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.
Showing posts with label Katsuhisa Hattori. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Katsuhisa Hattori. Show all posts
Considering recent sports events in Toronto, my fellow Torontonians and Canadians at large may be feeling rather blue for a little while. And I can understand that...invest so much of your enthusiasm, soul and passion into the actions of one team...only to see them not quite grab the brass ring. It's a gut punch but everyone will get over it and move forward soon enough.
I kinda thought that this song might be somewhat emblematic of how folks are feeling right now. This is "Final" from composer and arranger Katsuhisa Hattori's（服部克久）"Juicy and Crispy" album from 1985. And it sure sounds final in a melancholy way. With that forlorn trombone included in the mix, it feels like the end of a story where the guy doesn't get the girl, the team manages to grab defeat from the jaws of victory, the up-and-coming boxer ultimately gets knocked out by the champ after twelve grueling rounds, and so on. It's sad but heroic as all involved trudge off into the sunset exhausted, disappointed but perhaps hopeful for the future with lessons learned.
"Juicy and Crispy" also holds the surprisingly AOR "Secrets" by Hattori. Give that a listen, too.
The last time I posted a Yoshie Kashiwabara（柏原芳恵）article was back in 2023 so KKP is due for a new one on the Osaka-born singer. Plus, I've started to get into the habit of checking out the B-sides for certain singers' big hits. You might say that I'm giving them their own due by bringing them outside of the A-sides' shadow.
Well, the very first Yoshie song that I ever wrote about on the blog was her major hit "Haru Nanoni"(春なのに）from January 1983. It was written and composed by Miyuki Nakajima（中島みゆき）and arranged by Katsuhisa Hattori（服部克久）so it definitely had that very refined and classical sense.
Nakajima and Hattori brought the same approach to the B-side, "Nagisa Dayori" (Correspondence from the Beach). Slightly more upbeat than "Haru Nanoni", it's still rather melancholy as a young woman recalls the romance that she once had but no longer does. Those strings are still blisteringly shimmering.
The thing is that Kashiwabara's poignant rendition of "Nagisa Dayori" is actually a cover of Nakajima's folksier original song which was a track from her April 1976 debut album"Watashi no Koe wo Kikoemasu ka"（私の声が聞こえますか...Can You Hear My Voice?）, The album reached No. 10 on Oricon. For both versions, there's something in the arrangement that reminds me of the early songs of Rumiko Koyanagi（小柳ルミ子）.
"Begin the Beguine" is the old standard that was concocted by the legendary songwriter Cole Porter back in 1935, and its various iterations have been with me since I was literally a baby. For one thing, the sultry nightclub-friendly Ann-Margret cover with a touch of bossa nova in its jazz (although a beguine is a form of slow rhumba) was on that RCA Victor "50 Years Of Hits In Stereo" set that my parents had gotten along with the stereo.
Since then, I've also gotten familiar with Julio Iglesias'1981 take on "Begin the Beguine" which was arranged in the disco fashion although disco was pretty much dead (or hibernating) by that point, I gather. The song even made its way onto NHK's 1983 edition of the Kohaku Utagassen when both Red and White teams got together for their usual kick-out-the-doors musical tribute. Porter would have loved it. Too bad that it hasn't gotten onto YouTube.
Entertainer Akira Nishikino（錦野旦）, who I've known primarily for his 1971 hit "Sora ni Taiyo ga Aru Kagiri"（空に太陽がある限り）, followed Iglesias' Latin disco style and recorded his own Japanese-language take on "Begin the Beguine". This was Nishikino's 27th single from June 1982 with Masako Arikawa（有川正沙子）providing the Japanese lyrics and the great Katsuhisa Hattori（服部克久） arranging everything pretty closely to the Iglesias version.
Ahhh...yes. Morning on Deck 16 on the Harmony of the Seas back in 2017. Sunny weather with a hint of a breeze...just the environment for a leisurely breakfast.
To be honest, I had something a little more robust than what my other family members had. It wasn't just fruit and granola on yogurt. Try double helpings of sausages and hash browns! 😄
Still, I think this track "Morning Breeze" probably best accompanies the fruit and yogurt because it is so sweet and calming. The late composer Katsuhisa Hattori（服部克久）was responsible for this one and its track mates on "Lotus Dream" (1997), the 14th in his long-running series of instrumentals known as "Ongaku Batake"（音楽畑...Music Field）. Mind you, there are some really lush moments thanks to those strings and I wonder if "Morning Breeze" would have been ideal as part of a soundtrack for a J-Drama. Henry Mancini and Arthur Fiedler were most likely nodding in appreciation. You can also check out his AOR entry for the 2nd album in "Ongaku Batake", "Juicy and Crispy" (which describes my sausage and hash browns to a tee).
I remember when the marvelous singer-songwriter Akiko Kobayashi（小林明子）came onto the music scene with her debut song and 1985 hit single "Koi ni Ochite"（恋におちて）, and people were marveling at how much she sounded like the late Karen Carpenter of Carpenters' fame. The fact that the legendary American singing duo is basically seen as music gods in Japan amped Kobayashi's profile considerably. Just a few years after that, Kobayashi even got to work with Richard Carpenter on the album "City of Angels".
Well, Kobayashi wasn't alone when it came to the Karen Carpenter comparison. Singer-songwriter Keiko Toge（峠恵子）who hails from Saitama Prefecture was scouted by CBS-Sony perhaps around the end of the 80s or early in 1990 when she was a university student and subbed for a friend who was supposed to perform at a live house and she just happened to sing the Carpenters'"I Need to Be in Love". According to her own Facebook page, at around the same time, Toge was also chosen to be the lead vocalist for the Group Sounds band The Wild Ones when they were commemorating their 25th anniversary.
Between 1992 and 1997, Toge released eight singles and two original albums. Her penultimate single released in December 1996 was "Beautiful Dreamer". Although nothing has been written in her J-Wiki profile, this particular song was used as the theme for some sort of world fair which took place in Japan at around that time according to a few comments under the video. It does have that very sunny and optimistic outlook in its arrangement which was handled by the late composer/arranger Katsuhisa Hattori（服部隆之）. To be honest, I can not only pick up on the Karen Carpenter similarity but also the observation that the song sounds a bit like something that the Carpenters could have tackled back in the day. Fumiko Okada（岡田富美子）provided the lyrics.
Toge's Carpenter-ness becomes even more pronounced on the coupling song "Yume no Iriguchi"(Dream Gate). I'm not sure if this tune had ever been used in media but it would have made a fine commercial tune for the Brazilian tourism board. There's some bossa nova and jazz in there and those two have always been welcome in my ears. Hattori and Okada were also responsible for "Yume no Iriguchi".
The singer has had quite the interesting life. Dropping out of high school, she opted to study in America for a year before returning to Japan and later graduating from the Faculty of Law at Seijo University. Toge also has a 1st-class certification in the Ski Association of Japan. Some years following her release of singles and albums, she even went on a yearlong expedition in 2001. First, she went with several others over 45 days on a yacht to head down to the Indonesian province of Irian Jaya on the island of New Guinea. Apparently, Toge was also the first person to reach the top of the northern face of Puncak Trikora, the 2nd-highest mountain on New Guinea. Then, she even spent life in the jungle for many months searching for the remains of Japanese soldiers and any signs of the supposedly extinct Thylacine. After returning home in 2002, she would eventually write about her own experiences in New Guinea. I wonder whether she deserved a John Williams soundtrack to her journey.
On top of all that, she's also behind the sound logo for Morinaga. This reminds me of Takako Minekawa's（嶺川貴子）contribution to PlayStation.
But let's finish this all off by going back to the beginning.
Singer-songwriter Shinji Tanimura passed away on October 8th 2023 at the age of 74. Most of us had only heard about his death late on the 15th or early on the 16th, and according to NHK and Wikipedia, though at this point, the cause of death hasn't been announced, Tanimura had been suffering from enteritis earlier this year.
Born in December 1948, he was the son of a couple who ran a hot spring in Nagano Town in Metropolitan Osaka. In 1965 while in high school, he along with Chizuko Shimazu（島津ちづ子）and Mineyuki Yamamoto（山本峰行）formed the folk trio The Rock Candies（ザ・ロック・キャンディーズ）, a group in the style of Peter Paul and Mary. Several years later in 1971, Tanimura and Takao Horiuchi（堀内孝雄）created the folk group Alice（アリス）which had a more folksy rock style and begat hits such as "Fuyu no Inazuma"（冬の稲妻）.
While with Alice, Tanimura was also providing songs for other singers, notably "Ii Hi Tabidachi"(いい日旅立ち) for Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）, one of her last big hits in 1978. Tanimura would cover the song in an even more genteel manner in 1986.
As I mentioned in the original article, Tanimura and his partner Horiuchi would come up with the hit "Kimi no Hitomi wa Ichi-man Boruto"（君のひとみは10000ボルト）in 1978, and though I had thought it was an Alice song, it was officially a single pegged to Horiuchi.
Alice may have been known for its good time rock n' roll folk but Tanimura's solo work could be described as elegant. At one point, I was wondering whether the singer had actually opted to become an enka singer but his material wasn't quite that traditional-sounding. Instead, I would categorize it as that middle ground between kayo kyoku and enka known as New Adult Music. It was often classy, epic, orchestral and dignified. His 1980 "Subaru"（昴）was the first Tanimura song that I'd heard as a soloist at my old karaoke joint Kuri, and I can imagine that on hearing of his passing, a lot of karaoke singers gave their tribute to him by tackling this one.
Another ballad that had some shivers going up my spine when I first heard the intro was his 1983 "Nijuuni Sai"（22歳）. It had the folksy beat from his past and the epic dignity of his present (at the time).
Through Noelle Tham's article in 2014, I found out that Tanimura along with fellow songwriter and singer Yuzo Kayama（加山雄三）had been the ones behind "Sarai"（サライ）, another epic ballad of inspiration and reassurance. I had assumed that the song was a lot older than its 1992 birthdate considering that it's been used for a certain NTV telethon year after year just like how "Auld Lang Syne" has been used to signal the end of every edition of the Kohaku Utagassen on NHK.
The final song that I'll leave here in this tribute to Tanimura is a new one on KKP. "Gunshou"（群青...Ultramarine） was his 4th single released in July 1981 and it was the theme song to the August 1981 Toei Studios movie "Rengo Kantai"（連合艦隊...Imperial Navy） which described the downfall of the Japanese Navy in World War II. According to the J-Wiki article on the song itself, Tanimura had initially turned down the request by the movie's director Shūe Matsubayashi（松林宗恵）to create a theme song for "Rengo Kantai" because of the subject matter. However, Matsubayashi was finally able to persuade him by relaying his approach and opinions, and "Gunshou" was the result. The late Katsuhisa Hattori（服部克久）arranged both "Gunshou" and "Subaru", and when Hattori passed away in 2020, Tanimura himself gave great praise on Hattori's arrangements.
Tanimura leaves behind three children including singer-songwriter Shiori Tanimura（谷村詩織）. I offer my condolences to his family, friends and fans.
Happy Saturday! Not too bad out there, weather-wise. It may be chilly but the sun is out and the room doesn't feel all that stuffy.
We're starting off with another singer-songwriter that I hadn't heard about but it's someone whose voice I do like. Emi Shirasaya（白鞘慧海）was born in Hiroshima Prefecture but raised in Ehime Prefecture. She began her music career while attending Waseda University in Tokyo, and she debuted under the stage name of Chiemi（千恵美）in 1995 with four singles and one album up to early 1997. But making a switch to another record company, she returned to her original name albeit written in hiragana（しらさやえみ）.
Then in July 1997, she released two singles on the same day, one of which was "Kimi no Soba ni" (By Your Side), a heart-on-your-sleeve love ballad with that touch of old-fashioned class in there. Not only that, but "Kimi no Soba ni" has some major veterans helping out such as Masamichi Sugi（杉真理）on the melody with Katsuhisa Hattori（服部克久）arranging everything as if the song had been made for an old Hollywood movie soundtrack. The lyricist is written down as MACO but touching the link for this person beside the title on Shirasaya's J-Wiki article took me to one Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）!
I also love Shirasaya's resonant vocals on "Kimi no Soba ni" as well as on the coupling song "Mayonaka no Pride"(Midnight Pride). This time with the singer handling the lyrics and Minoru Komorita（小森田実）providing the music and the arrangement, this is some fine light soul which was used as an ending theme for the 1994-2004 NHK-BS program "Mayonaka no Oukoku"（真夜中の王国...Midnight Kingdom） aimed at the young folks, probably in their late teens and twenties considering the lateness of the broadcast starting from at least 11:15 pm.
Shirasaya went over for several months in 2001 to New York City to perform in various venues after which she started her own label and self-produced a new album in 2002. She then converted to Christianity, working as a staffer at a church before becoming a pastor. In 2014, she restarted her music career and is also currently a gospel singer and a voice trainer.
In the first couple of decades following World War II when the people of Japan were starting to freely learn about the world again, the music industry there was just as much into covering the hits from overseas as they were producing the homegrown genres such as enka and Mood Kayo. Jazz and rockabilly became popular and then the 60s teenage idols were doing their versions of some of those American smashes such as Yukari Ito（伊東ゆかり）and Mieko Hirota（弘田三枝子）. However, there was also the growing love for French chansonspearheaded by singers like Fubuki Koshiji（越路吹雪）.
Italy was also another country whose music was of interest to Japanese listeners. I remember putting up an article on "Una Sera di Tokyo"（ウナ・セラ・ディ東京）originally by The Peanuts（ザ・ピーナッツ） which was actually a homegrown song, but it took the performance of Italian singer Milva, known as the Queen of Canzone, to take this ballad by Tokiko Iwatani and Hiroshi Miyagawa（岩谷時子・宮川泰）into the stratosphere.
However, the article this time around is for a cover of an actual Italian song "Ammore Mio" (My Love) which was first recorded by singer/actress Ornella Vanoni in 1964 and composed by Carlo Donida. The 1965 cover was performed by the late Kazuko Matsuo（松尾和子）who stamped herself into Mood Kayo legend due to her 1959 duet with Frank Nagai（フランク永井）in "Tokyo Nightclub"（東京ナイトクラブ）. Although the lyrics were changed into Japanese by Hiroshi Arakawa（あらかわひろし） with an arrangement by Katsuhisa Hattori（服部克久）, the title remained intact.
For some reason, Matsuo's cover isn't listed in her J-Wiki discography perhaps because her version shared the vinyl single with the vocal Royal Knights with their "Angelita"（アンジェリータ）. In any case, both Matsuo and Vanoni share a smoky delivery, although I think that Hattori's arrangement has a slightly more American pop ballad sense to it along the lines of what I've heard from Connie Francis.
Well, it took me about six months after writing about the lead track, "Neo Tokyo Rhapsody"（新・東京ラプソディー）but I finally got my copy of Tatsuro Yamashita's（山下達郎）"Boku no Naka no Shonen" (The Boy in Me) album which was released in October 1988. Not surprisingly, this was another No. 1 hit for the singer-songwriter and it went Double Platinum. Rocket Brown and JM The Bard gave their own review on "Boku no Naka no Shonen" back in May so give that video a listen as well.
But this article is all about my take on this winner which is notable for the observation that it strikes me as being a transitional one in terms of Tats' stylings. As I mentioned in the article for "Neo Tokyo Rhapsody", "Boku no Naka no Shonen" was no longer really a City Pop entry like his albums from the late 1970s going into the 1980s. The pendulum swung a bit more into the straight pop and R&B territory although with all of the Yamashita flourishes such as the falsetto, vocal layering, hook-laden melodies intact. Speaking of "Neo Tokyo Rhapsody", I've already spoken on one other track from the album, the soulful and even elegiac "Soubou"（蒼氓）, and Marcos V. gave his contribution through the track "Odoroyo, Fish" (踊ろよ、フィッシュ) several years ago.
"Get Back in Love" isn't only the 2nd track following "Neo Tokyo Rhapsody", it was also Yamashita's 17th single from April 1988, released half a year before "Boku no Naka no Shonen" was itself released. The theme song for the TBS-produced drama "Kaigan Monogatari Mukashi Mitai ni..."（海岸物語 昔みたいに…Coastline Stories...Like in the Old Days）, I think that it prefaced the pop balladry that he would demonstrate with songs such as "Sayonara Natsu no Hi"（さよなら夏の日...Goodbye Summer Days) and "Endless Game" which would pop up on his following studio album "Artisan" in 1991.
Reaching No. 6 on Oricon, the liner notes in the album has Yamashita saying that being in his mid-30s at the time, he no longer felt like creating those uptempo Resort Pop songs from some years beforehand and was more in the ballad mood. Also during that period, according to the writeup on J-Wiki for the album, Yamashita was also helping out on Masayuki Suzuki's（鈴木雅之）"Radio Days"sophomore solo album and may have been considering the song for Martin. However, Martin's director told the songwriter that "Get Back In Love" was really more for Yamashita to sing. Still, I would love to hear The King of Love Songs give his rendition of this one. In any case, "Get Back In Love" is a great end-of-summer tune and the electric sitar that Tats also plays gives it a nostalgic 1970s twist.
"The Girl in White" all came about when Suntory Whiskey came knocking to ask if Yamashita could come up with a commercial tune for their Suntory White as performed by the acapella group 14 Karat Soul. The version here by Tats is the cover and it was also the coupling song for the single "Neo Tokyo Rhapsody". I'm not sure how sales for Suntory White did afterwards but try to imagine how excited the company's Marketing division must have been on learning that Tats would create one of their jingles. However this time, it wasn't just the singer on songwriting duties; his friend Alan O'Day would provide the lyrics. One interesting point that Yamashita also makes is that he thought the finished product was something that late 50s/early 60s American singer-songwriter Dion would perform through a technopop filter.
(cover version)
"Samui Natsu"（寒い夏...The Cold Summer） is another collaboration with Tats but this time, his songwriting partner was also his partner in life, Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）, on the lyrics. For me, this is also one of my highlights because of the overall arrangement, said to be based on the works by singer-songwriter Jimmy Webb, including the sublime strings provided by Katsuhisa Hattori/服部克久 (it's because of those strings that I get reminded of Pet Shop Boys'"Liberation"). This lush ballad is also a very melancholy one in that a man remembers that Thursday morning when the romance came to an abrupt end.
The final song on Side A of the original LP is "Odoroyo, Fish" and as noted above, Marcos V. gave his two cents about Tats' 16th single from May 1987. I also had a personal connection to it since it was a song that I used to hear either through a segment on either the Fuji-TV morning news show or the following "Ponkikies"（ポンキッキーズ）kids' program. And why not? It's just a happy beach tune although I remember from a few paragraphs previously that the singer was tired of doing those sorts of songs but instead of some kids asking for the tune, it was All Nippon Airways making the request for their annual Okinawa campaign. Maybe after getting "Odoroyo, Fish" done, Tats said to himself, "OK, that's it! I'm done with the upbeat Resort Pop". As it was, the single peaked at No. 19.
"Luminescence" is an atmospheric beginning to Side B with Yamashita handling all of the instruments save Koki Ito（伊藤広規）on electric bass. According to both J-Wiki and the album's liner notes, the tune was brought to fruition when Tats had come back home from a very late night of recording and was walking the dog just before sunrise. He suddenly saw the constellation of Orion in the summer which surprised the heck out of him.
One thing that I've always admired about the singer has been bringing in instruments that I would no longer have associated with a contemporary pop song such as a glockenspiel that I'd thought was something that belonged to the 1960s with DeVol. But Tats plays it here and I think it really adds some fascinating spice to "Marmalade Goodbye" which begins with one stomping bass by Ito again and is further carried by Shigeo Fuchino's（淵野繁雄）tenor sax. "Marmalade Goodbye" was created for a 1988 Honda Integra commercial and apparently Tats got the inspiration for it through Jack Nicholson's"Five Easy Pieces".
The final track and title track was also commissioned for the Honda Integra back in 1986, and as the title hints at, the song does talk about boyhood but also about the man's parting from it after becoming a parent himself. Yamashita states that he was of the postwar generation which begat Japan's moratorium society and the concept of eternal boyhood, but all that changed when he and Mariya had their baby daughter. The song might be something along the lines of "OK, I've grown up...now what?". The music itself is appropriately introspective and fun to listen to as the singer handles all of the instruments. I also enjoyed the Tats harmonies but when I first heard "Boku no Naka no Shonen", I was slightly taken off course with that ending that begins a little after three minutes. It sounds like a toy drum parade with an electric organ and supposedly he had wanted to come up with something distinctive along the lines of The Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds" or The Rascals'"Once Upon A Dream". In addition, Tats was also very interested in emulating a drum roll realistically through a computer which seems kinda reminiscent of Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）and Hiroshi Sato's（佐藤博）fascination of bringing together technology and music.
In any case, I have another proud Tatsuro Yamashita to add to the collection.
This is a short-but-sweet track from a soundtrack to a 1980 movie called "Koufuku-go Shuppan"（幸福号出帆...The S.S. Happiness Sets Sail）. The movie was based on a Yukio Mishima（三島由紀夫）novel that was first released in 1955 through the pages of the Yomiuri Shimbun. From what I could read of the synopsis, "Koufuku-go Shuppan" seems to be set up as some kind of soap opera, but despite the title and the cover of the soundtrack album featuring a mighty sailing vessel, I think the novel and the movie are actually based on land with the title possessing a more metaphorical meaning. I did come across one part of the story in the J-Wiki which states that Mishima had wanted the first half of the novel to have the look and feel of "Grand Hotel" in which a lot of characters mingle and intersect. The lead actress was Mariko Fuji（藤真利子）who has quite a few entries here on "Kayo Kyoku Plus".
Unfortunately, I couldn't find any footage of "Koufuku-go Shuppan" so I can't really confirm where the setting is, although the 1980 movie seems to be centered around the comings and goings of a Ginza-based department store and a young couple thrown into a maelstrom. Although I can't say that I'm a Mishima fan, any time his name pops up, I am at least a little curious especially as it pertains to my blog.
Also, the late Katsuhisa Hattori（服部克久）was a composing/arranging master whose name I am also very intrigued by. He was indeed responsible for the "Koufuku-go Shuppan" soundtrack and the track here is "Futari dake no Umi" (An Ocean Just for Two). There is no aural sign of any ocean adventure or pirates here; instead it's a stylish laidback song of slow funk and jazz. It could be a piece surrounding a walk through Shinjuku or a dinner in some swanky restaurant in Tokyo. But perhaps it could also be describing such a meal on a cruise ship just offshore.
In any case, if anyone out there has actually seen this movie on the big or small screen, let me know what it's all about. I know that Fuji's character had wanted to become an opera singer.
Japan's annual Golden Week holidays came to a close a few hours ago and I hope that everyone there had as good a time as can be had under the current COVID restrictions. Until the pandemic hit, it had all been about Bullet Trains at over 100% capacity, fully booked planes and highways that always became the longest parking lots in the world. For that very reason, Golden Week for me meant stay-cations. In all my time in the country, I never went on any vacation outside of the megalopolis during GW and although the usual tourist areas in Tokyo were fairly crowded, I was happy to walk quite more freely through other areas such as Ginza and Nihonbashi during the holiday period. Things were mellower in the big city.
When I was covering composer/arranger Katsuhisa Hattori's（服部克久）works via a Creator article soon after his passing almost a year ago, I came across one of his creations for the 1980 anime "Tom Sawyer no Bouken"（トム・ソーヤーの冒険...The Adventures of Tom Sawyer） which was the opening theme, "Dare yori mo Tooku e"（誰よりも遠くへ...Farther Than Anyone）, a jaunty contemporary-sounding tune with the addition of that banjo to reflect Tom and his surroundings.
The ending theme is, as would befit the oft-used pattern of lively opening theme and mellow ending theme, has a softer arrangement by Hattori. Titled "Boku no Mississippi" (My Mississippi), once again as well, Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）provided the lyrics while Maron Kusaka（日下まろん）sang it. It does have that feeling of Tom and Huck lying on the grass along the banks of the Mississippi, at least the beginning verses do, before the grand refrain comes out. The full version has some wonderful strings and a romantic electric guitar helping out.
Kusaka herself had a very brief career as an anison singer. In addition to the themes for "Tom Sawyer", she only sang the opening and ending themes for the anime "Wan Wan Sanjuushi"（ワンワン三銃士...Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds） the following year, before deciding to retire.
This article was inspired from a talk that I had with commenter Scott earlier this morning, and I found out from him that Bob McGrath of "Sesame Street" fame was perhaps the original "Big in Japan" guy, even before he became a household name for children and parents alike. I started watching the show pretty much from the time that it started up in 1969, and the human faces were always Bob, Susan, Gordon and Mr. Hooper. I also thought that Bob was always the strongest singer and I will always remember his renditions of "Good Morning, Starshine" and "Sing".
When I got the information from Scott this morning, I decided to go down the Muppet hole and found quite a few record covers on YouTube and the other search engines with his familiar face and a lot of katakana. I even found a video of his 1967 appearance on the game show "I've Got a Secret" hosted by Steve Allen in which he divulges his interesting little secret and how he became a regular visitor to Japan.
Considering "Kayo Kyoku Plus" is back in Christmas mode, I thought it would be nice to have Bob's rendition of "Jingle Bells" for all to see. He sings half or most of the song in English but there are some verses that he does render in pretty good Japanese. According to the uploader, the Japanese lyrics were provided by someone named S. Takada with the arranger/conductor being K. Hattori. I'm assuming that this is referring to the composer and arranger Katsuhisa Hattori（服部克久）who passed away earlier this year in June. Hattori was responsible for arranging the very nostalgic version of "Sotsugyo Shashin"（卒業写真）by Hi-Fi Set and he also later helped out a Japanese singer with his own Christmas album in the 1990s.
Some sad news from the world of Japanese music in that composer/arranger Katsuhisa Hattori passed away today at the age of 83. His name is one that has been familiar to me through television since he not only provided theme songs for a number of shows of different genres but he sometimes appeared on them as well. Hattori also belongs to a large family of music makers including his father, composer/arranger Ryoichi Hattori（服部良一）, his son, composer/arranger Takayuki Hattori（服部隆之）, and granddaughter, violinist Mone Hattori（服部百音）.
One thing that I hadn't known not being a gamer was that Katsuhisa and Ryoichi co-arranged the first music CD for the composer Nobuo Uematsu（植松伸夫）for "Final Fantasy" in 1989. In terms of Katsuhisa's touchstones for me, I remember him for contributing his services for Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）when the latter released his Xmas album in 1993.
In a way, Hattori was a regular presence in terms of his music since I had been a regular viewer of Fuji-TV's long-running music show "Music Fair". He was the original arranger of the classy theme song created by Kougo Hotomi（保富康午）and Naozumi Yamamoto（山本直純）.
Moreover, he was also behind the exciting and sweeping opening theme for TBS' "The Best 10". Hattori provided a lot of theme songs for other television shows such as this detective show called "Kyodai Keiji"（兄弟刑事）for which I've already provided an article.
Hattori also provided a number of themes for anime such as "Tom Sawyer no Bouken"（トム・ソーヤーの冒険...The Adventures of Tom Sawyer）. The opening theme for this 1980 series was "Dare yori mo Tooku e"（誰よりも遠くへ...Farther Than Anyone） as sung by Maron Kusaka（日下まろん）with lyrics by Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）.
His list of kayo that he composed for specific singers is quite short, though. One example is Tessei Miyoshi's（三好鉄生）"Sugoi Otoko no Uta"（すごい男の唄）, and there is this one for enka singer Aki Yashiro（八代亜紀）, the sunny "Hanataba ~ Bouquet"（花束）released in 1990 for which the late Yu Aku（阿久悠）provided the lyrics.
Organizations and events also benefited from Hattori's work. To celebrate the 120th anniversary of the Keikyu railway corporation, he composed a song titled "Ningen ga Suki Dakara"（人間が好きだから...Because We Love Humanity）which was written by Kyoko Tanaka（田中京子）and Toyohisa Araki（荒木とよひさ）with the vocal group Circus（サーカス）performing it. Since, according to the Wikipedia article on the company, Keikyu goes all the way back to 1898, I'm assuming that the song was created around 2018.
Although Hattori didn't provide many direct compositions for singers, he did arrange a lot of them that had been created by other songwriters. One that has already been talked about on the blog is his more regal version of the classic "Sotsugyo Shashin"（卒業写真）as performed by Hi-Fi Set（ハイ・ファイ・セット）in 1975 with Yumi Arai（荒井由実）as the original lyricist and composer. He also handled strings arrangements for many other artists such as the aforementioned Tatsuro Yamashita, Masashi Sada（さだまさし）and Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）.
The one big surprise that I've had in Katsuhisa Hattori's file thus far was in his 1985"Juicy and Crispy" album for his long-running "Ongaku Batake"（音楽畑）series. The second track is "Secrets", one lovely AOR piece that was written by Linda Hennrick; I'd never imagined that Hattori would come up with something in the light and mellow genre but out of all the songs featured in his long discography, "Secrets" has been the one tune by him that I would make a beeline for if I were having a bad day.
Discovered another couple of great tunes from Side B of "Juicy and Crispy". At about 21:00 is "Japonica" which seems to be Hattori's attempt at T-Square sports-loving goodness, and then at about 26:40 is "Costa Del Sol", a wonderful tropical cocktail of fusion. Really would love to get my hands on this album although my first attempt at it a few years ago sadly ended in failure.
From video games to classical music, Hattori has left a lot of fans with a wide variety of music that we will probably need years to discover and re-discover. He took up the baton for songwriting passed on by his father and now he has given it over to his son and potentially future generations.
Currently in the not-so-common situation of being between assignments right now since my project manager has given me the heads-up on a short editing thing coming down the pipe in the next couple of hours.
In the meantime, then, I can write up this article about another track from master composer/arranger Katsuhisa Hattori's（服部克久）music series "Ongaku Batake"（音楽畑...Music Field）. Last year, I did introduce the series with an oh-so-mellow AOR song "Secrets" from the second album"Juicy & Crispy".
Well, from his third album"Bon Voyage" (1986), I bring you "Dream Avenue" which, as YouTube commenter Ikaros 420 put it, an "amazing combination of late 50s and 80s sounds/styles". And yeah, even if it had been recorded in the mid-1980s of aidoru-dom and City Pop, "Dream Avenue" with Hattori's silky arrangement and heavenly voice work (would like to know who the main female vocalist was) brings back memories of 1950s musicals and song-and-dance segments on the old American variety shows. Something rather Manhattan Transfer in the execution whenever that legendary group goes for the old standards.
But Hattori wasn't the only one digging into that aspect of music back then. Light and mellow Tohoku Shinkansen（東北新幹線）came up with their own jazzy version of "September Valentine" on their lone album "Thru Traffic" and there was Ruiko Kurahashi's（倉橋ルイ子）take on torch song "Gas Tou"（ガス燈）in her album "Main Course".
Yes, it's September and this is "September", the very first Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）song that I ever heard all those years ago. I will always cherish this song (and the Earth Wind and Fire classic), but as I mentioned in the original article for the song, this wasn't actually created by the singer. Instead, it was written by Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）and composed by Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）all the way back in 1979.
Speaking of that year, it's indeed the 40th anniversary since that record and Mariya herself is celebrating 40 years by releasing her latest BEST compilation in the next couple of days. "Turntable" is a 3-CD extravaganza that consists of songs that she would have placed into her 2008 BEST collection "Expressions", her own covers of tunes that she provided other Japanese singers, and covers of songs by famous Western artists, many of which are Beatles creations. The above video features a quick taste of the songs on Disc 2 called "Mariya's Rarities".
Hearing about the arrival of "Turntable", I thought it was perhaps time to post either a BEST or a Creator article for Ms. Takeuchi. After some thought about it, since I've already got a lot of her hits up on the blog (although that won't stop me from eventually putting up a BEST), I ultimately decided to proceed with the Creator which will be the third such article for this year, to follow the lead of Disc 2 on "Turntable" and put up songs that she provided for other singers. Just to let you know in advance, though, I will be focusing mostly on singers that don't already have a lot of the Takeuchi connection...except for her hubby.
One of the tunes that is included on Disc 2 is "Hey! Baby" which was originally performed by singer-songwriter Eri Morishita（森下恵理）. To be honest, I had never heard of Morishita's material until some days ago when I was trying to figure out which songs to include here, but hey, I really do like "Hey! Baby" which was both written and composed by Takeuchi. This was Morishita's 3rd single from February 1986, and it's got oodles of that 50s/60s bubbly pop sensation that Mariya herself swam in especially in the early part of her career. The single itself peaked at No. 55.
The one big surprise is finding out that Takeuchi even provided a song for Masahiko Kondo（近藤真彦）. I'd always seen Matchy as a singer who was into raising hell and being misunderstood in his music, but his Mariya-penned "Eve no Kokuhaku"（イブの告白...Eve Confession） from his December 1986 album"Dream" takes things into a 180-degree turn. That intro especially had me thinking of a tuxedo-sporting Matchy congenially welcoming everyone into Tokyo Disneyland on Christmas Eve. However, the lyrics are a lot more intimate in the invitation. Mark Davis, who is really Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）, was responsible for the epic Yuletide melody.
For this article, I tried to find out the earliest song that Mariya had written and/or composed for anyone but wasn't successful. However, I did find this tune back in October 1982 that she had done both for former Pink LadyKeiko Masuda（増田恵子）as her 3rd single. "Rasen Kaidan"（らせん階段...Spiral Staircase）. Masuda's vocals aren't quite as strong but listening to the melody, I could easily peg this as a Takeuchi creation simply because it is so pop-bouncy. Whenever I think of many of the songs that Mariya has performed and created, I can easily envisage some sort of stage performance with male and female dancers happily skipping about with straw hats and wooden canes just like on the old TV music-variety shows. "Rasen Kaidan" is one of those songs. It was also included in Masuda's 2nd album"Koi suru O-Tomodachi"（恋するお友達...Friends In Love） which came out a month after the single.
As nikala wrote down for the first Kazuhito Murata（村田和人）entry, "Ippon no Ongaku" (一本の音楽) in "Kayo Kyoku Plus" back in 2015, Takeuchi's husband, Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）helped launch the mellow Murata's career, and I've always thought that the late singer-songwriter was a protégé of sorts to Tats because of the similarity in singing styles. So, perhaps it's no wonder that Takeuchi helped Murata out in a few songs such as the second track from his debut album "Mata Ashita"（また明日...See You Tomorrow） in 1982, "Whisky Boy". Takeuchi provided only the lyrics here with Satoshi/Satoru Ono（小野敏）, a fellow member of Murata's amateur band, creating the original music with some additions by Murata. Still, Ono's melody sounds like the type of song that Takeuchi would create on her own.
Seiko Matsuda's（松田聖子）76th single from November 2011, "Tokubetsu na Koibito"（特別な恋人...A Special Lover） is supposedly the first time that Seiko and Mariya, who wrote and composed the song, have ever collaborated together. It was released to commemorate Matsuda's 30th anniversary in the music business. If I'm not mistaken, that might be both Mariya and Tats' voices as backup. Of course, it's definitely Seiko's vocals but the song is gentle Mariya style. The lyrics are also very upbeat as a woman relates getting another chance with an old flame. "Tokubetsu na Koibito" reached as high as No. 14 on Oricon.
My final entry for these works by Takeuchi is one of the numbers she's done with Tatsuro Yamashita. In this case, it's "Samui Natsu"（寒い夏...Cold Summer） with Takeuchi providing the melancholy lyrics of someone who's missing an old love dearly while Yamashita composed the music that has some hits-me-right-there string arrangement by Katsuhisa Hattori（服部克久）. The whole song has that feeling of the summer coming to a close as those first hints of cool winds are coming in. Perhaps the person in the song is near the dock just staring sadly away at the horizon over the ocean.
Anyways, this article just reflects a mere fraction of the music that Takeuchi has provided for herself and other musicians, and of course, I've already written about a lot of other songs that she's created for them on the blog. If I were to describe the Mariya style of songwriting in a few words, I could say something like "wistful, lovelorn and bouncy", and it seems like that there is still a place in Japanese popular music for that type of music, I'm happy to say.
I hope that some of you do get your copy of "Turntable" in the coming months. For me, I will probably get it as Xmas starts approaching. She's pretty good with those Yuletide tunes, too.
For a long time, I had known about the actress Ayumi Ishida（いしだあゆみ）on television but didn't realize that she was a singer, and certainly I was surprised to find out that it was her vocals that graced the classic Mood Kayo"Blue Light Yokohama"（ブルーライト・ヨコハマ）. Since that realization and my creation of the blog, I've been paying more attention to her hitherto unknown discography.
Currently, I'm having the same experience with actress, TV personality and singer Ayako Sawada（沢田亜矢子）. She was another presence that I used to see in dramas and commercials for years on Japanese TV, and I have just read that she used to be one of the first co-hosts of the NTV morning talk-variety show "Look Look Konnichiwa"（ルックルックこんにちは）.
Well, I've also learned the fact that she also had spent her time as a singer for nearly a decade between 1973 and 1982. In fact, according to a 1973 issue of "Heibon Punch"（平凡パンチ）via J-Wiki, Sawada was drawn into show business at the age of 23 when she had been scouted while playing piano in a bar at the Takanawa Prince Hotel in Tokyo as a part-time job.
Though her first two singles came out in 1973 in short order, it would be about four more years before her 3rd single was released in May 1977. That was "Michinori" (Limits of the Journey[?]), a slightly melancholy kayo with strings and horns sung beautifully by Sawada. Written by Masami Sugiyama（杉山政美）and composed by Kantaro Yamamoto（山本寛太郎）with arrangement by Katsuhisa Hattori（服部克久）, I wasn't able to find the lyrics online but from the sad but seemingly never-give-up beat, I can only imagine that it's about someone getting on with life despite a setback, romantic or otherwise. The song was also the opening theme for a drama that had Sawada in the cast, "Sasurai no Tabiji"（さすらいの旅路...Wandering Journey）.
Strangely enough, though, the very first time that I heard an Ayako Sawada song was through my recent purchase of a CD from the "Light Mellow" series. In "Wing", I found an example where she had jumped on board the City Pop bandwagon originally through the B-side of her 7th single"Dance ni Muchuu"（ダンスに夢中...In Love with Dancing） from 1981. Titled "Air Pocket", I'm not surprised that this had been welcomed into the "Light Mellow" series since those two words describe "Air Pocket" to a T. It has that summery saunter to it including a nice guitar solo. Tsuzuru Nakasato（中里綴）wrote the lyrics of enjoying that City Pop life in which there is even a quick shoutout to Boz Scaggs. Junichi Kamiyama（神山純一）took care of the lightly bouncy music. Both A and B sides were also on her 2nd album from 1981, "Silky Night Sawada Ayako First Album" （Silky Night 沢田亜矢子ファーストアルバム）. I gather that the "First Album" naming was due to that this was not only her inaugural release for Crown Records but it was also her first album in nine years since her debut album in 1973 for RCA Victor.
P.S. Her daughter, Kaori Sawada（澤田かおり）, is a singer-songwriter as well, and you can take a look at one of her songs.
It's a very summery Sunday morning as I write this. The fan is already on here as things have become fairly stuffy in the old abode.
Allow me to start with something classy and appropriate to go with your Sunday breakfast/brunch. I found this smooth and jazzy number called "Sunny Sunday Morning '09" as performed by J-AOR crooner extraordinaire Chikuzen Sato（佐藤竹善）and composed by veteran Katsuhisa Hattori（服部克久）. This was a track on Sato's 5th album in his "Cornerstones" series of cover songs with the subtitle of "Free as a Bird" back in November 2012. However, the song had been recorded three years earlier as a track on Hattori's 50th anniversary album"Hattori Katsuhisa Ongakuka Seikatsu Go-juu Shuunen Kinen Concert"（服部克久音楽家生活50周年記念コンサート...Katsuhisa Hattori's Songwriter Life 50th Anniversary Memorial Concert）.
That lovely harmonica, the silky strings and the soft guitar accompany Sato in something that reminds me of some of those jazz standards from my childhood and television experiences. I couldn't find out who provided the lyrics for "Sunny Sunday Morning '09", but I can imagine that it was Sato. As for the cover of "Cornerstones 5", I would probably eschew the cigar and booze that Sato is holding and go for something healthier...like tons of bacon, sausage and other processed meats along with the Eggs Benedict slathered in Hollandaise Sauce.😈😈
Oh, and by the way, for another Sunday-themed tune, you can try out Yutaka Yokokura's（横倉裕）"Warm & Sunny Sunday Morning" from 1988.
And here I thought that composer/arranger Katsuhisa Hattori（服部克久）was bitten by the easy listening bug just once in the 1980s.
Uh....not so fast. It looks like Hattori still had love for all things smooth jazz in the 1990s as well, if this track from his 1993 album"Daichi to Umi no Uta"（大地と海の詩...Poetry of the Great Land and Sea）is of any indication. "Wadatsumi" (Neptune) is a saxophone-led accompaniment to your lobster dinner by the ocean, and though I think things get a bit repetitious with that particular hook in there, I think because of that nature, it may have been used as background music on a number of Japanese variety shows. It sounds quite familiar to me. I would like to know who was on that sax.
Still curious about Hattori's adventures into this most mellow of Japanese genres. I may look into "Daichi to Umi to Uta" but I think his 1985 "Juicy and Crispy" in the "Ongaku Batake"（音楽畑...Music Field）series still takes precedence.
Last night, I put on my TV nostalgia cap and went through some old American TV themes on YouTube, notably in the detective show vein. A few days ago, I'd undergone the same phase when I was writing up that article for one of the theme songs for the "Kosuke Kindaichi"（金田一耕助）series in Japan. But last night, I saw the classic opening credit sequence for "The NBC Mystery Movie" with its surprisingly romantic Henry Mancini theme song that has become the de facto theme for "Columbo". Now, whenever there is a power blackout in our building and I have to go down the corridor to investigate with a flashlight, I will always keep getting reminded of that song.
I also revisited an old favourite, the opening credits for the 60s show "Mannix" which was one of the earliest memories in my TV-viewing career. Lalo Schifrin created this one. Of course, he will probably be most famous for the legendary "Mission: Impossible" theme but whereas that one was determined and suspenseful, Schifrin's theme for "Mannix" was an intense but sweepingly jazzy number that I think perfectly described the life of good ol' Joe Mannix in Los Angeles.
Then, there was the funkiness of the theme song for "The Streets of San Francisco" by Patrick Williams. Love the wacka-wacka guitar, those drums and the horns. Couldn't feel more downtown than if I were actually in The City by the Bay itself.
I've had this video on backlog for a while and wading myself into those American cop show theme songs last night, I finally pulled the trigger on covering this one. This is Katsuhisa Hattori's（服部克久）opening instrumental theme for the Fuji-TV drama "Kyodai Keiji" (The Detective Brothers) which premiered some months after the curtain had finally fallen on "The Streets of San Francisco" on ABC.
Last month, I wrote about Hattori tackling some Shibuya-kei even probably before the term was born through his 1985 "Juicy and Crispy" album. Well, it looks like nearly a decade beforehand, he was whipping up some choice Quinn/Martin-friendly theme songs. There is something about his theme for "Kyodai Keiji" that reminds me of not only Williams' theme for "The Streets of San Francisco" but also the theme song for "Kojak". Perhaps Hattori was inspired by those tunes since there is also some funkiness in his creation as well as some of that urban intrepid feeling.
OK, I gotta admit that this song has thrown me for a fair loop. In fact, it's gotten me so fascinated that I may need second opinions from the collaborators and commenters at large. I mean, if this is the type of tune you like.
Back in December, I wrote about "Secrets", a track from Katsuhisa Hattori's（服部克久）"Juicy and Crispy" album from 1985. That song was so romantically AOR, it hurt. Well, just a few tracks down from that Smooth Jazz classic, we have "Pizzicato Surprise".
This is a completely different animal by Hattori. It's a short and quirky track which is so reminiscent of the type of music that adorned 1950s and 1960s sponsor segments on American variety shows that I half-expected to get my pack of Philip Morris cigarettes and Betty Crocker cake mix in the mail the next day. Oh, those plucky strings combined with those crazy sound effects. Then the plucky strings turn into those shimmering strings taking us on a smooth sleigh ride up and down the hills of Vermont.
At first, I'd assumed that "Pizzicato Surprise" was an elbow nudge of respect to the band Pizzicato Five, thanks to half of that title and the music. But then, I looked at the album and the release date: 1985. Pizzicato Five had indeed debuted in that year, but I couldn't say that the Shibuya-kei genre had coalesced into them at that early point in time. I think P5 was more of a quirky technopop unit along the lines of PSY-S back then, and "Pizzicato Surprise" to me is also a creation that I could imagine another Shibuya-kei mainstay Fantastic Plastic Machine whipping up.
Looking up the meaning of pizzicato, I was reminded that the term referred to "...plucking the strings of a violin or other stringed instrument with one's finger" (Google), and indeed that's what I got. Still, I was surprised that Hattori may have unintentionally or presciently made a tune that would be perfect for a future genre half-titled with one of the most famous bands representing that very genre. Indeed, this is truly a pizzicato surprise!
