three Girls of RCA) via the liner notes in an EPO album years ago. Of course, RCA is the recording company where all three were affiliated with at the time in the early 1980s. According to EPO's J-Wiki article, the tag of the RCA Sannin Musume was created sometime in the mid-1980s although by that point, I believe that Ohnuki had already left the company, so in all likelihood, the term was probably something that someone in RCA had coined and it just got leaked out, unlike it being a media machine-created phrase as was the case with past trios such as the Ganso Sannin Musume（元祖三人娘）.
The above information could explain why I haven't been able to find any videos of EPO, Takeuchi and Ohnuki together or even a couple of them performing or chatting together, so I had to be a little creative with the display up on top. That isn't to say that none of the three had contact with each other; I know at least that Takeuchi was a backing vocal for one of EPO's tunes, and Ohnuki herself was backing Takeuchi up on the famous "Plastic Love" song. But it looks like that the RCA Sannin Musume was a form of retronym.
Since EPO was the last to debut with RCA in 1980, I'll go with that year.
The name Irene Cara was on the Trending list on Twitter this morning, and usually when I see a name on that list, I think that the person is there because they have said something controversial or meaningful. But then out of curiosity and my nostalgia for the 1980s, I checked it out and I couldn't quite believe that the singer and actress had passed away yesterday. Holding onto that string of hope that it was just a sick joke, I checked CNN but sadly, it was all true.
I hadn't heard about Cara in many years. As such, I've always seen her as one of the many beacons of the 1980s. The other beacon was of course the poster of the 1983 movie "Flashdance" with star Jennifer Beals sitting towards the camera with that extended neck hole which became such a popular fashion statement of the decade. I never saw the movie but frankly I didn't have to. The movie became so popular that scenes were always being played on television.
I knew Cara for five songs. Two of them came from the 1980 film "Fame" with the title track and the heartfelt ballad "Out Here on My Own". One was the song of its times "Breakdance", and then there was another upbeat single "Why Me?". However, arguably her most famous song was the hit "Flashdance...What a Feeling"which was the theme song for the aforementioned "Flashdance" and Cara's March 1983 single.
The movie, the poster and that single created by Giorgio Moroder and Keith Forsey became the triumvirate as one of the pop culture icons of the 1980s. "Flashdance... What a Feeling" had those distinctive synths and a power pop styling that pretty much had aerobics instructors and students punching the air in triumph whenever it was played. As well, the song becoming a major hit for 1983 was a regular entry in the local TV music video rankings show "The CHUM Top 30", so I saw Beals doing her dance routine regularly as this song was playing. The accolades were enormous, too, as Cara won an Oscar, a Grammy and a Golden Globe for it. Not surprisingly, it hit No. 1 on the charts in many nations including the United States and Canada, and maybe even Japan, too. For one of my other ROY articles, the one for Commodores'"Turn Off the Lights", it was even listed as one of the songs that was showing up on the Oricon list.
In any case, I hope that Cara's family, friends and fans are holding up together right now during this very sad time. Of course, when "Flashdance... What a Feeling" was released, there were songs up on the Oricon chart for March 1983. I think that the Top 3 have already been mentioned in another ROY article so this time around, let's go with Nos. 9, 10 and 11.
As a big P.S., I also have to say that "Flashdance... What a Feeling" has been covered by a number of Japanese artists with one being Miki Asakura（麻倉未稀）, which became her 6th single released in July 1983. It was used as the theme song for the TBS drama "Stewardess Monogatari"（スチュワーデス物語...Stewardess Story）.
I realize that I've done my personal quota of four articles for Friday, but I've decided to do one more tonight. For one thing, the article will be about City Pop anyways, and it's been an idea that has been percolating in my head for some weeks.
Back in the summer, I was talking with old contributor JTM about heading back to Japan. I forgot when my friend went there last time but my last time was all the way back in the fall of 2017, just before the whole City Pop thing began exploding from YouTube. Since then, I've not only been noticing driving videos in Tokyo being put up on the platform by folks like J Utah as you can see above, but then City Pop guru Van Paugam had his old City Pop radio with the J-urban contemporary hits while the video showed that smooth ride on the highways and byways of the Japanese capital. Unfortunately, the powers-that-be eventually grounded Van's wonderful project, but others have taken up the torch and provided some more limited-time videos combining City Pop tunes and highway driving. For instance, the one below by YouTuber City Lover Dreamy. Gorgeous footage, by the way. 👍
Anyways, let's get back to the conversation between JTM and myself. Inbound tourism for Japan has started back up after a few years of the pandemic which is great news for most people. As well, even before COVID-19 wreaked havoc, there was the phenomenon of micro tours in which individuals and small groups had their tour organizer come up with very specialized trips whether it be tourists who simply wanted to look at temples in Tokyo or do anime adventures to regions where certain programs like "Girls und Panzer" or "Sailor Moon" were based.
Well, JTM and I figured that if it hasn't already happened, there ought to be City Pop fans who would love to have a micro tour devoted to all things connected with that genre. Perhaps they could be led to a Tokyo studio where Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）recorded one of his great albums in the 70s and early 80s or have a minivan tour through West Shinjuku among all of those skyscrapers that get featured in the original opening credits of "City Hunter". The piece de resistance though could be a one-hour drive within the capital via routes such as the Shuto or Tokyo expressways while those amazing City Pop hits are playing on the speakers and participants are swooning on the Rainbow Bridge or within the bright lights of Ginza. Wouldn't that be the heady experience? 😎
Hmmm... I figure that I won't be going to Japan again until late 2023 at the earliest, but perhaps I can live a bit vicariously and come up with my own drive-friendly City Pop songs for this round of Author's Picks. Perhaps "drive-friendly City Pop songs" sounds a bit redundant, though, since most if not all of those particular songs have that engaging beat built in for good automobile accompaniment. But putting that aside, my six choices are choices that simply got into my head immediately when I began musing about this topic, so I just quickly jotted them down. If you have your own favourite City Pop songs to drive to, please let me know down below if you wish.
Having done my usual self-imposed quota of four urban contemporary tunes today, I was quite ready to call it a day on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", but having just completed a Skype lesson with my friend that got me all buoyed up, I did feel like putting this particular article up as a fifth contribution for Friday. Plus, I've been itching to do this Kenny Loggins song as a ROY piece for some weeks now. Another reason is that in the past few weeks, I've observed that Loggins has been getting that love again from Hollywood via "Danger Zone" returning to the "Top Gun" sequel and "Footloose" making a surprising, hilarious and super cool appearance in the third season of "The Umbrella Academy".
However, those two Loggins hits were his rock n' roll tunes later in the 1980s, and my favourite song by this well-coiffed singer-songwriter from Washington State is purely in the AOR genre. Yep, I'm talking about "Heart to Heart", his November 1982 single that came from his September album "High Adventure".
All these years, I'd assumed that "Heart to Heart", one of my favourite songs in any genre and language, was something from the late 1970s by Loggins so it was some surprise that it actually came out in the early 1980s. It was such a regular presence on my radio and it currently still is one of those soft rock classics that manage to send a thrill up and down my spine from intro to outro. It's amazing about the combination of fellows who came up with "Heart to Heart": Loggins, Canadian music royalty David Foster and Doobie Brothers' Michael McDonald, and together they created this love song of second chances and keeping the faith. All three, by the way, already have their representations on the blog, including Loggins' cover of Pages'"Who's Right, Who's Wrong".
"Heart to Heart" may be a love song but whenever I hear this one, I always think of a Cessna flying over the Grand Canyon at sunset. Pure freedom and joy! It's got a lot of wonderfully mixed influences in there: the elegance and romanticism from Loggins' alternately sultry/soaring vocals and the shimmering strings, David Sanborn's downtown saxophone solo, and McDonald's and Foster's funky/groovy keyboard work. I make it a point to listen to it now and then just to remind myself that amazingly moving music still exists here.
The song hit No. 1 and No. 3 on the Canadian and US Adult Contemporary charts respectively. I've actually talked about "Heart to Heart" before on my "Radio Influences (City Pop/AOR)" article back in 2018 before I started up Reminiscings of Youth, and there are a few songs in that list which have become ROY articles since then along with at least one more song that will be getting its own ROY treatment in the near future. I felt that like those, "Heart to Heart" needed its own article since it is such a beloved reminiscing song from my youth.
One final reason that I've put up "Heart to Heart" is that the three Japanese songs that are following this paragraph are all from the similar City Pop/J-AOR genres. I think that's the first time that's ever happened in a ROY article. To be precise, these are all singles that made their premiere in November 1982.
Welcome to Friday on "Kayo Kyoku Plus". The past 24 hours have been especially turbulent for a number of reasons on the international and national fronts, but if you're looking for some escape and you are into Japanese popular music, feel free to indulge yourself here.
Came across EPO's August 1988 album "Free Style" on J-Pop Fantasia's channel but I would like to focus on one track "I Can't Let Go"which is quite scrumptious, especially considering that it is J-Urban Contemporary Friday here on the blog. Written by Linda Taylor and composed by the singer herself, EPO and her duet partner, session vocalist and musician Andrew Caine, engage in some sublime late 1980s City Pop with those champagne keyboards and dollops of soul.
Gonna have to dig further into "Free Style". If I can't actually live it up in Tokyo at night anymore, there's nothing like living vicariously through this type of music.
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