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.
"General Hospital" is a daytime soap opera that I've known about since I actually got out of hospital after my birth. Even as a toddler, I'd been aware of characters such as nurse Jessie Brewer, Dr. Steve Hardy and lawyer Lee Baldwin. However going into the 1980s, I and a lot of North America suddenly realized that one of television's longest-running programs spiked in popularity, intrigue and sex appeal because of the Luke & Laura story line. I didn't actually get sucked into that plot but then afterwards, I started watching in 1982 when Luke Spencer had supposedly died and then come back from the dead to get into some more mystery which involved spies like Robert Scorpio of the WSB and the enigma that was Holly Sutton.
Unfortunately, the above video has Luke and Holly meeting up but it doesn't have the scene where the latter first appeared. It was accompanied by a sultry R&B number that I would later find out was titled "Baby, Come to Me" although the Wikipedia article identified the song as a love theme for Luke. It was around the same time that a young Demi Moore would make her presence felt as crusading reporter Jackie Templeton.
At the time, I was still getting my feet wet in terms of my newfound appreciation for pop music and since "Baby, Come to Me" was something that was being played in the background while the actors were saying their lines, I didn't quite fall for it back then. However, as sung by Patti Austin and the late James Ingram who contributed mightily to Quincy Jones' "The Dude" in 1981, I've come to discover that the love ballad is one of the very best of Quiet Storm, a genre that I often associate with one Anita Baker.
"Baby, Come to Me" was released in April 1982 but it had first become known as a track on Austin's September 1981 album "Every Home Should Have One". I hadn't known that and what I also didn't know that the album version had a slightly longer intro. But once it was put out as a single in the spring of 1982, it did OK by peaking at No. 73 on Billboard but with the boost in popularity thanks to its use in "General Hospital", it was given a second release later in October and finally hit No. 1 in early 1983.
May I say that this ballad really brings back the nostalgia and the wonders of late 70s and early 80s R&B. Plus, Michael McDonald is once again providing wonderful backing chorus. Rod Temperton created the song while the aforementioned Jones produced the whole ball of wax. The recording musicians were no slouches either: David Foster, Temperton, Greg Phillinganes and Steve Lukather among others.
To specify, the album "Every Home Should Have One" was released on September 28th 1981. Well, I was able to track down the list of the top songs in Japan on that very day. The top three are as follows:
It was all the way back in 2014 when I wrote up a "Kayo Kyoku Plus" article on the very first single record of a Western pop song that I had ever bought and that was "Ai no Corrida" as originally sung by Charles "Dune" May. As I mentioned in that article, I first heard the disco or post-disco classic through a cover version done by a whole bunch of young 80s aidoruin one of the special segments of the 1981 Kohaku Utagassen on NHK. The single version was also a hit in Japan.
"Ai no Corrida" hit me with such good vibes that I soon ran over to the local Sam the Record Man shop to search for this unusually titled tune, and it was a surprise and delight that I could find the 45" single even in that tiny branch. The single version though was only a few seconds north of three minutes. I wouldn't find out for several years that the album version from Quincy Jones'"The Dude" has more than double the goodness. I stated this in the "Ai no Corrida" article as well, but the Jones version was also a cover for the Chaz Jankel original from the previous year.
Yup, "The Dude"...released in March 1981. It's an album that I wouldn't buy for several years since I was frankly intimidated by that cover. In fact, I finally bought it in Japan in the late 1990s, nearly 20 years after it had been first put onto record shelves. And since then, I've been happily catching up on what I'd missed by playing it in heavy rotation.
But let me get the accolades for "The Dude" out of the way. To lift a quote from the Wikipedia article for the album: "The Dude was nominated for twelve Grammy Awards (including Album of the Year) and won three at the 24th Grammy Awards: for Best Instrumental Arrangement; Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal; and Best Instrumental Arrangement (Accompanying Vocalists). It also earned Ingram three Grammy nominations for Best New Artist, Best Male Pop Vocal Performance (for "Just Once") and Best Male R&B Vocal Performance (for "One Hundred Ways"), which he won."
I also read somewhere that "The Dude" was the Michael Jackson album that Michael Jackson had never recorded. It's just that cool and special. So, without further ado, let me go through this classic album version of Reminiscings of Youth this week.
Second up on "The Dude" is the title track itself. And Jones himself is The Dude here with his kakkoii rap. Created by Jones, Rod Temperton and Patti Austin, one couldn't have a cooler power song for a patriarch of the neighbourhood. The backing vocals by Austin and others (including a certain one-gloved wonder...I believe I did cite him earlier), Ernie Watt's sax, James Ingram's heraldic vocals and those Jerry Hey horns come together magnificently to craft a potential theme tune that would come as a reassuring message to some and a warning to others.
One of the reasons that I've been happy with "The Dude" is that there is a good amount of variety in the types of music. Case in point, Track 3 is the late James Ingram's"Just Once", a pleasant soul-pop ballad that I had only known for years as a song that would frequently get played on AM radio before buying the source album. Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil were responsible for this second single (September 1981) to come out of "The Dude". I also remember it for its performance by Ingram on an episode of "SCTV" in which the singer was also more than happy to goof it up with the rest of the comedians. David Foster was on the keyboards here.
Smooth and velvety is how I would describe "Betcha Wouldn't Hurt Me" as performed by Patti Austin and created by the Stevie Wonder. This is the type of song that I wouldn't mind hearing in a car while heading down to paint the town red.
Austin was in front of the mike here, too, for "Somethin' Special", a truly special and slightly smoky urban cool tune which hits me like aural bacon. Rod Temperton took care of words and music here and I think that is Watts once more on the saxophone.
"Razzamatazz" is once more fronted by Austin and this is the track to hear when we are in the midst of painting the town red. Rod Temperton was also responsible for this disco flashback and another highlight is also hearing all of those background vocals percolating through the tune from all directions.
"One Hundred Ways" was the third and final single from "The Dude" which came out in December 1981. Sung by Ingram, the song was created by Kathy Wakefield, Ben Wright and Tony Coleman, and it's really a whimsical and heartfelt recipe on how to keep the heart lights glowing fiercely. Not surprisingly, this was also getting a lot of play on the radio, perhaps especially on Valentine's Day.
The penultimate track "Velas" by Ivan Lins and Vitor Martins is the lone jazz instrumental track on the album. It was the first time that I realized how soulful a harmonica can be since up until that point, I'd assumed that the instrument was used just in cowboy movies. I have to therefore give my compliments to the legendary Toots Thielemans for opening my eyes (he also provided the whistles). His work along with the creamy keyboard work by Greg Phillinganes and Johnny Mandel's silky strings add to a very romantic nightscape.
And we finally come to "Turn on the Action", another look back at disco and good ol' R&B by Rod Temperton and Patti Austin. As soon as I saw that title, I figured that I was going to get something from the old 1970s dancehalls.
I couldn't come anywhere near mentioning all of the players involved in "The Dude" here, so have a look at the personnel on Wikipedia. On America's Billboard 200, the album reached No. 9 while hitting No. 1 on the R&B and jazz charts. For the year, "The Dude" reached No. 25 on the 200 overall. Also, take a look at the article on the "EBONY" website.
With "The Dude" having its release in March 1981, what else was being put out there in Japan in that month?
In Toronto, there is a 24-hour news station called CP24, and on the morning show yesterday there, the one-and-only David Foster, Canadian musician, songwriter and arranger, appeared to announce his upcoming concert tour. The interview ended a bit awkwardly since the reporter, a person that I do enjoy usually, asked a question that really didn't go anywhere with Foster, but otherwise, it was good hearing from him.
The first time I had heard about Foster was in the 1980s as a university student when he came up with a couple of famous instrumental tunes, one being the love theme from the Brat Pack classic "St. Elmo's Fire" and the boisterous "Winter Games", the theme for the 1988 Calgary Olympics. But as time went on, I found out that he'd contributed his talents to a number of other acts including Chicago, Earth Wind & Fire and Boz Scaggs and subsequently he's also helped on works by Josh Groban, Nelly Furtado and Michael Buble.
I only heard very recently that he had been involved in a musical partnership with Jay Graydon in the duo Airplay (earlier in the 1970s, Foster was the keyboardist in the band Skylark), which came up with one of my new earworms "Nothin' You Can Do About It" from 1980. It had originally been recorded by The Manhattan Transfer the year before. And yes, I did buy "Airplay" lickety-split!
But of course, the title of this blog is "Kayo Kyoku Plus", and not "North American Pop Plus", so on seeing Foster show up as genki as ever on the telly yesterday, I figured that perhaps I could give a summary of his contributions to a few of the Japanese artists over the past few decades. This article will actually become the 10th under the David Foster label which goes to show how much he's contributed.
Moreover, I would like to emphasize that this is more of a summary since the majority of what I'm going to introduce here has already been covered in previous articles. For example, "Secret Love" by Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）has its own article (in fact, there are two articles by me on the same song because of my forgetfulness...but hey, I like being whimsical!) as well as its originating album "Miss M", a Mariya release so AOR/City Pop, I was bleeding Perrier! In fact, the thumbnail photo at the top is from the booklet for this particular album with Airplay and Chicago band member Bill Champlin. As I've mentioned in both articles, Airplay and Marc Jordan were behind the creation of the song and were also instrumental as backing vocals and musicians.
Foster was also responsible (partially...somewhat?...read the 2016 update in the original article) for one of my favourites by Yagami（八神純子）. It may have been about New York City but it still resonates with me as a classic City Pop number.
A track on Ami Ozaki's（尾崎亜美）May 1981 album"Hot Baby", this time it was Foster and members of TOTO helping out on this synthesis of Ozaki and West Coast AOR. Loved it enough that I pulled the trigger on the credit card to get the album.
As I mentioned in the original article, it was with some surprise that this really smooth and mellow mid-tempo number welcomed me since Foster was performing a duet with a bona fide Japanese aidoru of the 1980s in Naoko Kawai（河合奈保子）. However, coming across "Live Inside Your Love" for the first time many many years since it had been first recorded, I realized that Foster was wise since Kawai, for me, had one of the strongest vocals among the aidoru from the early 1980s. Listening to this one, I just went "Ahhhhh....summer!"
5. Seiko Matsuda -- Blue (1988)
This is the first time that "Blue", the opening track for Seiko Matsuda's（松田聖子）15th album, "Citron" is being showcased here on KKP but since I've already got its trackmate "Daite..."（抱いて…）on tap, I decided to go with this other Foster creation. The song was composed by Foster, Tom Keane and Michael Landau with Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）providing the lyrics. Y'know...it's been years since I've listened to "Citron", so hearing "Blue" in one way has been a new experience all over again. It's got a bit more West Coast drama, and according to the J-Wiki article on the album, this was seen as the opening salvo in the emergence of Matsuda the mature pop singer rather than Seiko-chan the aidoru. I'm not quite sure if I would agree totally with that since I think that she's recorded previous songs that took things above the aidoru/pop line, but "Blue" definitely has that pop touch from another world.
6. Katharine McPhee -- I Will Be There With You (2008)
I discovered last night that over a decade ago, Foster had created a campaign song for Japan Air Lines titled "I Will Be There With You" in 2008 with actress-singer Katharine McPhee behind the microphone. Incidentally, McPhee became engaged to Foster in June 2018.
7. Misia -- Life In Harmony (2010)
A couple of years later in 2010, Foster arranged a digital download single recorded by Misia titled "Life In Harmony". Written by the singer and composed by yellowRobato, listening to it, I just remarked that Foster and Misia should collaborate with each other more often. From the interview below, it certainly looked promising. "Life In Harmony" was also a track on her 10th original album,"Soul Quest", released in July 2011 which peaked at No. 7 on Oricon.
8. James Ingram -- Whatever We Imagine (1983)
I'd like to leave off with one more Foster creation along with songwriters Paul Gordon and Jeremy Lubbock since "Whatever We Imagine" by the late James Ingram was a song that I enjoyed hearing over the radio back in high school. It's magical and very Foster.
Earlier this month, I wrote a tribute for Daryl Dragon, The Captain from Captain & Tennille because of his passing on January 2nd. Sad to say, I have to say that 80s R&B singer James Ingram has also died today at the age of 66. I found out about the news earlier on Twitter. This hurts even more since the Ohio-born singer recorded a lot of numbers that became part of the music book of my memories and partially led to my love of the Japanese urban contemporary scene.
Ingram has already become part of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" since I wrote about his duet with Linda Ronstadt, "Somewhere Out There" which was later covered by Akiko Kobayashi（小林明子）under the title "Kokoro no Honoo"（こころの炎）. Strangely enough, the impetus for me to write about it was that composer James Horner had passed away.
I have Ingram's BEST compilation and also Quincy Jones' "The Dude", the amazing 1981 album that included the wonderful "Ai no Corrida", the opening track. However, Ingram was also responsible for another track "Just Once", his debut single recorded in August 1981. He had so many amazing songs but for me, "Just Once" is perhaps his theme song and a ballad that will always remind how much I love the 1980s R&B. On the US Billboard 100, it peaked at No. 17 but made it up to No. 7 on the Adult Contemporary charts.
Then in 1983, he and Michael McDonald of The Doobie Brothers did a duet for the single "Yah Mo B There", one of the cooler songs in the genre during those 80s. The intro still can give me a shiver up the spine. Ingram gave some wonderful balladry but I really loved the kakkoii factor for "Yah Mo B There". That went up to No. 19. Still remember the music video which got plenty of exposure on the music video shows.
As I did for "Love Will Keep Us Together" by Captain & Tennille, I will continue the mandate of the blog and provide three songs that actually debuted in August 1981, the same month for Ingram's debut "Just Once".
I heard about the sad passing of composer James Horner a few days ago. Although I'm always going to think that John Williams will be the Professor Emeritus for movie soundtracks, there are also people like Horner, Danny Elfman, Hans Zimmer and Michael Giacchino as the A-Team in that area. As for Horner, he's also done so many movie scores for "Titanic", "Avatar", "Cocoon", "Aliens", etc. But for a Trekkie like me, he will always be the man who came out with the wonderful soundtrack for "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan", still for me, the best of all of the Trek movies. Jerry Goldsmith's theme for "Star Trek: The Motion(less) Picture" may be the most popular song for the USS Enterprise, but Horner's score made for the best soundtrack (with Giacchino's score for the first J.J. Abrams'"Star Trek" coming in fairly close).
Knowing Horner for so long as a music weaver for these epic movies, I was surprised to find out that he (along with Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil) was also responsible for the soundtrack for the 1986 animated feature "An American Tail", and more notably, the composer for the theme song that can still get a lump into my throat at certain times, "Somewhere Out There" as sung by Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram. As I remember it, the ballad was on some pretty heavy rotation on radio and TV when it was released to the masses.
Well, strangely enough, the time that "Somewhere Out There" was hitting the heights of popularity was also the time that I was hitting Wah Yueh for Japanese records and tapes. And being a head-over-heels Akiko Kobayashi（小林明子）fan at the time, I was happy to find out that my favourite store to feed my addiction was also pretty well stocked with Kobayashi albums. I actually bought an audiotape of one of her live concerts titled "In Concert ~ A Changing" from 1987, and found out that she did a cover of the Ronstadt/Ingram duet, under the title of "Kokoro no Honoo"(Heart Fire).
If I'm not mistaken, she actually did the same thing herself on stage with singer Jiro Sugita（杉田二郎）. I will have to give that tape a listen again as long as it can still handle being played on the recorder. However, many years later, I was able to buy one of Kobayashi's BEST albums, "The Luxury of Life" which came out in 1990 which had the studio-recorded version of "Kokoro no Honoo". That is the version that she does solo. Not quite as epic or as heart-tugging as the original "Somewhere Out There", the arrangement has more of a Xmas-y bent to it and comes across as something that would be nice hearing while making that Yuletide dinner or wrapping the presents; the original version is very much something that almost has to be listened to. The Japanese lyrics, by the way, were provided by Ikki Matsumoto（松本一起）.
Well, here is Horner's soundtrack to my favourite Trek flick. As soon as I saw the movie at the theatre (and I can still hear the thunderous cheers as the soundtrack played while the Enterprise and the Reliant were locked in battle, along with the sniffles when Spock died the first time), I made sure that I bought the original LP of the soundtrack.
And this is Horner's talk on how he made that soundtrack. Lost a great music maker this week.
