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.
I don't watch French movies...although I did catch a few scenes of "Les Parapluies de Cherbourg" on television (warning: make sure you have the Kleenex next to you, especially in the last scene). As a rule of my imagination (and my apologies to all those fans of the Nouvelle Vague), I always envision old French movies with scenes like these: a man or woman sitting forlornly next to a window on a cold rainy day, letting their breath hit the pane with condensation. This lasts for two hours. FIN
Strangely enough, I've encountered this song titled "Mado" (Window) sung by Keiko Goto（後藤啓子）. In fact, this was her debut single from 1981 although it apparently was also a track on her 1980 album"Aimez-vous Sagan". I've posted about Goto once before for her 1981 song "Me wo Tojite"（目を閉じて）which was quite the bouncy City Pop tune.
"Mado" is probably more in tune with her days as a singer at Gin-Pari（銀巴里）in the 1970s, the famous chanson cafe in Ginza that I mentioned only a few days ago when I paid tribute to the recently departed Akihiro Miwa（美輪明宏）. I'm not sure if "Mado" would fall under the chanson category but it's still quite the spirited French waltz of a kayo kyoku as written and composed by Shigeru Inumaru（犬丸秀）*. Maybe I can give it the Fashion Music label. It certainly doesn't have Goto breathing sadly on a window pane for a couple of hours.
One interesting thing happened while I was searching how to read the lyricist/composer's name. I found out that "Mado" had gotten a cover version via aidoru Junko Sakurada's（桜田淳子）37th single from August 1982. If anything, it's even breezier and an accordion has been thrown into the arrangement, to boot, for that enhanced Gallic flavour.
*Not totally sure on the reading of the above name. If anyone can confirm or deny it, let me know.
Well, the more you know, eh? I was listening to this lovely tune by 70s aidoru and actress Junko Sakurada（桜田淳子）titled "Lorelei". It comes from her March 1979 album of covers "Ai no Romance"（愛のロマンス...Love Romance） and indeed "Lorelei" is a cover that has been rendered into an adorable and silky folk kayo kyokuwith lyrics translated (decades previously) by Sakufu Kondo（近藤朔風）.
The original version is a German folk song that had been set to music all the way back in 1837 by composer Friedrich Silcher based on an 1824 poem "Die Lorelei" by Heinrich Heine, and all this literature originates from a huge piece of rock along the Rhine. According to the Wikipedia article, it can be spelled either "Lorelei" or "Loreley".
Being an original Miyuki Nakajima（中島みゆき）song and all, it's no surprise that there are no videos currently showing the singer-songwriter herself performing "Omoidegawa"(River of Memories), her 6th single from August 1978. There are the many cover versions on YouTube and I was able to find a LINE excerpt of the song right at this link. Kei Wakakusa（若草恵）took care of the arrangement of the Nakajima-penned song that deals with drinking one's sorrows after another failed romance. I did love the metaphor from the lyrics of the ship of sand sailing on the titular river of memories.
Otherwise, we're going to go with the cover versions by other singers. According to J-Wiki, there were two done in the following years with the first one being 70s aidoru Junko Sakurada（桜田淳子）as a track on her 1978 album"Hatachi ni Nareba"（20才になれば...When I Turn 20）. The pacing is a little jauntier than the folksy Nakajima original and I think Sakurada was tilting toward a more mature take vocally, perhaps to follow the Nakajima style. the album managed to reach No. 28 on Oricon.
Then in December 1982, Naoko Ken（研ナオコ）, who has sung other Nakajima-penned tunes such as "Hitoribocchi Odorasete"（ひとりぽっちで踊らせて）in the past, recorded her cover of "Omoidegawa" as aB-side to her 30th single, "Furareta Kibun"（ふられた気分...The Feeling of Rejection）. Wakakusa also arranged Ken's cover as he did the original by Nakajima in 1978, but this time, the feeling is a melancholy City Pop take thanks to a darker piano. Ken seems to be ideally suited to take on those sad girl-done-wrong songs because of her voice which often takes on a heartbreaking quality. Ken's "Omoidegawa" also made it onto her 1984 album"Again".
Just for fun...and for the fact that I have just completed posting the lineup (for now) for the 75th edition of NHK's Kohaku Utagassen, I thought that this particular entry for the AI Gallery can include a few songs from the very first Kohaku that I got to watch as a teenager, the 32nd edition on New Year's Eve 1981. Enjoy!
Ahhh...those fresh-faced 1970s aidoru tunes with the engine of an upbeat studio orchestra propelling the teenyboppers into stardom! One of them, I believe, was Junko Sakurada's（桜田淳子）"Kimagure Venus" (Capricious Venus), her 19th single from May 1977.
Created by lyricist Yu Aku（阿久悠）, composer Koichi Morita（森田公一）and arranger Motoki Funayama（船山基紀）, it's certainly got plenty of bounce as Sakurada sings about the fact that compared to last year when she was an unripe green tomato, she's now ready for the picking by any suitable young lad, and apparently all of the innuendos that go with that. In the J-Wiki article for "Kimagure Venus", Aku mentioned that he'd had Marilyn Monroe in his mind when writing the words, even including a variation of the breathy "Boop-boop-a-doop" that Monroe sang out in "I Wanna Be Loved by You" for Junko to sing as well.
Maybe the choreography was inspired a bit by Monroe, too...? Well, in any case, "Kimagure Venus" was another Top 10 hit for Sakurada as it peaked at No. 7 and finished 1977 as the 65th-ranked single. She was even able to become the top batter for the Red team on the 1977 edition of NHK's Kohaku Utagassen with "Kimagure Venus", although the first lyric had to be tweaked since apparently her going from green and hard to red and ripe was a little overly suggestive.
As well, another piece of trivia from J-Wiki is that in 1978, young and ambitious Seiko Matsuda (when she was still Noriko Kamachi) had taped her cover of "Kimagure Venus" for an audition and one of the top guys at CBS-Sony heard it, much to his liking. A couple of years later, Matsuda would bound onto the stage of the NTV show "Uta Mane Furi Mane Star ni Chousen!!"（歌まね振りまねスターに挑戦!!...Take the Challenge to Sing and Act Like a Star!!）to actually perform the same song right in front of Sakurada herself.
It's not only the final day of the year today but it's also another weekend so it's time for the regular Gosanke（御三家）article. Last week, after writing on the 1970s Shin Sannin Musume（新三人娘）consisting of aidoru Rumiko Koyanagi（小柳ルミ子）, Mari Amachi（天地真理）and Saori Minami（南沙織）, I did get at least one comment about another trio of aidoru that got its own name.
Fascinatingly enough, the Hana no Chuusan Trio (The Trio of Third-Year Junior High School Students) , also from the early 1970s, consisting of Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）, Junko Sakurada（桜田淳子）and Masako Mori（森昌子）may have been the very first female gosanke that I'd ever seen in my life, thanks to some ancient VCR footage. Of course, back in the day when I was a kid, I hadn't been aware of these media-influenced trios that were put together for fan pleasure and excitement. It was just me going "Oh, OK, three big singers together on the stage".
Apparently, the name was placed onto Yamaguchi, Sakurada and Mori when Fumio Ikeda（池田文雄）, executive producer for famed NTV audition show "Star Tanjo!"（スター誕生！）, was in the midst of setting up the commemorative 100th episode of the show (August 26th 1973) when he realized that all three ladies were in the same third year (Grade 9) of junior high school. With the various gosanke and sannin musume that have come before, it was time to strike the iron while it was hot when it came to these fresh-faced aidoru. Considering the concert that took place as shown above, Ikeda's idea bore some very ripe fruit. Not only that, a "Shuukan Post"（週刊ポスト...The Weekly Post） article via J-Wiki noted that the birth of this trio helped in sparking the 1970s aidoru boom.
Of course, with the girls growing up through the education system into the different years of high school, the name had to change each year until they attained the status of Third-Year Senior High School Students later in the decade. By that point, it was decided that the trio would "retire" in 1977, although Yamaguchi, Sakurada and Mori would chug along on their individual careers. Yamaguchi herself would truly retire from showbiz a few years later in 1980 with her upcoming marriage.
Wow! First off, I'd love to know who was on the bass for this song (I couldn't find out online).
I guess it wasn't just Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）who was being the sultry aidoru of the 1970s. Teen singer Junko Sakurada（桜田淳子）had this tune as the second track of her December 1976 album"Atsui Kokoro no Shotaijo"（熱い心の招待状...Invitation by a Burning Heart）, "Watashi no Koukoku" (My Spiel). Beginning with one groovy and bouncy bass that sounds as if it drank down ten vitamin drinks and a disco ball, "Watashi no Koukoku" has Sakurada singing about a teenager advertising herself to the right bidder as someone who can like it good and/or bad depending on tastes.
As one music store described the track, it's a slice of tasty disco funk by Kimio Mizutani（水谷公生）with Yu Aku（阿久悠）providing the salacious lyrics. I've been going on about the bass but there's also the keyboards that add to the downtown strut to the nearest dance club in Roppongi. I'd also think that "Watashi no Koukoku" would be something that Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）would have tackled.
2020 has been a rough year for many reasons, a lot of them due to COVID-19 but it's also been a sad year in that a number of famous songwriters have passed away. Kayo kyoku's most prolific composer Kyohei Tsutsumi （筒美京平）died earlier in September and then another famed lyricist Rei Nakanishi（なかにし礼）left this mortal coil only a few days ago. Then on December 20th, lyricist/composer Taiji Nakamura also passed away from liver cancer at the age of 81.
According to a Sankei Sports article from 2017 via J-Wiki, the songwriter was born in Nara Prefecture in May 1939. He was a junior high school student when he joined the brass band club where he played the trombone. Feeling restricted from performing marching music, Nakamura turned into more of a jazz enthusiast. However, although there was no band club in senior high school, as a sophomore, he became enamored with the rock n' roll of Elvis Presley and Neil Sedaka, and at the height of the rockabilly boom, he even got his own pompadour hairstyle.
At the age of 18, Nakamura joined a band which included actor/musicians Yuya Uchida and Mitsuo Sagawa（内田裕也・佐川満男）called Blue Jean Bops（ブルージーン・バップス）where he took on the stage name of vocalist Taiji Mikawa（美川鯛二）. This is where J-Wiki takes a huge leap forward in time, only then mentioning that Nakamura had actually run for the Nara Prefecture gubernatorial election in 1995, only to finish in second place.
But of course between 1957 and 1995, Nakamura had all those years to create many songs for many singers, some of which have become kayo classics such as the elegiac "Kassai"（喝采）, a huge hit and trademark tune for Naomi Chiaki（ちあきなおみ）in 1972. The video at the very top has Nakamura singing the song himself.
(Sorry but the video has been taken down.)
As mentioned, though, he had his time behind the mike as Taiji Mikawa but the only song that I could find of him singing is "Kimagure Date"（気まぐれデート...Whimsical Date）, a B-side to his 2nd single in 1962"Akai Yacht wa Shindeita"（赤いヨットは死んでいた...The Red Yacht was Dead） and a cover to Bryan Hyland's"Every Other Night" released the same year. Hyland is more famous for his 1960 novelty hit"Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini". As for "Kimagure Date", listening to the Hyland original with the male chorus, I have to confess some confusion as to why the Mikawa cover had to include a female chorus that's practically shrieking.
Not exactly sure when Nakamura made his foray as a full-time songwriter but perhaps one of his early works was "Ima wa Shiawase kai"（今は幸せかい）for his old bandmate Sagawa in 1968.
Nakamura didn't just focus on the more melancholy aspects of kayo. He also provided a huge number of songs for 70s aidoru Junko Sakurada（桜田淳子） such as her "Watashi no Aoi Tori"（わたしの青い鳥）in 1973.
In 1982, Nakamura also composed the song that would be another big hit for enka singer Takashi Hosokawa (細川たかし）, "Kita Sakaba" (北酒場）. It's a kayo that has been my second choice in the karaoke box all these years.
There are quite a few songs that I've also put into the Nakamura list here on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", but I also wanted to include a couple of more that I had yet to cover. One example is "Futari wa Hitori"（ふたりはひとり...Two are One）, a song performed by Sachiko Kobayashi（小林幸子）and written by Kotaro Aso（麻生香太郎）. Recorded in 1980, it's a light and cheerful enka thanks to the singer, the strings and the guitar.
One more discovery that I'll include to wrap up is Nakamura's music for Miki Obata's（小畑ミキ）1968 B-side, "Goodnight Andy"（グッドナイト・アンディー）with the A-side being "Kono Hana ni Ai wo Komete"（この花に愛をこめて...These Flowers With Love）. Obata herself provided the lyrics to Nakamura's melody which sounds like his old roots of rock n' roll.
Perhaps Nakamura's output wasn't quite as prolific as those of Tsutsumi but he has also left his generous share of kayo classics to be performed and cherished.
I bookmarked this particular song by aidoru Junko Sakurada（桜田淳子）not only because "Mayuzukiyo" (Crescent Moon Night) is her 38th and final single to date, but the arrangement is also rather intriguing to me.
"Mayuzukiyo" was released in September 1983, and by that point, Sakurada had basically made a full transition into acting as her days at the top of the Oricon charts had long passed by. Her last three singles going back to 1981 including this one didn't even get onto the charts. Furthermore, she didn't even make any TV appearances to perform the song and there were no other filmed examples of her ever singing "Mayuzukiyo".
Still, it's interesting in that the song and the singer together make this recording sound like something that was created by Miyuki Nakajima（中島みゆき）, although it was actually written by Mebae Miyahara（宮原芽映）under the pseudonym Yuu Kayano（茅野遊）and composed by Kei Ogura（小椋佳）with arrangement handled by Keiichi Oku（奥慶一）. There is something very fresh and open-air about "Mayuzukiyo" as its lyrics deal with a woman's own handling of sudden heartbreak while at the same time sounding a bit like a 1950s puppy love ballad. I can even imagine someone like Ruiko Kurahashi（倉橋ルイ子）covering the song as well.
The song was also included on Sakurada's 15th album released in the same month, "Naturally"（ナチュラリー）. It would remain her final album until February 2018 when that 16th album"My Idology"（マイ・アイドロジー）was released in commemoration of her 45 years since her debut. "My Idology" contains a new song and covers of four of her own hits among the 8-song album.
Last month, I wrote about "Party's Over", the title track from 70s aidoru Junko Sakurada's（桜田淳子）12th album released in September 1979. It was the sad and innocent ballad about a young lady who couldn't get that dance with the guy of her dreams and probably ended up as the last person at the ball when the janitorial staff were already well onto their cleaning duties.
Well, when I was writing about that particular song, I noticed that there was another tune in the recommendations on the right side, and it was simply called "Sentimental Boy". It did turn out to be another Sakurada song which was also included in "Party's Over" the album. The other notable point is that its melody was provided by none other than Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）.
With lyrics by Tadashi Iwasawa*（岩沢律）, "Sentimental Boy" seems to be about a girl's love for that shy quiet type, and where "Party's Over" the song is melancholy, this one is effervescent with an almost Dixieland jazz sort of feeling. The intro even starts rather atypically with a keyboard passage that made me first wonder whether this was going to be a technopop tune, but then this is a Tats creation so I couldn't really imagine the whole song being that way. And as the rest of "Sentimental Boy" goes, the shy guy here probably comes out of his shell while fluttering his pork-pie hat and twirling his cane.
It's an aidoru tune and I think it almost goes into AOR territory but it stays within its borders inside the pop zone. Along with those wonderful horns, I also enjoy that electric guitar solo that sees things off to the end. So, if "Party's Over" gets you a little down, I encourage you to try "Sentimental Boy" for that lift up.
*Not quite sure about my reading of the first name for the lyricist so once again, if you can correct me on this, please do so.
Several years before that hit came out, there was Junko Sakurada's（桜田淳子）"Party's Over", her 28th single from August 1979, and yep, I wouldn't say that it was even bittersweet although the music tries to keep things light. It's just plain sad as Sakurada sings about a woman who put on her best black dress to get that dance with the guy she had feelings for. But alas, we all know about best-laid plans, don't we? The night's over, the party staff is putting away the empty champagne bottles and the poor lass is still hanging about while everyone's headed home. Sakurada even sounds a bit shaky as she's singing this as if the frustration and drunkenness is being relayed through her own mouth. The only thing worse that could happen is if an annoyed staffer started turning the lights off and on to pester her to get out. But to make her feel better, no one less than a superhero had been in the same boat, but last year, we all found out that everything worked out in the end.
Words and music were provided by Kaoru Ito（伊藤薫）, and according to the J-Wiki article on "Party's Over", this was her first creation to be released as a single for any singer. The music here is appropriately sad and wistful. Plus, it's also quite innocent and more sophisticated with those strings to hint at the high-class nature of the soiree. Geez, it's too bad about the romance, but I hope the food and drink were worth it.
"Party's Over" peaked at No. 51 and was also the title track on her 12th album from September in the same year. As for songwriter Ito, she's already got a few songs represented on the blog including her contribution to Anri's（杏里）"Cotton Kibun"（コットン気分）. She had debuted in 1972 as one-half of a folk group called Ryu + 1（龍+１）, later to be renamed Ryu to Kaoru（竜とかおる...Ryu and Kaoru）. Following the breakup, she continued her career as a guitarist in backing bands and also for creating commercial jingles.
Junko Sakurada's（桜田淳子）23rd single from June 1978, "Lipstick" reminds me a lot of what fellow 70s aidoruHiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）was singing at around the same time. There is that galloping beat, the jangly guitar and the sweeping strings. In fact, the progression of "Lipstick" is also quite similar to that of a particular Iwasaki song that I can't quite remember right now; it starts off slowly, almost mournfully, before things quickly launch like a prize steed exploding out of the gate on the race track.
Created by the golden songwriting duo of Takashi Matsumoto and Kyohei Tsutsumi（松本隆・筒美京平）, "Lipstick" is the story of heartbreak with a young lady finding out from a cad that she's not the only woman that he's been carousing with in town. Not sure if it popped up in Matsumoto's lyrics but I hope that she gave him a really painful goodbye slap across the face. By the way, Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）took care of the arrangement.
Apparently, "Lipstick" was the final Top 10 single for Sakurada as it peaked right at No. 10 and ended up as the 73rd-ranked single for 1978. Gotta say that performance video of hers above has her feeding off the audience's enthusiasm to give a great turn with the song.
Well, it's Hump Day here in Toronto which just means Wednesday so I figure readers at "Kayo Kyoku Plus" may be feeling some of that mid-week stress. So why not bring in something slightly jauntier?
Going into the vaults, I found Junko Sakurada's（桜田淳子）8th single"Hajimete no Dekigoto" which I will translate as The First Happening. Although that translation sounds like a prequel to the sci-fi movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", it's actually a sweet little story of a teenage girl reacting to getting her first kiss from the boy that she had already liked. Must have been exhilarating and traumatic at the same time. (As per the comment below, it should really be translated as "The First Time".)
Written by Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composed by Koichi Morita（森田公一）, it's what one would expect from an uptempo aidoru tune of the 1970s: lots of country-style skipping paired with the horns and some insertion of the rumbling drum and bass.
But that was from the performance on the TV show. The recorded version also has those shimmering strings and even some nice echoing keyboard with the same skipping arrangement. Perhaps it's expressing the lass' heartbeat or even the lass herself running and jumping around in her room after the happening.
For Sakurada, "Hajimete no Dekigoto", which was released in December 1974, was her very first and only No. 1 record, and even with many months before the 1975 Oricon annual rankings, it managed to become the 11th-ranked single. Around 527,000 records were sold and the song earned her second invitation to the Kohaku Utagassen at the end of 1975. Not sure whether "Hajimete no Dekigoto" made it onto an original album but it is available on "Golden Best ~ Sakurada Junko"（GOLDEN☆BEST 桜田淳子）.
My experience with California has just involved three cities: downtown Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento, and they all have their own distinct personalities. My personal favourite (and I hope Larry is reading this) is the City by the Bay because of those hills, some great food, mild climate and Fisherman's Wharf. Plus it doesn't hurt that Starfleet Headquarters is (or perhaps will be?) situated there (sorry, that was rather geeky of me).
But Santa Monica is a place in the Golden State that I've never visited. My only images of the city include swinging palm trees and blue sky, but wouldn't that be true for a lot of places along the western coast of California?
For Junko Sakurada（桜田淳子）, apparently it's a place for her to beckon her beau to come and visit. According to Yu Aku's（阿久悠）lyrics in her 26th single"Santa Monica no Kaze" (The Winds of Santa Monica) from February 1979, she's waiting at that resort hotel in the beachfront city for her boyfriend to show up. He just has to phone her and she'll be copacetic. Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）came up with the pleasing music of the times...I've heard this arrangement with some aidoru music in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It sounds innocent, tropical and now nostalgic at the same time. The good ol' days, you might say.
To be honest, I don't think Sakurada had the most stable of vocals when she was singing live so you can listen to a part of the recorded version at iTunes. "Santa Monica no Kaze" got as high as No. 24 on the charts and placed 99th in the yearly Oricon rankings for 1979.
In my last article, I was getting all sepia-toned and nostalgic for Namie Amuro（安室奈美恵）. Can you imagine how I must feel about the 1970s?! All those happy violins and high-toned vocals by the aidoru way back when. But then again, there is a major difference. My nostalgia for the 90s extends to my old life in the Tokyo area but hearing the old music from the 1970s and further back is about my childhood and the RCA stereo and VHS tapes.
As I've said before, Junko Sakurada（桜田淳子）is the one member of that media-formed group Hana no Chuu-san Trio（花の中三トリオ...The Flower Junior High Senior Trio）which also included 70s starsMomoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）and Masako Mori（森昌子）that I know the least in terms of her music. Mind you, all that means is that I have the privilege of exploring more of her discography.
One example is this sweet tune, "Watashi no Aoi Tori" (My Bluebird) by Sakurada which came out as her 3rd single in August 1973. Written by master lyricist Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composed by Taiji Nakamura（中村泰士）, it's about as innocent as a bluebird or a lamb with the aidoru tweeting her friendship with the bird of note. It's about as 70s kayo as one can get. If music videos actually existed back then, Sakurada would have been Snow White traipsing around with Disney bluebirds flocking all around her.
"Watashi no Aoi Tori" peaked at No. 18 on Oricon becoming one of the singer's trademark tunes and selling about 150,000 records. It also won her Best New Artist honours at the Japan Record Awards for 1973.
I've suddenly got this urge to head outside and catch butterflies with a net while wearing a beanie cap.
Last week on NHK's "Kayo Concert"（歌謡コンサート）, the theme was happy and encouraging songs. Considering that the 5th anniversary of the Tohoku Earthquake was upcoming at the time, I think the show wanted to bring something uplifting in terms of kayo kyoku.
Chris Hart came up with something quite nice in the form of "Kino - Kyo -Ashita" (Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow). Totally upbeat, it was originally sung by TV mainstay Jun Inoue（井上順）as his debut single from April 1971. Inoue was part of the Group Sounds band The Spiders and then later became a co-host for the very long-running music program "Yoru no Hit Studio"（夜のヒットスタジオ）on Fuji-TV among his other appearances on the telly. However, he was still releasing solo singles throughout the years up until 2003.
Written by the same duo who would later come up with all those hits for Pink Lady, Yu Aku and Shunichi Tokura（阿久悠・都倉俊一）, Inoue sang how no matter the time period, things would always be copacetic with the world. I don't think I can be quite that happy with life but it's nice to believe that there are probably a lot of people who are that optimistic. Junko Sakurada（桜田淳子）also came up with her own cover although I couldn't track down when she recorded it. As for the original version by Inoue, it managed to sell more than 300,000 records.
Back in the early 60s and 70s, either or both the media and the talent agency marketing department loved to package their new talent in trios, often known as Gosanke（御三家）, which was originally meant to refer to the three major branches of the ruling Tokugawa family during the 17th-19th centuries. But in modern entertainment, the term could be translated as The Big Three. There was the Gosanke in the 1960s with male singers Yukio Hashi, Kazuo Funaki and Teruhiko Saigo（橋幸夫・舟木一夫・西郷輝彦）. Then there was the bell-bottomed Shin-Gosanke（新御三家...The New Big Three） of the 1970s with Hiromi Go, Goro Noguchi and Hideki Saijo（郷ひろみ・野口五郎・西條秀樹）.
In that same decade, there was a female trio marketed for stardom known as The Hana no Chuusan Trio or The Trio of 3rd-Year Junior High School Beauties (花の中三トリオ...yup, my translation for that name on another article isn't too good). I never knew this particular trio as that trio; actually I just knew them individually and that was enough for me and most fans. They were Momoe Yamaguchi, Masako Mori and Junko Sakurada（山口百恵・森昌子・桜田淳子）. Of the three, I knew Junko Sakurada the least, although all three were big in show business. I'm sure there are kayo kyoku fans out there who have read the blog going "J-C, you've been writing about these singers and songs for over 3 years, and you DON'T KNOW anything about Junko?!"
Guilty as charged. I don't really know why although Sakurada is a name that I have heard over the decades. Both Yamaguchi and Mori are ladies that I saw and heard quite often; maybe my parents were simply not renting the right videos to feature that last member of that particular trio. In fact, I only know Sakurada from her appearance on the fateful (for me anyways) 1981 Kohaku Utagassen to perform one of her final singles, "This is a Boogie". And for many years, I hadn't even known that it was her to sing that one; she struck me as one very vivacious singer judging from her performance on the NHK stage that night.
Well, just to make some amends, I'm going to go with Sakurada's 21st single since her debut in 1973. "Shiawase Shibai"(Pretending to be Happy) was released in November 1977, and just from the melody and the lyrics alone, I figured it must have been a Miyuki Nakajima（中島みゆき） creation. And sure enough, it was. Sakurada delivers the song accompanied by that defiant melodic strut that I've often associated with a number of Nakajima tunes. And the lyrics depict that typically sad situation of wanting but not getting that love, although it seems that the woman in question is actually hooked up with someone.
"Shiawase Shibai" was the first Nakajima-Sakurada collaboration with three more songs coming up to 1981. It peaked at No. 3 and later became the 44th-ranked song for 1978, winning two prizes at that year's Japan Record Awards and an invitation onto the Kohaku.
Whenever I think of Miyuki Nakajima's body of work, I often split them between the defiant (Wakare Uta) and the tenderhearted (Jidai...one of my favourites by her). At the same time, I also use the dance analogy. Her songs often come off as being a graceful ballet (I think that cover from her 1984 album, "Hajimemashite"（はじめまして...How Do You Do） fits that description to a T) or as a particularly intense tango.
(cover version)
Nakajima did a cover of "Shiawase Shibai" for her November 1979 album"Okaerinasai"（おかえりなさい...Welcome Home）. I had been fully expecting an even more tango-esque version by force-of-nature Nakajima...enough to bring in some Class 200 winds, but instead I heard a really flavorful and whimsical ballet...almost a ballad. The Sakurada original up above may have sounded like someone with a very sharp axe to grind, but Nakajima's own cover sounded apt for that shy bookish lady sighing resignedly behind large glasses and a tome on Advanced Psychology. Genius move, Lady Nakajima.
As for "Okaerinasai",her 6th album hit No. 2 on the album charts and became the 5th-ranked album for 1980. Y'know, I saw that album cover at Wah Yueh along with a number of her albums, and I never picked any of them up. Time to slap myself.
Having a strong fondness for Japanese techno/synthpop, I thought for a while about making an entry about some of my favorites but also decided to narrow things down a bit. This one specifically deals with aidoru tracks produced by some techno masterminds like YMO, Masami Tsuchiya and Moonriders, also known as aidoru techno-kayo. I don't usually have an urge to listen to idols, but when I do, more often than not it's this stuff right here. I think it's because the arrangements and the concepts keep me interested. I love the quirky techno-ness of it all, and it seems like the creators actually put effort into these songs. Or perhaps I just like the sound of computer music mixed with cute vocals. Not that all the singers below necessarily sound cute, but those that do definitely benefit from all the synths and bleeps in the background.
Without further ado, here's the playlist, organized in chronological order. There isn't a particular theme to these selections since good music comes in different forms and moods. Enjoy!
1. Fever -- Digita Love [フィーバー -- デジタラブ] (1980)
Long before Yasutaka Nakata came along with Perfume, Keiichi Suzuki (鈴木慶一) already digitalized the Candies aesthetic with this edgy new wave tune for Fever. It doesn't actually sound like Perfume but the concept and the image are there. The cover image above of Naomi Watai (渡井なおみ), Izumi Okahiro (岡広いづみ) and Mayumi Kitagawa (北川まゆみ) in triangular formation really do resemble Nocchi, Acchan and Kashiyuka from their Computer City~Game era though in different outfits. The song itself has a nice mix of techno bleeps set to a surf rock rhythm. I found it enjoyable from start to finish. Always appreciate a bit of experimentation with aidoru tracks. P-Vine's compilation of Toshiba EMI's Techno-Kayo works was the one that introduced me to this obscure song. I wouldn't have heard it otherwise. As for Fever themselves, the little information I could dig on them tells me that they started off as a sexier version of Candies, debuting with the single “Akuma ni Kushizuke” (悪魔にくちづけ) in April 1979. They had one album and another four singles after that before they broke up in late 1980. “Digita Love” was their final release and their only techno song as far as I know.
As a one-third of the Hana no Chu-San Trio (花の中三トリオ), Sakurada may have been overshadowed by the legendary Momoe Yamaguchi but she did hold strong on her own with some of her mid-70's hits like “Hajimete no Dekigoto” (はじめての出来事) and “Juushichi no Natsu” (十七の夏). One of her latter highlights was the album “My Dear” from 1981, which had Side 1 of the LP produced by Akiko Yano (矢野顕子), who brought in all that bubbly technopop for Sakurada to try. Lots of great songs there, but the one that captivated me the most is “Kitto Kitto”. Although the music itself has Yano written all over it and in the refrain Sakurada copies her fluttery manner of delivering the lyrics, she interpreted it in her own way with that mature womanly voice of hers. Whereas Yano sounds sweet like the kindest friend, Sakurada goes for the sultry. Makes for an interesting combo with the music. You can call me addicted to the rapid refrain and the strings riff that follows it. It's just cleverly crafted in general with all these delicate details in the arrangement. Better not dissect them.
Chiemi Manabe had a very short idol career in the early 80's first as a member of the group Pansy (パンジー) and then as a soloist before she switched to modeling and acting and then disappeared from media altogether later in the decade. Techno-kayo enthusiasts refer to her as the original techno idol since she was one of the first along with Starbow to specialize in the sound. “Nerawareta Shoujo” was her debut single, which was written by the eminent Aku Yu (阿久悠) and composed/arranged by Haruomi Hosono (細野晴臣). What can I say... That synth line is a killer. And the melody has a unique eeriness to it that's unlike your generic pop song. Manabe's vocals are rather thin, but they don't bother me at all when set against the solid techno backdrop. Unfortunately, she didn't pursue singing for long only leaving us with three singles and one album, but what she had was very nice.
4. Imokin Trio -- High School Lullaby [イモ欽トリオ -- ハイスクール・ララバイ] (1982)
I couldn't help it, it's just too darn infectious. J-Canuck wrote an informative entry on Imokin Trio and the song, so I don't have any factual information to add. It's a pretty silly and classic Takashi Matsumoto (松本隆)/Hosono work for a group of boys who just wanted to make people laugh. The hilarious choreography, which had Kojio Nishiyama/Waruo (西山浩司) playing air drums as if he were Yukihiro Takahashi (高橋幸宏) and Ryoichi Yamaguchi/Yoshio (山口良一) behind the air synths in the position of Ryuichi Sakamoto (坂本龍一), probably played a huge role into making this song a winner, but even on its own, it has some strong synth lines that make it a quality techno tune. What was meant to be a novelty tune happened to turn into a classic. It hasn't worn itself out in my ears yet. When I sang it in karaoke, my friend remarked that it sounded girly with all those “suki suki baby” parts so I showed the performance to surprise her. She's been hooked ever since.
5. Mari Iijima -- Love Sick [飯島真理 -- Love Sick] (1983)
Mari Iijima's debut album “Rosé”, which was produced and arranged by Ryuichi Sakamoto, is notable for being of interest to both techno and City Pop enthusiasts, judging by some responses I came across online. Couldn't miss that pretty pink cover while flipping through the pages of Japanese City Pop either. Just listen to “Love Sick” and you'll know what the deal is. It's a loungy nightime melody with a digital/string arrangement and it's wonderful. Every time I listen to it, I can't help but be charmed by the way the classical strings in the opening give way to the synths that take over from there. Kudos to Sakamoto for that clever arrangement. Iijima's voice is sweet like the purest honey but it also has a mature flair to it, which you can pick out easily in this song. It's not often that you find a singer who had it right from the very start, but I'm happy to say that her debut was great. And she wrote and composed the whole thing herself.
6. Hiromi Go -- Dakara Spectacle [郷ひろみ -- だからスペクタクル] (1983)
Just to prove that YMO practically owned Japanese pop of the early 80's, they had to involve themselves with Hiromi Go or else their control wasn't complete. Ryuichi Sakamoto produced his 1983 album “Hiromi-Kyou no Hanzai” (比呂魅卿の犯罪), inviting the rest of YMO and its family including Kenji Omura and Akiko Yano to play the instruments. The album cover and the booklet images feature the idol in a New Romantic getup complete with blush and lipstick. It was a bit of an oddball entry in Go's discography but it was also the one that convinced me to get over my embarrassment of liking his music and give it an earnest try. Of all the tracks there, however, I decided to go with the one that he wrote and composed himself (and did it well) while Sakamoto let his arranging magic do the rest of the work. “Dakara Spectacle”, as you can tell from the title, is quite theatrical and somewhat cheesy but in a good way. Even though it's just little over 7 minutes long, it never drags. I like everything about this: the chorus, the verses, the instrumental bits. Despite Sakamoto's influence, it's very much a Go piece and he owns it like a dandy heartthrob that he is.
Like Chiemi Manabe, I would have liked for Kilala & Ulala go further but alas they only lasted for two years. Their only album “Double Fantasy” doesn't feature the usual techno composers save for Hosono and Masaya Matsuura (from PSY-S) on a couple of tracks but it's still memorable. My personal favorite number from it is “Yume, Fushigi Ikaga”, which was written/composed by EPO and arranged by Nobuyuki Shimizu (清水信之). Just listening to the futuristic melody and synths and the girls' bold voices makes me want to launch a rocket into the stratosphere. Although it was a CM jingle for some cosmetics company, I think it would make a fine theme for a tokusatsu show. Just an observation. You can read more about the duo in my entry here.
8. Chiemi Hori -- Wa Shoi! [堀ちえみ -- Wa・ショイ!] (1985)
According to J-Wiki, this was considered an unusually experimental for an aidoru tune due to all the sampler effects, but being accustomed to random noises and grunts in Morning Musume's songs, I wasn't that fazed when I first heard it. I just thought it was really catchy. Maybe it's because of Hori's happy-go-lucky vocals and the bouncy melody that it fits with all the sugary idol pop of the time. The arrangement and the effects are still pretty interesting though, so they make this stand out for me. The lyrics were provided by Hirofumi Suzuki (鈴木博文) and the music/arrangement by Ryomei Shirai (白井良明), both from Moonriders. I'm not sure if that was Shirai's intention, but those buzzing synths remind me of cicadas in the summer. Then again, the single was released in the midst of July heat, so it was crafted for the summer anyway. J-Wiki also notes that he created it with matsuri and ondo music images in mind. “Wasshoi” itself is sort of like Japanese equivalent of “heave ho” and is usually chanted at matsuri when carrying floats and portable shrines. I can just picture Hori herself taking part in the festivities while singing this. Oh, and the way she chirps “kira kira” is adorable. You can read more about the singer through generasia. Marcos V also wrote a great article on her last single here.
Here's a Sakamoto creation that has popped at me in various incarnations over the years, but it's Yukada's glorious opening track to her final album “Venus Tanjo” (ヴィーナス誕生) from March 1986 that I'm partial to. The other two are Sakamoto's self-cover with different lyrics titled “Ballet Mecanique” which came out a month later and Miki Nakatani's “Chronic Love” from 1999, an opening to the quirky mystery drama Keizoku that she has starred in. Those unique melody chords cannot be mistaken for anything else. It's one of Sakamoto's quintessential compositions, in my opinion. Combine that with Okada's cute and quivering vocals and you have an idol masterpiece. I've never seen her perform this which I doubt even happened considering the brief time between “Venus Tanjo” and her death, but I think it'd be a lovely sight. She had a lot of nice songs in her brief but legendary career, including the acclaimed “Kuchibiru Network” (also created by Sakamoto), and she also passed the test of keeping up the good work beyond the singles. That's why I decided to highlight “Wonder Trip Lover” aside from the fact that it happens to be a fine techno-kayo song. The other two names involved with it were EPO behind the lyrics and the late Tetsuro Kashibuchi (かしぶち哲郎) from Moonriders behind the arrangement. That galloping drumming in the refrain and the sax are unique to Okada's version and make it the special one for me.
I just like the spunky Kyon Kyon in general, so it really made my day when I found out that she teamed up with folks like Hosono and Masami Tsuchiya (土屋昌巳) who composed and arranged this tune. It was a leading track on her eleventh studio album "Phantasien" from July 1987. Being released later in the decade, it doesn't really resemble that early techno-kayo style, but it still has enough happy synthesisizer in it be their relative. Being a sucker for anything fantastical, I obviously enjoyed “Tsuretette Phantasien” for the whole “girl lost in a fantasyland” theme. And that German bit in the bridge specifically transplanted me to the fairytales of Brothers Grimm. I particularly enjoyed the toy military drum rhythm combined with that adventurous melody in the refrain. And the way it wraps up at the end is magical. The promotional video (which got taken down by powers that be) of Kyon Kyon wandering in the forest and encountering various creatures is very fitting.
That's it, folks. If you're interested in sampling more techno-kayo, you can check out P-Vine's impressive compilations where they selected a bunch of songs on various labels from Polydor and Teichiku to Victor and Kind Records. More about those here. Unfortunately, For Life Records and Sony didn't participate in the project, so names like Chiemi Manabe aren't represented there. Those are still extensive compilations though that include both aidoru tunes and more experimental fare. My playlist here has many of the artists featured there, though I didn't necessarily go for just the signature tunes. Hopefully you found something of interest.
Back in the early 70s, three young girls of around the same age auditioned on the NTV talent show "Star Tanjo"（スター誕生...A Star Is Born）:Momoe Yamaguchi, Masako Mori and Junko Sakurada（山口百恵・森昌子・桜田淳子）. The media caught onto the fact that their careers were basically launched there and then, and labeled them initially as the Hana no Chu-San Trio（花の中三トリオ...The Flower Junior High Senior Trio）. As they grew up in front all of Japan, the group name appropriately changed in terms of their school year until their final moniker was Ko-San Trio（高三トリオ...The High School Senior Trio）.
Of the three, Junko Sakurada was the one that I knew about the least in terms of her music career (although the name often popped up here and there and now and then over the decades) which would explain why I had never featured her in the blog up until now. Her popularity, like Yamaguchi's, was basically in the 70s....though several singles would come out until 1983. However, the first time I heard about her was that special (to me) 1981 Kohaku Utagassen when she performed her 36th (and 3rd-last) single, "This Is A 'Boogie'".
Released in September 1981, it looks like Sakurada was going a bit Manhattan Transfer with the 40s boogie-woogie sound. Her act stood out since her dance partner was the guy who had preceded her in the performance order, Toshiyuki Nishida (who sang "Moshimo Piano ga Hiketa Nara"). Now, knowing NHK, the double act was planned to the second, but it was still nice to see a bit of hamming it up on Nishida's side. Sakurada's appearance in the 1981 show was her 8th, her penultimate Kohaku before her final bow in 1982.
"This Is A 'Boogie'" was written by Toshiharu Jitsukawa（実川俊晴） and composed by Yuuichiro Oda（織田裕一郎） who also created a number of Seiko Matsuda's（松田聖子） songs such as "Aoi Sangosho"（青い珊瑚礁） and Ikue Sakakibara's（榊原郁恵）"Shining Love" (which also got onto the 1981 Kohaku).
Gonna have to explore some more of Junko's earlier hits.
