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.
For the Friday edition of NHK's "Asaichi"（あさイチ）, we all got the delight of being serenaded by Takao Tajima（田島貴男）, aka Original Love. It was a reminder of how great a singer he has been for well over thirty years. Ever since I first heard one of his tunes on my friend's car radio, I've been hooked by his distinctive voice and his happy adoption of various genres including jazz, rock and soul.
Much to my surprise, I realized that I had yet to provide a Favourites list regarding Original Love so here it is to finish today's cadre of urban contemporary on KKP Friday! Have a great weekend!
Last week, I posted up "Sagamihara Singers" in tribute to the fact that my hometown of Toronto and the city of Sagamihara had a sister-city relationship. Tonight, I'm talking about "Nagoya Singers" but my inspiration isn't connected to any similar bond between Nagoya and a Canadian city. In fact, I don't think Nagoya has any sister-city relationships with any urban zones in my nation although it does have them with Los Angeles, Mexico City and Sydney.
Nope, the impetus for writing about singers or bands who come from Japan's 4th-largest city is today's edition of NHK's "Asaichi"（あさイチ）morning information show. It just so happens that the focus was on Nagoya and all of those scrumptious dishes that originate there and elsewhere in its Aichi Prefecture. When I saw that wonderful dish of grilled eel called hitsumabushi（ひつまぶし）on my screen earlier, I just went "OK...got my second article for Hump Day!". But have a look at hitsumabushi and some of the other famous local treats in the video above from Mui's Diary.
Anyways, I've got four acts here from Nagoya. Please enjoy!
Anyways, Nagoya has been in the news for being one of the hottest places in Japan right now, so I'm hoping that folks there are trying to keep cool and safe. As a PS, you can also take a look at another Nagoya specialty, ten-musu（天むす）, from YouTuber Just One Cookbook.
It was a few weeks ago when I was quietly thrilling over the fact that both Canada and Japan had made it out of the group stage of the World Cup and heading into the knockout rounds. Well, as it stands now, both nations did eventually get knocked out and in a few days, we get to watch Argentina and Spain duke it out in the final match.
I noted this when I was writing about the fusion band Early Byrds for the first time in late June. Had never heard of these guys before and there's not a lot of information on them aside from their relative time of duty and the number of albums released. But "Galaxy Special" with Kyoko Kimura's（木村恭子）vocal assistance was indeed something quite special and vacation-friendly which got my attention.
Speaking of their albums, there is their July 1982 work "Morning Reflexion" which comes across as quite clever in the naming. On it is the track "Step Emotion" (not sure what that title even means) which was created by Early Byrds member Hiroshi Nakanishi. No Kimura on this tropical fusion cocktail of a tune, but there's still plenty of scatting from male and female voices and it's still worthy of a margarita or two while listening to it.
Over six years ago, I slightly lamented that I couldn't find guitarist-singer Yoshiyuki Sahashi's（佐橋佳幸） "Diary" on YouTube. I first discovered it on "Breeze", the very first disc of Toshikazu Kanazawa's（金澤寿和）series "Light Mellow" which had quite the run during the 2010s.
Mind you, I was able to find his "Frida's Freedom" on YouTube which made for a nice consolation prize, so to speak. I was listening to "Breeze" once more a few nights ago and afterwards, I decided to check if anything had changed in the status of certain tracks on the CD that hadn't made it onto the video site all those years ago. Well, I was happy to find out that Sahashi's "Diary" finally made it on there, although strangely, the "Yoshiyuki Sahashi -- Topic" page stated that it's been up there since 2017! I have to politely contest that.
But regardless, "Diary" is that guitar-driven tune that reminds me of those sunny 1970s and happier, more innocent times. There's something about the song that hits me as being rather Billy Joel of that decade. Just like "Frida's Freedom", it was originally a track on Sahashi's 1994 album"Trust Me". The guitarist came up with the breezy melody while Hiroshi Fukushima（福島浩）wrote the lyrics. Sahashi's file on KKP mostly has him in the "back office" as a songwriter, so "Diary" is just the second article with him on the byline while his "Frida's Freedom" is the first.
The above shows some of us on Deck 16 of the Harmony of the Seas on the second morning of our cruise several years ago. It was a pleasant start to our first full day on the ship with a hearty breakfast to greet us.
Maybe this was a feeling that jazz musician and composer Himiko Kikuchi（菊池ひみこ）was having when she came up with the wonderfully breezy "Everyday's a Miracle" from her 1981 "Flashing"album. Ernie Watts was on the saxophone for this travel-friendly or brunch-friendly track that pretty much sounds how the title reads. It's like a glass of optimism for the weary soul. If every morning can be as positive, then life would be that much more pleasing.
To any and all American readers of "Kayo Kyoku Plus", Happy Fourth of July and also a Happy Sestercentennial (250th birthday). I recall that three years ago, I also provided a special list of America-related songs on July the 4th and mentioned that we would have to do something about 2026. Well, the day is here.
And so, this is my "America" Tunes 2. Unlike the first one which mostly dealt with songs that had "America" in their titles, I'm being a bit more geographically precise so I'll be listing those numbers referring specifically to states and cities. Without further ado then:
For the usual fifth and final article on Urban Contemporary Friday on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I'm using my prerogative to choose something not Japanese but still fulfills the feeling of urban contemporary elsewhere in the world. I've done so a few times for the wonderful duo Young Gun Silver Fox.
The mission of this blog was always to talk about the kayo kyoku of those early decades in my life and to see if there were others on Earth who shared the same interest in music. Well, I fulfilled those statements fairly quickly. A side benefit has been that I've been able to delightfully find songs again on both sides of the Pacific that I had lost contact within the deep recesses of my memories. A couple of them have been used as Reminiscings of Youth pieces: Bill Champlin's"Tonight, Tonight" and Robert Armes'"Jump To It". Not surprisingly, both of them were AOR numbers that I used to hear on FM radio as a high school and university kid.
Well, in the last few days, I rediscovered another AOR tune from the past when suddenly like a bolt out of the blue, some semblance of a title appeared in my mind. When I popped that into the YouTube search engine, I was able to get Alan Gorrie's"Diary Of A Fool". This was also a song that I used to hear on radio all the time but never remembered the singer's name.
Gorrie is a Scottish musician who was a founding member of the funk and R&B group Average White Bandfrom Dundee, Scotland. I'd heard of the name of the band but never realized that it had been based in the land of haggis and bagpipes and David Tennant/Peter Capaldi. AVB had a couple of periods of activity: 1971-1982 and 1989-2024, and in between those, Gorrie was a soloist, releasing one album in 1985, "Sleepless Nights".
"Diary Of A Fool" has remained in my brain all these years because of that elegant piano intro that sounds as if David Foster had something to do with it (he didn't...Gorrie was the lyricist, composer and arranger), the wailing electric guitar and Gorrie's own soulful vocals. The whole thing was just this smooth and laidback ballad that would be able to release all of those endorphins in my AOR-addled noggin...just like the other two songs by Champlin and Armes.
Now, I've gotta see if I can recognize any of Average White Band's discography.
Have you ever thought about Steely Dan covering Seiko Matsuda's（松田聖子）iconic ballad "Sweet Memories"?
Nope, neither have I. And yet, here we are. Indeed, back in 2019 when singer-songwriter Yoshitaka Minami（南佳孝）came up with his 2019 album of covers"Radio na Kyoku-tachi Ⅱ"（ラジオな曲たちⅡ...Radio Songs 2）, he included one of "Sweet Memories" as the final track. Yup, the jazziness and meticulous chords are there in lyricist Takashi Matsumoto's（松本隆）and composer Masaaki Omura's（大村雅朗）tune for Seiko-chan. The original 50s or 60s girl pop stylings have been turned into urban and urbane radio-friendly grooviness for your evening pleasure.
So far, in the Reminiscings of Youth file, I've only put up one Whitney Houston article and that was for the fabulous "Saving All My Love for You". She was one of the great love song balladeers.
But of course, Houston could do the upbeat stuff, too. And this one, her November 1985 single"How Will I Know" was one long-lasting hit on the airwaves as well as the video ones. I think it was pretty much fait accompli that I would see the music video for "How Will I Know" weekly for months on end. My impression of the video was that Whitney and her dancers were going through a labyrinth designed jointly by United Colors of Benetton and the makers of fruit-bottom yogurt. The song was a synthpop-funk treat that was created by George Merrill, Shannon Rubicam and Narada Michael Walden, and I couldn't quite believe that it had been first offered to Janet Jackson but was passed over to Houston.
In Canada, "How Will I Know" reached No. 1 while in America, the song was also a No. 1 hit. It also hit the top spot in Iceland. At the time, everything Houston touched turned to gold. So, what else was hitting the charts over in Japan on November 25th 1985, a few days after "How Will I Know" had been released?
Recently, the NHK morning information show "Asaichi"（あさイチ）has been getting cancelled or truncated. That's not a real surprise since there are a couple of phases during the year when this happens but this year, it's a bit more prevalent right now because of a national track-and-field meet, the World Cup and televised government deliberations. We were a bit luckier yesterday though since we did get the full one-hour-and-forty minutes.
Well, I figure that we'll have only a couple of more weeks of this before things get back to normal. The good news is that the theme song for "Asaichi" finally has a full version out on YouTube. A few months ago, when the new theme "Ohayou" (Good Morning) started each show, I couldn't find it on the platform although in my exertions, I was able to find a past collaboration by trackmaker/producer STUTS and legendary singer-songwriter Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）from 2024.
Still, it's nice to find "Ohayou" at last which apparently hit YouTube a little over a month ago. It's a nice breakfast plate of musical nostalgia via fluegelhorn and electric piano. Those two instruments give the song a sunny 70s feeling...in a way, it feels rather Carpenteresque, and it's a friendly way to start off "Asaichi". Maybe it can even get folks up-and-at-'em all on its own.
Yesterday on "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）, the episode's theme was on flower-titled kayo kyoku. That did get me to thinking...as I recall, there have been quite a few such songs that I've remembered over the decades, so I've decided to provide my own short list. My list kinda breaks out a little more widely although the first entry here was also included on the program's own list. Anyways, without further ado:
"Supergirl" came out today after waiting about a year since she made her rather explosive and drunken cameo on "Superman". I've heard mixed reviews about it, but I still would be interested in catching the flick sometime in the next few weeks.
As such, I thought I would end this edition of Urban Contemporary Friday on KKP with something that has a fleeting connection with "Supergirl", and that would be Satoshi Kishida's（岸田智史）"Sunshine Superman". I re-discovered it on the "Beams" CD of the "Light Mellow" series recently.
I've really known the singer-songwriter's 1979 hit, the tenderhearted and folksy "Kimi no Asa"（君の朝）, and so to hear "Sunshine Superman", which was originally a track on Kishida's October 1977 2nd album"Citron"（シ・ト・ロ・ン）, is quite the revelation. Written and composed by him, it's the bouncy City Pop or J-AOR song of the 1970s with the hazy effect of the synthesizer, the jazzy play of the electric piano or Fender Rhodes and the happy-go-lucky rhythm. There's also something about Kishida's vocals that reminds me of the dulcet tones of Goro Noguchi（野口五郎）.
Also as a PS, I heard about the strong earthquake that shook Yamanashi Prefecture earlier today. And this following a similar tremor up in Aomori has probably gotten citizens a little nervous. Hopefully, that will be the brunt of it and everyone can settle down back into their usual business in the next few weeks or so.
I should remember that summer is just around the corner...in a couple of days as of this writing. Well, gotta think of some appropriate songs especially when we have Fridays like these on the blog.
Anyways, I was listening to the "Beams" CD within the "Light Mellow" series of albums as curated by Toshikazu Kanazawa（金澤寿和）last night for the first time in a while. Strangely enough, I realized that for the number of tracks from "Beams" that I've featured on KKP such as Sonia Rosa's（ソニア・ローザ）"Tokyo in the Blue"（東京イン・ザ・ブルー）and Kenichi Fujimoto's（藤本健一）"Asa no Wakare"（朝の別れ）, I hadn't brought Toshiki Kadomatsu's（角松敏生）"Beams" onto the blog, and that was the first track and title track for this "Light Mellow" CD.
Originally from Kadomatsu's 15th studio album from August 2003, "Summer 4 Rhythm", "Beams" sounds timeless. I mean that I couldn't believe that it was actually from the 21st century. I'd thought it was right from one of his 80s albums. The song is ethereal, fun and summery. It's like undergoing a tribal experience under the sun at high noon on a pure white beach after which frolicking in the ocean is mandatory. "Summer 4 Rhythm" was probably a tribal experience for many who bought the album since it hit No. 9 on Oricon.
I can say that the above looks just like the first telephone that I ever saw in my apartment in the late 1960s. The good ol' rotary phone. Never got to use the even older model where people had to crank it up and yell "Maisie! Is that you? I'm calling Pennsylvania 65000!".
Earlier today, the first article for Urban Contemporary Friday on KKP was Mariko Tone's（刀根麻里子）"Private Number" and that got me thinking that among the many different themes I've had for Author's Picks, one common object that I had yet to highlight was the telephone. And yet, as soon as I put up "Private Number", suddenly all these phone-themed tunes came back to mind. So, to finish my contributions today, I'm putting up my telephone or denwa songs. Not all of them are City Pop, mind you, but enough of them are including the one with City Pop's most famous number.
Several years ago, I posted an article about the 1981 debut single, "Koi no Kirakira Dance"（恋のキラキラダンス） , by an obscure aidoru named Keiko Nishina（二科恵子）. As mentioned there, she only released four singles in 1981 and 1982.
Well, I found a succeeding single titled "Koi no Shocking Town" (Shocking Town of Love) sometime in 1982 (maybe Nishina loved her 恋). Written by Fumiko Okada（岡田富美子）and composed by Yuuichiro Oda（小田裕一郎）, compared to the more conventional "Koi no Kirakira Dance", "Koi no Shocking Town" infuses a bit of Doobie Bounce for a more AOR flavour. Meanwhile, the B-side which begins at 4:08 of the above video, "Umi no Ue no Restaurant"(The Restaurant on the Top of the Ocean) has that popular 50s or 60s girl pop arrangement. Dapper singer-songwriter Ryohei Yamanashi（山梨鐐平）provided words and music for that one.
From the same edition of NHK's "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本のうた）from which I discovered Sayuri Ishikawa's（石川さゆり）"Daikon no Hana"（だいこんの花）and wrote about it earlier today, I also heard for the first time Goro Noguchi's（野口五郎）"Good Luck".
It's been called one of Noguchi's earliest forays into J-AOR/City Pop that was released as his 28th single in September 1978. I'd probably go with the former genre myself, with it having that breezy 70s West Coast feeling thanks to that shimmering electric guitar which is reminiscent of the one accompanying Julio Iglesias' cover of "Begin the Beguine". Written by Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）and composed by Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）, Noguchi sings the step-by-step process of having that one last overnight tryst with a lover before he leaves her apartment forever. I gather that the good luck here is more about the farewell wishes to his paramour more than any fine fortune he may have had.
"Good Luck" won a Gold prize at that year's Japan Record Awards and earned Noguchi an invitation to the 1978 Kohaku Utagassen. The song was also the singer's final entry into the Oricon Top 10 as it peaked at No. 4 and eventually became the 70th-ranked single of the year.
One of the anime series I grew up watching — and was definitely too young for — was MD Geist. It was a pretty typical post-apocalyptic, hyper-violent sci-fi OVA from the ’80s and '90s. One thing I can always count on with OVAs is a killer soundtrack, and MD Geist was no different.
As it turns out, the soundtrack for MD Geist 2 was composed by Yoshiaki Ohuchi（大内義昭）, who not only worked on other anime soundtracks like City Hunter, but also composed songs for other artists. Unsurprisingly, he also has his fair share of solo albums. I first recognized his voice on his 1989 solo debut, Back Seat, whose album cover appears to be an homage to Tetsuji Hayashi’s Back Mirror. But where I was truly impressed was his second album from 1990, Remember Blues.
Hotdamn, this guy cooked.
You can definitely feel the blues in this album, intertwined with some good old-fashioned AOR. It helps that Ohuchi himself has that unmistakable ’90s anime opening-theme voice that instantly gives every song a sense of drama, momentum, and presence. It’s hard to pinpoint my favorite song on this record, but it’s a tie between Bay Bridge Blues and Trouble Maker. Trouble Maker has a great danceable beat and strikes the perfect balance between funky and rockin’. Bay Bridge Blues has that classic ’80s kayō ballad feel. I can envision Kazuma Kiryu — for all my Yakuza fans — sitting at a bar, reminiscing about his life over a few shots of whiskey. It helps that Yoshiaki himself has that 90s anime OP voice that brings a presence to each song.
I know J-Canuck has written about Ohuchi in the past, especially since he composed music for Kahoru Kohiruimaki (小比類巻かほる), but Remember Blues is a great starting point for exploring his solo career.
I heard a rather interesting piece of news last Friday via NHK. Today, June 1st (and indeed, welcome to June 2026!), is the 900th anniversary of the founding of Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture. 1126...what a year! Chiba Station right in the heart of Chiba City was a regular stop for me on Monday afternoons since I had a regular class at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries; I was picked up by the regular company bus at one corner and spent a 20-minute ride to the factories in the suburbs.
I didn't explore too much of the city outside of the immediate station area, but I do recall having a couple of dinners there and having a quick bite to eat at the station hamburger shop (and no, it wasn't a McDonalds) along with buying a few CDs at the music shop...also in the station. Of course, the monorail was always zipping by above me.
Anyways, in commemoration of Chiba's 900th birthday, I'm bringing in some "city" songs: songs that have the word "city" or "tokai" in them. I would have included Anri's（杏里）"Surf City" here but it had already gotten a shoutout in last week's "HANDS Down!" article. So, without further ado:
Around this time three years ago, I mentioned the short-lived group DEBBIE'S ALLY, led by Itsuko "Debbie" Kodama（児玉伊津子）, and her buddies which included a number of high-powered studio musicians. That first song I did was the title track from their sole September 1980 album, the disco breezy "Yoake no Dreaming"（夜明けのドリーミング）.
One other track that I've found is "In The Starlight" which seems to take things midway between the city and the seaside resort. Written by Kodama herself and composed by singer-guitarist Akio Yabe（矢部昭夫）, Debbie is slightly less whispery in the vocals and the arrangement is a bit more AOR relaxed as if the summer drive to Hakone is on. Some of the guitar work sounds somewhat Tatsuro-esque. Order those cocktails! 🍹
When it comes to moonshine, my image is always that of jugs of homemade alcohol with the "XXX" as the label. They are no less than 200 proof and could potentially conk out even the Incredible Hulk (HULK!!!....crash😵). So, when I encountered this song by Neo-AOR duo Young Gun Silver Fox called "Moonshine", I was rather intrigued.
But then again, whenever Young Gun Silver Fox comes up here, I am always intrigued and delighted. They have often come up in the fifth and final position during Urban Contemporary Fridays on KKP as something to clean up the list of smooth and groovy.
However, what makes this particular song even more special is that not only did YGSF create it, the late great Rod Temperton had a hand in it. And as with a handful of Japanese and non-Japanese songwriters, if I see that a song was made by Temperton, then I automatically investigate. After listening to his creations handled by folks like Michael Jackson and the Manhattan Transfer, it's almost Pavlovian how I react to a Temperton tune. Please read the story of how Andy Platts who would become one-half of Young Gun Silver Fox met Temperton and collaborated with the songwriting legend over twenty years ago (Temperton passed away in 2016) to create "Moonshine".
And no, "Moonshine" wasn't written to celebrate drinking the rough stuff out in the forest. It's about that special lady who can knock a man out like the "XXX". And unlike the real moonshine, the song is one real smooth ditty (Bailey's Irish Cream smooth)...what else from Andy Platts and Shawn Lee? The song finally came out in its final form as a single in March 2023. In fact, the way that Platts and Temperton designed "Moonshine", I swear that I could imagine MJ covering the song himself.
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