Hall & Oates -- One on One

 

Welcome again to the regular weekly Reminiscings of Youth episode. The last time I wrote about Hall & Oates was almost a couple of years ago when I took care of their soulful ballad "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)" from 1981. A friend of mine was driving me home a couple of weeks ago and we wondered whether Daryl and John had patched things up.

Here then is another ballad from the guys, "One on One" which was released as a single in January 1983. If anything, it's even dreamier-sounding than "No Can Do" and I think it would be another welcome entry on that fantasy all-night radio show that I'd waxed about several weeks ago. As Wikipedia put it, it does occupy that space between soul and AOR, and I have to say that it's quite the laidback midnight sort of ballad considering that there are a lot of sports expressions in there including the title. I doubt that it would ever be put on the speakers during a game at an arena, though. But that's OK. It sounds perfectly appropriate for those fans to chill out to while in bed, especially when that sax solo purrs in.

"One on One" reached No. 6 on Canada's RPM and No. 7 on US Billboard. There was no exact date on the release of the single during that January, so why don't we go with which three songs were up on the Oricon chart on January 10th 1983?

1. Hiroshi & Kibo -- San Nen-me no Uwaki （３年目の浮気）

2. Akina Nakamori -- Second Love （セカンド・ラブ）

3. Toshihiko Tahara -- Love Spoor（ラブ・シュプール）

Randy Newman -- I Love L.A.

 

Welcome to another Reminiscings of Youth with your cordial host, J-Canuck. On today's article, we take a look at what has been determined to be the 3rd-largest economic area on the planet after Tokyo and New York City, according to J Utah, the fellow above with all those wonderful driving videos on YouTube.

I've only been to Los Angeles once and that was back in the summer of 1989. On top of that, it was purely by happenstance that we ended up in the City of Angels since on my way to Tokyo to start my career on the JET Programme, the United flight from Chicago had some technical issues (something about an engine falling off) which meant that we Toronto recruits into the programme had to stay over in LA for a night. Well, as it turned out, it wasn't too difficult making lemonade from lemons because apparently several of us had never been to the city before so we got a nice little tour through Hollywood, Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills and Venice Beach. Plus, what we heard when we eventually did get to the Keio Plaza Hotel was that the welcome ceremony for everyone on the first day (that we "unlucky" Canadian JETS had missed) had been about as exciting as watching paint dry.

However, that little spark of interest in Los Angeles had been lit several years before, thanks to a video that I'd caught on television. Randy Newman is probably most well-known now for all that music that he provided to the "Toy Story" franchise, but my first remembrance of him was through a song in the late 1970s called "Short People". It wouldn't be for many years but I eventually heard and realized that Newman had a pretty sardonic/sarcastic streak when it came to his lyrics.

Anyways that video I saw was for Newman's 1983 song "I Love L.A.". As a teen who was not particularly all that aware or sharp when it came to song lyrics, I really did think that this catchy pop/rock number was a love letter to this huge metropolis in California instead of this Gibbs slap upside L.A.'s head criticizing citizens' self-absorbed nature and ignorance of the problems hitting the outside world. Dang, as nasty as Newman's words stung, Newman's music (and the chant of "WE LOVE IT!") was as inviting and fun as that cool convertible he's driving in the video. And he had good chunks of the bands TOTO and Fleetwood Mac helping out in the recording booth, too!

But it wasn't just me who had fallen for the melodic charms of "I Love L.A.". Even the residents of Los Angeles were more than happy to welcome the song as their new anthem, and from what I've seen of the comments on YouTube, the fans of the local sports teams there have also been unhesitating in their love of the song. I remember that it was used in connection with something for the 1984 Olympics which just happened to be held in Los Angeles. Watching the music video and then all of the footage from the city during the Olympics, there was something that did make me wonder about visiting the place someday. Well, fortune favoured the foolish when it came to me several years later.

"I Love L.A." was a track on Newman's January 1983 album "Trouble in Paradise", and so how was the Oricon chart for that particular month faring? Here are the Top 3 songs.

1. Akina Nakamori -- Second Love （セカンド・ラブ）

2. Hiroshi & Kibo -- San Nen-me no Uwaki （３年目の浮気）

3. Eisaku Ohkawa -- Sazanka no Yado （さざんかの宿）

Hiroshi & Kibo -- San Nen-me no Uwaki （３年目の浮気）

I first heard this song purely by accident due to a mistake by the co-hosts on "Sounds of Japan". They were supposed to have played Mariya Takeuchi's "Fushigi na Peach Pie", but instead they put on this 45".

Years and years ago when I was back in high school, I used to listen to a radio program called "The Dr. Demento Show" which featured a whole bunch of bizarre oddities such as William Shatner's deathless cover of "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds". The good doctor also ran a classic radio feature called "The Bickersons" starring Don Ameche and Frances Langford as a (barely) married couple locked in eternal hilarious argument.

"San Nen-me no Uwaki" (The 3rd Year of the Affair) reminded me of a Japanese version of "The Bickersons" set to song. In the J-Wiki article for the tune, it is listed as a kayo kyoku but I think it does have that enka flavour and since there have been a goodly number of duets in this genre, I have also labeled it as such. Basically the debut single of Hiroshi & Kibo（ヒロシ＆キボー） from August 1982 has the two sparring with each other over some implied extracurricular activity by hubby. Lyrically, Hiroshi has the upper hand at first but then by the end of the song, Kibo has the jerk on his knees.

Written and composed by Ben Sasaki（佐々木勉）, "San Nen-me no Uwaki" gradually became a huge hit as it stayed at No. 1 for about a month between December 1982 and January 1983. It ended 1982 as the 96th-ranked single but a year later it was the 12th-ranked song of the year. In terms of sales, the record sold over 700,000 copies. Methinks the lyrics may have hit a fairly sensitive and knowing chord amongst the population which would explain its popularity, but it was also for that reason that Hiroshi & Kibo didn't get invited onto the Kohaku Utagassen. I guess NHK figured that a song about marital discord wouldn't have set the right tone on the program. NHK's loss. The above video, by the way, has Hiroshi, but his partner is none other than Rumiko Koyanagi（小柳ルミ子）.

As for the two singers themselves, Hiroshi is Hiroshi Kurosawa（黒沢博） who was a guitarist and vocalist for the Group Sounds band Takeshi Terauchi and Bunnies（寺内タケシとバニーズ）. Kibo is Kiyoko Yamada（山田喜代子） who came up from Shizuoka Prefecture up to the nation's capital and spent 6 years there working before her debut, using that time for voice training. The pair ended up releasing 4 singles altogether during their time in 1982 and 1983 with the 2nd single being a sequel of sorts to their hit debut single titled "Go Nen-me no Hakyoku"（５年目の破局...The 5th Year of the Split）.