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.
For all American readers here, Happy Thanksgiving! I hope all of you have made it to your destinations and will soon be tucking into that Norman Rockwell-friendly turkey dinner with all of the trimmings. Now, as for all you Whovians out in the world, a Happy 60th anniversary to "Doctor Who", the longest-running science-fiction TV series out there. It was born on the BBC on November 23rd 1963.
As you can see at the top, there is my copy of the commemorative tome for the 20th anniversary of the show which I purchased when I was but a wee high schooler. To think that "Doctor Who" is now three times as old. From what I remember reading was that the show of a fantastical if irascible figure known as The Doctor traveling in his Type 40 TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension In Space) had originally been crafted to act as a peaceful programming wedge between the Saturday afternoon sports show and the evening news. Well, it's gotten a little more complex since then.
The first time I'd ever heard of "Doctor Who" was in the early 1970s when it appeared on either the local educational channel, OECA, or the Buffalo affiliate of PBS, WNED. I first got to see the Third Doctor played by Jon Pertwee as this cranky if dashing middle-aged guy chopping enemies with his Venusian aikido and was then initially confused when suddenly he changed into a tall bohemian version of Harpo Marx played by Tom Baker as you can see above. I had to gradually learn about the whole concept of regeneration which is virtually a bank holiday in the UK when a new actor jumps into the role.
I distinctly remember the first episode that was introduced on screens here which happened to be the 10th anniversary special, "The Three Doctors". The idea was either inspired or insane by the programmers. Have new viewers see all three actors who have played The Doctor at one time to get the idea of who they were or confuse the heck out of them by having three Doctors in the same time and space in some madcap caper. But since I didn't see any weird monsters, spaceships or phaser bursts within the first five minutes, I quickly switched over to the CBC. It would take several years, quick views of clips Pertwee and Baker as I was changing the channel and a more mature approach before I finally got to enjoy "Doctor Who" by the late 1970s...just in time before Baker handed the baton to young Peter Davison.
My feelings on the good Doctor and the show over the decades have been perhaps similar those of his companions: love and hate, disappointment and thrills. The quality of episodes and even that of full seasons has also careened wildly just like the TARDIS flying through the space/time vortex. But The Doctor keeps on coming in his many and different faces to save the universe from Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans and other horrifying crises.
Although my initial viewing of "The Three Doctors" didn't last too long, I was around for the eerie and iconic theme song by Ron Grainer and Delia Derbyshire. The story of how the theme was created is frankly incredible and ought to be read about on its Wikipedia entry but back then, there were no synthesizers or emulators. From how it reads, it was all the equivalent of manual handling, snipping, splicing and patience without computers. I've often wondered whether techno bands such as Yellow Magic Orchestra and Kraftwerk had gotten any inspiration from hearing the theme.
In the decades since, the theme song eventually underwent a lot of different arrangements including the one for the 60th anniversary specials, due to be televised in a few days. But I have to admit that my favourite version isn't one that has been used on any of the episodes or specials, but the following mix created by Hardwire. If I ever have the need for speed and inspiration, I go to this one.
Anyways, enjoy the anniversary and have a jellybaby!
For this week's Reminiscings of Youth, let's see what was winning at the Japan Record Awards in 1963.
Well, I'm putting up a new Label on the side here. Recently, I wrote about the technopop band P-Model and in looking up information on them, I found out that they have been included with two other similar groups, Hikashu and The Plastics to form a Techno Gosanke（テクノ御三家）. Over the years, I've referred to that term gosanke（御三家） a number of times. Therefore, I figured that it may actually be time to display on a weekly basis the various trios in the music world, especially on finding a page at "idol.ne.jp" that has a fairly long list. I can also think of a few other entries that weren't included on that list.
I recall explaining about the word at least once in the past few months, but I'll explain it here as well. Gosanke began its existence in terms of Japanese history. According to the J-Wiki description, it was first used to refer to the three sons of the shogunIeyasu Tokugawa（徳川家康）and their families. Those sons, Yoshinao（徳川義直）, Yorinobu（徳川頼宣） and Yorifusa（徳川頼房）, were given special status as such. They were The Big 3.
Hundreds of years later, the mass media and/or entertainment management companies in Japan picked up on the significance of gosanke, and have been using the term to describe certain celebrities and corporate figures among other people and things as influential and charismatic trios. The first time that this occurred was in the 1960s when it was first used for the young new stars of Yukio Hashi（橋幸夫）, Kazuo Funaki（舟木一夫）and Teruhiko Saigo（西郷輝彦）. Because Saigo was the last of this Gosanke to make his debut, I've pegged this article with his debut year of 1964.
In the 1970s, another trio of male stars popped up (which I will show next week) which took on the name, so since that point, Hashi, Funaki and the late Saigo have been called the Ganso Gosanke or The Original Big 3. Welcome to KKP, Gosanke!
For this week's Reminiscings of Youth, I once again take you to cartoon land.
Along with bunnies, mice, ducks, prehistoric blue-collar guys and round-headed kids, I also got to know a pink panther and an obtuse French detective. Yeah, as a very young little boy, I watched "The Pink Panther Show" which opened as you can see here with a quintessentially 1970s groovy theme song.
My weekday afternoons following school were often filled with views of the innocent and unintentionally troublemaking Pink Panther and the bumbling Inspector Clouseau. I did get my laughs at both of them although at the time, I had no idea that they shared a common origin.
The other thing was that instead of "The Pink Panther Show"70s theme song, Pink himself was always accompanied by this boozy and jazzy saxophone-led theme in his individual cartoons that I actually enjoyed much more. In fact, in contrast with this theme and its variations showing up in most of the episodes, I actually fell hard for the "soundtrack" as it were of what was the very first Pink Panther cartoon, "The Pink Phink". Everything stood out for this one as the pilot cartoon: the more minimalist design, the slightly stouter but still suave panther and what would be a more faithful rendition of the theme song.
Some years would pass before I finally discovered that the Pink Panther hadn't come from a weekday cartoonist's mind but from director/screenwriter Blake Edwards' realization of an idea for a 1963 motion-picture live-action caper comedy which would introduce one of cinema's biggest comedic characters in the form of Inspector Jacques Clouseau played by Peter Sellers, and of course, the legendary Pink Panther. Apparently, the opening credits for the movie became so popular with folks that some of them actually bought more tickets just to see them again...and thus, the cartoon was born.
It's been a long time since I've seen "The Pink Panther" but though I remember that Clouseau back then was also a bumbler, he was not quite so to the extent that he was in later sequels. Sellers had played him a bit more competently back then, and the jewel thieves were also in the bumbling category which surprised me considering that David Niven and Robert Wagner were the stars. My general feeling was that "The Pink Panther" was slapstick comedy nestled within a sophisticated movie of high society, international intrigue and beautiful people.
But when it comes down right to it, it will always be that Henry Mancini theme song with Plas Johnson behind the tenor sax that everyone will remember first. "The Pink Panther Theme" hit the Top 10 on the U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary chart and was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Pop Instrumental Performance category, according to Wikipedia.
Mancini was also the composer behind the theme song for the 1964 "A Shot in the Dark", the first sequel to "The Pink Panther". And once again, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the theme for all those "The Inspector" cartoons had gotten its full glory in another popular opening credits sequence. "A Shot in the Dark" basically reflected Clouseau in its arrangement of intrigue, Frenchness and jazzy coolness along with the brassy explosions. And Clouseau seemed to attract all sorts of explosions.
This was the movie that set the Clouseau franchise template of being a total puffed-up buffoon who brought mayhem to any situation and person, especially his long-suffering boss, the increasingly neurotic Commissioner Dreyfus. I remember laughing my innards out like a sea cucumber on Red Alert during the running gag of the police van taking Clouseau into custody four times, including after his escapade at the nudist colony.
Well, Oricon wasn't around in the early 1960s and the usually dependable Showa Pops website of singles releases only goes as far back as 1965, so let us go with what won at the Japan Record Awards in 1963.
Welcome to October! It's a brisk one out there and there's quite a cooling breeze flowing through home right now. Hopefully folks in Tokyo and the rest of Japan have been recovering from the latest typhoon to whoosh across the archipelago.
The samurai dramas of my childhood were "Mito Komon"（水戸黄門）and "Kozure Ohkami"（子連れ狼）, so my brother and I were often enthralled when the good guys flashed their swords and made mincemeat out of the enemy, although gore and blood were thankfully absent in the shows.
I never caught "Zenigata Heiji" in any of its incarnations over the decades, though. Apparently, the title character was an Edo Era policeman in Edo itself whose claim to fame was nabbing criminals by flinging coins with incredible accuracy. Perhaps he was the equivalent of Batman and his batarangs.
Last Tuesday on "Uta Kon"（うたコン）one of the guest singers provided the theme song from the 1966 show on Fuji-TV. The original singer was Kazuo Funaki（舟木一夫）, who I've always known as the earnest fellow behind the kayo classic "Koukou Sannen-sei"（高校三年生）and some other young student-based tunes from the 1960s. But he also started tackling the more shibui musical material of the historical dramas.
While Shinichi Sekizawa's（関沢新一）lyrics gave a straight-ahead account of the heroism of Heiji (at first glance, I thought Zenigata Heiji was the full name of the hero, but actually it's a nickname of sorts with the first word referring to those weaponized coins), Sanechika Ando's（安藤実親）melody has got quite the jazzy swing to it although I still recognized it as an enka number. I wonder if Ando had been watching some of the detective shows in America from the same decade and had gotten some inspiration to infuse the usual historical drama theme song with some of that Henry Mancini stuff.
"Zenigata Heiji" was first sold in the record stores as part of Funaki's 38th single"Atsumori Aika"（敦盛哀歌...Atsumori Elegy）, released in May 1966.
Actor-singer Masaharu Fukuyama（福山雅治）covered "Zenigata Heiji", and he gives his unplugged performance of the song above. The song was included in "Tama Riku"（魂リク）, his April 2015 album of cover songs. The album hit No. 1 on Oricon and became the 20th-ranked album of the year, going Platinum and winning Album of the Year honours at the Japan Gold Disc Awards.
I was wondering about what "Tama Riku" meant, but it's actually a shortened form of "Tama's Requests" which was a segment of Fukuyama's radio show "Masaharu Fukuyama's All-Night Nippon Saturday Special: Tama Radio"（福山雅治のオールナイトニッポンサタデースペシャル・魂のラジオ）with those last two words referring to "Soul Radio". The show had a long run of 15 years from 2000-2015 on Saturday nights from 11:30 to 1:00. I'm pretty sure that fans flocked to the speakers or headphones to listen to Fukuyama's dulcet tones.
The above picture is of a show window filled with plastic models of the various drinks and dishes at Asakusa's famous Kamiya Bar. It was at that particular bar where the cocktail Denki Bran (represented by the three drinks on the circular platform) was first concocted. Having worked in the district in the first few years of my second time in Japan, I passed by the bar many times but only went inside for a drink just once with some fellow teachers. And yep, I did have a glass of that 1882-born brew which I think is translated as Electric Brandy. The recipe is supposedly secret but some of the ingredients include gin, wine and curacao.
The way it reads, I thought it was something akin to a Long Island Iced Tea. But from my admittedly hazy recollection of Denki Bran (電気ブラン), I believe it tasted somewhat more shibui. Since I like my cocktails rather sweet (Brown Cow for me), I haven't had another glass and perhaps after that one attempt at it, maybe it is just as well.
Well, since we are going shibui here, I found another old kayo from the 1960s. Titled "Kiri ni Musebu Yoru" (The Night Smothered In The Fog), it might sound like something from a hard-boiled suspense novel by the Japanese version of Mickey Spillane. However, it is actually a tender-hearted ballad about another sad end to a romance although this time it is the man who is getting rather weepy.
Sung by the late Ken Kuroki（黒木憲）, "Kiri ni Musebu Yoru" was the Tokyo-born singer's 2nd single from April 1968 and his most successful hit. It hit into the Top 10 of the then-new Oricon chart and peaked at No. 3 later becoming the 17th-ranked single of the year, selling 1.3 million records. Not surprisingly for winning songs of the time, it inspired a movie starring Kuroki himself. Listening to the original version, I wasn't quite sure whether I could categorize it solidly in either the enka or Mood Kayo genres so I've just decided that it was one of those many kayo that straddled the line between the two. The ballad was written by Haruki Tango（丹古晴己）and composed by Jun Suzuki（鈴木淳）.
(Unfortunately the video has been taken down.)
Kazuo Funaki（舟木一夫）performed his own cover of the song which is arranged more in the enka way although his delivery is quite similar to Kuroki's performance.
Then, there is the cover by Yujiro Ishihara（石原裕次郎）which takes his "Kiri ni Musebu Yoru" fully into the Mood Kayo area. Plus, The Tough Guy's delivery has quite a bit more resonance.
As has been the case since I started "Kayo Kyoku Plus", whenever I hear of a death in the Japanese music world, it's always been in the morning, specifically through NHK's "Newswatch 9", and this morning was no different. Composer Toru Funamura（船村徹）passed away at the age of 84 the day before. According to J-Wiki, he may have created more than 5,000 songs in a career that lasted over 60 years.
Unfortunately, I can't really impart any deep insights off the top (although in writing this article, that may change) about his musical style but his genres were most definitely enka and the somewhat poppier kayo of a past age. Just from some of the hits that he was responsible for, though, Funamura's enka melodies ranged from the poignant to the proud with the common point being the rich Japanese-ness of it all.
Funamura was born Hiroo Fukuda（福田博郎）in Tochigi Prefecture in 1932 and studied piano at what is now the Tokyo College of Music. His university days were during the postwar period when US military forces were frequently seen on the streets, and so he participated and even led a band which toured the US bases. He also collaborated with another budding composer, Kimio Takano（高野公男）, to create music but tragically, Takano would pass away at the age of 26 in 1956.
The last time I saw Funamura on TV was on an episode of NHK's "Kayo Concert"（歌謡コンサート）early last year, I believe. And I think he also performed one song himself on stage. During the 1950s, he had his time behind the microphone, and according to his bio on J-Wiki, one of his four singles was "Shinjuku Jouwa"（新宿情話...Shinjuku Love Story）although I couldn't find out the exact year of its release. Composed by Funamura and written by Ryo Inomata（猪又良）, it was the melancholy story of a man trying to comfort a young woman in distress in the titular neighbourhood of Tokyo.
I couldn't find an original copy of Funamura actually singing "Shinjuku Jouwa" but according to YouTube, it has been covered by a number of singers including Eisaku Ohkawa（大川栄策）, one of his apprentices who would become one of the premier enka singers. That lone guitar expresses the tenderness of the situation and it would be one of those fine ballads to be sung by that traveling balladeer who used to walk the side streets of Shinjuku.
Officially, though, his debut as a composer came in 1953 when he made "Tasogare no Ano no Hito"（たそがれのあの人...That Man At Sunset）, although I couldn't find out who the original singer was.
His first bona fide hit though came a couple of years later in 1955 when he composed "Wakare no Ippon Sugi"（別れの一本杉）for Hachiro Kasuga（春日八郎）. The video above has Funamura himself singing the song about longing for home. Noelle has already fashioned an article about it right here.
I wrote about a Funamura-penned song just a couple of weeks ago called "Odorou Boku to"（踊ろうぼくと）from 1963 with all-Japanese guy Kazuo Funaki（舟木一夫）. Revisiting this one and listening to some of the other hits, I've been getting the impression that Funamura enjoyed expressing aspects of the Japanese man's heart although he also made songs for female singers. This one was a bit less enka but there was that streak of gallantry in there.
In 1961, he composed one of Hideo Murata's（村田英雄）symbolic tunes, "Osho"（王将）, a muscular enka that made the game of shogi into an epic battle.
Another one of his manly-man songs was his 1982 hit for Ichiro Toba（鳥羽一郎）, another one of his apprentices, the ode to a couple of fishermen brothers battling the elements, "Kyodai Bune"（兄弟船）. No matter if it's a single piercing trumpet or a whole orchestra, the song packs a wallop of an impression. I can smell the sea salt from here.
Then a year later, "Yagiri no Watashi"（矢切の渡し）became one of the biggest hits for 1983 for Takashi Hosokawa（細川たかし）although it had first been sung by Naomi Chiaki（ちあきなおみ）as a B-side back in 1976. For me, it's one of the most recognizable enka.
Another kayo legend that Funamura created songs for was the one and only Hibari Misora（美空ひばり）. In 1962, she released "Hibari no Sado Jouwa"（ひばりの佐渡情話...Hibari's Sado Love Story）. As far as I know, Misora may be the only singer who had kayo titles with her name on them. Although the lyrics by Sou Nishizawa（西沢爽）may have had Misora femininely lamenting a lost love, Funamura's melody still reflected a strength of character that was part and parcel of the Misora mystique...the same mystique that was rumoured to have often terrified her fellow singers at any of the Kohaku that the Queen of Kayo appeared on. And yes, she also performed this song on the NHK New Year's Eve special.
Speaking of another famous singer from the old days, Funamura created a Mood Kayo for Keiko Fuji（藤圭子）as her 40th single in February 1987, "Shinjuku Banka"（新宿挽歌...Shinjuku Elegy）. And it sounded like the composer crafted the ballad perfectly for his client: that late-night bluesy music paired with Rei Nakanishi's（なかにし礼）lyrics of shattered dreams that had exemplified Fuji's songs from the very beginning.
As I said at the top, Funamura composed over 5,000 songs since 1953. So if my descriptions here are a bit chintzy, I'm sure the articles that have already been written for some of his hits will be more illuminating and there will definitely be more Funamura-penned songs coming up in the future. I might even end up writing up on "Shinjuku Jouwa", "Shinjuku Banka" and the Misora ballad since they have yet to get their own articles as of this writing (but Noelle, if you want to give them a shot, please be my guest).
To finish, I managed to find one interesting story from the J-Wiki bio of Funamura. The original source is a Japanese webpage showing a conversation between him and fellow songwriter Eiichi Ohtaki（大瀧詠一）. In 1959, an animated movie for which Funamura was responsible for the score had won a grand prize at a London-based movie festival, and the composer somehow was able to attend an audition for bands. After seeing the whole lot, he was then asked which groups were good. Funamura answered, "That slovenly group of four was the most interesting."
What floored Ohtaki was who that group was. Funamura may have thought the four were slovenly...and interesting, but the world kinda found out later that they were actually quite fab!
April 4th 2017: On the above paragraphs concerning Funamura's alleged encounter with The Beatles, I received word from a commenter below that he couldn't find any information about this online so I decided to do a bit of research myself. His comments and my response are below. As such, I am providing this disclaimer but not erasing the paragraphs since Funamura did indeed give those comments in that webpage interview. However, if there is anyone out there who can offer further clarity to this matter, I would appreciate it.
For those in the know about 1960s kayo singers, when one mentions Kazuo Funaki's（舟木一夫）name, "Koukou Sannen-sei"（高校三年生）will be the song that usually pops up. My image of him will always be that of the earnest high school senior looking all serious and handsome in his black uniform as he exhorts that song as if it were an official anthem.
"Koukou Sannen-sei" was released back in June 1963. Well, a few years later, Funaki sang this other song titled "Odorou Boku to" (Dance With Me) which came out in 1966, and that image of the all-Japanese high school kid was gone for this ditty. The kid grew up some more and in his place, was a more confident young man beckoning a nervous young lady to trip the light fantastic on the dance floor.
Well, that's the image I got from listening to "Odorou Boku to". Written by Ikue Obayashi（大林郁恵）and Tetsuya Yoshino（吉野哲哉）and composed by Toru Funamura（船村徹）, the song stands out for me since it has enka and tango elements in there, and then there is Funaki's own delivery, which I would describe as somewhat velvety and soothing. However, I can also compare it to "Trust In Me", the song performed by Kaa the python in Walt Disney's"The Jungle Book" from 1967, although I couldn't ever really see Funaki as a predatory presence in the dance hall.
Another old 45" I managed to dig out of the home collection was Kazuo Funaki's（舟木一夫）"Zessho" (Superb Song/Poem) from 1966. For those folks who know their kayo singers, his most famous hit is the proud "Koukou Sannen-sei"（高校三年生）from 1963, and from that song and one other tune, my image of Funaki had always been that of him singing the salad days about the ol' alma mater.
Well, as soon as I put the needle onto "Zessho" on my turntable, I quickly found out that this was no jaunty tribute to the old days. There was the mournful chorus and then Funaki's heartbreaking lyrics about a love lost. I was particularly struck by the last line of verses 1 and 3 "Naze shinda, aa, Koyuki"（なぜ死んだ、ああ、小雪...Ahh, why did you die, Koyuki?）. After going to J-Wiki, I found out that "Zessho" was the theme song for the movie of the same name which was produced in 1966; in fact, it was the 2nd version of 3 motion pictures whose story involved a doomed love affair along the lines of "Romeo & Juliet" and "Love Story" with Funaki himself portraying the Romeo of the story, Junkichi Sonoda, while the character of Koyuki was his Juliet (as acted by Masako Izumi/和泉雅子). The movies were based on an original novel by Kenji Oe（大江賢次）, and there were even 5 televised dramatizations between 1961 and 1990.
(karaoke version)
According to J-Wiki, Funaki had once stated in an interview for the Nikkan Gendai newspaper that he wasn't supposed to have been the one singing the elegiac ballad. However, the PR department for the movie studio complained that it wouldn't be right for anyone other than the star of the movie himself to sing sing. And I think the folks in PR were right; "Zessho" is sung from the lead character's point of view so to have anyone else sing it would have reduced the pathos somewhat from the story. But the impression I got from the article was that the song was to have been a pure instrumental with no lyrics since there was a statement that Funaki himself made a direct appeal to lyricist Yaso Saijo（西條八十）at his house to provide the words. By the way, the above video has "Zessho" being performed in the middle of a trio of songs.
The ballad, created by Saijo and Shosuke Ichikawa（市川昭介）, ended up earning a prize at the 8th Japan Record Awards in 1966 and getting an invitation onto the Kohaku Utagassen. Seeing the grown-up Funaki on stage in a solemn yukata instead of a high school uniform singing his tribute to the departed Koyuki probably had much of the audience reaching for their hankies. Score more points for the PR department.
The above karaoke video has clips from the 1966 movie starring Funaki and Izumi.
I came across this 45" by Kazuo Funaki（舟木一夫）in Dad's old collection some time ago so of course, I gave it a spin on the TEAC. When one thinks of Funaki, high school memories will inevitably come up since his first number of singles were all related to those 4 years of education. Obviously, there was his signature tune, "Koukou Sannen-sei"（高校三年生）that got him immediately on the map when he debuted in June 1963, already a graduate.
Then, there was his 2nd single which came out just a couple of months following "Koukou Sannen-sei", "Shuugaku Ryokou" (School Trip). One of the prime memories of any student in the Japanese education system is when he/she gets to go with classmates and teachers on that big 3-day trip to another city in Japan. When I was on the JET Programme in Gunma, I had that one opportunity to join the senior students in junior high school on that very trip over to Kyoto and Nara. We got to see a whole bunch of temples and shrines and then there was the chance to feed the deer in Nara...while avoiding the deer "land mines" underfoot. Perhaps for a lot of the kids, it was their very first opportunity to go on a trip without the family, and so I'm pretty sure that the teachers were busy yelling at the students to refrain from gabbing away in their rooms past curfew. I've only given a tiny taste of what the experience is like but it is indeed a big deal.
So with that background information in mind, it's no surprise that a record could be made about the school tradition. "Shuugaku Ryokou" was created by the same duo behind Funaki's first hit, Toshio Oka and Minoru Endo（丘灯至夫・遠藤実）. The one thing that distinguished this song from "Koukou Sannen-sei" is the nearly Latin-sounding rumbling beat, although I think composer Endo was perhaps trying to approximate the clackety-clack of the train transporting the kids and teachers. Remember this was still about a year before the first Shinkansen made its debut. Instead of the school anthem-like nature of "Koukou Sannen-sei", "Shuugaku Ryokou" was more lively, especially in the refrain starting with that "La, la, la", reflecting the students' feelings about heading off on that big tour. I guess getting to go on that (educational) vacation with the buddies instead of the parents could get any child pretty excited.
Unfortunately, I don't know exactly how successful Funaki's 2nd single became, but I'm fairly sure that it made for a good follow-up to his debut.
Let's remember about our final year in high school: getting ready for university/college, the yearbook and the senior prom. Pretty eventful time, eh? In Japan, it's also an important year for the high school senior. The yearbook is there but there's no such thing as a prom and the pressure to get into higher learning is enormous on a terrifying level. I very much doubt that most folks there will ever forget that year....whether they want to or not.
Perhaps that might be one reason that Kazuo Funaki's（舟木一夫）"Koukou Sannen-sei" (High School Senior) hit such a chord when it was released in June 1963. Funaki was born as Shigeyuki Ueda（上田成幸）in Aichi Prefecture in 1944, and had his first taste of show business when he was invited on stage to do a duet with singer Akira Matsushima（松島アキラ）in 1961. A couple of years later, armed with his new stage name, the young man who had just graduated from high school himself a couple of months earlier made his debut with "Koukou Sannen-sei"(High School Senior), written by Toshio Oka（丘灯至夫）and composed by Minoru Endo（遠藤実). Endo reportedly told Funaki to wear a high school uniform when performing the song.
Funaki made his first big step into stardom right from the get-go. With his prim and proper and handsome appearance and his tender voice, the song hit the stratosphere in terms of popularity and sales. There was no Oricon at the time but "Koukou Sannen-sei" sold well over 2 million records and earned awards for both Funaki (Best Newcomer) and the team of Oka and Endo (Best Songwriting) at the Japan Record Awards. Not surprisingly, Funaki was also invited onto that year's Kohaku. Just imagine how the kid and his family must've been feeling....a little over 2 weeks after this 19th birthday getting all the accolades AND appearing at a major New Year's event. If his family didn't have a TV set that year, they probably bought one by December 31st.
And Funaki also achieved another career benchmark. He was placed alongside two other young male stars, Teruhiko Saigo（西郷輝彦）and Yukio Hashi（橋幸夫）to become the Gosanke (御三家...The Big Three). Approaching his 40th anniversary in the geinokai, he released his 114th single just at the beginning of 2012.
