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 Hideya Nakazaki. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hideya Nakazaki. Show all posts
Back on March 26th, I provided an article on Tomoyo Harada's（原田知世）"Hoshi no Deja Vu"（星のデジャ・ヴ）, a pleasant and wistful song that works fine with the aidoru's soft and purring vocals. It was also the B-side to her7th single from July 1985, "Soushun Monogatari"（Early Spring Story）.
So, finally we've come to the A-side, and "Soshun Monogatari", which was also used as the theme song for a Harada movie of the same name, is a pretty different animal. Written by Chinfa Kan（康珍化）and composed by Hideya Nakazaki（中崎英也）, it was arranged by Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）into this ballroom waltz style in triple time according to the J-Wiki article. It's quite the moody and bittersweet affair but it doesn't quite encapsulate the plot of the movie which is pretty wild from what I could read on its Wikipedia page.
"Soshun Monogatari" reached No. 4 on Oricon and ended up as the 73rd-ranked song for 1985, selling a little over 160,000 records. Harada made her first appearance on the Kohaku Utagassen that year singing this one.
Not sure whether the game show is still flourishing on Japanese TV. When I was living there, it still had a pretty strong hold across the channel spectrum on a weekly basis. One of the more popular ones was "Quiz Sekai wa SHOW by Shobai!!"（クイズ世界はSHOW by ショーバイ!!...The Quiz World is a Show by Trade!!）on NTV. I don't quite remember the various segments but there was the slot machine spin, and if I'm going just by the video above, a mere lucky spin can get one team a victory right off the bat.
The comical band Modern Choki Chokies（モダンチョキチョキズ）was one of many musical acts to contribute theme songs to "Quiz Sekai", and I remember the band providing some of their music as commercial jingles or theme songs to shows such as "Super Jockey"（スーパージョッキー）which was also on NTV. Modern Choki Chokies seemed to be up for any particular genre as long as they could firmly place tongue in cheek.
Well, MCC's contribution to "Quiz Sekai" was their 7th single from November 1994, "Suteki na Maana"(Wonderful Manna). From the title, I'd initially assumed that it was all about "wonderful manners" but then I remembered that "manners" isn't quite spelled that way in katakana. So I then went with some wonderful young lady named Manna. Anyways, Mari Hamada（濱田マリ）and company have opted for a late 60s/early 70s rock/funk style with all the trimmings in the music video above. In a way, "Suteki na Maana" reminds me of some of the music that Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里）provided. Fellow MCC vocalist Motoi Kishimoto（岸本基）was behind words and music with Ireme Yasuda（安田イレメ）helping out on the lyrics and then Hideya Nakazaki（中崎英也）assisting in the composition.
Continuing on the Valentine's Day theme from the previous article and also sifting through those old B-sides, I did find something from Sayuri Kokusho's（国生さゆり）classic February 1986 single "Valentine Kiss"(バレンタイン・キッス) via JTM's write-up on the song all the way back in 2013.
As cute as "Valentine Kiss" is, the B-side "Koi wa Ring Ring Ring"(Love is Ring Ring Ring) is more of a frantic sugar-high as a young lass is trying her darndest to contact her beau on the phone but he's too busy talking to someone else. Who could that someone be? Stress levels and conspiracy theories abound like bunnies! As with "Valentine Kiss", "Koi wa Ring Ring Ring" was written by Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）and arranged by Jun Sato（佐藤準）, but this time, the melody was provided by Hideya Nakazaki（中崎英也）who gave a fine illustration of how the lass was going out of her mind with the rock guitar, the sparkly synths and the rapid-fire percussion.
The song is also available on Kokusho's 1st album"Pep Talk" which was released in July 1986. It hit No. 2 on Oricon.
I was just taking some snapshots from that aidoru guide and so here is this showing 80s teenybopper singer Yuko Nito（仁藤優子）on the cover of her September 1987 2nd single"Aki kara no Summer Time" (Summer Time from Autumn). Thought it would make for a nice addition on KKP, after putting up her debut single"Okorinbo no Ningyo"（おこりんぼの人魚）a few years ago.
And indeed, considering the release month and the title, the song is a refreshing blast of summery weather, musically speaking, with a little bit of 50s in the chorus and some synthesizer spaciness in the instrumental bridge. Written by Keiko Aso（麻生圭子）and composed by Hideya Nakazaki（中崎英也）, "Aki kara no Summer Time" was Nito's most successful single by peaking at No. 10 on Oricon.
Ahhh....it's so nice to hear the velvet tones of Kanako Wada（和田加奈子）once more after so long. And the crazy thing is that this song "Wake Up Dream" was included on her "Golden Best" compilation but I never mentioned it in its article.
Well, allow me to rectify. "Wake Up Dream" was Wada's final single to date, released in July 1991, and it's been given the subtitle of "New Arrange Version". Thing is, I can't find the so-called "old arrange version" anywhere in her other singles or albums. But in any case, this arrangement is a fine one with that refreshing feeling of bossa nova in the morning. Haven't heard this in so long that hearing it again a few days ago brought some hairs to attention.
Neko Oikawa（及川眠子）was the lyricist while Hideya Nakazaki（中崎英也）took care of the soothing melody. Some very nice background vocals accompanying Wada's own lovely voice which would make it sound quite ideal for radio. The song was also used in a Morinaga Piknik ad; it looks to be some yogurt drink. Below is a commercial for the product but from 1987.
Megumi Hirota（広田恵）is one of those singers whose online presence in terms of basic information is incredibly small. At this point, I just have one album, "Gray", from 1991 represented via the track "Senaka Awase no CRESCENT"（背中あわせのCRESCENT）.
Although that particular song was one that I categorized as a pop tune, I think another track, "Just My Love", has enough urban pizzazz in it that I can treat it as a City Pop song of the times. Written by Ayuko Ishikawa（石川あゆ子）and composed by Hideya Nakazaki（中崎英也）, it's got some blippy Latin percussion (to add to those synth-horns) in there as well so I did get some of those Matt Bianco vibes.
From what I could find on the Oricon website, Hirota had at least two albums including "Gray" and three singles with "Gray" being the last release.
Last week, I provided an article covering Side A of the late Junko Ohashi's（大橋純子）1988 album"DEF" and so today, I'm following up with my thoughts on Side B. So far, it's got a good mixture of the various urban contemporary genres in there. Also, just to let you know, I've realized that my copy of the album, which I had purchased literally decades ago, is different from the track arrangement in future releases, so my copy is going with the track list showing for "DEF" on Amazon Japan while probably your copies have the arrangement shown on Discogs. In addition, as noted last week, the trio of lyricist, composer and arranger handling the album mostly involves Goro Matsui（松井五郎）, Ken Sato（佐藤健）and Nobuyuki Shimizu（清水信之）for the most part. Any other songwriters will be noted for each track below.
Side B of my own copy begins with "Madoi no Wicked Woman"（惑いのWicked Woman...The Wicked Woman of My Illusions） which has been described as a nice slice of urban funk but I can also hear some of that sophisticated pop as well. This time, the lyricist is a fellow by the name of Tsurezuregusa（徒然草）which is obviously a pen name but it's also the title of an ancient collection of essays by the monk Kenko. Nothing about nature or humourous incidents in this song though which is all about that fateful encounter with a mystery lady on the dance floor. Basically, I gather that this is the urban Japanese version of two ships passing each other in the night.
Track B2 is the soulful ballad"Tooi Hohoemi"（遠いほゝえみ...Distant Smile） which has the main three songwriters listed above but with Junko's husband, Sato, handling chorus duties this time, while singer-songwriter Masayuki Kishi（岸正之）is taking care of the melody. Meanwhile, the overall arrangement was by Keiichi Oku（奥恵一）for a tune of wistful reminiscing over a past romance. Another lovely performance by Ohashi and the piano in there has had me remembering many an 80s love song from America.
If somehow, the anime "Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai ~ Tensai-tachi no Ren'ai Zunousen"（かぐや様は告らせたい〜天才たちの恋愛頭脳戦〜）had been willing to include insert songs not sung by the God of Love Songs, Masayuki Suzuki（鈴木雅之）, himself, this particular track by Ohashi, "Burlesque ga Oniai"（バーレスクがお似合い...Fit for a Burlesque）, could have been a candidate since it involves a lot of the love and games that was going on in the first season of the series. As it is though, it's a cool blend of City Pop and funk, thanks to composer Hideya Nakazaki（中崎英也）with Hiroshi Yamada（山田ひろし）behind the lyrics.
"Mayonaka no Distance"（真夜中の距離...Midnight Distance） is a smoky and haunting funk tune with some thumping percussion (which then gets passed onto the keyboards) about a mysterious and dangerous tryst at the bewitching hour. As noted in Yukinojo Mori's（森雪之丞）lyrics, there is a Don Juan making his rounds which most likely means that there will be some major heartbreak at the end. Again, Nakazaki took care of the melody.
The final track, "Yume no Tobira"（夢の扉...The Doors to a Dream）, is unsurprisingly a quieter song (at least initially) to finish off "DEF" with. This time, Yasuhiro Abe（安部恭弘）is on board to provide the gently undulating music surrounding the aftermath of a couple's eventful night in bed. The aforementioned Oku took care of the string arrangements for some added dramatic bossa nova oomph to the climax (no pun intended). If there had been a longer coda, it would have been for the afterglow cigarettes.
Gotta say that I largely underestimated "DEF" all these years. One Gibbs slap to the back of my head. I gather that I wasn't quite ready yet but I am now. Hopefully, Ohashi's fans have been celebrating her life and career and music at the one-year anniversary of her departure.
It's now been one year since Junko Ohashi（大橋純子）died at the age of 73 on November 9th 2023. So, as I did with a couple of covers of her hits including Shiori Sasaki's（佐々木詩織）"Simple Love"（シンプルラブ）yesterday during Urban Contemporary Fridays, I would like to continue the tribute to the soul singer with the boomer voice by taking a look at her January 1988 album, "DEF", over two articles, beginning with Side A.
First off, allow me to apologize, since it might look like a couple of ghost hands are trying to strangle the lovely woman above, but thanks to my very unprofessional photography skills, the flash function also included my attempts to take the picture. In any case, "DEF" was Ohashi's first album after moving from Philips, which had been her label ever since she first began her career in the early 1970s, to Epic/Sony Records, and though the release isn't solely a City Pop album as we will hear, she and her fashion team really went down to town to get that "Vogue" look which makes her appear that she's ready to hit the streets of 80s Bubble Era Tokyo for some champagne and caviar...or maybe she's heading to the Kentucky Derby.
According to the liner notes, "DEF" stands for "Dream, Emotion, Fragrance", so I'm already getting that sophisticated night vibe. The first four tracks on Side A actually represent the Hokkaido singer's 22nd and 23rd singles from January and February 1988 which include the bright and Big City feeling of the first track "Nemurenai Diamond" (眠れないダイアモンド）, one of my very favourites by Ohashi. It was because of hearing this Camellia Diamonds commercial song on the "Sounds of Japan" broadcast that had me searching for the source album for a few years. I was able to track down "DEF" probably during my time on the JET Programme.
Strange thing, though. Although I loved "Nemurenai Diamond", the other tracks on "DEF" didn't spark the same emotion initially and so it stayed on the shelf for many years without me taking it out. I gather that I wasn't quite ready. However, I am ready now and have been smacking myself up the back of my head for not being ready early enough. By the way, unless noted, the main lyricist, composer and arranger on "DEF" are Goro Matsui（松井五郎）, Ken Sato（佐藤健）and Nobuyuki Shimizu（清水信之）respectively.
Above is Track 2 and Side B to the "Nemurenai Diamond" single, "Aru Yoru no Wonder"（ある夜のWonder...A Wonder One Night）. Beginning with a sumptuous lone trumpet that would make the folks at Swing Out Sister swoon, the uptempo song keeps the good times of Side A rolling in Tokyo as a young lady contemplates the new love and life in the megalopolis. It's too bad that the album never came out with a list of the musicians but I wouldn't be surprised if the trumpet player was Shin Kazuhara（数原晋）.
Track 3 and Ohashi's 23rd single is "Futatoori no Kokuhaku"（ふたとおりの告白）is pure soul balladry...absolutely her wheelhouse. Not sure whether the translation would be either "Two Confessions" or "Two-Way Confession", but perhaps it really doesn't matter in the end, since both participants in a couple are slowly getting the gumption to make their feelings known to each other. I like how the pre-chorus melody shifts into minor-key doubt mode to reflect the kids' uncertainty about their love before the ship is back on an even keel. Nice solo with the urban guitar and the keyboards, too.
The next track and Side B to "Futatoori no Kokuhaku" is "Sayonara to Onaji Rain"（さよならと同じRain...Rain Like Goodbye）, a rhythmically propulsive song of lost love as Matsui's lyric of "an August rain" hints at the change of the seasons meaning the potential end of romance. There is a bit of Latin and disco strings, and we get to hear that amazing Ohashi boomer voice that I was surprised by when I finally got to hear her 1970s material.
The final track for Side A of "DEF" stands out since it's more of a pop/rock piece titled "Sasayaki ni Utaretai"（ささやきに撃たれたい...I Want to be Shot by a Whisper） with Hideya Nakazaki（中崎英也） handling the melody this time while Sato takes care of the chorus arrangement. Although I couldn't quite understand the lyrics here in their entirety, I did get an impression of another complicated time with love.
I realize that Ohashi had always kept her hair pretty short although obviously she never looked like a Marine recruit, but when I noticed that she grew it out a little for the album's back shot, I think she looked pretty darn hot there. Anyways, Side A is done. I'll have Side Bup and running either next Friday or Saturday.
Well over a year ago, I introduced a brief-career aidoru by the name of Yoko Nakamura（中村容子）via her 1984 debut single"Teenage Soldier"（ティーンエイジ・ソルジャー）. I also compared her slightly with 90s singing star Kohmi Hirose（広瀬香美）due to those high and clear bell-like tones.
Now, allow me to take you to her fourth and final single"Natsu Iro My Heart" (Summer Color My Heart) which was released in June 1985. Written by Hiromi Fukunaga（福永ひろみ）, composed by Hideya Nakazaki（中崎英也）and arranged by Shiro Sagisu（鷺巣詩郎）, she doesn't quite sound like Hirose here as her vocals are somewhat more reserved but still girlish. There's something also kinda Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）as well when Nakamura sings those verses along with Sagisu's arrangements and the wailing electric guitar and those gliding strings giving a certain refinement to everything.
Happy Tuesday! And we're in our first heat wave in Toronto for Summer 2024...even though we're still a couple of days away from official Summer. I had been showing my sympathy for Tokyoites the week before due to the heat that was already swallowing them up but now we Torontonians will be relying heavily on the air conditioning and cool drinks for the rest of this week.
Anyways, just wanted to bring in another spritely song by relatively short-careered aidoru Ayumi Shirota（白田あゆみ）. I had posted her second KKP article back in January, and my impression is that though she didn't too long a time in the geinokai(1983-1989), her music seemed quite refined, thereby further illustrating how aidoru music in the late 1980s did have some wonderfully classy arrangements.
From her debut album "Anata no Hitomi ni Utsuritai"（あなたの瞳に映りたい...I Want to See Myself in Your Eyes） released in February 1988, I give you the track "Call Me" that throws in hints of Latin and perhaps even Eurobeat but perhaps not in enough amounts to earn those labels in Labels. Still, they're enough to give Shirota's song some pretty nice pizzazz. "Call Me" was written by Kenzo Saeki（サエキけんぞう）and composed Hideya Nakazaki（中崎英也）. Incidentally, I should post something up on Blondie's "Call Me" in a ROY article sometime soon.
I was never aware of this music variety show titled "Kayo Bin Bin House"（歌謡びんびんハウス）which was televised on TV Asahi on Sunday afternoons between 1986 and 1994. Most likely, when I was on the JET Programme back then, I was taking a leisurely nap in my room. But from what I've seen of this particular episode, it had quite a variety of musical guests running the gamut from aidoru to enka and having them go through different fun segments including the mini-golf at the beginning. One of them, enka diva Fuyumi Sakamoto（坂本冬美）, was someone that I saw on the Kohaku Utagassen some days ago.
Throughout its nearly eight years on the air, there were a number of ending themes for the show with one of them being Ritsuko Kurosawa's（黒沢律子）"Hot Boy". The song was also her 2nd single released in October 1990 and that coincided with the release of her 2nd album, "Confess", on the same day. Masami Kobayashi（小林まさみ）was responsible for the lyrics which talk about the titular hot boy or maybe the young lady involved getting all hot and bothered about love. Meanwhile, the music was provided by Hideya Nakazaki（中崎英也）. Not sure if it would fall under the category of City Pop, but there's a rather propulsive mix of R&B (maybe a touch of New Jack Swing?) and pop in there.
It's hard for me to imagine but it's been over three years since I posted Reiko Takahashi's（高橋玲子）"Sunset Road"（サンセット・ロード）that I first heard as a Vaporwave treatment before hearing the original and slower-tempo second single from July 1987.
Well, I've now gotten to hear the B-side to "Sunset Road" and it's also a pretty darn good tune. "September Blue" tends more toward the City Pop side of things compared to the AOR sense of "Sunset Road". The lyricist Junko Sato（佐藤純子）and the arranger Keiichi Oku（奥慶一）also took care of this one as they did the A-side, but this time, instead of Kingo Hamada（濱田金吾）, the composer is Hideya Nakazaki（中崎英也）. Listening to it a couple of times now, I get that feeling of Anri（杏里）through the vocals and arrangement (including the horns), and so I'm left wondering about the fact that Takahashi only released those two singles.
Encountering this song title here has had me remembering a 2003 book called "Eats, Shoots & Leaves" by Lynne Truss who was not very happy about how punctuation was being mistreated.
This isn't to say that Hanako Asada's（麻田華子）"Sayonara, DANCE" is the punctuation grenade that Truss was warning about, but I initially wondered what the title was saying. Was it a goodbye to character actor Charles Dance? Was it meant to be a farewell to dancing or was it a goodbye two-step with the comma mistakenly placed in between the two words?
OK, enough with the snarkiness. From the lyrics by Kazuko Kobayashi（小林和子）, "Sayonara, DANCE" was most likely meant to be a short two-item list describing an unhappy lass' night with her saying goodbye to a now erstwhile boyfriend and then hitting the nearest disco to get rid of her negative feelings with little success. Mind you, the melody by Hideya Nakazaki（中崎英也）and arrangement by Nobuyuki Shimizu（清水信之）are plenty aidoru perky and reflective of the time period. "Sayonara, DANCE" was released as Asada's 4th single in February 1989. The song failed to score anywhere on the Oricon Top 100 and didn't appear on either of her two original albums but it finally showed up on her February 2004 BEST compilation"Asada Hanako Collection"（麻田華子 コレクション）.
As I mentioned in my first article regarding Asada, "Doubt!", she just had the five singles and two albums before calling it a singing career.
Well, it's been a couple of years since I wrote about one of my favourite singers, Miki Imai（今井美樹）, and that's primarily because I had already written quite a lot about her in the early years of the blog, including articles on whole albums. So, I've gone over her CDs including "Mocha (Under A Full Moon)", "Retour" (my personal favourite) and even her very first BEST compilation, "Ivory", which happens to be my very first purchase of an Imai album.
Therefore, I decided that I should go over one of her earlier albums and so I'm going with her 2nd release "elfin" which came out in September 1987. Actually, four of the ten tracks already have representation via their own articles: the playful "Futari de Splash"（ふたりでスプラッシュ）, the first track "Doshaburi Wonderland"（どしゃ降りWonderland）, along with "Pole Position" and "Yasei no Kaze"（野性の風）, the latter two of which have been talked about in the "Ivory" article.
Most of the tracks were written by lyricist Masami Tozawa（戸沢暢美）and arranged by Jun Sato（佐藤準）with a small variety of composers helping out. For example, "Club Lonely Hearts Exotica"（クラブ・ロンリーハーツ・エキゾティカ）was composed by Hideya Nakazaki（中崎英也）, and this one comes in as Track No. 3 following the aforementioned "Doshaburi Wonderland" and "Pole Position".
Although I know that Imai has done her share of upbeat songs such as "Pole Position", I've always seen her as being a singer behind love ballads and calming tunes. It was with some initial surprise then that "Club Lonely Hearts Exotica" has that feeling of a Saturday night in a Roppongi or Shinjuku dance club. In a way, it sounds like something more for Yoko Oginome（荻野目洋子）.
The following track "Omoidashita dake"（思いだしただけ...Just a Memory）, composed by arranger Jun Sato begins sounding like a Fashion Music tune via synthesizers before it goes into a mid-tempo pop song with a bit of Motown soul in parts. It's not my favourite Imai tune, but at least her vocals reminded me why I've enjoyed her music over the years. The lyrics relate a tale of remembering an old relationship.
Track No. 7 is the dramatic "Sayonara no Yukue"（SAYONARAの行方...Where Goodbye Goes） was written by Keiko Aoki（青木景子）and composed by Ken Sato（佐藤健）, and it has that rumbling rhythm throughout which could mean a fast ride through the highways and byways of Tokyo. However, the song was actually used as the ending theme for an NTV quiz show, although I think that it could have made for a good theme song for a suspenseful anime.
"Hikari no Yume"（光の夢...Dream of Light） is a pleasant ballad about a couple of friends, one of whom has discovered to their delight and giddiness that the feelings have gone deeper, so to speak. And there are hints that the buddy is thinking the same thing. Junko Sato（佐藤純子）was the lyricist while none other than Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）came up with the melody which made a nice fit with Imai's style.
The penultimate track also happens to be the title track "elfin". I'm familiar with it since it was also included as one of the tracks on "Ivory". Written by Imai herself and composed by Tohru Yamazaki（山崎透）who was part of the rock band PaPa, "elfin" is a soothing soundscape for a couple taking an evening stroll or a swim along the shore, and it comes with its sounds of waves.
My final song doesn't have its own video on YouTube and can only be found as part of the video of the whole album. But if you can search for 24:15 above, there is "Last Sequence"（ラスト・シークエンス）, another nocturnal rumbler by Aoki and Sato that kinda straddles pop and City Pop, although in support of the latter genre, there's something about the arrangement that had me thinking of the duo Airplay. A couple in a car are playing the silent treatment on each other after perhaps an argument.
"elfin" has some good tracks in there although it won't supplant "retour" as my favourite Imai album. However, what it probably did at the time was get listeners' attention to Imai's ability with music since if I'm not mistaken, she had been known more as a model and actress. Her first album, "femme", only got as high as No. 75 on CD (No. 47 on LP), but "elfin" was the first time that Imai enjoyed a Top 10 album by peaking at No. 5 on Oricon. The album also enjoyed becoming one of the year's best at the Japan Record Awards in 1987.
Last month, I wrote about this band with the unusual name of AIRMAIL from NAGASAKI which was responsible for the anison "Melos no You ni - LONELY WAY"（メロスのように）, the theme song for "Aoki Ryuusei SPT Layzner",（蒼き流星SPTレイズナー...Blue Comet SPT Layzner） back in 1985. The band also struck me as rather distinct as a group that sounded a bit like a Johnny's Entertainment group from that era such as Shonentai（少年隊）and Hikaru Genji（光GENJI）but was actually a "homegrown" band with a slightly mellower approach.
After being around since 1980 under the name Band Liverpool and then AIRMAIL from NAGASAKI, there was just that one single "Melos no You ni" in 1985 and then a mini-album "DOGEN?" the following year after which the band broke up. From that album, I bring you "Go-fun Dake no Wagamama" (Just Five Minutes of Selfishness).
As with "Melos no You ni", "Go-fun Dake no Wagamama" was written by Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）and composed by Hideya Nakazaki（中崎英也）as this pillowy love song. Not sure if this is a ballad about a final embrace before breakup or just enjoying that daily surreptitious hug and kiss before the lovebird high school kids take off for their respective homes. It's an interesting tune because of vocalist/guitarist Toshiya Noshita's（野下俊哉）singing which can't help but feel like something that the aforementioned Johnny's groups would croon, but at the same time, that singing and the arrangement by Kei Wakakusa（若草恵）also reminds me of the works of other bands from that decade such as H2Oand Omega Tribe. It's definitely got that sunset feeling.
I only found this out while I was writing this article, but "Go-fun Dake no Wagamama" also has that connection with "Aoki Ryuusei SPT Layzner" after all. The song was the first ending theme for the anime but was recorded by singer-songwriter Seiko Tomizawa（富沢聖子）who has provided her fair share of anison.
I gather that there is some sort of record in this. To explain, this is the first time probably in "Kayo Kyoku Plus" history that I've written about two City Pop songs by two different female singers, each with the Japanese word sasowarete on the same day. One is the first article I did earlier this afternoon, Eri Hayakawa's（早川英梨）"Sasowarete Natsu"（誘われて夏）.
This article is on pop singer Chiyono Yoshino's（吉野千代乃）3rd single"Slow Dance ni Sasowarete" (Invite Me for A Slow Dance) from October 1986. Sweet, sultry and smoky, nonetheless I was at first wondering whether the song could still be categorized as a City Pop number, but I couldn't help but feel the urban contemporary nature of it all. Even though there isn't a really huge boppy bass in there, there is the bluesy saxophone, and the strings and keyboard bring that certain air of sophisticated pop.
"Slow Dance ni Sasowarete" was written by Goro Matsui（松井五郎）and composed by Hideya Nakazaki（中崎英也） and is the first track on Yoshino's 2nd album"SLOW DANCE" which came out on the same day as the single. I've just got the one album by her, "Montage" as you can see in the photo at the top but from listening to some of her other tunes on YouTube, I really ought to invest some more of her back catalog. She's starting to strike me as one of the more underrated pop singers in the 1980s.
Anime for me started with "Gatchaman"（ガッチャマン）and "Uchuu Senkan Yamato"（宇宙戦艦ヤマト）in the late 1970s when I was in junior high, but it wasn't too long after the turn of the decade when the age of the mecha dawned with other legendary franchises such as "Gundam"（ガンダム）and "Macross"（マクロス）. Part of the reason that I never went full bore into mecha anime was that at the time, it was still difficult to get access to video tapes of such series here in my side of North America. As well, mecha anime seemed to pop up like mushrooms and dandelions all over the place so I could never get a handle on what was what with all of the weird names such as "Xabungle" and "SPT Layzner". The naming must have been a Scrabble player's dream or nightmare.
Speaking of the 1985"SPT Layzner", I should actually give the full name at least once. The official title is "Aoki Ryuusei SPT Layzner",（蒼き流星SPTレイズナー...Blue Comet SPT Layzner） and it's something that I've heard over and over throughout the years. I figured with that name, it just had to do something with battling mecha. Also that opening theme song was strangely familiar, probably because my anime buddy played it during the anison hour of our biweekly routine (which has been suspended for over three months now).
That opening theme is "Melos no You ni - LONELY WAY" (Just Like Melos). OK, first off, I gather that this Melos fellow must have been quicksilver fast according to the English translation of the lyrics (which you can check by going to the very final link at the bottom of the article), but that is all I know. The best that I could do was that Melos is also a Greek island, so if any wiser anime fan can tell me what Melos has to do with the song, I would be greatly appreciative.
Moving on, "Melos no You ni" was performed by the trio known as AIRMAIL from NAGASAKI which brings on Question No. 2: How the heck did they come up with that name? Well, according to the J-Wiki article on this band, an FM Yokohama radio interview revealed that the three members, vocalist/guitarist Toshiya Noshita（野下俊哉）, keyboardist/guitarist Minoru Yamada（山田稔）and keyboardist/guitarist Tetsushiro Tsuchiya（土屋徹志郎）, all hail from Nagasaki and apparently on the AIRMAIL part, they felt that their hometown was more of a foreign country compared to the rest of Japan. I can sleep well on that.
On listening to "Melos no You ni", which was written by future Onyanko Club（おニャン子クラブ）and AKB48 Svengali Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）and composed by Hideya Nakazaki（中崎英也）, I had first thought that AIRMAIL from NAGASAKI was a Johnny's Entertainment group like Hikaru Genji（光GENJI）or Shonentai（少年隊）from the vocals. But Noshita, Yamada and Tsuchiya all met at the beginning of the decade and formed a first group called Band Liverpool before changing into AIRMAIL. Getting back to the song itself, I enjoy it for those wailing guitars of 80s Japanese Oricon-friendly pop/rock and I even get some Alfee vibes from the background vocals.
The song was the band's only single, and there was only one mini-album released in 1986"DOGEN?" as their output under their name.
"Melos no You ni" must have been one of those anison that various singers have loved to cover. Hironobu Kageyama（影山ヒロノブ）brought his rockin' vocals to it on the 1998 compilation album "Super Robot Taisen Vocal Collection 2"（スーパーロボット大戦 ボーカルコレクション2）.
The major thing that I remembered about this Yoko Oginome（荻野目洋子）single from May 1985 was the synth steel drum riff in the intro, and then the first couple of lines sung by her.
I gather that "Koishite Caribbean" (Love in the Caribbean), her 5th single, was still before Oginome took on that famous dance-pop persona with the release of "Dancing Hero"（ダンシング・ヒーロー）since her performance of "Koishite Caribbean" seemed to be regular-80s aidoru sweetness and light. The lyrics were provided by Goro Matsui（松井五郎）and music was by Hideya Nakazaki（中崎英也）.
The song only got as high as No. 24 on Oricon, but it did get fame in a number of other areas. It was used for a Kao soap commercial (though that was filmed in Guam and not the Caribbean) and also as the theme song for a Fuji-TV drama starring Oginome herself. However for some reason, "Koishite Caribbean" was then adopted as the cheerleading song for a number of athletes including Koji Akiyama（秋山幸二）, a member of the Seibu Lions professional baseball team. How falling in love in the Caribbean had anything to do with baseball is beyond me. In any case, the song is also on Oginome's 3rd album"Kaigara Terrace"（貝殻テラス...Seashell Terrace）released in March 1985.
Exactly two months ago, I did a BEST article on Masayuki Suzuki's（鈴木雅之）"MARTINI II", a compilation of the soul crooner's hits of the early 1990s. Well, I'm going backwards here since I will now be taking care of Martin's very first BEST album, "MARTINI" which was released in June 1991. Allow me to show the lineup along with that cocktail.
Now, if you compare this article here with the one that I wrote for "MARTINI II" back in February, you'll notice that there are more links for the above playlist since I've already talked about a lot of these tunes. I simply couldn't keep a good man's songs down all these years.
"Tatoe Kimi ga Doko ni Ikou to" (Suppose If I Ask You Where You're Going) is one of those few singles that I had yet to cover, and to be honest, it isn't among my Top 5 favourite Martin songs. However, it IS a Martin song with plenty of soul and strut, and I still can't deny its cool factor. Released as his 11th single in February 1991, it was written by Saeko Nishio（西尾佐栄子）and composed by Hideya Nakazaki（中崎英也）with its first album appearance being right here. The lyricist relates the urban story about a fellow who has feelings for a woman but is struggling the right way to approach her. It managed to get as high as No. 38 on the charts.
Although it already has its own article, I couldn't resist but put up "Misty Mauve" again. This song IS in my Top 5 Martin singles, and after all, it was created by the killer tandem of Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）and Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）. Just that horn section in the bridge would be worth the price of admission but of course, we get the whole package including Martin's golden vocals.
"Dry Dry" was Martin's 3rd single from March 1988 and it's some dynamic funk that was written by Nishio and composed by Suzuki himself. If I'm not mistaken, the song is about a woman who's really playing hard-to-get. Rising to No. 36 on Oricon, it was originally placed on the singer's 2nd album"Radio Days" which came out the following month that year. James Brown may approve.
And once again, I'm gonna be putting up another song that I've already parsed about since it was the first Masayuki Suzuki song that I fell for all the way back in my Gunma days between the 1980s and 1990s. As I mentioned in that article, "Wakare no Machi" was the campaign tune for Camellia Diamonds, a company whose TV commercials invited some pretty cool tunes. Damn fine sax and trumpet solos. Plus, of course, this was all whipped up by Kazumasa Oda（小田和正）.
"MARTINI" peaked at No. 6 on Oricon. So, for all of those who have gotten onto the "Love Dramatic"（ラブ・ドラマティック）craze, this album provides some more of the good stuff from the so-called King of Love Songs.
Chiyono Yoshino（吉野千代乃）may not have become a superstar in Japan but I think she has a great voice, and perhaps she represents that niche of that urban contemporary singer tackling mid-tempo material. Her brand of music probably didn't break the Top 10 on Oricon, but whenever I've heard it, it strikes me as solid and always listenable.
Case in point: her "Ai no Collage" (Love Collage) from her 3rd album"Say Goodbye" released in June 1987. With lyrics by Yoshino and music by Hideya Nakazaki（中崎英也）, it's a song that hovers between regular pop and City Pop. With a goodly amount of bass and synthesizer along with a certain type of percussion that had me thinking of exotic climes, Yoshino weaves between drama and hope within the big city. It's the type of song that still brings up images of savoring that glass of scotch in a fancy bar.
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