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.
When it comes to Fumiya Fujii's（藤井フミヤ）solo work away from his 80s band Checkers, the one song that will always come to mind is his 1993 hit"True Love". As I mentioned in that article, that's one love song that probably birthed a ton of lovelorn serenaders with guitars. Though I don't remember too much from past broadcasts of the Kohaku Utagassen after the early 1980s, I do recollect very well Fujii's performance of "True Love" on the NHK Shibuya stage on New Year's Eve since it was one of the highlights of that program.
A few years later, Fujii came up with another ballad that really pulled at the heartstrings. In August 1996, he released his 10th single,"Another Orion", which like "True Love", was another theme song for a drama surrounding a group of young people, "Garasu no Kakera tachi"（硝子のかけらたち...:Pieces of Glass）on TBS. And also like "True Love", I ended up purchasing the CD single of "Another Orion". Incidentally, this time, the drama actually starred Fujii.
From listening to "Another Orion", it's indeed a heart-tugger with a more melancholy yet dreamy melody which was actually composed by someone other than Fujii this time (although Fujii did provide the lyrics), Naoki Masumoto（増本直樹）. Still, Fujii's lyrics are serenade-worthy pearls of love to that special someone, and it could make a romantic couple look up at the night sky for the constellation of Orion.
"Another Orion" was Fujii's first No. 1 single since "True Love" which ended up becoming the 22nd-ranked single for 1996. It is also present on his 3rd solo album"Tears" from September of that year; that album hit No. 2 on the Oricon weeklies and became the 60th-ranked album for 1998. To finally end the comparison between the two ballads, "Another Orion" was also performed on the 1996 Kohaku Utagassen.
My YouTube browsing habits (and it is a bit of a bad habit, I have to confess) have now included a late-night variety show originating on Kansai TV called "Ariyoshi Hiroiki no Daretoku!?"（有吉弘行のダレトク!?）starring tarento Hiroiki Ariyoshi（有吉弘行）and announcer Maasa Takahashi（高橋真麻）. Being broadcast at 11pm on Tuesday nights means that the humour can get pretty raunchy, often at the expense of poor Maasa. The other observation is that Ariyoshi has become quite the well-known TV emcee over the past several years. I rather see him now as the second generation of the legendary Tamori（タモリ）who also has a somewhat similar style of bawdiness in his banter.
However, I first got to know Ariyoshi when he was with his comedic partner Kazunari Moriwaki（森脇和成）as the manzai duo Saruganseki（猿岩石）back in the 90s. The two of them have known each other since their elementary school days back in Hiroshima and came up through the ranks from regional celebs to the national stage. Along with their routines, what also helped them climb the ladder to fame was an extended stint on the NTV variety show "Susume! Denpa Shonen"（進め!電波少年...Forward! Radio Kids）when the two were drafted to hitchhike all the way from Hong Kong to London. Yep, I did say hitchhike. The running segment became so popular that the two of them were "asked" to do the same thing starting from Bangkok to Ankara. Tarento definitely have to pay their dues on their way to the top.
One of my other memories of Saruganseki is in the form of their music career which lasted 10 singles for a little over 2 years. Their debut began with "Shiroi no Kumo no You ni" (Like A White Cloud) which came out in December 1996 after the producer of "Denpa Shonen" and other folks working at the duo's representing agency had found out that Ariyoshi and Moriwaki did possess better-than-average sets of pipes for comedians (I guess there were a few joint visits to the karaoke boxes during the hitchhiking).
"Shiroi no Kumo no You ni" was written by former Checkers' vocalist Fumiya Fujii（藤井フミヤ）and composed by his brother Naoyuki（藤井尚之）who had been the saxophonist for the band. The lyrics rather fit Saruganseki's adventure to a T as they related about aiming for that goal off in the distance despite the obstacles in the way.
What helped the laid back guitar-based melody was the music video which had the duo languidly singing in the middle of a dreamy gently undulating field. With their jackets and Moriwaki's toque, I just thought there was some Canadiana in there. They should have been made honourary citizens of Saskatchewan!
The song was a big hit for Saruganseki as it soared up to No. 3 from an entry level ranking of No. 23. Initially selling 20,000 copies, "Shiroi no Kumo no You ni" eventually broke the million barrier and became the 11th-ranked song for 1997.
After a decade together, Ariyoshi and Moriwaki decided to break up the act in 2004 citing different ambitions. The former, as mentioned before, has found further success in the geinokai while the latter decided to go back to civilian life. That was what I had known up until I decided to write the article; from what I've read in the J-Wiki articles covering him and Saruganseki, Moriwaki had a tough time working as a regular businessman and after a divorce, he has started to get back into show business although there hasn't been any news about Saruganseki re-forming.
The bands Rats and Star (formerly Chanels) and Checkers have a connection: they were both 80s groups which dipped into American pop music of the 50s, with the former going for the doo-wop sound while the latter had a more teenage rock n' roll beat. Also both bands had lead singers who've gone on to bigger and better solo gigs, especially when it came to their balladry.
Case in point: whenever I think of Fumiya Fujii （藤井フミヤ）of Checkers during his solo career in which he has released 31 singles up to 2013, there is one song that comes to mind immediately. His creation of "True Love" may have been his 2nd single but it was his first after the breakup of Checkers at the end of 1992. Released almost a year later in November 1993 and created by the man himself, it's a song that probably has had potential serenaders learning how to play guitar and sing simply for the opportunity to finally woo their loves from below their apartment windows. It is that much of a love song.
"True Love" was the theme song for one of Fuji-TV's jewels in the crown of the 90s, "Asunaro Hakusho"（あすなろ白書...Asunaro White Paper）, a show that was also part of the slate on my university club's Wednesday-night activity of presenting J-Dramas. I remember that there was a pretty full room whenever the episodes were shown at the International Student Centre...right at the same level as "Tokyo Love Story". And not surprisingly, both dramas started out as manga created by Fumi Saimon（柴門ふみ）. At the time, her name was synonymous with prime time pure love.
My memory has gotten pretty hazy over the years when it comes to individual Kohaku Utagassen. But one of the highlights from the 1993 show that I still remember clear as a bell has been Fujii's performance of "True Love". That one part where he played the instrumental bridge on his guitar as the lone spotlight shone on him from behind was one great moment in the history of the show by my estimation. Perhaps even tears were shed from among the audience and viewership. And what made it even more special was that the two leads from "Asunaro Hakusho", Hikari Ishida (as Captain of the Women's Red Team) and Michitaka Tsutsui (as one of the judges in front of the stage) were right there. Ishida even presented a bouquet of flowers to Fujii at the end of the performance.
"True Love" hit the top spot on Oricon for 5 consecutive weeks and despite its late release in the year, it became the 29th-ranked song. A year later, it even rose up to become the 11th-ranked song for 1994. I'm pretty sure if it had been released earlier in 1993, it would have cracked the year's Top 10 easily.
I mentioned about "True Love" being the ideal serenade song. Well, it has also become a very popular ballad to be performed at wedding parties. And Fujii himself has sung it numerous times at those happy occasions which led him to admitting "I've sung it so many times at wedding parties that I don't know how many times I've done it" (translated from the J-Wiki article on the song).
I used to watch a Saturday night program on the same Fuji-TV at 11 p.m. called "Hammer Price" hosted by the comedy duo, Tunnels, in which incredibly weird and/or wonderful artifacts of pop culture were auctioned off to often rabid bidders in the studio audience. Robert DeNiro's rotten Japanese calligraphy? Check! The late porn actress-turned-tarento Ai Iijima's used bath water? Check (and ewwwww)! Well, one of the more wonderful prizes up for bid was the opportunity for a lucky person to have Fujii sing "True Love" at a wedding reception. And it was like watching a shark feeding frenzy. The bidding heated up to the point where there were only two standing: a woman and the president of an event-planner company. The woman finally won and it was the first time in the program's history that the bidding went beyond 1 million yen (a little under $10,000 US today). I'm not quite sure if she had been the bride. The groom should have been enormously proud...or aghast.
I just had to include a tiny sample of "Hammer Price" above.
