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.
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.
From what I've read of folk singer Hako Yamasaki's（山崎ハコ）debut album"Tobimasu"（飛・び・ま・す...I Can Fly） from October 1975 on J-Wiki, she was only 17 years old when she released it and it sold 50,000 copies which was quite the miraculous achievement especially when it came out without any special promotions. It managed to reach No. 51 on Oricon.
One of the tracks, "Sayonara no Kane"(The Goodbye Bell), which was written and composed by Yamasaki and arranged by Jun Sato（佐藤準）, must have left quite the impression on listeners. At over five minutes long, it is a bittersweet summary on a romance that has ended with a pealing bell on the hill being used as the symbol of the completion of the relationship. Through the lyrics and Yamasaki's delivery, there is a feeling of weeping over the death of what is perhaps the first love of that person. Maybe as the person grows older and more experienced with all those romantic entanglements, there is not so much drama but that first one which goes awry will always hurt. The melody is an interweaving of blues, folk and pop brought together as a contemplative piece on emotional pain and release.
Quite a few famous musicians were in the recording studio for "Sayonara no Kane": guitarists Char and Chuei Yoshikawa（吉川忠英）with the aforementioned arranger Sato also on keyboards.
A synthpop opening begins the cover version of "Sayonara no Kane" by Miyuki Kosaka（香坂みゆき）. The song was released as her 16th single in April 1984. Sato also arranged this one with those synths coming in. It's more than a minute shorter than the Yamasaki original but the bluesy feeling of melancholy and loss is still there.
We're having a heat wave, a tropical heat wave! Just like the old standard says, the Greater Toronto Area will be undergoing its first major slamdown of torrid weather for the first time in a couple of years. Until early Wednesday, we'll be getting our 35+ Celsius temperatures. Although I'm not so much of a heat demon myself (and I went through 17 years of melting Tokyo summers), there are a lot of Torontonians who've been aching for some real summer stuff since most of our year is either cold or cool.
Well, let's further emphasize the fact that the Northern Hemisphere is in summer mode with an appropriately summer number. It's been about half a year since we've brought City Pop crooner Tatsuhiko Yamamoto（山本達彦）onto the pages of KKP, so here is his May 1985 single"Natsu no Aijin"(Summer Lovers).
Written by Masao Urino（売野雅勇）and composed by Yamamoto, arranger Jun Sato（佐藤準）created a nice and mildly spicy Latin-tinged tune with a sprinkling of sophisticated pop and jazz thrown in for good measure. Not surprising considering the geography, "Natsu no Aijin" was used for a coffee commercial which reminds me that I do miss my iced coffee in Japan. The song peaked at No. 29 on Oricon, selling a little over 70,000 records.
I have about as much association with high-class colognes as I do with nuclear reactors. In my bathroom, there is a tiny vial of something by Calvin Klein (maybe it's called "Something"?) but that's been on the shelf for years and years. Certainly, I had never heard of this cologne by Guerlain called Habit Rouge. When I first saw it written in katakana, I thought it had something to do with Abbey Road of Beatles' fame.
Well, as it turns out, Habit Rouge is part of a title of a Yoshimi Iwasaki（岩崎良美）song, "Habit Rouge no Ikizukai de"(A Hint of Habit Rouge) which was in fact the final track of her July 1981 album"Weather Report". I think Chanel has been used in at least one example of kayo kyoku but this is the first time for me to hear about Habit Rouge.
Written by Miwako Yoshimura（吉村美知子）and composed/arranged by Jun Sato（佐藤準）, the song straddles the line between AOR and pop, and as for the former genre, I put it there because the intro has a passing resemblance with the start of Dionne Warwick's"Heartbreaker" as created by the Bee Gees. So, I naturally thought Sato did a bit of borrowing of the hook, but strangely enough, "Heartbreaker" didn't come out until September 1982. Well, what do I know? In any case, "Habit Rouge" starts off sounding rather AOR as Iwasaki sultrily describes a lady presenting her boyfriend with a gift with a whiff of that Habit Rouge (or maybe the guy is already wearing it). The AOR parts seem to be the intro and anything with the wailing electric guitar but much of it is nicely pop with some pleasant background chorus harmonizing at the end.
Quite a few of Japan's best studio musicians were in on this final track of the album. Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂）and Tsuyoshi Kon（今剛）were on electric guitar, Tatsuo Hayashi（林立夫）was on drums while Sato himself was on keyboards.
When a song ends with the lyrics "Any love that's going well isn't love", I can assume that this isn't a light and breezy ditty of romance. But such is the case with Char's 2nd single from June 1977, "Kizetsu Suru Hodo Nayamashii"(You're So Annoying I Can Faint), and yep, maybe I can say the same thing about the title.
Written by Yu Aku（阿久悠）, composed by Tatsushi Umegaki（梅垣達志） and arranged by Jun Sato（佐藤準）, I can opine that "Kizetsu Suru Hodo Nayamashii" goes along the line of "can't live with each other, can't live without each other", as a man and a woman snipe against each other internally and yet won't commit to a breakup. Melodically, what's striking is how smooth and pop this Char song is...usually I think rock or City Pop with the Tokyo-born singer-songwriter (although he wasn't involved in the songwriting process here as noted above) , but this time, there is something almost approaching Gilbert O'Sullivan or Al Stewart with the rhythm, strings and guitar. Mind you, there is also a feeling that Umegaki and/or Sato had perhaps wanted to incorporate a bit of Jigsaw's "Sky High" at around the chorus part.
"Kizetsu Suru Hodo Nayamashii" reached No. 12 and ended up as the 98th-ranked single for 1977, selling around 300,000 records. A stripped-down version of the song made it onto Char's sophomore album "Char II have a wine" which was released later that year in November.
I hadn't been aware that an angel required a bodyguard. From what I've been hearing of angels recently, it's more that we mortals need bodyguards against angels. But perhaps things were very different in the late 1980s.
Anyways, here is this single by Yuyu（ゆうゆ）with Onyanko Club（おニャン子クラブ）...Yuyu being aidoru Yukiko Iwai（岩井由紀子）as a member of that super-huge aidoru group..."Tenshi no Bodyguard"(Angel's Bodyguard) from March 1987. This twinkly and oh-so-sweet teenybopper tune with a hint of 1950s girl pop was written by Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）with melody by bassist Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）and arrangement by Jun Sato（佐藤準）, and though I couldn't find the lyrics, I can imagine that some young high school girl is being gallantly protected by her good buddy and potential beau against all suitors. It all reminds me of some of the stuff that I witnessed in elementary and junior high school. Wasn't quite as sweet. Regardless, it scored a No. 2 ranking on Oricon. Also for your information, the Onyanko Club girls backing Yuyu up are Ruriko Nagata（永田ルリ子）, Mutsumi Yokota（横田睦美）and Tomoko Fukawa（布川智子）.
The duo Bread & Butter（ブレッド＆バター）has always been a welcome presence on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" ever since we started things up in 2012. One intriguing thing though is that for 2024, the Iwasawa Brothers have been represented just through the weekly Yutaka Kimura Speaksseries three times. As well as they should, too, but maybe it would be nice to have them back with an original article, something that we haven't seen since May 2023.
One reason that I've enjoyed Bread & Butter for so long is that they can record songs with fine hooks across the genre spectrum just like Kirinji and Sing Like Talking. Mind you, neither Iwasawa brother was responsible for the making of "Baraketa Initial" (Scattered Initials) which was written by Norie Kanzawa（神沢札江）and composed by Yasuhiro Abe（安部恭弘）with arrangement by Jun Sato（佐藤準）. Still, it's a nice, bouncy and contemplative pop song to add onto their City Pop and folk with a hint of an odyssey through European environments.
"Baraketa Initial" was the duo's 20th single from September 1984 and was also included on their 9th album"Second Serenade" which was released later in November.
Let's welcome back KKP AI representative aidoru Kayo Grace Kyoku to "Kayo Kyoku Plus" for the first time in 2024! Looks like she's had her Holidays and is now all rested up.
This might be the first entry for aidoru Mamiko Tayama（田山真美子）but she already has representation here on the blog because she was also a member of the aidoru trio Rakutenshi（楽天使）which itself was a cog in the big group Nanatsuboshi（ななつ星）. I provided a few articles on Nanatsuboshi for the Xmas holidays including their "Juu-ni-gatsu no Tokubetsu na Yoru"（12月の特別な夜）.
Born in Iwate Prefecture, Tayama got her beginnings in show business as a child actor in 1986 but then broke into her aidoru career in 1989 with "Seishun no Evergreen"（青春のEVERGREEN...Youthful Evergreen）. Her discography isn't too extensive; she put out five singles and two original albums including her second album"Uta Shosetsu ~ Cynalyric"（詩小説（シナリリック）...Poetry Novel） from February 1991. One of the tracks is "Hajimete no Asagaeri" (First Time Going Home in the Morning) which has a darn catchy and cheerful hook by Jun Sato（佐藤準）and there's something about the arrangement which has me thinking of some PSY-S tunes. The other thing about the melody is that the chorus also reminds me of Stevie Wonder's"Sir Duke".
I couldn't find Keiko Aso's（麻生圭子）lyrics online but the title hints at that giddiness and embarrassment from heading home from the boyfriend's place for the first time. Maybe I'm just being naïve but I'm a little surprised that an aidoru tune actually covers this. The first time I actually came across the term of "asagaeri" was through Dreams Come True's"Ureshihazukashi Asagaeri" (うれしはずかし朝帰り) which had been released a couple of years earlier.
It's hard for me to remember when I first heard singer Ann Lewis（アン・ルイス）. It may have been when I heard her sweet 70s aidoru self on an episode of "Sounds of Japan" in the first half of the 1980s but the possibility may exist that the first time was through karaoke at Kuri in downtown Toronto since her hard rock persona's music was quite popular with some of us participants when we went there in the late 80s. In any case, it was quite the drastic change for Lewis between the 1970s and the 1980s...almost on the level of The Doctor on "Doctor Who" regenerating from one form to another. Happy 60th anniversary, by the way!
Anyways, lest I get too geeky, let me get back to Lewis. One of the songs that got performed at Kuri over and over again was her April 1986 27th single"Aah, Mujou" (Ahh, Heartlessness). I think one reason that I haven't posted this one until now is that I kept confusing it for another rocker by the singer, "Roppongi Shinju"（六本木心中）which had come out a few years earlier. But OK, now I can distinguish between the two.
Created by the same duo behind "Roppongi Shinju", lyricist Reiko Yukawa（湯川れい子）and composer NOBODY, "Aah Mujou" seems to be a rocker relating a tragic tale of betrayals and counter-betrayals between one woman and perhaps a number of other characters in cruel Tokyo, although she has been trying in vain to get out of the vicious circle (maybe she's the Michael Corleone of Roppongi) For those bass addicts, feel happy to listen to a few rounds of the song. Jun Sato（佐藤準）, by the way, was behind the arrangement. "Aah Mujou" reached No. 21 on Oricon.
Cold and wet like a dog's nose out there. Not sure if we're gonna get any snow in the next 24 to 48 hours but it certainly feels like winter is finally around the corner.
Anyways, I feel like I need to make a course correction in terms one of singer-songwriter Mioko Yamaguchi's（山口未央子）songs. Back in 2018, I devoted time and space to her debut album"Yume Hiko"（夢飛行）from November 1980 and one of the tracks that I covered within that release was her "Tokyo Lover". Not realizing it at the time, the album version and the single version of that very song are quite different.
The album version of "Tokyo Lover" on "Yume Hiko" was written and composed by Yamaguchi with arrangement by Akira Inoue（井上鑑）, and that was more of a technopop number. However, Jun Sato（佐藤準）arranged the single version from April 1981 (her 2nd) and it's definitely got a very different feel. Very proud and brassy, the new version sounds as if it's making the declaration that it is now morning in Tokyo and what a wonderful morning it is and what a wonderful city it is. It's City Pop alright and I can even hear some Doobie Brothers in there as well.
Maiko Kawakami（川上麻衣子）is an actress who I've heard about over the years but didn't know that she had been born in Stockholm, Sweden to a couple of interior designers (no IKEA jokes, please). However, her family moved back to Japan when she was around a year old.
Another thing that I hadn't known was that she did have her time behind the recording mike. Kawakami released four singles between 1981 and 1983 along with three albums between 1982 and 1984. Her second album from June 1983 was titled "ÄLSKLING"; the title is Swedish for "darling". The video uploaded by mingumangu has the second and ninth tracks.
Track 2 is "Zanshou" (残照...Afterglow) which is some dreamy City Pop concocted by lyricist Kaoru Asaki（麻木かおる）and composer Kisaburo Suzuki（鈴木キサブロ）with some smoky if not all that strong vocals by Kawakami. Track 9 at 4:27 is "Tsumetai Bed"（冷たいベッド...A Cold Bed） which picks up the pace a bit into a more mid-tempo tune with a hint of New Wave. Asaki also provides the lyrics here but this time, the composer is Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）.
One more song from "ÄLSKLING" is the first track"Kanshou"（感傷...Sentimentality） which also was Kawakami's 3rd single from July 1983. It was written and composed by Ami Ozaki（尾崎亜美）and arranged by Jun Sato（佐藤準）.
Yes, indeed, I realize that we're still eleven days away or so from entering November but I wanted to throw up the above thumbnail because usually for us here, that's when we get one last burst of warm weather here in our province of Ontario before the inevitable months-long run of cold weather. In other words, I'm talking about Indian Summer.
Mind you, though, our summer seemed to have extended a fair bit into the first week of October so perhaps we've already celebrated our Indian Summer. It's always hard to tell with our home where the weather is predictably unpredictable.
Regardless, I'd like to present singer-songwriter Shogo Hamada's （浜田省吾）"Indian Summer" from his 4th studio album "Mind Screen" which was released in May 1979. Composed by Hamada, written by Machiko Ryu（竜真知子）and arranged by Kimio Mizutani（水谷公生）with strings arrangement by Jun Sato（佐藤準）, "Indian Summer" doesn't strike me as being the typical Shogo rocker. Instead, it's a contemplative pop ballad with a melancholy piano, synthesizer, shimmering strings and a horn accompaniment that has had me thinking of the movie "Love Story", Taeko Ohnuki's（大貫妙子）music, 1960s pop and French pianist Richard Clayderman. Quite the musical potpourri there which is always interesting.
Ryu's lyrics are also a little clever as she calls Indian Summer a mean little trick by the four seasons to have people remember of romantically happier times in the middle of a more desolate reality. As is often the case with the autumn as it pertains to kayo kyoku, the season is the time for love and romance to wither away and die like the brown leaves. In a way, "Indian Summer" reminds me of Hiromi Go's（郷ひろみ）"Aishuu no Casablanca"（哀愁のカサブランカ）.
Well, as I've always said, never forget about those B-sides...or coupling songs when it comes to the CD single. It's been close to eleven years since I first posted Arisa Mizuki's（観月ありさ）dreamy May 1991 debut single "Densetsu no Shojo"（伝説の少女）as created by singer-songwriter Ami Ozaki（尾崎亜美）. Yup, I bought that one used for a grand total of 357 yen.
The coupling song for "Densetsu no Shojo" was "Kagami no Naka no Utopia" (Utopia in the Mirror) as also created by Ozaki and arranged by Jun Sato（佐藤準）. It's an interesting song in that it starts out sounding like something that should have been inserted in a Studio Ghibli soundtrack but then the chorus goes into a more contemporary pop mode. I think I can understand why it didn't achieve its own A-side status but the contrast between the two aspects keeps things interesting.
Ozaki recorded a cover of "Kagami no Naka no Utopia" for her March 1992 3rd album of self-covers titled "Points-3". Her version keeps the contemporary pop arrangement throughout the song and even throws in a bit of rock under Motohiro Tomita's（富田素弘）aegis.
Ah, yes...the kids are out on summer vacation for the next several weeks. When we were little, we had the same attitude of fun and relaxation, too, and of course, we rued the arrival of Labour Day in September since beyond that was the beginning of another school semester.
I didn't know about this particular song by the 1980s aidoru supergroup Onyanko Club（おニャン子クラブ）titled "Natsu Yasumi wa Owaranai"(Endless Summer Vacation), but it's a pretty funky number by the gang. Written by Onyanko Club (and later AKB48) guru Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）, composed by Ken Takahashi（高橋研）and arranged by Jun Sato（佐藤準）, "Natsu Yasumi wa Owaranai" was a track on the Club's 3rd original album, the Oricon No. 3-ranking"Panic The World" from July 1986. Just for the record, the four members fronting the song were Kazuko Utsumi（内海和子）, Ruriko Nagata（永田ルリ子）, Yukiko Iwai（岩井由紀子）and Marina Watanabe（渡辺満里奈）.
Actually, the first time I did hear of "Natsu Yasumi wa Owaranai" was from a cover insert song version done for the 2012anime "Natsuiro Kiseki"（夏色キセキ...Summer-Coloured Miracle）. This was a mere YouTube discovery by chance; I never caught the show myself and I don't recall my anime buddy ever mentioning it. However, it did have seiyuu who are now veterans of the art: Aki Toyosaki（豊崎愛生）, Ayahi Takagaki（高垣彩陽）, Haruka Tomatsu（戸松遥）and Minako Kotobuki（寿美菜子）. I get the impression from the premise that "Natsuiro Kiseki" was a mix of magic, slice-of-life and "Stand By Me". The animation style has me thinking a PreCure series without the PreCure powers or situations.
Whether it was by lucky happenstance or not, the four main seiyuu also happen to be members of the pop group Sphere（スフィア）and so they apparently handled all of the main songs including "Natsu Yasumi wa Owaranai". This version seems to have more of the dance beats and synthesizers going on full thrusters, thanks to Masaya Yamaguchi's（山口雅也）arrangement. For some reason, the song reminds me somewhat of "Futari no Kimochi no Honto no Himitsu"（ふたりのきもちのほんとのひみつ）, the ending theme for "Kill Me Baby" which was another 2012 anime.
Up to now in KKP history, readers would understandably believe that singer Yoko Hatanaka（畑中葉子）had been forever tied at the hip of singer-songwriter Masaaki Hirao（平尾昌晃）because all of the songs that I've profiled about the Tokyo native have involved her duets with Hirao such as the popular kayo classic "Canada Kara no Tegami" (カナダからの手紙）and "Ehge Kai no Tabi"（エーゲ海の旅）. Both of them along with two other singles released in 1978 were indeed all duets of Hatanaka and Hirao which had them traveling throughout the globe with their brand of exotic kayo.
Well as of January 1979, the trip ended. Hatanaka released her first solo single in that month "Romeo & Juliet '79" although Hirao was still responsible for the melody while Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）provided the lyrics of a devoted love couple in trouble with Jun Sato（佐藤準）arranging everything. I was kinda wondering whether "Romeo & Juliet '79" would come under the umbrella of City Pop after listening to the intro but as I got deeper into the song, I realized that this was more disco-influenced kayo kyoku along the lines of Hiromi Iwasaki's（岩崎宏美）aidoru tunes at that time and previously.
Hatanaka didn't have a very particularly long career behind the mike. She released a total of 7 singles and 4 albums up to 1985. However, her acting career lasted well into the 2010s.
Outside of an inclusion within my "Valentine's Choices"Author's Pick in 2019, I have to confess that the last time I wrote an article on the Onyanko Club（おニャン子クラブ）aidoru Sayuri Kokusho（国生さゆり）was all the way back in the summer of 2015. And that was for a song, "Summer Blue", from her 1988 4th album, "Summer Snow".
"Summer Blue" was an aidoru tune that I thought was a cut above the usual Japanese teenybopper fare. I also think the same is true for this track which launches "Summer Snow", "Hidari Te ga Kirai" (I Hate the Left Hand). It's a really odd title for this song of romantic jealousy and impatience as a young lady is probably rapidly clacking her expensive heel while waiting for the target of her ardor to dump another lass and come to her. I tried to look for some different metaphorical meaning to hidari te outside of the literal meaning but I came up with bupkis.
Megumi Ogura（小倉めぐみ）, who has also written a lot for aidoru Yoko Minamino（南野陽子）, came up with the lyrics for "Hidari Te ga Kirai". But it's the basic melody by Keiichi Oku（奥慶一）of Spectrum（スペクトラム）fame as arranged by Jun Sato（佐藤準）that caught my ears. As the lone commenter thus far for the video has stated, I've never heard a song come off like this before. Beginning with some sparkly and jangly synths, despite the very green-eyed envy taking place in that stylish restaurant, it's undeniably Kokusho's cute-as-heck vocals but the surrounding music absorbs that champagne-and-caviar age of late 80s City Pop partially anchored by some very bluesy guitar and lightly seasoned with bossa. Plus, although I couldn't differentiate a G7 Major chord from a licorice cord, I can imagine that there are some insane levels of chord shifts and other manipulations happening that only a musician and a musicologist can pick out, and I am unfortunately neither.
"Hidari Te ga Kirai" is a fascinating song to be sure and the reason that my Vulcan ears pricked up here was that a friend of mine had sent me a link a few days ago to this amazing interview of former Megadeth guitarist and longtime Tokyo resident Marty Friedman by Rick Beato. When I read the opinion that Friedman feels that J-Pop is much more complex than current North American pop, I kinda went "What?!". Maybe this particular song by Kokusho isn't the finest example of what Friedman is claiming but I have to admit on reading the blurb and then listening to "Hidari Te ga Kirai", a light bulb did pop up over my head.
Several months ago, I wrote about a very obscure and short-lived pop duo by the name of SKY and one song by them called "Last Ballad"（ラスト・バラッド）from 1981.
One of the two members of SKY was named Eizo Kitazawa（北沢英三）but once the duo broke up, Kitazawa changed to another name, Masahiro Hatta（八田雅弘）, and pursued a solo career. The result led to four singles and three albums between 1984 and 1986; it was quite the volume in a short period of time.
His second single was "Kanashiki Sherry" released in January 1985 thanks to the furigana although reading the literal kanji will show that it can be directly translated into "Sad Lover". However, the katakana furigana could be read "Sherry" or "Cherie" but just for kicks, I'm going to go with the former reading. In any case, just from the cover of the single, I gather that Hatta wanted to put in a bit more cool dude oomph into his music as a solo artist. And "Kanashiki Sherry" does feel like that AOR rock roadster hitting the big city with a loud horn. Written by Ken Takahashi（高橋研）, composed by Hatta and arranged by Jun Sato（佐藤準）, it definitely has some distinctive keyboard work, too.
When it comes to thespian Yutaka Mizutani（水谷豊）on TV, there will be his most famous role as the urbane detective Ukyo Sugishita（杉下右京）on the long-running "Aibou"（相棒）series. As a singer, he will probably be recognized for his 5th single"California Connection"（カリフォルニア・コネクション）from 1979.
But let's start off Urban Contemporary Fridays on KKP with something that's not quite in the City Pop vein but it still has some pangs of city life in there. Mizutani began his recording career with a debut single titled "Harbor Light" which was released in July 1977, just before his 25th birthday. Incidentally, this has nothing to do with Boz Scaggs' ballad, "Harbor Lights", from his 1976 "Silk Degrees" album.
Nope, this was made in Japan with Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）as the lyricist, Yosui Inoue（井上陽水）as the composer and Jun Sato（佐藤準）handling the arrangements. And it sounds like a song that should have belonged to a Japanese cop show with the star pensively walking the streets of Tokyo at night. Lyrically, it's all about the most atmospheric breakup situation, and vocally, Mizutani seems to have been channeling quite a bit of Inoue. Not sure if the song actually helped the budding young actor get some of those cop roles.👮
I haven't really watched J-Dramas in a long time so thespian Eri Fukatsu（深津絵里）will always be Detective Sumire Onda（恩田すみれ）from "Odoru Dai Sosasen"（踊る大捜査線...Bayside Shakedown） to me. Even her early turn as one of the girlfriends from the JR Bullet Train Xmas series with Tatsuro Yamashita's（山下達郎）"Christmas Eve" playing in the background places second to her role as the oft-frustrated police officer at Bayside Station.
People who have been following the 80s aidoruscene for some time have probably realized that Fukatsu had begun her show business career as an aidoru, and it wasn't until some years following her turn on "Odoru Dai Sosasen" that I realized that fact, too. For her to head into the acting direction has been perfectly fine with me, but it would have been interesting if she had continued with the singing because I think she did have a pretty fine voice back then; one YouTube commenter stated that it was very stable. Yeah, I know that it's not the most gushing of compliments but when we're talking about aidoru...
Anyways, at one point in the singing portion of her career, when she was performing under her real name of Eri Fukatsu as opposed to her earlier aliases of Rie Takahara（高原里絵）and Rie Mizuhara（水原里絵）, I believe that she made that transition from aidoru to straight pop. I just don't know which category this particular November 1989 single, "Approach", falls under. It is a well-delivered song about making that final choice for a love partner with that hint of urban contemporary. Ayuko Ishikawa（石川あゆ子）wrote the lyrics and Jun Sato（佐藤準）came up with the melody.
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.
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