Jamiroquai -- Canned Heat

 

Happy Thursday and welcome to another Reminiscings of Youth (or in this case, thirtysomething) for this week as I write about some of the non-Japanese songs that I enjoyed in my younger days. 

It was a few years ago when I posted "Virtual Insanity" by Jamiroquai, a group, as I mentioned in that article, that had been first introduced to me by a student in the Voice Room of my NOVA branch in Asakusa. Took me a couple of tries to comprehend who she identified at first. But I did finally get to see and hear Jay Kay's cool and soulful delivery of the 1996 hit song with his video of smooth steps and mobile furniture.

Another few years would pass by and then just in time for all of that Y2K stuff and turn-of-the-century fear and excitement, we would get "Canned Heat", Jamiroquai's single from May 1999. Now, I do love my "Virtual Insanity", but this song that has been categorized as nu-disco on Wikipedia is also another supremely infectious banger of a tune. Plus its video is incredible as well (flying over red carpeting? Amazing!). "Canned Heat" could actually get me to dance off my seat again after so many years, but since I like to be kind to sighted people and the floor's structural integrity, I'll refrain. However, I was convinced that the music of my youth and childhood could return over and over again.

According to that Wikipedia article, "Canned Heat" hit the dance club charts at No. 1 on America's Billboard while in Canada, it peaked at No. 7 on RPM's Dance/Urban charts. 

Well, what was also coming out in May 1999 according to the good folks at straw-wara?

Morning Musume -- Manatsu no Kousen （真夏の光線）

Miki Imai -- Sleep My Dear

Kinki Kids -- Flower （フラワー）

SONY Songs

 

A bit of an odd one to start off today's articles of "Kayo Kyoku Plus", but on hearing about the passing of former President, CEO and Chairman of SONY, Nobuyuki Idei（出井伸之）, at the age of 84 (his death was the top news story on NHK today) a few days ago, I began thinking of all of those contraptions that me and my family have had contact with over the decades such as the Walkman, Discman, Playstation 1 and all of those audio tapes. And crazily enough, I've also mentioned our old family pink SONY radio from the 1970s from time to time in various articles. Well, I finally found a photo of it but since this is a Pinterest shot on someone else's account, to keep things copacetic, I will instead provide the link to it right here.

It did get me to thinking, though. I remember that a number of musical artists have been featured on the commercials for all of those SONY products in the past. At first, I thought about focusing on one song but then I opted to make this an Author's Pick based on Media, and see if I could dig up some of those commercials with songs that have already made their way onto our blog. To be honest, it was a tad more difficult than I'd assumed, but I did find five.

Princess Princess -- Diamonds (1989)

REBECCA -- Nervous but Glamorous (1987)

Kome Kome Club -- FUNK FUJIYAMA (1989)

Yosui Inoue -- Shonen Jidai （少年時代） (1990)

Jamiroquai -- Virtual Insanity (1996)

Jamiroquai -- Virtual Insanity

 

Ahhh...1996! By this point, I think things had settled down for me in my home life in Ichikawa, Chiba and work life in Asakusa, Tokyo. Music-wise, there was that Komuro Steamroller with folks like Namie Amuro（安室奈美恵）, trf and Tomomi Kahala（華原朋美）. But I have to specify one little thing. At the time, I was still employed by that English-teaching behemoth NOVA and one night, I had my regular duty in the Voice Room which was the chamber in just about every branch where a form of free conversation can take place between teacher and students. Interestingly enough, we got onto the topic of music and I asked one student about which singers she liked. Well, one of them is the topic of this week's Reminiscings of Youth article.

Maybe I should correct myself and say Reminiscings of Young-ish Person since I was already into my thirties by that point, so this would make this ROY the latest one, temporally speaking. In any case, as you can see from the cool dude in the woolly black top hat, I am talking about Jamiroquai. When my Voice Room student answered with his name, I couldn't quite hear it correctly which gave her the opportunity to expound on this British singer and his "Virtual Insanity".

"Virtual Insanity" was released in August 1996 and I have to say that the first thing that caught my eye was that amazing video (it came out a month later) which seemed to be part magic and part IKEA. I not only had that urge to buy a bookshelf but I also got that enjoyment of listening to that old-style groove and soul. There was one comment which described the song as being timeless in its arrangements. I can certainly agree and the opinion also had me thinking again why so many people have gone ga-ga over City Pop in the last few years, and again perhaps the groove theory has that physiological effect on a lot of humans, no matter the gap between age and the time of release of a certain song.

Now I've just realized that "Virtual Insanity" is 25 years old! The single did OK in Canada as it hit No. 64 on the RPM chart and No. 39 on US Billboard. Iceland really loved the song as it reached No. 1 there and then finished the year as the No. 5 single. Meanwhile in Japan, its cellphone ringtone version went Gold according to the Recording Industry Association of Japan. 

This time, let's go with who picked up the hardware at the 1996 Japan Record Awards.

Grand Prize: Namie Amuro -- Don't Wanna Cry

Best Album: globe -- globe

Best New Artist: PUFFY -- Asia no Junshin (アジアの純真）