GWINKO -- GET ON

 

Last night, just for kicks, I decided to enter today's date of June 4th into J-Wiki to see who had been born on that day. The usual long scroll of famous people rolled up but one person that would have significance especially on this blog is Okinawa-born singer GWINKO. So, first off, Happy Birthday to her since she's now hit the big 5-0.

As such, I'm dedicating this first song for today on KKP to her "GET ON", her 3rd single from April 1988. Now, I'd known that she was one singer known for her strutting R&B and "GET ON" is no different. Written by Sakiko Iwamuro（岩室先子）and composed by Masatoshi Nishimura（西村麻聡）, the bassist for band Fence of Defense, the funk is surely with GWINKO like the Force is with the Skywalkers. In fact, it's downright Prince-ly. And this is where I give you the "Things that make you go Hmmm..." moment for today. Prince's birthday is only a few days down from GWINKO's....June 7th.

I had been hoping that there were some music video or performance of "GET ON" somewhere on YouTube. Lucky day for me then!

GWINKO -- Kiss Kiss Kiss

 

We have some more of the Okinawan dynamo who went by the name GWINKO when she was singing in the late 1980s. From her September 1987 debut album "Yesterday, Today, Forever", this is "Kiss Kiss Kiss" by the teenage R&B singer.

Written by Ichiko Takehana（竹花いち子）and composed by Masatoshi Nishimura（西村麻聡）, I have to apologize in advance if I don't have my R&B sub-genres accurate here, but I'm considering "Kiss Kiss Kiss" as an early form of New Jack Swing with some Prince-ly funk and maybe even some Janet Jackson attitude. Regardless, the nostalgia waves are flowing in loud and clear here. 

I don't think that I ever put up this piece of trivia regarding GWINKO but according to J-Wiki, she was one of the first graduates of the Okinawa Actors' School which was founded in 1983 to make it big in show business. Afterwards, Namie Amuro（安室奈美恵）, the group SPEED and Da Pump made their own mark in music.

GWINKO & Cindy -- Teenage Beat

 

Looking up the information for this particular song and singer GWINKO, I've realized that the lass was just a few days shy of 15 when her second album "Teenage Beat" was released in June 1988. And she was already singing and kick-stepping it up a notch.

Probably a lot of City Pop and J-R&B fans had been wondering if there were ever a duet between a couple of singers within the genre, and sure enough, there was something close to it. GWINKO and Cindy got together to do the first and title track from the album although it's been listed that Cindy was more on backup chorus rather than an equal partner. "Teenage Beat" was written by Akane Tsukinose（月の瀬 茜）and composed by Masatoshi Nishimura（西村麻聡）. As for the type of R&B, I'm not quite sure...would it be funk or a milder form of New Jack Swing? There is something rather Janet Jackson about it.

GWINKO -- Downtown Game

 

I guess when it comes to the gift that keeps on giving, folks who are both into anime and City Pop would feel that "City Hunter" is the motherlode because of its setting of Shinjuku in Tokyo and some of those nifty theme songs by singers such as Kahoru Kohiruimaki（小比類巻かほる）and Yasuyuki Okamura（岡村靖幸）. Hey, walking into West Shinjuku at night will always give me those "Ai yo Kienai de"（愛よ消えないで）vibes.

Commenter Fireminer let me know about GWINKO's contribution to the "City Hunter" discography the other day, and certainly GWINKO has been a singer who has delved happily into R&B and City Pop. She provided the opening theme song for the 1991 edition of the franchise, "City Hunter '91" which ran from April to October of that year. Looking at the opening credits above, it sure looks like Ryo Saeba（冴羽獠）was as incorrigible as ever.

"Downtown Game" was GWINKO's penultimate single to date from April 1991 and perhaps true to the time, there is a drawing of sophisticated pop as well as some New Jack Swing into the overall City Pop, thanks to Masao Kuzuba's（崩場将夫）melody (the translation in the credits has the last name given as "Houba" for some reason) and Nobuyuki Shimizu's（清水信之）sparkling arrangement (he was also responsible for the arrangement of Okamura's contribution "SUPER GIRL"). The lyrics were written up by Goro Matsui（松井五郎）and they seem to be describing the typical adventure of Saeba and Makimura among the bright lights and big city of Tokyo. Although the Bubble was in the process of bursting that year if it hadn't already done so, life in the "City Hunter" world was still so money apparently.

GWINKO & Yoshiyuki Osawa -- Merry Christmas Go Round

 

Japan is already on Christmas Day and we're on Christmas Eve so hopefully folks are getting prepared as best as we can during this COVID era for Santa and all that.

Earlier this month, I provided an article on a 1987 Christmas song by GWINKO called "Gwinko's Christmas Carol" with its Motown taste. Good ol' Scott (who has a bunch of his J-Xmas podcasts out at his site, so why not give those a gander?) then recommended me a November 1988 album of J-Xmas tunes titled "Dance to Christmas".

"Dance to Christmas" has its own J-Wiki article and I discovered there that singer-songwriter Yoshiyuki Osawa（大沢誉志幸）and a number of singers under the CBS/Sony banner decided to get together on the work for this special project to celebrate the 10th anniversary of EPIC/Sony. Therefore, Masayuki Suzuki（鈴木雅之）, his sister Kiyomi（鈴木聖美）, along with Osawa, GWINKO, Masatoshi Nishimura（西村麻聡）of FENCE OF DEFENSE and others all put on their Santa hats and got busy.

The second track is "Merry Christmas Go Round", a boppy City Pop boogie of the Yuletide involving a duet between GWINKO and Osawa himself. Written by K. Inojo and composed by Osawa, the song also has a touch of jazzy swing in there as the two singers act like a couple of flirty lovers dancing around a good old date over the Holidays. If all of the couples around Christmas time acted like these two do, cars would have ended up being banned off the roads because of all of the boogying around. I couldn't find out any liner note information but I do wonder whether the Suzuki siblings themselves were providing background vocals.

GWINKO -- Gwinko's Christmas Carol

 

Happy Monday and welcome to the first full week of December. Darn balmy in the Greater Toronto Area at 11 degrees Celsius although the equivalent temperature in Tokyo would more than likely elicit plenty of "Brrrrr" from the citizens there.

This particular article for singer GWINKO is so far the earliest song from her discography that I've covered since the ones that I've written about all start from the 1990s. "Gwinko's Christmas Carol" is the first track on her November 1987 single "Sweet Heart", and it's a pretty rousing J-Xmas tune with some Motown soul mixed in like honey into hot chocolate (apologies if that sounds a little too sweet). It's not quite as funky as her later stuff but I think that her own Christmas carol is the type of song that can be heard during the afternoon of December 25th when everyone's back in the house following one intense round of sledding or skating outside just enjoying some of that aforementioned hot chocolate and other holiday sweets. The crazy observation that I have here is that I think GWINKO's vocals sound a bit reminiscent of those of little Michael Jackson in the early 1970s.

The lyrics for "Gwinko's Christmas Carol" were provided by Akane Tsukinogase（月の瀬茜）and the happy melody was composed by Kunio Muramatsu（村松邦夫）from Sugar Babe.

GWINKO -- Heart ga Kiseki wo Matteiru（ハートが奇跡を待っている）

 

A couple of weeks ago, I received a comment under my article for GWINKO's "Natsu no Owari, Chikazuita Sora"（夏のおわり、近づいた空）. Rebecca made a recommendation for the opening track of her May 1991 album "Tokyo Uki Uki Girl"（東京UKIUKI GIRL...Tokyo Cheerful Girl）, "Heart ga Kiseki wo Matteiru" (The Heart is Waiting For a Miracle).

Nice recommendation, Rebecca. "Heart ga Kiseki wo Matteiru" is a percolating piece of that aspect of nostalgic R&B known as New Jack Swing, a genre that I'm still trying to wrap my head around since when I think of it, I usually come up with Bobby Brown's "Every Little Step" from 1989. Written by Goro Matsui（松井五郎）and composed by Ichiro Hada（羽田一郎）, try to imagine the refrain from Kylie Minogue's "I Should Be So Lucky" done in New Jack Swing rather than Eurobeat.

Matsui has come up with the story of a young woman going out on a date in the big city and Hada's music definitely shows that she's more than over the moon in anticipation. As I mentioned to Rebecca, it makes for a fine start to "Tokyo Uki Uki Girl" although that album cover is a tad sinister.

GWINKO -- Natsu no Owari, Chikazuita Sora（夏のおわり、近づいた空）

A bit early in the week for some of the funk and groove perhaps but that's OK. KKP contributor JTM has often espoused the talents of a Japanese singer, GWINKO, so I was able to write about "Yokubari na Weekend"（よくばりなウィークエンド）. This singer is definitely one example of late 80s/early 90s funk and groove in Japan, and the video for "Yokubari na Weekend" provided the most entertaining trip to the mall that I've seen in a while.

The song was also included in GWINKO's 4th album "I'm In" from July 1990, and the lead track for the album is "Natsu no Owari, Chikazuita Sora" (The End of Summer, The Approaching Sky). This is another bouncy R&B tune which starts with some smacking drums before GWINKO sings about some stormy clouds hovering a relationship which ends with one of the couple being dumped on the beach. I didn't think that breakups ever deserved their own choreography considering all of that wonderfully funky bass and light tripping on the piano. I'm pretty sure if GWINKO had ever decided to get a music video for "Natsu no Owari, Chikazuita Sora", it would have had plenty of beach blanket boys and girls dancing on the sand.

"Natsu no Owari, Chikazuita Sora" was written by Junko Ohyama（大山潤子）, who also took care of the aforementioned "Yokubari no Weekend", while Yoichiro Kakizaki（柿崎洋一郎）came up with all that funky music.

GWINKO -- Mermaid in Summer

I finally got to get an idea about what the pop singer GWINKO was all about when JTM introduced me to her material a couple of years ago. Through her 1990 "Yokubari na Weekend"（よくばりなウィークエンド）, I got the impression of the Okinawan singer as a dynamic singer of poppy R&B.

But she can also sing some straight dynamic pop according to her "Mermaid in Summer" from her final album to date, "Princess Moon" from 1994. Some very summery synths populating this track as people enjoy a fine time at the beach. The music was provided by Masaya Ozeki（尾関昌也）and the lyrics are from Ikuru Kabuchi（橙育琉）, and it's pure speculation on the reading of that lyricist's name but I tried my jisho.org best.

Up to this point, I've only been able to judge from a couple of songs but with "Mermaid in Summer", there is some aspect of GWINKO's voice that reminded me of early 1980s Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）for some reason.

GWINKO -- Yokubari na Weekend （よくばりなウィークエンド）

Yup, Cinnabon had its time in Tokyo as well...perhaps well over a decade ago. I remember the shop in one of the malls in Odaiba; the entire first floor of the complex perpetually had that distinctive aroma of cinnamon whenever I went there. That worked better than any advertising.

Anyways, I had my regular talk with JTM over the weekend and we were swapping information on various singers from the 80s and 90s, and one person he mentioned was GWINKO. Now, I had heard of GWINKO years ago and I recollect perhaps a Myojo article about her, but I kinda pooh-pooh'ed her off as one of the many aidoru that came and went during the 1980s.

However, JTM described her as being the female equivalent of Toshinobu Kubota（久保田利伸）! Wow! That got my attention. So she was a budding R&B type, eh? I then decided to look up her material on YouTube and found this one song titled "Yokubari na Weekend" (Greedy Weekend) which was her 5th of 7 singles from July 1990. I was fortunate that there was an official music video and once I looked at it, yep, I could see why my friend compared her to Kubota.

Plus, she could dance hurricanes around Kubota according from what I saw on the video (man, all that fashion back then)! Looking at the Okinawa-born GWINKO, who was born Ginko Kaneshiro（金城吟子）in 1973, I was stunned to realize that she kicked up her heels with her other dancing partners at the age of 17 in "Yokubari na Weekend"; I thought she was well into her 20s, and I mean that in the best sense of the word.

Junko Ohyama（大山潤子）wrote the lyrics of a young lady having the time of her life in the big city while Ichiro Hada（羽田一郎）and Takuo Sugiyama（杉山卓夫）brought in some of that snazzy funk-pop seemingly right from the United States. I kinda wonder whether GWINKO and all those dancers were inspired by Paula Abdul. In any case, another singer that I was set right about.