The Works of Nobuyuki Shimizu（清水信之）, Part 2

 

Last Wednesday, I posted "The Works of Nobuyuki Shimizu"（清水信之）, Part 1 to pay tribute to this veteran musician and arranger. There were a lot of notable works so I'm going into a Part 2.

(1980) Mariya Takeuchi -- Fushigi na Peach Pie （不思議なピーチ・パイ）

Although his arrangement of EPO's cover of "Downtown" may be seen as his first work, he was also quite busy crafting Mariya Takeuchi's（竹内まりや）"Fushigi na Peach Pie" in the same year. As far as I and J-Wiki know, this song was the only Mariya tune that he helped on, but in doing so, he helped in cementing her early career as one of giving tribute to the girl pop of the 1960s.

(1987) Yoshitaka Minami -- Video City

As noted in Part 1, Shimizu did like his City Pop and that was also the case with Yoshitaka Minami's（南佳孝）"Video City". I've usually seen Minami as the ballad crooner so it was surprising to hear this modern contemporary pop equivalent of taking that spree through the wonders of metropolitan living. Shimizu pretty much threw the mix of consumerism and Bubble Era out there.

(1988) Junko Ohashi -- Nemurenai Diamond (眠れないダイアモンド）

Shimizu may have made Minami's "Video City" a welcome to the tourists coming to Tokyo, but his work on Junko Ohashi's（大橋純子）scintillating "Nemurenai Diamond" is an urban odyssey for the well-heeled and well-to-do on a Friday night when all things were possible and payable. This is one of the prime examples for the caviar-and-champagne wing of City Pop.

(1984) Chika Takami -- Kuchibiru Nude （くちびるヌード）

The aidoru genre also had Shimizu helping out. One example is Chika Takami's（高見知佳）"Kuchibiru Nude" from 1984 which was used as a commercial jingle for Shiseido. J-Wiki doesn't mention whether the arranger had done a lot of jingle production for companies, but he certainly made a catchy one for the famed cosmetics producer. With EPO composing the tune, "Kuchibiru Nude" has the EPO-tastic feeling along with the jangly vibe that I often associated Shimizu with in the early 1980s.

(1992) Eri Hiramatsu -- Heya to Y-Shatsu to Watashi （部屋とＹシャツと私）

Eri Hiramatsu（平松愛理）and Shimizu had been married to each other for about eleven years from the 1990s into the 2000s. Just before the relationship got very personal though, the latter had helped arrange the former's trademark tune as a slow and adorable waltz about the family life. 

(2001) Misia -- Sunny Day

Before my Labels for this tribute get completely stuffed, I'd also like to mention that Shimizu arranged a few of Misia's songs including the very catchy "Sunny Day". There's something contemporary and yet old-school about this one which suits me just fine. A melodic strut down the street on a sunny Sunday is how I would describe it. From EPO to Misia...that is quite the range, and of course, there are many other works that are listed in the Shimizu file on KKP. 

Eri Hiramatsu & Kiyonori Matsuo -- Koi wa I na Mono（恋は偉なもの）

 

https://music.apple.com/jp/album/redeem/1472503197

(excerpt only)

It's been a good long while since Eri Hiramatsu（平松愛理）has dropped into "Kayo Kyoku Plus". I've come to know her as someone who can weave some keyboard-driven magic into her pop music, and this time, I found this particular track from her November 1991 4th album "redeem".

"Koi wa I na Mono" (Love is a Great Thing) with its contemporized jazz by Hiramatsu through the keyboards and real saxophone must have been inspired by some sort of old Hollywood musical from the 1950s. Sure enough, her lyrics describe a setting that could be found in some screwball comedy with music or in an early 1990s Japanese comedy-drama as a couple bicker at 100 km/h throughout most of the song represented by Hiramatsu and her singing partner, musician-songwriter Kiyonori Matsuo（松尾清憲）. They really did give the vocalese a good shot.

By the end, though, it looks like everything is just swell and dandy, and the song ends with an almost identical rendering of the title. As for "redeem", it peaked at No. 11 on Oricon.

Eri Hiramatsu -- Ano Hi no Wasuremono（あの日の忘れ物）

It's been a few years since I put up an Eri Hiramatsu（平松愛理）article so welcome back to the blog!

Although this was of course not true across the board, when I think of female Japanese singers during the early 1990s, I still usually think of bands such as Princess Princess and solo artists such as ZARD who kinda traipsed their way musically on the border between pop and rock. But then comes Hiramatsu, and when I think of her, there are images and sounds of a sweet old-fashioned pop but nothing necessarily too languid. My last article on her, for example, "Mou Waraushikanai" (もう笑うしかない) was pretty peppy.

That particular song was not only her 10th single but also the lead track on her 5th album "Erhythm" from September 1992. And so is this non-single track, "Ano Hi no Wasuremono" (What I Forgot On That Day) which was written and composed by Hiramatsu. This is a slightly contemplative ballad about a woman's remembrances of a past romance and then realizing that she'd forgotten to ask her now-past tense paramour why he had fallen for her in the first place. Looks like they had some really good times.

Why I like "Ano Hi no Wasuremono" is the way that the singer and arranger Nobuyuki Shimizu（清水信之）made the song sound slightly like something swingy and jazzy from the 1960s although it is a 90s concoction. If Audrey Hepburn made singing more of a priority during that time, I would imagine that she would have tried "Ano Hi no Wasuremono" on for size. The voices are completely different, but for some odd reason, I could even imagine Corinne Drewery from Swing Out Sister also giving this a go.

Honey & B-Boys -- Back To Frisco

Still loving those surprises while working on the blog. One of those surprises involved the realization that Canada's own David Foster had a hand in helping out a few Japanese singers in the 1980s such as Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）, Ami Ozaki（尾崎亜美）and Naoko Kawai（河合奈保子）. Plus, it was indirectly through "Kayo Kyoku Plus" that I found out that Foster had even been one-half of the duo Airplay, about as AOR as a band could be.

Well, something similar has happened with someone that I had thought was a popular 90s singer with an appealingly chirpy and perky pop style. Eri Hiramatsu（平松愛理）is a singer that has some representation on my shelves because of her velvety vocals and fun music, and I think she is arguably most well-known for "Heya to Y-Shatsu to Watashi" （部屋とＹシャツと私）whose music video could get folks into a tearful mood.

Perhaps then I should read the fine print a bit more in detail when it comes to J-Wiki articles. All this time I had assumed that Hiramatsu had always been a solo singer starting in the final decade of the 20th century, when actually she did participate in a couple of bands back in the 1980s. For instance, she got together with three other people to form an amateur group, ERI & WONDERLAST in 1982.

Once that band broke up in 1986, Hiramatsu made her way up to Tokyo and while working part-time, she created songs which led to her going to record companies twice a week to sell them on her works (according to the journal "Daigaku Jihou"「大学時報...University Newsletter」 in their November 2007 edition). The following year, she got together with AOR singer-songwriter Kazuhito Murata（村田和人）, another singer-songwriter from Wakayama Prefecture Tsukasa Nishi（西司）, and Keisuke Yamamoto（山本圭右）, the leader of the band Piper to start the band Honey & B-Boys. The group recorded one album "Back To Frisco" for release in March 1987; the album also signified Hiramatsu's first record.

From the link in the previous paragraph for "Back To Frisco", you can see the cover of the album which looks like a picture of some pastoral scene (Napa Valley, perhaps? Sorry, I don't know the geography for California very well.). Considering that I've heard that residents of San Francisco don't like their city being called "Frisco", I would like to get Larry's opinion on this since he does live in the area.

I first discovered the sign of Honey & B-Boys' existence on YouTube when I saw the video for one of the songs off to the right side of the screen. "Wine Light" is a pop song that starts off dreamy with a synthesizer sound flitting around like a butterfly before the bass and drums come in for the refrain. It's interesting for Hiramatsu's vocals which stay dreamy without some of that lower purr that I would associate with her 90s hits. Moreover the overall arrangement has "Wine Light" sounding like a Piper tune with Murata and Yamamoto providing backing vocals. Yamamoto did compose the song while Emi Kanda（神田エミ）wrote the lyrics.

"Juu-go-fun Matte Blue Sky"（15分待ってBlue Sky...Wait 15 Minutes, Blue Sky）strikes me as being rather New Music in the sense of another band for that genre in the 1970s, Sugar Babe. Hiramatsu, and I think Yamamoto, handle this duet. It's a very sunny and mellow and Sunday afternoon sort of tune. Written by Ikki Matsumoto（松本一起）and composed by former Sugar Babe member Kunio Muramatsu（村松邦男）, "Juu-go-fun Matte Blue Sky" is another part of my coalescing theory on whether the raison d'etre for Honey & B-Boys was as a sorta tribute to Sugar Babe (the final track is a cover of Sugar Babe's "Ame wa Te no Hira ni Ippai"「雨は手のひらにいっぱい」from their 1975 album "SONGS"). Also, this particular track had me thinking of the genre of California's sunshine pop that had its day in the 1960s with groups such as The Mamas & The Papas. There is that album title and cover that I've mentioned.

My final song here is "My Wish" which has Hiramatsu showing some of that voice that I've long known her for. Lyricist Kanda once again took care of things here but this time, it's Murata who composed this song and it does start off like one of his tunes. With the use of synths here and the arrangement for the tune to go at a more calming pace, though, it does have a different vibe compared to the first two tracks. In fact, I would say that "My Wish" sounds so intriguing that I can relate it to some of the material by the eclectic PSY-S.

As far as I know, Honey & B-Boys only released this one album, and though I searched, "Back To Frisco" no longer seems to exist online for sale. A pity, since this would be one release that I would like to get to know better. It's a fascinating find, to be sure, with this pop chanteuse of the 1990s joining forces with two artists from the 1980s AOR genre.

J-Canuck's Earworms

As much as the departing airplane has been my unofficial logo for the genre of Japanese City Pop, I think for me, the Ceti Alpha eel from "Star Trek II -- The Wrath of Khan" (still the best "Star Trek" movie in the entire franchise) will be unofficial symbol for the musical earworm.

But unlike the eel and poor Commander Chekov's and Captain Terrell's reactions in the scene above, I've happily accepted my earworms wrapping around my cerebral cortex over the years. And since I've mentioned some of my favourites as such, I've decided to give a list here of some of those great tunes. Now, I've separated my choices by genre, and by no means is this the ultimate comprehensive list of my favourite earworms. That would go way too long past my bedtime. These are merely the representatives and they've each been covered already in past articles so I won't be providing too much of a commentary but of course, they've been linked to the original articles. So, here goes.

J-Rock: B'z -- Love Phantom

Still marvel how well this song fit as the companion tune for TV Asahi's broadcast of "The X-Files". There should have been a video made with clips from the old show to go along with "Love Phantom".

Anime: KMM Dan -- Witch Activity

After I saw the ending credits to "Witchcraft Works" for the first time, it took all of my strength once I got home NOT to end up watching the YouTube video for "Witch Activity" ten times in succession. That tickety-tackety delivery by the seiyuu and the technopop...damn you, TECHNOBOYS PULCRAFT GREEN-FUND! Perhaps out of all of the genres here, I think anime has got the largest crop of earworms.

City Pop: Tatsuro Yamashita -- Itsuka

Such an uplifting song that whenever I need it, I play it! So cheerful and it comes with bass that hits the pavement like Size 14 shoes. Tough call but this may be my favourite Tats song.

City Pop: Mariya Takeuchi -- Plastic Love

I was surprised and delighted that "Plastic Love" has been given a second life, so to speak, after being discovered by the Japanese Future Funksters and/or Vaporwavers. Kinda wonder if Takeuchi herself has realized all of these YouTubing fans going ga-ga over one of the most urban contemporary songs that she has created. Believe me, folks, I empathize...I think at one point, I was putting this on repeat play. (Feb. 27 2018: One of my other go-to websites, "Know Your Meme" has given the "Plastic Love" phenomenon meme status.)

Aidoru: Morning Musume -- The Peace

Yup, even more than "Love Machine". The catchy chant, a bit of old-style jazz and full-on disco. I never stood a chance! I think this earworm gave multiple births in my head.

Enka: Takashi Hosokawa -- Kokoro Nokori

Indeed, I've had earworms in this genre too. I fell in love with the sax in the intro and there was that drum-and-strings riff which comes tumbling down just before Hosokawa sings that has stuck with me all these decades. One of my memories involved me at a family friend's house on New Year's Day while being right beside the stereo with a digital display that absolutely bubbled when our host played "Kokoro Nokori".

Pop: Eri Hiramatsu -- Suteki na Renaissance

Wanted to have a representative from the straight pop genre so I went with Hiramatsu's "Suteki na Renaissance". It's those jingly keyboards and Eri's happy delivery. So very early 90s!

Aidoru: Akina Nakamori -- Lonely Journey

Perhaps at this point, Nakamori was already transitioning from popular aidoru to pop superstar but I can't deny that "Lonely Journey" was also a song that took up long-term residence in my head. Catchy and cool...I never mentioned this in the original article but I think this could have been a good theme song for a cop show.

Technopop: Yellow Magic Orchestra -- Rydeen

What can I say about "Rydeen"? If there were an ultimate theme song for not just YMO but for techno kayo in general, this would be it. I remember being especially desperate to get this song into my collection.

Well, these are some of the earworms that have infected me over the decades. What are yours?

Eri Hiramatsu -- Mou Waraushikanai (もう笑うしかない)

I believe there have been a number of songs detailing the plight of the working man during his decades acting as the tiniest of cogs in the corporate machine of Japan. But sometimes when I think about some of the guff that the working woman has to endure, I imagine one singer-songwriter: Eri Hiramatsu（平松愛理）.

This is not to say that Eri Hiramatsu made it her mission to sing about office ladies and company life all the time but when it comes to her music videos, they often seem to have her as the main character in one of those Japanese comedies about the nuttiness that goes on in the corporations. That was true about her 11th single "Single is Best?!" and that is true about her 10th single "Mou Waraushikanai" (I Can Only Laugh) from September 1992.

Despite the video that should have gotten Hiramatsu her own starring role in a Fuji-TV comedy, her lyrics from "Mou Waraushikanai" are a mild admonishment to that significant other to shape up more in the romance department. She's been trying to hold her end of the bargain so it's only fair that the guy do so as well. And that slight chew out is made more appealing due to the singer's usual bouncy pop music. I would almost loved to have been her boyfriend simply to get a musical earful from her.

The song got as high as No. 17 and was the opening track to Hiramatsu's 5th album "Erhythm" which came out at the same time as the single. That album did hit No. 1. Listening to the song again fired off some memory engrams so when I checked out the J-Wiki article, I found out that I probably had heard at least the beginning of the song over and over again since it was used as the theme song for a segment on Fuji-TV's "Waratte Ii Tomo"（笑っていいとも!...It's OK To Laugh） noontime variety show.

Eri Hiramatsu -- Single is Best!?

First off, I'm glad to hear that it looks like that any damage from the M8.5 earthquake off the Pacific coast of Japan earlier today was mostly restricted to people's wits. But with some of the recent volcanic activity near Kagoshima and Hakone, I'm keeping my ears and eyes open to all things seismic for the next little while.

In any case, there's a bit of 90s nostalgia when it comes to Eri Hiramatsu's（平松愛理）11th single "Single is Best!?". Released in March 1993, I first heard it as the launch track for her very first BEST album, "Single is Best" which came out a month later and which I got through money order while I was back in Toronto. An old friend once told me that he found the opening line of "dindon, dindon, dindon, dindon..." to be pretty lame, and I have to admit that I'm still not quite sure what the meaning behind it is aside from a guess that it could be wedding bells. At least, it's a better theory than Hiramatsu having French turkeys on the brain when she came up with the song.

As it is, looking at the video above and the title with the punctuation marks, I think Eri was trying to wrestle over the thought of either settling down or enjoying the high life as a single woman. Along with some of the sepia tones in the video, the feeling of nostalgia crept in with the singer in her role as the oyaji gyaru or OG. Back in the late 80s and early 90s, there was quite a lot of coverage on the new generation of young women who were embracing their inner oyaji (old man) and happily hitting the links, the drinks and the horses just like their male counterparts.

"Single is Best!?" managed to get as high as No. 11 on Oricon. As for her BEST album, it hit No. 1, broke the million-seller level, and also finished the year at No. 11.

Eri Hiramatsu -- Holy! Hot Christmas

https://www.amazon.co.jp/%E4%B8%80%E5%A4%9C%E4%B8%80%E4%BB%A3%E3%81%AB%E5%A4%A2%E8%A6%8B%E9%A0%83-%E5%B9%B3%E6%9D%BE%E6%84%9B%E7%90%86/dp/B00005FQ15

(excerpt only)

Yes, I do realize that we're over 2 months past the Yuletide, but I could really no longer wait to put this Xmas song up since I enjoyed it thoroughly.

I always had a sense that songbird Eri Hiramatsu（平松愛理） had a love for Latin in her music, but she really indulges her Tito Puente here....and for a Christmas song no less. "Holy! Hot Christmas" was a track from her 6th album, "Hitoyo Hitoyo ni Yume Migoro"（一夜一代に夢見頃...When You See A Dream One Night In A Generation） (December 1993) in which Hiramatsu wrote and composed all of the songs. And the wonder about this Santa-and-Spicy number is that she was able to turn the usual Xmas tune idiom on its head and send it all the way from Cuba with love. I'm not quite sure if Havana would have quite welcomed the singer like it did Orquesta De La Luz, but her arrangement of the horns and percussion into salsa mode with future husband Nobuyuki Shimizu（清水信之） was maravilloso. It's one of my go-to J-Pop songs during December.

https://music.apple.com/jp/album/一夜一代に夢見頃/1472704509

Eri Hiramatsu & Kaname Nemoto -- Kaerimichi de Ciao （帰り道でチャオ）

https://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%82%B4%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AB%E3%83%87%E3%83%B3%E2%98%86%E3%83%99%E3%82%B9%E3%83%88-%E5%B9%B3%E6%9D%BE%E6%84%9B%E7%90%86/dp/B004PDK1UW

(excerpt only)

I think this song is one of the reasons that I just don't want to merely get a BEST hits album by a singer. Going into an original album, I have been able to find tracks that never got released as singles but are just fun examples of ear candy.

Getting interested in Eri Hiramatsu（平松愛理）, I bought her 6th album from December 1993, "Hito Yo Hito Yo Yume ni Migoro"（一夜一代夢に見頃....The Best Time To See A Dream In One Night In One Lifetime） one day. Among the highlights (all of the songs were written and composed by Hiramatsu) was a great Latin Jazz Xmas song, "Holy! Hot Christmas" and this duet number by her and Stardust Revue's lead vocalist, Kaname Nemoto（根本要） (yep, I was inspired by nikala's article on one of the band's songs).

https://music.apple.com/jp/album/一夜一代に夢見頃/1472704509

"Kaerimichi de Ciao" (Ciao On The Way Home) sounds like that light uptempo Carpenters song that never got to see the day of light. Mind you, neither Hiramatsu nor Nemoto sound like Karen, but that boppy keyboard intro and the chorus by the duo had me thinking a bit. In any case, "Kaerimichi de Ciao" doesn't revolutionize J-Pop by any means, but it's just a happy little duet about a man and woman goofily in love without any major hangups. To me, that "ciao" on the way home just means "See you tomorrow, same bat time, same bat place, same bat channel".....yes, that was my Adam West Batman reference of the year. Those two will be together forever, come hell or high water. The rom-com-like melodic arrangements pretty much cement the overall theme, and I'm sure there have been a few real couples out there in Japan who have tackled the tune in karaoke boxes over the years.

As the vocal for Stardust Revue, I've heard Nemoto give those great heartfelt performances of some pretty epic ballads, so it was nice to hear him to give his part to a cute little love song.

"Hito Yo Hito Yo ni Yume Migoro" got as high as No. 2 on Oricon.

Eri Hiramatsu -- Heya to Y-Shatsu to Watashi （部屋とＹシャツと私）

This is one of the sweetest songs I have ever heard by any Japanese singer. I used to hear "Heya to Y-Shatsu to Watashi"(The Room, Your Shirts and Me) a fair amount at the karaoke boxes both here and back in Japan, and I can imagine the fiancee pulling this out for her future hubby. I've got a few of Eri Hiramatsu's（平松愛理） CDs on the shelves, and this is probably her most representative song. But I just found out that Hiramatsu had created it in response to an old Masashi Sada（さだまさし）classic, "Kanpaku Sengen", .a new husband's laying down of the law in his house to his wife.

When I first read the J-Wiki article on "Kanpaku Sengen" and came across the paragraph that a number of singers had come up with "answer songs" to one of Sada's most famous tunes, I first thought "Uh-oh....he probably got quite the tongue-lashing" despite the half-joking way it was delivered. But then I came across Hiramatsu's trademark song in that list. As I said, I have listened to "Heya to Y-Shatsu to Watashi" a number of times and didn't get anything defiant from it.

And it isn't. Instead, although I don't know about some of the other songs, Hiramatsu's response is adorably understanding. If Sada had been the imperious husband, and Hiramatsu the wife, then after listening patiently to the "Sengen", Hiramatsu would have answered sweetly, "I understand, dear, but....." According to the lyrics, she would allow 3 straight nights of her husband coming home roaring drunk but half-jokingly warns him that she knows when he lies and that if he ever cheats on her, he should be careful about what might go into his soup at dinnertime. All she asks is some nice clothes from time to time, and she'll keep the titular items in proper order. I can imagine Sada's husband character going "Uh....well, OK then..." It's also interesting that near the end of the song, Hiramatsu also refers to the inevitable eternal parting just like "Kanpaku Sengen" did. It's almost as if the two songs were mutual vows.

The official music video for the song is also one of those examples of "Awwwww...." Probably at the right moment, it could easily elicit that lump in the throat, and at this time, there are no less than 3 samples of that video uploaded onto YouTube. The song itself was released in March 1992, peaked at No. 4 and became the 17th-ranked song of the year on Oricon. It also earned Hiramatsu a Japan Record Award for lyrics. It was also a track on her 3rd album, "My Dear", that had actually been released all the way back in December 1990. Interestingly enough, the song was her 8th single; "Kanpaku Sengen" was Sada's 8th single.

Eri Hiramatsu -- Suteki na Renaissance （素敵なルネッサンス）

During the time of the girl rock band boom (Princess Princess, SHOW-YA, etc.) and the waning days of the late 80s aidorus, there was also the group of female singer-songwriters who were in the middle, singing straight-ahead pleasant pop. Singers like Miki Imai, Reimy, Midori Karashima and Mariko Nagai come to mind.

There is also Eri Hiramatsu（平松愛理）. Although the Kobe native debuted in 1987 with a couple of bands, her breakthrough was in the early 90s. That big song was "Heya to Y-Shirt to Watashi"(部屋とＹ－シャツと私...The Room and The Dress Shirt and Me) in 1992, her 8th single. One of my old friends from university would always make sure her girlfriend at the time would sing that at karaoke.

However, I first heard of Hiramatsu a couple of years previously when her 5th single was the ending theme for one of my favourite comedy-variety shows with the duo Ucchan-Nanchan. "Suteki na Renaissance"(A Wonderful Renaissance) was a sparkly pop number that had that hint of Latin piano.

Here is Hiramatsu performing at a 2004 concert. Written and composed by Hiramatsu, "Suteki na Renaissance"was released in December 1990, and managed to go as high as No. 13 on the Oricon rankings. It finished 1991 as the 80th-ranked song. As I mentioned, I would put Hiramatsu alongside Miki Imai and Reimy, but her angle seems to be that little bit of Latin music she puts into her compositions. Not just with the piano or synthesizer, but in the entirety of her uptempo numbers, it often sounds as if there is a Cuban salsa just itching to burst out. Would love to know if she has ever worked with Orquesta de la Luz. The music goes along well with her warm and slightly fuzzy voice...and in a way, I wonder if she's a musical descendant of veteran singer-songwriter Ami Ozaki（尾崎亜美）.

The single is also a track on Hiramatsu's 3rd album, "My Dear", which was also released in December 1990.