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.
Showing posts with label Hideaki Tokunaga. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hideaki Tokunaga. Show all posts
And here I thought that all I needed for a bit of suspense during the Holidays was to watch "Die Hard". However, it looks like the next couple of days in Toronto will be seeing wind warnings which could lead to power outages. Not great during a cold time like now. A lot of folks here including myself still remember the Ice Storm of 2013 which knocked most of the city out for at least a couple of days and many for many days after that.
Still, I'm gonna still slog my way to 1000 articles as best I can. I've got another Author's Picks based on days of the week since I recall that certain Japanese songs have used days of the week in their titles and even their own artist names. All but one of the songs that will be included in the list are already represented on the blog.
(1993) Pizzicato Five -- Yasashii Mokuyoubi（優しい木曜日）
Yup, "Yasashii Mokuyoubi" (Sweet Thursday) is the odd group out this time, but it is most certainly not an odd song. It's a very pretty tune by Pizzicato Five evoking a pleasant spring walk in Paris on that day. With the feeling of Shibuya-kei, the Divine Ms. Maki Nomiya（野宮真貴）vocally gives her version of a waltz along the Seine. I had a bit of a time tracking this down regarding when the song was originally released but thankfully its inclusion in "The Band of 20th Century: Nippon Columbia Years 1991-2001" gave me the big hint. It was just a matter of looking up those albums under Columbia and finding out that "Yasashii Mokuyoubi" had been placed in the June 1993 album"Bossa Nova 2001"（ボサ・ノヴァ2001）.
It is (or was in Japan) July 7th 2025 which means another day to celebrate Tanabata, commemorating the star-crossed lovers Orihime and Hikoboshi. This year, though, is particularly auspicious because July 7th is falling in the 7th year of Reiwa (another way of saying 2025 in Japan) and so people noticing that it is the 7th day of the 7th month in the 7th year, much hay has been made out of it. For example, couples have been flooding their local city halls to register their marriages today and in a lot of supermarkets, some products have been priced at 777 yen.
Now, I've done my commemorating of the holiday sometimes on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" for specific songs in the past, but this time, I've decided to become a little more ambitious by applying a few gimmicks to this Author's Pick.
First off, let's provide three songs that have something to do with the number 7.
(1967) The Echoes and The Misuzu Children's Choral Group -- Theme from Ultra Seven （ウルトラセブンの歌）
Welcome to another Thursday Reminiscings of Youth where I go over some of the Western pop songs that I used to hear and cherish back in my childhood and youth. I was thinking about posting something by a female singer that I had yet to cover here on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" and by wonderful providence, one lady from my memories showed up yesterday on the local news channel for an interview: singer-songwriter and actress Taylor Dayne. I hadn't heard from her in a few decades and I'm glad that she's still out and about especially since she did have to tackle cancer several years ago.
Of course, when it comes to Taylor Dayne, the one song that we'll always remember is her debut single"Tell It to My Heart" (by songwriters Seth Swirsky and Ernie Gold) which hit the music store shelves in July 1987. Another part of my Dayne memories is the music video for the song: big hair, big cosmetics, big leather and the dancing backup. Couldn't get more 80s than that! We ended up getting the 12" remix record along with a CD of her album "Tell It to My Heart".
When I look back at the song, I was also drawn to how she sang it. There was that certain way she sang out "heart" which always stood out to me. Her Wikipedia biography states that she was born and raised in the New York City area so perhaps it was something to do with a Bronx or Brooklyn accent. "Tell It to My Heart" has been described in its own article as dance-pop, freestyle and Hi-NRG, and if it had been created in Europe, I would have said perhaps Eurobeat as well. The song peaked at No. 7 on US Billboard in January 1988; it did even better in the UK where it hit No. 3.
So, what was being released in Japan in July 1987?
I'll never not marvel at the observation that Canada's Thanksgiving and Japan's Sports Day fall on the same day...the second Monday in October, considering one nation feasts while the other nation promotes strenuous physical activity. Regardless, I wish my fellow Canadians a Happy Thanksgiving. Our family had the regular get-together last night but since I'm the only person who likes turkey, it was sushi for dinner.
I figure that depending on the family and the logistics (or lack of them), there will be those who are having a pretty manic Monday getting ready to greet extended family after spending time, money and energy to create that traditional turkey dinner with all of the trimmings. So, as such on the usual special holiday edition of Reminiscings of Youth, I give you "Manic Monday" by The Bangles.
According to the Wikipedia article regarding the song, although it had originally been written and composed by Prince in 1984 as a duet between him and Apollonia 6, the deal with "Manic Monday" didn't quite make it, and a couple of years later, he offered it under the pseudonym Christopher to The Bangles. It was released as the band's single at the end of January 1986.
I remember first seeing the music video showing Susanna Hoffs singing while her fellow bandmates were making like regular folks trying to start off their Monday mornings. The lyrics and the music both come across as a relatable happy-go-lucky day-in-the-life pop tune about resignedly schlumping off to work while wishing that the weekend hadn't ended.
For both the American and Canadian charts, "Manic Monday" hit No. 2, and even in Japan, it managed to get as high as No. 56 on Oricon.
Interestingly enough, although I'd planned to consult the Oricon Top 10 for January 1986 for the comparative hits in Japan, I realized that I had already done so a couple of weeks ago for Sade's"Is It a Crime?" which was also released in that month. Therefore, let's go with the singles that were released back then.
I didn't think that I would be writing an article on Hideaki Tokunaga's（徳永英明）6th studio album from October 1990, "JUSTICE", tonight. However, I popped it into the TEAC last night and then afterwards decided, "Why not?". One of the tracks, Tokunaga's 10th single, "Kowarekake no Radio"（壊れかけのRadio）, already has its own article so you can have a look at that one.
Listening to the first track "NEWS" for the first time in a long time brought back some nostalgia for me since this is a pretty dramatic way to start "JUSTICE". With the music by Tokunaga (all of the tracks were composed by him, in fact), the lyrics are by Hitoshi Shinohara（篠原仁志）which describe an uncertain world but a man and a woman feel as long as they are together, they can overcome anything.
Looks like the Greek island of Mykonos has been given the Casablanca treatment by Tokunaga as "Mykonos". The singer was responsible for words and music here as it's all about the romantic intrigue on the island. I think "Mykonos" is probably the track that solidly hits the City Pop beats on "JUSTICE"; the lyrics might be thousands of kilometres away, but the music keeps things solidly in Tokyo.
I think that there is also a bit of the urban and the urbane with "Kaerenai Futari"（帰れない二人...The Couple Who Won't Return）, a ballad also created by Tokunaga. A couple shares what could possibly be their final night together as they walk along the beach, hoping that the night lasts forever since the inevitable coming of the next day will mean the first day of their lives no longer together. It's poignant especially with that saxophone coming in near the end.
Before I forget, almost all of the tracks were arranged by folk singer and songwriter Ichizo Seo（瀬尾一三）. The one exception is this one, "Douhyou"（道標...Signpost）, which was taken care of by musician Ryoichi Kuniyoshi（国吉良一）. I have to give my compliments to the uploader for this B-side to "Kowarekake no Radio" since his thumbnail of an empty classroom is appropriate for this innocent song of gratitude as a couple remember that one day in high school when they realized that they were meant for each other. As was the case for the far sterner "NEWS", Shinohara and Tokunaga were behind this one.
I'll finish this with the title track itself which finishes the album. "JUSTICE" is an appropriately heroic anthem by Tokunaga about pushing through all of the obstacles of life and the city to realize that love is all. Yup, the sentiments are pretty sentimental but "JUSTICE" is the type of song to finish off one of his concerts and have the audience roaring and sobbing into their handkerchiefs. Plus, it's a reminder to me that Tokunaga has one heck of a voice.
"JUSTICE" hit No. 1 on Oricon. I have to also mention that Tokunaga had a mighty crew of musicians contributing their talents such as guitarists Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）and Masaki Matsubara（松原正樹）, drummer Jun Aoyama（青山純）, the aforementioned Kuniyoshi on both keyboards and sax, and a backup chorus consisting of Rajie（ラジー）, Yasuhiro Kido（木戸やすひろ）and Junko Hirotani（広谷順子）.
Last night's edition of NHK's "Uta Con"（うたコン）was considered to be an episode of anniversaries of sorts. For one thing, the hosts announced that it was the 200th show under its current title. As well, some of the guests were celebrating their own auspicious occasions, too. One of them was veteran pop singer-songwriter Hideaki Tokunaga（徳永英明）, and I've likely mentioned this before, but he is one J-Pop star who started out looking so shy and innocent with his puppy-dog eyes whenever he showed up on the music ranking shows in the 1980s that he probably attracted not just the teenagers but also the mothers of those teens.
Plus, he also has that softly rasping and plaintive voice which has had fans cooing for the past 35 years of his career, and indeed "Uta Con" did make mention of the fact that at age 60, he's celebrating a 35th anniversary since beginning his singing. So many congratulations to him.
I wanted to make this a 2-in-1 tonight for Tokunaga then. The first song here is "Koibito" (Lover) which is his 7th single from April 1989 and was written and composed by him, and arranged by Ichizo Seo（瀬尾一三）. His vocals fairly caress the ears as he sings about affectionately reminiscing over a past love, trying to re-live happier days. The melody is sad and introspective as it rather reflects that those days are now definitely days of the past to only be seen in retrospect.
"Koibito" seemed to enjoy the number 7 a lot since not only was it Tokunaga's 7th single, it peaked at No. 7 on the Oricon weeklies and it ended up as the 70th single of the year. Also, it was used as the commercial song for Matsushita's (now Panasonic) Eolia air conditioner, and maybe in a way, getting that cold air coming on your head might be appropriate with this song. Of course, Tokunaga fans know that the same appliance had a namesake song by the man a year earlier.
Tokunaga performed this song last night on "Uta Con" as a commemoration of his 35 years in the music business, and he said that he created "You and Me" to acknowledge that he didn't get his success all on his own but also thanks to the many fans who have supported him all these decades. On his J-Wiki profile, "You and Me" isn't listed as a single but it is a track on his 18th studio album"Love Person" which came out a week ago.
His voice may have gone a tad lower but that characteristic wispiness is still intact as he sings along his melody which is also soft and mellow. However at the same time, there are those feelings of hope and gratitude. Not sure myself, but I think the music is also a bit Beatles in arrangement. "Love Person" has gone as high as No. 3 on Oricon and it's his first album in almost 4 years.
Good afternoon. Hope you're enjoying your weekend so far. It's been a good while since I've spoken about high-toned Hideaki Tokunaga（徳永英明）and I managed to find the B-side for one of his trademark singles, "Kaze no Eolia"（風のエオリア）.
Compared to the wondrous and tenderhearted "Kaze no Eolia" which became the very serious jingle for a Panasonic air conditioner back in the day, the B-side, "Mayonaka no Liberty" (Midnight Liberty) takes things to downtown Tokyo. I was quite taken with the melody line for this one since it is so late 80s/early 90s City Pop (the single was released back in February 1988, and up until now, I'd always treated Tokunaga as a balladeer of heart-on-your-sleeve love songs. However with that recognizable voice, he could apparently handle the urban contemporary quite well as well.
The same trio for "Kaze no Eolia" was also responsible for "Mayonaka no Liberty": Tokunaga for the melody, Akira Ohtsu（大津あきら）for the lyrics about the trials and tribulations of love, and Ichizo Seo（瀬尾一三）was the one who arranged it all. And both songs were also placed onto Tokunaga's 4th album"Dear" from April 1988 which hit No. 2 on Oricon.
Hearing all those Hideaki Tokunaga（徳永英明）songs all these years, my impression of him has been as a lovelorn balladeer that could wring tears from a rock. The exception is the sunny "Yume wo Shinjite"（夢を信じて）which has been one of my touchstone songs representing my time in Gunma Prefecture.
So having said that, it was quite the surprise to hear his 2nd single"Natsu no Radio" (Summer Radio) from May 1986, since it's not only an uptempo number but it's also a tune that takes things into the City Pop realm, and perhaps even into J-Rock. In fact, listening to that downtown beat with the wailing guitar, it struck me as being rather Anzen Chitai（安全地帯）, except that it's Tokunaga's vocals in there instead of Koji Tamaki's（玉置浩二）voice.
However, there was nothing Anzen Chitai attached to "Natsu no Radio". Tokunaga came up with the dramatic music while Ginshiro Akiya（秋谷銀四郎）wrote the lyrics. If I'm not mistaken, the whole premise behind the song was a fateful event in the water one summer day with a song coming from the radio on a boat being the symbol of the encounter. Since then, apparently, there has been no follow-through.
Supposedly, "Natsu no Radio" didn't really register on the charts, which is too bad, since I think it resonates with me. Being his second single, I gather that the powers-that-be were trying different styles with the singer-songwriter but it looks like the urban contemporary stuff wasn't quite working with him. The song was included on Tokunaga's 2nd album "radio" which came out a few months after the single in August.
Welcome back to "Kayo Kyoku Plus", Hideaki! It's been a good long while!
Starting off with a bit of an aside, as I've mentioned in a lot of my articles, in the late 1980s, my old friends from university and I used to hit this karaoke spot called Kuri in the tony Yorkville area at the end of the week for several hours of drinking and singing. Well, once I graduated from U of T, I had those 2 years in Gunma Prefecture on the JET Programme after which I came back for 3 years in T.O. for study. Joining up with my old university club for a second round, this next generation of members had a whole lot more working-holiday visa students so the karaoke routine was further perpetuated.
But it looks like Kuri went the way of the dodo during my time away so our small group ended up a little more downtown at a place called Sushi Bistro (also gone) on Queen West. There was the main restaurant on the first floor while on the second, there was a karaoke bar and then some private rooms acting as karaoke boxes. Thinking back on those nights there in the early 1990s, those rooms were fairly grotty compared to the sleek chambers of a typical Shidax or Big Echo karaoke complex but as long as we had the drinks and an operating karaoke facility in Toronto, we were all quite happy.
Anyways, one of our members in the 90s group had this one song that he enjoyed singing a lot any time we were at Sushi Bistro, and it was one of those tunes that I had completely forgotten about until very recently. It happened to be "Saigo no Iiwake" (The Last Excuse) by Hideaki Tokunaga（徳永英明）, his 6th single from October 1988.
Written by Keiko Aso（麻生圭子）and composed by Tokunaga himself, "Saigo no Iiwake" is one gutwrenchingly sad ballad, especially when delivered by this singer with the high tones and the puppy dog face. Starting with this slow piano melody which sounds a bit like Pachelbel's"Canon", the whole song has this tone of a requiem to a lost relationship either by death or one big screw-up by the guy (considering the title, it's probably the latter). Tokunaga's music has these echoes of reminiscing about the good times anchored firmly in the sadness of the present, and when he goes into the refrain especially at the end, he absolutely embraces his inner anguish with that feeling of "WHAT WAS I THINKING?!" It probably had his many fans sobbing into their handkerchiefs and ready to run to his management, begging for his location to console him.
According to J-Wiki, Tokunaga had woven the melody to fit Aso's lyrics and in doing so, he started weeping. "Saigo no Iiwake" went as high as No. 4 on Oricon and took the very last spot in the 1988 Top 100. A year later, it was ranked at No. 69. The song is also a track on his 5th album, "Realize" from May 1989 which peaked at No. 2 on the weekly charts.
Shidax is quite the emporium for karaoke. Their branches look like a mix between a Disney facility and a Las Vegas hotel, and not surprisingly, I think they are the most expensive karaoke chain in Japan. But I gotta say that their food is pretty darn top-notch...at the same level of an izakaya. So it's too bad I heard that a number of their branches are going to be closed down gradually due to an economic shortfall.
I found this one purely by accident tonight. It's "Mayonaka no Guitar" (Midnight Guitar) by Kaoru Chiga（千賀かほる）from Kagoshima Prefecture. There isn't a whole lot of information on her and what little there is seems to surround this song which was most likely her biggest hit, although she released singles from 1969 to 1978.
But "Mayonaka no Guitar" was her debut single from August 1969, and it's this lullaby-ish folk song of reassurance. If you regular readers of KKP may recall, I wrote about a guitar-themed Mood Kayo from the same decade last night by Michiya Mihashi（三橋美智也）which portrayed the protagonist as this dark knight strolling and strumming through the back streets of the city sporting a guitar like a samurai would brandish a katana. Well, you might say that "Mayonaka no Guitar" is the softer side of things. Chiga doesn't sing about having to endure a solitary musical existence; instead she invites the listener to join her in her little concert and share any miseries to resolve them. In all likelihood, Chiga isn't even strolling the dark streets. She's probably sitting on a tiny balcony while she's performing with the full moon overhead. In any case, it's a very relaxing and sway-worthy ballad, best listened to over a cup of chamomile.
"Mayonaka no Guitar" peaked at No. 4 on Oricon selling close to 450,000 records, and the song was able to win a Newcomer Prize for the 21-year-old Chiga at the Japan Record Awards, and has remained one of her representative tunes. It was written by Osamu Yoshioka（吉岡オサム）and composed by Toshio Kawamura（河村利夫）.
The soothing tune has become a standard of sorts that has been covered by a number of artists over the decades. Mizue Takada（高田みづえ）was perhaps the first singer to do so as the B-side for her 1981 single"Ai no Imagination"（愛のイマジネーション）.
Nearly 3 decades later, Hitomi Shimatani（島谷ひとみ）provided her own cover as her 30th single in 2010. Her arrangement sounds quite similar to the original. It managed to peak at No. 64.
Then, there are the high tones of Hideaki Tokunaga's（徳永英明）version of "Mayonaka no Guitar" which is even slower and more wistful. It was a track on his 2012 album"Vocalist Vintage". However, I think the pure vocals of the original by Chiga still win out in the end.
When I first discovered the high tones of Hideaki Tokunaga（徳永英明）, it was through the tapes of "The Best 10" that I had rented out at Nippon Video all those years ago. And the two songs that I would often see him perform was the lovely "BIRDS" and this one here by the title of "Kaze no Eolia"(Aeolus of the Winds).
And I would always be reminded of air conditioners with "Kaze no Eolia" since that was part of the raison d'etre for Tokunaga's 5th single from February 1988. It was used as the campaign song for National's Eolia AC, and if I'm not mistaken, the company was also one of the sponsors for "The Best 10", so the song got double promotion whenever Tokunaga appeared. Considering the release date, I gather that the marketing team at National felt that it was never too soon to get those customers thinking about safeguarding themselves from the oppressive heat and humidity that has always been part and parcel of a Japanese summer.
"Kaze no Eolia" was written by Akira Ohtsu（大津あきら）and composed by Tokunaga himself. The title referred to Aeolus, the God of Winds in Greek mythology, and the song had somewhat more of a mysterious edge to it compared to the innocence of "BIRDS". Watching the young Tokunaga above in the video, those puppy-dog eyes probably had the young ladies swooning and more than ready to assist.
The song reached No. 4 on Oricon and became the 52nd-ranked song of 1988. It also earned Tokunaga a prize at the 8th annual Japan Composers Awards in October of that year. The awards was one of the premier music awards shows during the 1980s but had its last celebration in 1991.
It's a quotation I've heard countless times over the years and yet I didn't finally find out the source behind it until just a few minutes ago. Apparently, it was made by English playwright and poet William Congreve for the 1697 play, "The Mourning Bridge".
Scoot ahead almost 300 years and go half a world away. I wonder if Hideaki Tokunaga（徳永英明）had been thinking about this quote when he wrote and composed "Kowarekake no Radio"(Broken-Down Radio) as his 10th single for release in July 1990. His lyrics relate his longing to hear the sounds of his old black radio again, the first one that he had ever bought, just to get away from the troubles of the day. The music also has that longing for a more innocent time while Tokunaga's angelic vocals sound even more plaintive than usual because of the lyrical content.
"Kowarekake no Radio" is even more poignant now than when it was first released since I'm not sure whether people listen to radio for actual music anymore. I think it's more for listening to talk or shock or news while most folks can create their own personal radio station through downloads. I was definitely a heavy-duty radio listener back in the 1980s due to my own awakening to music on both sides of the Pacific. I listened to "Sounds of Japan" and dance music remixes on Saturday nights, while going through the dial on weekdays to discover any appealing melodies as well as the Top 10 tunes. My silver SONY was a good companion during the all-nighters in high school and university.
Anyways, getting back to the point at hand..."Kowarekake no Radio" peaked at No. 5 on Oricon and became the 23rd-ranked song for 1990. Although Tokunaga hadn't been invited to the Kohaku that year, he was brought on twice in 2006 and 2009 to sing that particular ballad. It was also used as the main theme for a TBS drama called "Tokai no Mori"（都会の森...Forest of the City）.
The trigger for me to talk about one of Tokunaga's most famous hits is that I was watching NHK's morning variety show "Asaichi"（あさイチ...Morning Market）and found out that the broadcaster is celebrating 90 years. Of course, its origins are from radio. Sometimes, I wish "Sounds of Japan" could come back although I know that Internet radio has plenty of J-Pop out there already. There's something about an actual human behind the selection of the tracks that makes things a lot more personable.
November 5th 2018: I've been watching the anime "Akanesasu Shoujo"（あかねさす少女...The Girl In Twilight） which is this intriguing-if-not-totally successful combination of alternate universe sci-fi, adventure and comedy. "Kowarekake no Radio" is covered here by Hokkaido-born singer Ami Wajima（和島あみ）. This was released as her 3rd single in October this year and has peaked at No. 140 on Oricon.
Believe it or not, Hideaki Tokunaga (德永英明) had my attention before Mae-Kiyo stepped into the picture. I know what you must be thinking. Yes, although I've mentioned time and again that I have a strong preference for male singers with deep, rumbling voices, there was a period of 1 to 2 months where I had actually liked this guy with the voice of a puppy quite a fair bit. Well, now he sounds like a husky rubber duckie, but you get the point. However, I think it's more appropriate to say that I fell in love with his face rather than his voice. I mean come on, that guy is good-looking. And his songs are mostly pleasant and listenable, so that's a plus.
Moving on, I got to know Tokunaga's relatively new single "STATEMENT" when I got the album of the same name quite a while ago. I think it's about a year plus since then. I wasn't that familiar with the singer yet and my impression of him was that his voice (now) seemed to only fit slow, lounge-worthy ballads, and female artiste covers he's so well known for in his "VOCALIST" series. This notion stuck for a while since I hadn't discovered much of his discography until "STATEMENT" came around to prove me wrong.
It started off rather slow with just the tinkling of the piano and Tokunaga's smoky delivery, before coming to life when the rest of the instruments of a typical pop song came into play. I definitely enjoyed this change in pace and liked "STATEMENT" on the first listen... which I shall vaguely assume that it was on YouTube, hence the purchase of the album.
store.universal-music.co.jp
The track was released on 17 June 2013 and Tokunaga wrote and composed it. It did well on the charts, peaking at 18th place, and was used as the theme song for this police drama "Keiji 110 Kilo" (刑事110キロ) that revolves around this overweight police officer, as the title implies.
Y'know, Tokunaga is one of the handful of mainstream pop artistes whom I've seen a number of times on my go-to Tuesday Enka-based show, Kayo Concert. I remember staring the photo of him in awe at the show's webpage a few months ago when checking out the following week's selection. I would say it's a palate cleanser and a pleasant surprise to see something different once in a while.
The album I got. Released a month after
the single.
In any case, I remember seeing the commercial for Hideaki Tokunaga's（徳永英明） 11th single, "Wednesday Moon" and thinking "Is he changing direction here?" Because of my viewings of him on the old ranking shows like "The Best 10", my image of Tokunaga was of a young man with those puppy-dog brown eyes who sang those soft-voiced ballads. He probably had high school girls waiting to ambush him outside the recording studio.
But first he had come up with that really joyous single, "Yume wo Shinjite"（夢を信じて）in 1990 and then over a year later, here was this mysterious and moody "Wednesday Moon" with the pop/rock synths. And the video had him channeling his inner MTV with the de rigueur large & empty room with sheets over the furniture. When that angsty choreography was thrown in, I almost had a Simple Minds experience. And strangely enough, that soft rasp in his voice actually worked for some reason.
"Wednesday Moon" was released in April 1991 and was written & composed by Tokunaga himself. It became his first No. 1 single in his career up to that point and placed 62nd in the yearly charts on Oricon.
I was wondering about that title until I read the lyrics. Oftentimes with a J-Xmas song, the theme is about being alone and lonely on Christmas Eve, and "No-Sleeve no Christmas"(A No-Sleeve Christmas) has that part in it, but it also has a happier conclusion in that the separated couple kiss and make up half a year later just on the cusp of summer.
Hideaki Tokunaga（徳永英明） composed the rousing melody which sounds like a musical set-up for a launch into a happy tomorrow while Ginjiro Akitani....or Akiya?（秋谷銀次郎）...wrote the story of the couple recovering from that half-year hiatus. "No-Sleeve no Christmas" was never released as a single but is a part of Tokunaga's 3rd album, "Birds" which came out in May 1987. However, its popularity was such that it got onto his first BEST album, "Intro." which was released in December of the same year.
Hideaki Tokunaga（徳永英明） was a regular fixture on those tapes of music shows that my family had rented from Nippon Video all those years ago. This song was one of the reasons. The first few words of "Kagayaki Nagara"(While You're Shining), "Sugao ni melody...." can almost be like the ultimate clarion call from Tokunaga; whenever his name comes to mind, those lyrics quickly follow.
Tokunaga's ode was released in July 1987 as his 4th single, and was created by Akira Ohtsu and Kisaburo Suzuki（大津あきら・鈴木キサブロ）. I think the key attraction to him has been those light but penetrating vocals of his. That dreamy and creamy delivery probably struck a lot of girls' hearts like curare-tipped arrows, and it also didn't hurt that he had that sad puppy dog expression whenever he showed up on shows like "The Top Ten".
"Kagayaki Nagara" peaked at No. 4 on Oricon, and became the 13th-ranked song for 1987. It was also a track on his third album, "Birds", released in May of that year. It was also a favourite song for commercials ranging from film to isotonic drinks to natural gas. Not sure how the song actually fit into the last one especially, but hey, if it works...
Y'know....I'm not quite sure which came first....seeing the music video on MTV Japan or deciding to get the CD single on a whim that got me to enjoy Hideaki Tokunaga's（徳永英明） "Yume wo Shinjite"(Believe in the Dream) as one of my musical memories of 1989-1991. My first impression of the song was that this was the first time that Tokunaga sounded so upbeat. Before I left for Japan in my first foray as a teacher, I had gotten to know the high-toned crooner through his ballads such as "Birds" and "Rainy Blue" (both already profiled) on those video tapes of "The Best 10", so it was a revelation to hear him in such chipper voice.
"Yume wo Shinjite" was also the ending theme for the popular anime series "Dragon Quest", something I found out when I saw the seal on my CD single purchase. The single was supposed to have been released on January 15th 1990 which was once designated as "Seijin no Hi"（成人の日） or Adulthood Dayto celebrate the passage of teenagers into official adults in Japan, and I think the title and the positivity of the song was emblematic of this national holiday. However, elementary school students who, of course, also had the day off so loved the anime, and "Yume wo Shinjite" by association, that they must've terrified the staff in the various CD shops about the impending arrival of Tokunaga's most successful single. And knowing how loud excited kids can get in an enclosed space, the powers-that-be quickly decided to move the official release date to the 16th instead. Disappointed kids, relieved sellers.
The song was composed by Tokunaga and written by Hitoshi Shinohara（篠原仁志）. It peaked at No. 3 on Oricon and became the 18th-ranked song of 1990. It was also re-released in 2011 after the massive earthquake and tsunami as a track in a special charity album. Very good choice.
Either this song, "Birds" or "Kagayaki Nagara"（輝きながら...As You're Radiant) was the first Hideaki Tokunaga（徳永英明） single I'd ever heard. It was on one of those "The Best 10" video tapes that I'd rented, and I was rather gobsmacked at Tokunaga's high voice. Not that a lot of male voices in Japanese music were in the baritone/bass range (was listening to Matchy, Checkers and CCB at that time), but this guy's pearly tones could have labeled him a eunuch.
As with a lot of evergreen ballads, "Birds"just has that ability to take me back to my university days. Written by Akira Otsu（大津あきら）and composed by Tokunaga himself, it's just arranged in that pleasant swayworthy way that would get participants in a karaoke booth to involuntarily swing their upper bodies like metronomes.
Tokunaga's 3rd single, released in May 1987, didn't crack the Top 100 in the yearly Oricon rankings, although his next release, "Kagayaki Nagara" ended up becoming the 13th-ranked songof 1987, but both singles were part of his 2nd album, "Birds", which did hit the top spot in the weekly charts.
When I profiled the Kohaku Utagassen (under "Media") some months ago, one of the videos I put up from YouTube was Mieko Hirota's（弘田三枝子） performance of this song on the 1969 Kohaku. Hirota was born in the inner suburb of Ikejiri-Ohashi in Tokyo in 1947 and debuted as a singer in 1961 at the age of 14 with the cover of UK singer Helen Shapiro's"Don't Treat Me Like A Child" and then doing a cover of Connie Francis' "VACATION" in 1963. At the time, Japanese pop singers' repertoire often included covers of the big American and British hits of the day. In her earlier years, Hirota had that cute girl-next-door image but heading into the late 60s, she dramatically changed her looks to take on a sultrier appearance. At one point, she was called The Queen of Pop Music.
Her 11th single, the haunting "Ningyo no Ie"(The Dollhouse), was released in July 1969. It was a crying song that would have made Connie Francis proud, as Hirota sings about being cast aside by a lover like an old doll. The song was written by Rei Nakanishi（なかにし礼） and composed by Makoto Kawaguchi（川口真）who has composed songs for Naoko Kawai（河合奈保子）and the first leader of Morning Musume, Yuko Nakazawa（中澤裕子）.
"Ningyo no Ie" was a big hit and became one of her trademark tunes as it won a prize for her at the 1969 Japan Record Awards and her 6th of 8 invitations to the Kohaku Utagassen. The song hit the top spot on Oricon and was the 18th-ranked song of that year.
Hideaki Tokunaga（徳永英明）, who has been known of late for doing cover versions of many kayo kyoku/J-Pop songs over the decades, performed "Ningyo no Ie" on a music show although I'm not sure if this cover has made it onto any of his "VOCALIST" series of albums.
I remember first seeing Hideaki Tokunaga（徳永英明） on episodes of "The Best 10" and "The Top 10" in the late 80s singing hits like "Kaze no Eolia"（風のエオリア....Eolia Wind) and "Kagayaki Nagara"（輝きながら...Shining). He struck me as someone who looked a lot younger than he was, and just plain stuck out because of his high voice with a bit of a rasp in it. He didn't sing the lyrics so much as he soared through them. It was like watching a choir boy growing up.
However, after getting one of his BEST compilations some years later, I came across his debut single, "Rainy Blue". Released in January 1986, I thought it was an interesting start to his career since it was very much a ballad instead of a mid-tempo or a fast song. Although its original release didn't chart, I think "Rainy Blue" was a fine choice since it did play to Tokunaga's strengths of his tender vocals. In 1997, the song was given a second release, and it went as high as No. 31 on the Oricon charts.
"Rainy Blue" was composed by Tokunaga and written by Makoto Ohki（大木誠）, who the singer had first met some years back in the resort town of Karuizawa while he was working part-time there. Even earlier, Tokunaga had entered the TV talent show "Star Tanjo"（スター誕生...A Star is Born) along with future aidoru/theatre star Minako Honda（本田美奈子） and TV personality Akiko Matsumoto（松本明子）. He tried out with Tatsuro Yamashita's（山下達郎） "Ride on Time"(already profiled), but in the end, Matsumoto won.
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