Les 5-4-3-2-1 -- Jazzuru Kokoro（ジャズる心）

 

It's been amazing that this is yé-yé and chanson singer France Gall's fourth entry in "Kayo Kyoku Plus" starting back in 2018 when her "Le temps de la rentrée" was an unlikely choice as an ending theme for the anime "Hisone to Masotan"（ひそねとまそたん...Hisone & Masotan）. But hey, it worked in a great way and the ending credits were always fun to watch even though the anime itself didn't end with a particularly satisfying conclusion, in my opinion.

Gall was still in her late teens when she released the April 1965 album "Poupée de cire, poupée de son" which included the swinging "Le Coeur Qui Jazze" with jazz pianist  Alain Goraguer and His Orchestra backing her up. Goraguer composed the song with Robert Gall, France's father, coming up with the lyrics. Some nice vocalese by the singer as well. I almost feel like booking those tickets to Paris and hitting a jazz club with champagne.

Just about a year ago, I first mentioned the Shibuya-kei band Les 5-4-3-2-1 and their interesting take on Burt Bacharach's classic "Bond Street". That was in 1996, but even earlier than that in 1993 via their album "UN", they recorded their version of "Le Coeur Qui Jazze" translated into "Jazzuru Kokoro". It comes with a rather graphics-filled music video to help viewers get into the swinging mood, and the arrangers even threw in some psychedelic electric guitar, to boot, and it even gets to play some of the French national anthem at the end.

France Gall/Mieko Hirota/Eiko Matsumoto -- Yume Miru Chanson Ningyo（夢見るシャンソン人形）

After writing the article for one of the more inspired choices for an anime ending theme, a cover of the late France Gall's "Le temps de la rentrée" for "Hisone to Masotan"（ひそねとまそたん）, a commenter remarked that there was another song by Gall that had also made some traction in Japanese pop culture back in the day.

On hearing "Poupée de cire, poupée de son" (Wax Doll, Rag Doll), originally released in 1965, I realized that I had heard this back in Japan a number of times through TV commercials. The Japanese really love their yé-yé tunes. Writer and composer Serge Gainsbourg created the song and there is a detailed analysis of it on Wikipedia. In fact, music journalist Sylvie Simmons through her book "Serge Gainsbourg: A Fistful of Gitanes" gave an interesting quotation here from Wiki:

(She) wrote that the song is about "the ironies and incongruities inherent in baby pop"—that "the songs young people turn to for help in their first attempts at discovering what life and love are about are sung by people too young and inexperienced themselves to be of much assistance, and condemned by their celebrity to be unlikely to soon find out."

I kinda wonder what Simmons would think of Japanese aidoru then. Moving on...

Perhaps within a smattering of months following the release of Gall's original, a Japanese cover was recorded in August of that year by Mieko Hirota（弘田三枝子）. The title in Japanese is "Yume Miru Chanson Ningyo" (Dreaming Chanson Doll) with lyrics by Tokiko Iwatani（岩谷時子）. There is quite a brassier edge to the arrangement.

An extensive list on the Japanese article for the song exists with all of the singers who have covered "Yume Miru Chanson Ningyo". This includes Eiko Matsumoto（松本英子）who did her version as a coupling song for her January 2003 single "Kotoshi no Fuyu"（今年の冬...This Winter）. Nice boogie-woogie arrangement.

Although her name is not on that list, I found Hitomi Ishikawa's（石川ひとみ）gentler and folkier cover particularly nice as well. Not sure when she recorded her version.

D-Pi/France Gall -- Le temps de la rentrée

It was a nice Sunday yesterday. Got some really good, really seasonal weather for the first time in several months and it wasn't just me and my anime buddy but we had a guest appearance from another old friend and his son. So it was time to go out for some spicy Szechuan fare and then some dessert.

I gotta say that there are some offbeat shows this season of Spring 2018. We got another anime about dragons although this one isn't listed as a slice-of-life comedy but more of a wartime drama according to Wikipedia. Looking at the first few scenes of "Hisone to Masotan"（ひそねとまそたん...Hisone & Masotan）, I thought it was a straight show about a young awkward lady trying to fulfill her dreams of becoming an ASDF pilot for Japan.

Then I saw the dragon Masotan and, nope, it wasn't going to be all that simple. Still, there is plenty of humour to be had with the main character of Hisone Amakasu（甘粕ひそね）who might have Asperger's and awkwardness, and her frenemy (?), the cranky and resentful punk Nao Kaizaki（貝崎名緒）. My friend told me that Mari Okada（岡田麿里）is the screenwriter for the show, and apparently she has a penchant for killing off her characters in horrible myriad ways so perhaps I shouldn't get too attached to any of them. But then again, the notorious Gen Urobuchi（虚淵玄）was actually pretty nice (relatively speaking) on "Suisei no Gargantia"（翠星のガルガンティア...Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet）, so you never know.

Although Winter 2018 didn't have any instant earworms among the anime themes (although a few of them have grown on me), it looks like Spring 2018 may unearth a few musical maggots including the ending theme for "Hisone to Masotan", a cover of the late France Gall's "Le temps de la rentrée" with the added Japanese subtitle of "Koi no Ieji (Shin Gakki)"（恋の家路（新学期）...Love's Road Home (New School Term)）. As if things couldn't get even more weirder. The show has this cover of a French ye-ye tune performed by all of the Dragon Pilots or D-Pi (although not all of them have been introduced yet as of the 2nd episode) played by Misako Kuno（久野美咲）as Hisone, Tomoyo Kurosawa（黒沢ともよ）as Nao, Maki Kawase（河瀬茉希）, Satomi Arai（新井里美）and Kaori Nazuka（名塚佳織）. Plus, the ending credits have the characters channeling their inner American Bandstand.

The original song was a track on Gall's "Baby Pop" album from 1966 with father Robert and brother Patrice creating "Le temps de la rentrée". The song is only around a minute and change long so perhaps what I heard on the ending credits is the entire version. Short but very sweet.