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.
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!
I can't call myself a dialectician or an expert on linguistics although I've had a passing interest in the dialects of Japan, America and Great Britain. Because of my family background though, I've known about the differences between standard Japanese and the Kansai dialect since I was a kid. I won't get into any details (you can look at the above video provided by Miku Real Japanese) but let it be known that when I was visiting my relatives in Osaka years ago, I was literally barraged by loud and boisterous Kansai dialect. They probably thought I was some sort of imposter because frankly I sounded virtually mute compared to them.
My rather academic introductory paragraph is due to the fact that this article is based on the April 2026 debut single by new group Monaki（モナキ）. Titled "Honma ya de☆Nande ya nen☆Shiran kedo"(Hey, It's True☆What the Heck?!☆Got No Idea), it's quite the raucous nostalgic dance club-happy beginning for this quartet of Jin（じん）, Kenken（ケンケン）, Sakai Jr.（サカイJr.）and O-Yone（おヨネ）. I really have no idea why they've come up with this title consisting of Kansai dialect expressions since only one of the four, O-Yone, hails from Osaka (Sakai Jr. was actually born in Texas!). To further add to the nostalgia, I swear that the guys sound like an 80s male aidoru group like Shibugakitai（シブがき隊）or Shonentai（少年隊）.
Monaki, whose name derives from the expression namonaki（名もなき）meaning "nameless", showed up on a recent episode of "Uta Con"（うたコン）, and apparently the guys were running late due to traffic, although they were fortunate in that they had been scheduled to be the final act in the show. Indeed, they finally made it to the NHK Osaka studio only a minute or so late to perform "Honma ya de☆Nande ya nen☆Shiran kedo". The song by the way was a great premiere for the guys since it reached No. 3 on Oricon.
If the group and their antics seem familiar to you, that's probably because they are following a well-established group in entertainment, the popular trio Junretsu（純烈）. In fact, Junretsu's leader Kazuyoshi Sakai（酒井一圭）has been mentoring and producing Monaki, and he even co-wrote the lyrics for "Honma ya de☆Nande ya nen☆Shiran kedo" along with Takafumi Iwasaki（岩崎貴文）who also composed the song. I had no idea that Sakai had once been a professional wrestler.
I've heard of the manga "What's Michael?" before and apparently it deals with the adventures of a rather unique portly cat whose name is not Garfield. But that's pretty much all of it. I only heard recently that there was even an anime done between 1988 and 1989.
Aidoru and tarento Mami Yamase（山瀬まみ）was given the assignment to sing the two sets of opening and ending themes for "What's Michael?". The first of these songs that I encountered was the first ending theme "Hoshizora no Etranger"(Starry Sky Stranger) that was written by Ben Uozumi（魚住勉）and composed/arranged by Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）. Having a happy Eurobeat approach, Yamase once again shows that her singing voice is just delightful and very different from the somewhat strangulated spoken voice she used on screen for most of her time on television.
"Hoshizora no Etranger" was released as Yamase's 8th single in May 1988. On the B-side was the first opening theme for the anime, "Michael Ondo"(The Michael Folk Song) which was created by Uozumi and Makaino once again. Given a contemporized and especially playful version of a Japanese folk song arrangement, Yamase demonstrates a mixture of her singing voice and that spoken voice (or a lighter version of it).
I'm just off by a week here but it was a little over a year ago that I posted "Osaka Songs", a list of Osaka-titled tunes, and crazily enough, in all those 53 weeks since then, I hadn't put up anything called "Tokyo Songs". Little old me had naturally assumed that I'd already done so. Nope, that isn't true. Kinda wild considering that I'd just recently written about Takajin Yashiki's（やしきたかじん）"Tokyo"（東京）. Well, that changes today. Quite the wide range of kayo, too!
(1959) Frank Nagai and Kazuko Matsuo -- Tokyo Nightclub （東京ナイトクラブ）
It's another Hump Day here on Kayo Kyoku Plus, but I have to admit that it's looking really nice outside although the temperatures are still below seasonal. Anyways, let's a little whimsical with another Author's Picks, and this week, I just wanted to give my tribute and congratulations to the astronauts aboard Artemis II (along with Nutella) who are now en route back to Earth after doing that whip around the Moon.
Back in September, I'd already done my first batch of Moon Songs commemorating the autumn lunar festival, so this will be Moon Songs 2, but I don't have quite enough moon-themed songs that I know off the top of my head (although some of them may have already been posted on the blog...my memory isn't that good anymore). As such, I've cordially invited some other tunes with titles of a planetary nature within the Sol System.
I figure that if I can get a Eurobeat song onto the blog last month, thanks to Yoshimi Yokosuka（横須賀昌美）, I can do so here in March as well.
And this time, it's by the group EVE that seemed to be omnipresent in the music world back in the 1980s since they popped up backing up a lot of other artists in the recording studio. This time, though, the Sisters Shinzato from Okinawa are front and centre with their second single as a group, "Sugar Sugar" which came out in August 1987. Written by two of the sisters, Clare & Leona, with Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）handling the arrangement under his nom de plumeMark Davis (man, he's been a busy man today after providing his services for the song of the previous article), I'm sure that he made Stock, Aitken & Waterman very proud with his Eurobeat tendencies. "Sugar Sugar" peaked at No. 77 on Oricon.
Another new face to add to the files of "Kayo Kyoku Plus", Yoshimi Yokosuka（横須賀昌美）has been recognized on J-Wiki as a model and an actress from Ishikawa Prefecture who began her career in 1980 as a Shiseido commercial model. However, she also branched out into music starting in 1981 with only four singles up to 1988.
Her third single was "Breathless" which was released in May 1988. Written by Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）, composed by Kisaburo Suzuki（鈴木キサブロー）and arranged by Kazuo Otani（大谷和夫）, it's quite the dance-pop-friendly sort of song, and I'm not sure, but would this also be considered to be part of Eurobeat? I'll have to find out from commenters. In any case, for someone who seems to have been considered as a thespian and model, her vocals weren't too shabby.
It was often the case that if I were doing an obituary article, it would be for someone in the Japanese music industry. I would wake up in the morning and catch NHK's "News at Nine" which broadcasts live some fourteen hours ahead of us here in Toronto when we're on Eastern Standard Time and then find out if a singer or other person within the industry had passed away.
via Twitter
This morning though, it was a little different. Via the CP24 news scroll, I found out much to my shock that actor-director Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Singer Reiner had been found murdered in their home. Reiner was someone that I'd known since I was an elementary school student. The first time I was aware of him was when he had his memorable if brief guest part in an "Odd Couple"episode in the early 1970s when he was performing with the late Penny Marshall who'd had a recurring role on the show as Myrna Turner and who'd been married to Reiner at the time. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any clip of that scene on YouTube or elsewhere but I was able to find a photo that you can see above. Reiner is the man in the white dress shirt, third from the right standing next to Marshall who would become an A-lister director herself.
Reiner would gain further fame that decade as Mike Stivic, the hippie son-in-law of the irascible and conservative Archie Bunker played by Carroll O'Connor in the landmark CBS sitcom "All in the Family". Not surprisingly, sparks flew fast and furious between them.
I didn't watch a lot of "All in the Family" but I did remember catching one episode "Mike the Pacifist" in which Mike had to do something drastic while he and his wife were traveling on the scary New York subway.
Reiner would follow more heavily on the directing track rather than acting which he did on both TV and movies. His directing career was all for the big screen, and like Japanese songwriters Yu Aku（阿久悠）and Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）, I often went "He did that?!" when I scrolled down Reiner's filmography as a director. He helmed "This is Spinal Tap", "When Harry Met Sally" and "The Princess Bride" among other flicks. I caught "A Few Good Men" and also "Stand By Me", the August 1986 coming-of-age movie mostly based in 1959 with some rough around the edges. There were stars in the making in that one including Wil Wheaton who would take on the role of Wesley Crusher in "Star Trek: The Next Generation" the following year and then Kiefer Sutherland who would become the Jack Bauer of "24" fame.
I remember when the movie came out, the old 1961 Ben E. King classic of the same name was unearthed as the main theme song to much acclaim. During the movie's run, "Stand By Me" got a lot of airplay on the radio and then as a music video starring King alongside at least some of the actors starring in the movie. When King's song was released in 1961, it hit No. 4 on US Billboard and even with its revival a quarter-century later, it returned to the Top 10 there at No. 9. In Canada, it did even better by hitting the top spot. Personally, I also remember "Stand By Me" as a favourite karaoke song in both Toronto and in Japan...not sung by me, of course. It deserved a better fate than that.
My condolences go out to almost all of Reiner's family, friends and many fans.
So for this special ROY, what was being released as music singles in Japan in the same month as "Stand By Me"?
For the record, I'm probably one of the very few North Americans who never bothered to see "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure". The idea of two righteous dudes flying through time and space didn't particularly appeal to me at the time, although I've seen a lot of Keanu Reaves' subsequent movies such as "Speed", the "Matrix" series and "John Wick". At this point, it's amazing to realize that one of Hollywood's most famous Torontonians got his big break in a comedy, but then again, a lot of folks had started paying attention to Tom Cruise when he was playing an in-over-his-head teen in the comedy "Risky Business" some years earlier.
Still having not seen the picture, I was also surprised by the opening credits of "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure". For a movie about a couple of high-flying teens, the credits were pretty abstract in image, to say the least. And the opening song was also a surprise since though I had already known about it for a few years, I'd had no idea that it was used here.
I'm talking about Australian band Big Pig's"Breakaway" from November 1987. This is the only song that I know by them, and that's because the song and the video were quite striking. In fact, I had been searching for any sign of "Breakaway" on YouTube for years until I finally found it (it didn't help that I couldn't quite remember the band's name at the time).
"Breakaway" showed up on Canada's MuchMusic channel and I only saw it once or twice but it left quite an impression with tightly coiled spring vocalist Sherine Abeyratne and the rest of her crew dressed up in factory aprons lying on top of clear floors with water sloshing all over. Then, there was the image of what seemed like dozens of percussionists going crazy on the instruments (the wonder of mirrors, folks!)...I would later read that the founder of Big Pig had been inspired by Japanese taiko drummers👍 and that guitars of no sort were used. I read that the song's crash-and-bang sound was quite the hit in the dance clubs and along with the band members in those aprons, I gather that "Breakaway" could be a tongue-in-cheek example of industrial pop. The song peaked at No. 10 in Canada while in the United States, it ranked in at a more modest No. 60. Meanwhile, it hit No. 8 in Australia and even No. 1 in New Zealand.
So, what other singles were being released in Japan in November 1987?
Welcome to the continued dog days of summer, and yep, it's still plenty torrid here even in Toronto. I can't even imagine what it's like now in Japan although I hear that the southern regions have been getting pounded by torrential rains.
Akemi Ishii（石井明美）is someone that I haven't heard from in a while so allow me to rectify that. In addition, she has her own big kanreki birthday (as do a few of us this year) coming up in a few weeks, so we should wish her a happy one.
"Celebration" is a non-single track from her 2nd album"Joy"(August 1987) that I have heard before but just haven't covered as of yet. Not sure whether composer/arranger Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）and lyricist Ikki Matsumoto（松本 一起）were aiming for Eurobeat or some mix between it or pop, but there is something in there that reminds me of Cutting Crew's big hit "(I Died) In Your Arms Tonight" from 1986. Matsumoto's lyrics are filled with paradoxes with the basic one being whether someone's happy with that other person or without. Quite the celebration.
I've found another obscure 1980s aidoru with the briefest of careers in that genre thanks to the good work of YouTuber nothingmuch;). From what nothingmuch;) has said, Yuki Aso（麻生由妃）started out in the late 1980s as a model and a TV personality before releasing the one-and-done August 1988 single "Passing Love". Also according to the website Idol.ne.jp, Aso was born Yukiyo Seki（関由妃代）in Tokyo in 1969. From the early 1990s though, she took on the name Yuki Takahara（高原由妃）and became not only a jazz vocalist but has also become a backup singer for a lot of acts including Mai Kuraki（倉木麻衣）and B'z.
As for "Passing Love", yup, it's Eurobeat, a genre that was gaining traction in Japan during the Bubble Era, and as written by Miyuki Nagai（永井美由紀）, composed by Jou Asano（浅野嬢）and arranged by Seikou Nagaoka（長岡成貢） (the man behind a very atmospheric anime theme and turn-of-the-century club dance music), it's pretty reminiscent of Kim Wilde's"You Keep Me Hangin' On" and Bananarama's "I Heard A Rumour". As the Idol.ne.jp website put it, Aso's talent finally blossomed in the 1990s but even with "Passing Love", she doesn't sound too bad here either.
It used to be the case that no matter what walk of the Japanese entertainment life one trod, once a certain level of fame has been achieved, that person simply has to cut a record of some sort, level of singing ability be damned. That was true for Manami Hayakawa（早川愛美）. Born in Tokyo in 1967, she was working in a Takadanobaba fashion health facility (a massage parlor which offers those "joyful conclusions") one summer in 1985 when she was somehow brought into the geinokai via late-night TV programs such as "All-Night Fuji". Her rise in popularity led to her being considered a sex industry aidoru which then led her into pin-up modeling and porn. She was even voted Miss Video Boy in both 1985 and 1986 for the magazine of the same name.
And although it was just the one May 1987 single, Hayakawa has the record (no pun intended) for being the first Japanese adult video actress to release a record on her own (according to a 1987 issue of "Video Boy" via J-Wiki). "Roppongi Scandal", which was written by Natsumi Watanabe（渡辺なつみ）and composed by Takeshi Ike（池毅）, is a rock n' roll romp whose basic rhythm seems to echo that of another Roppongi-themed song, Yoko Oginome's（荻野目洋子）"Roppongi Junjouha"（六本木純情派）from the previous year. Meanwhile, the B-side, "TO-NIGHT" (from 3:15) has a slightly more Eurobeat arrangement. Ike was also the composer here while Toru Shizuka（静香徹）took care of lyrics. For both songs, Hayakawa doesn't sound too bad at all for an aidoru.
In 1990, Hayakawa announced her retirement from show business.
By the late 1980s, I'd gotten the distinct impression that the multi-week megahit on video shows and radio programs was beginning to fade in frequency. It wasn't quite like the early 1980s when there would be a song by a music superstar taking the baton from the previous artist to be the new No. 1 (or slightly below) person for the next little while. But perhaps that was just my perception.
So, it was something when Brenda Russell's"Piano in the Dark" first appeared in the pop culture zeitgeist as a single in February 1988. I'd never heard of this singer-songwriter before and to be honest, I never quite heard from her again. But for a long time that year, this soulful song was getting the heavy rotation on radio and TV. Created by Russell, Jeff Hull and Scott Cutler, it was this melancholy tune about wondering whether to leave a guy, only for his piano playing to draw the protagonist back in (kinda reminded of a famous "The Godfather Part III" quote here). The moody and smoky arrangement was such that it had me thinking of Quiet Storm again along the lines of Anita Baker.
In Canada, "Piano in the Dark" did OK by scoring a No. 23 ranking on RPM but did far better in the United States where it reached No. 6 on Billboard. It was also a track on Russell's fourth studio album"Get Here" which came out in the same year.
So, what else was coming out as singles in Japan in February 1988?
Intriguing thing about that "Uta Con"（うたコン）episode that I'd mentioned in my previous article. Being the 100th anniversary of NHK, the show did the weekly dip into the time vault and this time around, they dug through 1986. Of course, that also meant looking at the annual Kohaku Utagassen footage from that year, and lo and behold, dancing wunderkind dancing aidoru Yoko Oginome was on stage.
Additionally, she was singing what is arguably her most famous hit, "Dancing Hero"（ダンシング・ヒーロー）, from 1985 which was the cover version of Angie Gold's "Eat You Up". And it was maybe for that reason that Oginome's voice and the entire song got the Jme treatment of copyright-enforced Muzak-inflicted blanking out of "Dancing Hero". Geez...the powers-that-be are really getting harsh.
Inspired (and triggered) by that incident, I've decided that I'll put up my own favourite five Yoko Oginome tunes in no particular order.
Although she had never been on KKP until today, the name Emiri Kanou（加納エミリ）has rung a bell for me for some reason that I can't really fathom. She's an aidoru from Hokkaido who has done everything by herself including the creation of her own songs and choreography. According to her J-Wiki profile, when she was in elementary school, she admired the works of Hikaru Utada（宇多田ヒカル）and wanted to become like her as a singer but realized that wasn't really her style and instead worked on her own way. Later on, she got into electronic music as a high school student, and now considers electropop, New Wave, City Pop and indies rock to be her genres.
In February 2019, she produced and released her very first 7" single titled "Gomen ne"(Sorry). Those 500 singles sold out nationwide. I first came upon it when I was browsing YouTube and saw the music video for "Gomen ne" which included the comment of it being "New Order kayo"! Well, that was quite the statement to a guy who considers the band New Order one of his favourites from his dancing days at the disco, so I was more than interested in giving it a whirl.
"Gomen ne" doesn't go quite as hard as the typical New Order song although I can hear elements in there. And after all, she's an aidoru so there's gotta be the cute and bright twinkles through the synthesizers to reflect that. To be honest, I hear some more of that Stock-Aitken-Waterman Eurobeat in there and the general 80s atmosphere which also permeates the video itself. In fact, watching Kanou perform, I was reminded of a young Chisato Moritaka（森高千里）in her early performances, physically if not vocally.
Speaking of the video, I was wondering who the older fellow was. Well, it's possible that it is her father, Shigeo Mihara（三原重夫）, who used to be the first drummer for the 1980s rock band Rosa Luxemburg. To further pile on the celebrity news, she only got married a few months ago to actor Kuu Ijima（伊島空）.
Kanou's first official single"Friday Night" came out a month after "Gomen ne" in March 2019.
It didn't happen all that much since I was quite careful about how much I imbibed on a certain play night, but on rare occasions, I did get smacked with a hangover that left me either wincing with a headache or running to the nearest washroom to pray to the porcelain god. Tylenol or something stronger would usually get me out of the jam, though (long after I stopped drinking).
Perhaps 80s aidoru Momoko Kikuchi（菊池桃子）and any of her short-term band RAMU had their hangover problems in the past. However for their "Late Night Headache" on the band's one and only September 1988 album"Thanks Giving", it sure sounds like the fun was still filling the dance floor despite the title. Written by Masao Urino（売野雅勇）, composed by Tsunehiro Izumi（和泉常寛）and arranged by Hiroshi Shinkawa（新川博）, "Late Night Headache" sounds like a Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）project for Omega Tribe with that certain crystalline keyboard and the languid nocturnal rhythms. And maybe it is the influence of the arrangement but when I hear Kikuchi sing, it reminds me of Carlos Toshiki!
The overall feeling is of young beautiful people driving out of Tokyo to a seaside resort at night to party it up during the Bubble Era as the music wavers between City Pop and straight pop. Near the end, there's even some Eurobeat riffing.
OK, I would like to note that the above photo of the Kyoku family has its members carrying glasses of non-alcoholic grape juice...not champagne. I don't want to be accused of catering to delinquent behaviour. Anyways, I would like to state to the Japanese: 「新年明けましておめでとうございます。」since they're now well into 2025. As I'm typing this though, we here in the Eastern Standard Time zone are still about eight hours away from making that transition. Yup, I did watch the Kohaku Utagassen but I will hold off on any opinions for at least a day until other folks have had a chance to see any reruns of it.
The New Year's holidays in Japan may be a more solemn and family-oriented occasion but of course here in North America, New Year's Eve is probably the biggest party night of the year. So as such, I thought it would be nice to add this song to the blog's coffers.
"Party Time" was C.C. Girls' 8th single from April 1994 and yeah, you can enjoy it with real champagne. Written by Mami Takubo（田久保真見）, composed by Ichiro Hada（羽田一郎）and arranged by Hiroshi Shinkawa（新川博）, it's appropriately sparkling fun times condensed into a 4-minute song with some rock here and perhaps some Eurobeat feeling. Hopefully, all of you going out tonight to ring in the New Year will have a good and safe time.
About an hour ago, I was watching NHK's "News at 9" live when in the middle of the broadcast, I saw the screen behind the anchor showing Miho Nakayama's（中山美穂）smiling visage with the anchor seriously saying "A very popular aidoru from the 1980s, Miho Nakayama was...". I just went "Oh, no...not her".
To say that I was shocked and saddened of her death at the age of 54 is an understatement. It's still very early hours in the situation but apparently, she was found in the bathroom of her house on December 6th by a friend who had come visiting with some concern after not showing up for work. As of this writing, the cause of her death has yet to be identified but she had been scheduled to give a concert later that day which was cancelled because of health concerns. Not surprisingly, on hearing of her sudden passing, some of those fans arrived at the venue to mourn.
My memories of Miporin not only include her many hits from the middle of the 80s well into the 90s, but also my impression that she along with a few other aidoru in the latter half of that decade spearheaded a new look during that time. The early 1980s were led by Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）, Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）and Naoko Kawai（河合奈保子）as the cutest-of-the-cute teenybopper singers running along the beach or skipping through fields of flowers, but with those singers either taking a hiatus or evolving into pop superstars approaching 1985, there was a next generation from the mid-80s which included Miho Nakayama as aidoru who came off as more street-smart and not-suffer-fools-gladly young women; perhaps ladies who were just as willing to hit the dance clubs of Tokyo as they were to head to the beach. In fact, I had even placed Nakayama, Shizuka Kudo（工藤静香）and Momoko Kikuchi（菊池桃子）into my own imagined Gosanke as aidoru representing this slightly harder-edged group of singers.
I hadn't planned to start the usual Friday round of KKP articles until later this afternoon, but on hearing of her death, I felt that I had to write down some thoughts as soon as possible. My condolences go out to her family, friends and her many fans everywhere. This will be a sad day but perhaps all of us can get together and appreciate the music that she left behind along with her many acting roles over the past few decades. Below I'm leaving some of the songs that she performed on her 7-year run on NHK's Kohaku Utagassen.
When it comes to the oeuvre of singer Akemi Ishii（石井明美）, I've always pictured her as being someone resolutely linked with the mid to late 1980s. For that matter, her music usually had me thinking Eurobeat or something with some Latin pizazz. "Cha-Cha-Cha" and "L'Amant"（ラマン）come to mind.
"Celebration" is a song that I first heard on a BEST compilation by Ishii so I had initially not known about where it originally came from. It is a coupling song from her 11th single from October 1993, "Anatarashiku Ite"（あなたらしくいて...Stay As You Are） so that is one personal trope broken about her. The other trope broken is that I'd often associate her works with cover versions of Eurobeat songs and "Celebration" sounds as if this would be another one although the arrangement doesn't show off the Eurobeat all that strongly.
However, "Celebration" is a homegrown product with Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）and Kazuo Otani（大谷和夫）handling the melody and arrangement respectively while Ikki Matsumoto（松本一起）is the lyricist. But, as one commenter on YouTube has pointed out, "Celebration" does have some similarity with Cutting Crew's big 1986 hit "(I Just) Died in Your Arms".
As a kid, the first time that I ever heard of anything called "Sugar Sugar", it was via The Archies on their cartoon show "The Archie Show" back in the late 1960s. It was a nice slice of bubblegum pop.
Now, as I am entering my senior middle-aged years, I've now found out that there is another "Sugar Sugar" on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. Not only that but I've also discovered that South Korean DJ, producer and songwriter Night Tempo has been made further busier as he manages his own Japanese aidoru duo FANCYLABO. Having formed in early 2023, the duo consists of ex-NMB48 member Miori Ichikawa（市川美織）and ex-Maison book girl member Aoi Yagawa（矢川葵）. It's an interesting combination to me anyways since the two have arrived from conventional and indies aidoru groups respectively.
Their most recent digital single from July this year is indeed "Sugar Sugar" which has Ichikawa and Yagawa tackling an 80s synthpop tune with a Eurobeat vibe slightly reminiscent of Bananarama's "I Heard A Rumour". Maybe there is even a taste of good ol' Wink in there.
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