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.
Welcome to your second visit to the AI Gallery for 2025. Since I've kept the generator open because of my previous article, I thought "Heck! Why not put up another trio of pieces?". Plus, I wanted to see if it can handle the styles of some more famous artists.
Let's imagine that the live-action Kayo Grace Kyoku is spending some Christmas time in a bar which is obviously well stocked. I don't drink a whole heck of a lot but one of the things that I've always wanted to do is spend a pleasant evening in a classy bar during the Holidays while a jazz trio is performing for the customers.
For the last article of Xmas Eve 2023, I'd like to offer the late great Kiyohiko Ozaki（尾崎紀世彦）as he gives his jazzy and soothing rendition of the classic "White Christmas". I don't know when this footage was originally filmed and I'm not even sure whether Ozaki had even recorded his version of the song on any of his albums in the past, so I'm just placing it as a 2023 number. This would be the "White Christmas" I'd like to hear in that bar.
I'm surprised that I hadn't done it earlier but here is Bing Crosby's original "White Christmas" as he sang it in the 1942 "Holiday Inn". Anyways, wherever you and whatever you are doing, I hope that all of you have a wonderfully Merry Christmas.🎄
Luckily no rain in the forecast today and as I look out my window, it's brilliantly sunny out there and I've got the fan spinning behind me.
However, I am beginning today's round of KKP articles with a rather pensive rain-based song from the 1960s. The band Swing West（スウィング・ウエスト）had its time between 1957 and 1970, first starting as a rockabilly group and then taking on the Group Sounds vibe in its last few years in the late 1960s. On J-Wiki, Swing West's changing lineup reads like a list of candidates in an election but one of the main vocalists was Masayuki Yuhara（湯原昌幸）who entered Swing West in 1964.
And I am assuming that it is Yuhara who was spearheading one of Swing West's biggest hits, "Ame no Ballad"(Rainy Ballad) that came out in May 1968. It was actually the B-side to "Maboroshi no Otome"（幻の乙女...Mystery Girl）, but I gather that "Ame no Ballad" gained more attention, relatively speaking. As I said off the top, it's a pensive GS tune about a man seeing a perhaps lonely woman off in the precipitation-filled distance and becoming oddly drawn to her. Band leader Yoshiyasu Ueda（植田嘉靖）wrote and composed the song although for the lyrics he did so under his pseudonym of Haruka Kouji（こうじはるか）. There's something about the overall feeling of "Ame no Ballad" that had me thinking about The Cascades' 1962 hit "Rhythm of the Rain" (besides the fact that both songs have "rain" in the title), although I know the songs are completely different.
I mentioned vocalist Masayuki Yuhara in that above paragraph because when Swing West broke up in 1970, Yuhara began a solo singing career which included his second single, a remake of "Ame no Ballad" that was released in April 1971. Given a bit more epicness through a horn section and some ripping percussion, unlike the original by his former band, his "Ame no Ballad" was a big hit by reaching the top spot on Oricon and staying there for a few weeks. It would eventually become the 8th-ranked single of the year.
In the same year, another cover came out, this time by big-voiced Kiyohiko Ozaki（尾崎紀世彦）. His "Ame no Ballad" was placed in his December 1971 studio album "Ozaki Kiyohiko Album No. 4"（尾崎紀世彦アルバムNo.4）which managed to reach No. 4 on the charts. There's not a whole lot different in the arrangement but perhaps Ozaki's vocals are a bit more resonant.
The news has been rolling in from all sources over the past hour. I hadn't heard anything from Tina Turner in the last few years and I knew that she was getting up there in years, but it's still hard to believe that even in her 80s, the vivacious Grande Dame ofR&B and the Queen of Rock n' Roll would be anything but the rapidly sashaying and high-powered entertainer. Alas, her death has been announced today at the age of 83.
This will be a special Reminiscings of Youth then regarding Tina Turner. In the early 1970s, I was too young to know much about Turner aside from her appearances on various music-variety shows on TV. My image of her had been of her in that slinky spangled dress working hard on the stage and behind the mike, and I thought that she vibrated so hard that she threatened to disintegrate the floor beneath her.
The song that I always associated with her in the early days was "Proud Mary" in partnership with her ex-husband Ike Turner. Released as a single in January 1971, I had no idea that it was a cover of the original version by rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival back in 1969. But arguably, Ike and Tina took ownership of "Proud Mary". The part of the Turners' song that I am most familiar with is the latter half where the song clicks into high gear with those horns, and my image of Tina begins shimmying on the stage. She could have powered the electric generator for Memphis with her performance.
"Proud Mary" by the Turners hit No. 4 on US Billboard and it went as high as No. 11 on Canada's RPM charts. I'll be devoting the regular ROY article tomorrow to Tina as well since it's also a song that has remained with my memories as I was growing up in the 1980s.
The following were winners at the Japan Record Awards in 1971.
I took my share of photographs of everyday things and food with my old Casio digital camera when I was living in Ichikawa. Unfortunately, one shot that I didn't get was of a package of incense that I'd bought at Tokyu Hands. Over here, we've got all of those Febreeze sprays and plug-ins, and Japan is selling those, too. However, there is the somewhat more traditional method of incense or senkou（線香）.
Unlike the one shown above by YouTuber Kodo The Way of Fragrances, the incense in my old apartment wasn't in the form of joss sticks but in these tiny cones of compacted powder. All I had to do was light the tip of the cone in a small plate and then a second later, wave off the flame, and let the slow combustion do the rest in sending that intoxicating fragrance into the air. Well, it worked very well in my small 2K apartment. Let's say when I regained consciousness a few minutes later, I had to open the windows to lessen the olfactory impact.
The brand that I bought wasn't the most famous one. That label would probably go to Seiun（青雲...Blue Sky）, an incense brand that has been manufactured by Nippon Kodo（日本香堂）since 1965. One reason that I put up the YouTuber's video a couple of paragraphs back was that just showing the commercial here for Seiun wouldn't have revealed what the product was. A lot of Japanese commercials love to be enigmatic that way.
In any case, "Seiun no Uta" (The Blue Sky Song) has probably insinuated itself into everyone's brain in Japan. Originally created by lyricist Akira Ito（伊藤アキラ）and composer Koichi Morita（森田公一）, the latter himself sang the folksy 30-second jingle as something that could hint at old-fashioned Japanese houses in the countryside with that fragrant smell emanating from the ancient wood. I was actually surprised that "Seiun no Uta" had actually been recorded in 1981; it sounds like something from at least a decade further back.
(I'm sorry but the video was taken down.)
Not sure what the relationship between kites and incense is, but I'll just let it go. Anyways in 1991, the resonant and comfortable vocals of the late Kiyohiko Ozaki（尾崎紀世彦）took over for Morita in the singing of the famous "Seiun no Uta".
I used to hear the jingle and watch the commercial all those years without really knowing initially what the product was all about. However, what got me to write up this article was on witnessing rakugo storyteller Taihei Hayashiya（林家たい平）, someone that I usually see weekly on NTV's "Shoten"（笑点）, do his version of "Seiun no Uta" on the show himself. His fellow rakugo-ka good-naturedly chided him to not make fun of the sponsor. And I don't think he was because he actually got to perform his 30 seconds with the accompaniment of a whole orchestra for Nippon Kodo itself.
For this week's Reminiscings of Youth, perhaps I should have done this one a few days ago since it was indeed a rainy Monday, but what's done is done. In any case, the Carpenters' "Rainy Days and Mondays" can still hit me pretty hard depending on my mood after all these years, although when I first heard it as a kid on the radio, it was the melody and Karen's incredible voice that got into my head without knowing the lyrics.
Created by Paul Williams and Roger Nichols as Karen and Richard's April 1971 single, "Rainy Days and Mondays" zoomed up the Billboard singles charts to reach No. 2, just behind Carole King's"It's Too Late/I Feel the Earth Move", itself no slouch in the legendary pop song category. In Canada, it peaked at No. 3, although on the Adult Contemporary charts for both the US and my country, the song did reach No. 1. Of course, along with Karen's vocals, it was the harmonica, the sax solo and those famous Carpenters harmonies that have stayed with me despite the theme of sadness and loneliness.
Who were some of the winners at the Japan Record Awards in that year of 1971?
I only found out the news a few days ago via a chance Twitter browsing and then it was further reiterated by commenter Jim Laker, but unfortunately another veteran songwriter has left this mortal coil. Composer and arranger Makoto Kawaguchi passed away at the age of 83 on October 20th due to sepsis.
Kawaguchi has had a fairly long list of songs represented on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", but I've yet to come across any official media reports of his death on YouTube which is unusual. There have been a few personal YouTube accounts that did cite his passing but for a composer like Kawaguchi who did create a lot of classic kayo including Mieko Hirota's（弘田三枝子）1969"Ningyo no Ie"（人形の家）above, it's a little surprising that NHK hasn't mentioned anything although perhaps some of the commercial networks may have done so.
The composer/arranger was born Masahiro Kawaguchi（川口眞弘）in the city of Kobe on November 5th 1937 but grew up in the city of Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture. According to his J-Wiki profile, while studying in the Music Department at Tokyo University of the Arts, he became a part of chanson singer Fubuki Koshiji's（越路吹雪）backing band Claire de Charme as a pianist and then worked part time for composer Taku Izumi's（いずみたく）office. Kawaguchi dropped out of university in his senior year seeing that his job was becoming more of a full-time gig.
Although in 1966, he helped arrange The Ventures' version of "Futari no Ginza"（二人の銀座）, his official debut as a composer was in 1969 with the successful "Ningyo no Ie" with Rei Nakanishi（なかにし礼） providing the lyrics. "Ningyo no Ie" was Kawaguchi's third-most successful creation which was followed by Saori Yuki's（由紀さおり）1970 hit"Tegami"（手紙）and Akira Fuse's（布施明）1974 hit"Tsumiki no Heya"（積木の部屋）at No. 1 and No. 2 respectively.
I haven't really delved too deeply into what made Kawaguchi tick in terms of his preferences for songs but my surface impression at this writing is that in the early part of his career at least, he seems to have been drawn into the darker or sadder aspects of romance just judging from the songs including the ones above. Basically, he composed his music in the kayo realm with some stretches into aidoru and tokusatsu and even City Pop.
I'd like to introduce some of the other songs that Kawaguchi created that I had yet to put onto KKP, beginning with the late Kiyohiko Ozaki's（尾崎紀世彦）July 1971"Sayonara wo Mou Ichido"（さよならをもう一度...Farewell, One More Time）, the great singer's follow-up single to the iconic "Mata Au Hi Made"（また逢う日まで）. With lyrics by Yu Aku（阿久悠）, a frequent songwriting partner, I guess that another observation is that Kawaguchi liked to go brassy and proud with his compositions, and that fit hand-in-glove with the booming voices of Ozaki and, for that matter, the aforementioned Fuse.
"Sayonara wo Mou Ichido" is the tough-but-tender song of sweet parting since although the couple may not have Paris, they will always have tomorrow to get back together to talk of old times. The arrangement is indeed brassy and proud, and the song reminds me of folks like Tom Jones and Englebert Humperdinck. With an Oricon weekly ranking of No. 2 and an end-of-year ranking of No. 14, I'm sure that all involved were very proud of this one.
In the previous year, Aku and Kawaguchi had teamed up to provide Teruhiko Saigo（西郷輝彦）with his August 1970 56th single, "Manatsu no Arashi"（真夏のあらし...Midsummer Maelstrom）, a story of being majorly distracted by the beautiful bodies around during the hot (and bothered) season. I believe that I mentioned Tom Jones above; well, I think that this is the wilder side of Jones singing through Saigo, and if I may be so bold, I think that Saigo's performance is rather similar to what soon-to-arrive Hideki Saijo（西城秀樹）would bring to the kayo zeitgeist of the decade. Strangely enough, Kawaguchi would compose songs for Saijo soon enough.
(5:07)
Kawaguchi delved into the aidoru realm alongside lyricist Mieko Arima（有馬三恵子）for 70s teenybopper singer Yuko Asano（浅野ゆう子）for a couple of songs, her debut single"Tobidase Hatsukoi"（とびだせ初恋）and the follow-up, "Koi wa Dan Dan"（恋はダン・ダン）, both released in 1974. Asano's third and final single for that year was "Hitoribocchi no Kisetsu"（ひとりぽっちの季節...A Season of Loneliness） from December. Once again, tackled by Kawaguchi and Arima, those strings and what I think are an ocarina and an accordion bring forward a lot of spring innocence from a case of puppy love that doesn't seem to be heading to its happy end.
One more song that I'll put up on his tribute here is "Doyoubi no Cinderella"（土曜日のシンデレラ...Saturday Cinderella） sung by Sawako Kitahara（北原佐和子）as her 3rd single in September 1982. It's another aidoru tune and the arrangement is perfectly suited to the time of the early 80s teenyboppers, with the swift strings this time and the jingly synthesizers. This time, Kawaguchi's songwriting partner was lyricist Masako Arikawa（有川正沙子）whose words almost make me wish the title was more along the lines of "The Taming of the Cinderella" as a young lady is, comically and physically or figuratively, poking a strong finger into her Prince Charming and demanding where the love and the glass slipper are. Again, I haven't explored the world of Kawaguchi in full but at first blush, it's remarkable how his melodies may have adjusted for the times and demands in music. Still, lyrically speaking, this seems to be along the lines of Kawaguchi's attraction to the not-so-happy themes in love.
Of course, there are the other Kawaguchi creations that you can cruise through under his name in the Labels section, but also if your Japanese ability is up to it, you can also look through his J-Wiki profile for a more complete list of his compositions. I never even touched his arrangements which is a separate list. Regardless, his accomplishments since the 1960s merit a tribute in kayo history.
The above is the boulevard going toward the hotel district of West Shinjuku and all of those skyscrapers. I took that photo back a dozen years ago, and I'm sure that it was blisteringly hot back then as it is now. As such, I was grateful that there were always a few vending machines of drinks every few hundred metres.
Ah, yes...the typical summer festival scene in anime. It can be the ideal setting for romance to blossom. In the nearly ten years that I've been back on the anime kick, the summer festival seems to wend its way into an episode in many a show. During my life in Japan, I've been to a few myself but alas and alack, romance didn't exist for me there, but the many different kinds of food made for a fine consolation prize.
It's just the introduction that I needed for "Summer Love". From that title, one would expect a band like TUBE or Southern All Stars（サザンオールスターズ）, but actually this was a song originally recorded by the late Kiyohiko Ozaki（尾崎紀世彦）and his wonderful boomer of a voice. His 28th single from March 1987, it's a wistful ballad that is a bit reminiscent of some of those old summery tunes from the 1960s. Daisuke Inoue and Norio Maeda（井上大輔・前田憲男）helped in the melody and arrangement while Rei Nakanishi（なかにし礼）came up with the usual lyrics of the warm love in the hot season. The song peaked at No. 34.
(Sorry but the video has been taken down.)
Strangely enough, "Summer Love" was something to be covered within the same year. In fact, one interesting singer behind the mike didn't have a microphone in his day job; it was more a golf club. Yup, another Ozaki...this time, professional golfer Masashi "Jumbo" Ozaki（尾崎将司）...covered and released his "Summer Love" in 1987. And crazily enough, he's not bad at the singing thing; he's even come out with three more singles and an entire album.
Ozaki and another famous Japanese golfer, Isao Aoki（青木功）, appeared together on a commercial for Asahi Beer, but it was actually the original "Summer Love" with Kiyohiko Ozaki playing in the background. I wonder if Hideki Matsuyama（松山英樹）has a good set of vocal cords.
Even enka singer Shinichi Mori（森進一）, who's been no stranger to the poppier side of music, covered "Summer Love" in his 1987 album of covers "Kanashii keredo..."（悲しいけれど...I'm Sad, But）.
But let's leave this article with the original singer. Here's Ozaki performing "Summer Love" with composer Daisuke Inoue accompanying him.
Now that I'm writing this on May 1st, it is International Workers' Day and a few days into the Golden Week holidays in Japan but here in Canada, it just means the day that we commiserate after filing our tax returns on time the day before. At least this year it's a Saturday so we can watch sports on television.
I was looking for a May-themed song as such and it didn't take me too long before I found this lovely mellow tune by the late supremely voiced Kiyohiko Ozaki（尾崎紀世彦）. "Furusato no Go-gatsu"(May in the Hometown). This was Ozaki's penultimate single released in April 1995, and I gather that this was perfect for Golden Week since in normal years, people would be heading back to the old hometown by planes, trains and automobiles. "Furusato no Go-gatsu" was created by a couple of vets, lyricist Akira Ohtsu and composer Kisaburo Suzuki（大津あきら・鈴木キサブロー）, and there is something indeed very 70s folksy and homey about it, despite its 1995 release date. Not surprisingly, it was used in NHK's"Minna no Uta"（みんなのうた）series for children.
(57:02)
For a complete change of pace, I've actually got a song by Ozaki that I had unfortunately forgotten to include during the Xmas period last year since it is indeed a song for the Yuletide. "Christmas Etranger" rings all sorts of bells of memory whether they belong to Frank Sinatra, the Manhattan Transfer and maybe even any of the swing jazz that Seth MacFarlane has performed within his characters in "Family Guy". This is indeed one song that illustrates how much I love jazz and Xmas together.
Written by Masako Arikawa（有川正沙子）and composed by Yuji Ohno（大野雄二）,"Christmas Etranger" was originally included in the November 1992"Lupin the Third in Christmas" album for the long-running anime franchise. However, the song was also inserted as a bonus track in Ozaki's March 1980"Kaze no Graffiti"（風のグラフィティー）probably because Ohno was actually the producer for that album.
This morning, I was watching the usual NHK evening news broadcast when there was a brief one-minute statement announcing the passing of prolific kayo and J-Pop composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）. He had passed away on October 7th from pneumonia at the age of 80 but to hear that one of the musical greats was gone still had my jaw dropping.
The news was still quite fresh in the media which explained the brevity of the announcement but I think for someone like Tsutsumi, there will be big tributes to the composer in the weeks and perhaps months to come on shows such as "Uta Kon"（うたコン）and maybe there will be a show dedicated to him on at least one of the major networks. Certainly, he was well represented on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" over the years via articles on individual songs and even articles showing how big he was such as a Creator article and an Author's Pick. Not surprisingly, Tsutsumi probably has the most number of KKP articles as a songwriter which partially reflects his status as the No. 1 popular music composer in Japan and also how much I enjoyed his work over the years. My most recent article involving him was about a week ago for Asami Kobayashi（小林麻美）.
As such, I've decided to pay tribute to the Tokyo native by showing off some of my favourites composed by him. It was fairly difficult to pare down; I had thought that I could give five but could do no "better" than ten. The majority are naturally the big hits but there are also a few that are perhaps not well known but are quite dear to me.
"Blue Light Yokohama" by the vivacious Ayumi Ishida（いしだあゆみ）, I think, was one of Tsutsumi's earliest hits and remains one of his evergreen classics. I also think it has one of the best intros to any kayo, and the song was created in tandem with Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）, his first regular songwriting partner. It may be an oldie but whenever I enter Yokohama itself, this song inevitably enters my brain at some point.
The song may not have the happiest lyrics by Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）, another frequent songwriting partner, but there's no doubting the bouncy melody by Tsutsumi. Since I hadn't been a lyrics person at the time, when I first heard "Momen no Handkerchief" sung by Hiromi Ohta（太田裕美）, I just thought it was one of the most carefree songs that I had ever heard in Japan.
Another wonderful creation by Tsutsumi and Matsumoto,Junko Ohashi's（大橋純子）"Tasogare My Love" also showed that the former could also come up with some of that urban kayo along with the breezy love ballads. For Ohashi fans, there are plenty of splendid examples in her discography but "Silhouette Romance" and this one are probably the two songs that Ohashi is widely known for.
In Tsutsumi's vast collection of songs, Judy Ongg's"Miserarete" is his biggest-selling single and one of the prime examples of the exotic kayoboom that was taking place in the late 1970s. Of course, a lot of folks will point out the visual spectacle of Ongg and that dress of hers, but that dramatic and free-flowing melody has provided the wind beneath her wings (as corny as that may read).
Compared to the previous songs, MANNA's "Tokio Tsushin" is probably one of the lesser-known creations by Tsutsumi but it has been one of my favourites by the composer. It's got that disco beat, to be sure, and I think he was on that disco kick for a bit, but it also has some of that exotic kayofeeling as well. Perhaps he was aiming for France in this case. As I mentioned to one person, "Tokio Tsushin" is appealingly quirky.
"Kokuhaku Telephone" is another appealingly quirky and lesser-known song composed by Tsutsumi with new singer Endo（遠藤響子）providing the lyrics. "Kayo Kyoku Plus" helped me get to know more about the songwriters for all of the kayo, and with Tsutsumi, I first got to realize how many of the big hits he was responsible for, but then with further digging, I also discovered that he had a lot of hidden gems in his jewel case as well. For "Kokuhaku Telephone", the setting might be a stationary one by the phone but Tsutsumi makes it all sounds like a whirlwind tour around the city.
As I stated in the original article for "Aishitsuzukeru Bolero", this won't be one of the bigger songs for enka/kayo master Hiroshi Itsuki（五木ひろし）, but it's still one of my favourites by the singer and that is because of Tsutsumi's melody. The composer splendidly weaves in Latin, Mood Kayo and even some hint of City Pop to create that classy tune to accompany a drink in an expensive Akasaka bar. After first listening to this one on "Sounds of Japan", I realized that Itsuki wasn't just strictly an enka singer.
For me, "Natsu no Claxon" is one of Inagaki's trademark tunes as he wistfully sings about the end of the hot season, and Tsutsumi here spins up a bluesy City Pop/AOR melody handled by the piano, strings and background chorus to provide instant relaxation and some reminiscing of the pop ballads of yesteryear on the radio. Summer might be going away for another year but it's going out gracefully.
I think by this point, Tsutsumi may not have been as prevalent in the pop culture sphere but he still provided a banger with "Ambitious Japan" by the Johnny's Entertainment band TOKIO. I'm not sure if the composer had meant to do so, but he may have given the staff of Japan Railways and for that matter, anyone who wants to see Japan get higher, stronger and faster, the song to rev up to. The entire arrangement is designed to power a maglev train up to 603 kph and then whip it across the country. I'd probably say that this is my favourite Johnny's song.
I've saved this one up for the very last entry since I think as a final farewell song for Kyohei Tsutsumi, "Mata Au Hi Made" is the one to use since it does mean "Until We Meet Again". Ironically, when I wrote up the article back in June 2012, it was on the occasion of singer Kiyohiko Ozaki's（尾崎紀世彦）death. One of Tsutsumi's greatest creations may have been initially meant for an air conditioner commercial, but I think since then, it has become not only Ozaki's most famous song but also a fine kayo of bittersweet bye-byes and then hoped-for reunions. Speaking of hope, I do hope that this will be the show-ending showstopper for any televised tribute to Tsutsumi. Perhaps this could be an idea for the upcoming Kohaku Utagassen, as different as it will be this year.
As I mentioned off the top of the article, it was difficult to pare down my choices and I've left a few that I would have put up if I had wanted to push it to twenty. However, these are my own favourites but if any of you have your favourites that I didn't mention, please feel free to say so below.
Although I couldn't track down how many songs he composed in total during his 55+ years in music, according to his J-Wikiarticle, Tsutsumi has 2709 songs registered in JASRAC which I'm pretty sure is only part of that total. He may not have covered the entire breadth of music in Japan (just couldn't see him doing punk rock or hardcore enka) but he took care of a huge chunk of it. One question that I've seen pop up in Japanese sometimes for a Tsutsumi tune (and one that I've blurted out myself) in the comments section of a YouTube video consists of three words, a question mark and an exclamation mark: "He composed that?!". Yup, he certainly did.
He may not have been as prolific in recent years as he once was, but he kept on working right to the end. In fact, his final song was one he did for seiyuu/singer Azusa Tadokoro（田所あずさ）in mid-2019 at the age of 78.
I would like to deeply apologize for my flash photography skills and reassure you that this is indeed a Kiyohiko Ozaki（尾崎紀世彦）album..."Kaze no Graffiti" (Graffiti of the Wind) to be exact, his penultimate original album from March 1980. Frankly speaking, I had never thought that I would ever purchase a CD of his despite the fact that I will always appreciate his most famous hit "Mata Au Hi Made"（また逢う日まで）, a truly evergreen kayo.
However, I came across "Kaze no Graffiti" a few weeks ago on YouTube thanks to the uploader Neon Sono, and after listening to a number of the original and bonus tracks, I decided to pull the trigger on my wallet for the first time in several months and made the purchase. The above is the video for the full album including those bonus tracks but I want to take a look at some of the original tracks on their own. Yuji Ohno（大野雄二）, the man behind the famous theme song for the anime "Lupin III", was behind the production of the album and he also provided some of the melodies.
For example, Ohno composed the first and title track, "Kaze no Graffiti", a wistful ballad about change and a requiem for a lost loved one. With lyrics by Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）, Ozaki croons lovingly about the good ol' days when everyone got together for a round of drinks at their favourite watering hole only for the place to be replaced by a building. It also looks like with the loss of his beloved and all of his touchpoints, there is really nothing tying him down to the old neighbourhood anymore.
I recall from the article for "Mata Au Hi Made" that Ozaki was compared to Tom Jones. Well, commenter Scott also thought he was similar to another tuxedoed crooner Englebert Humperdinck, and I think with "Kaze no Graffiti", there is some echo of Humperdinck's classic "After The Lovin'". The song is also an interesting combination of country ballad and metropolitan mood music with the horns and sax.
Ohno and Yamakawa bring some nighttime sophistication worthy of a Henry Mancini blessing with the second track "Lonely Again". This is the type of song that I love to hear during a fine night of dinner and the high life in the big city. Once again, I get those Humperdinck feelings but this time, Yamakawa's lyrics are somewhat more forlorn as Ozaki sings of the end of a relationship. I guess that dinner is just for one. Maybe it would be for Lupin III himself since I believe that "Lonely Again" sounds just perfect for one of his movies.
Once again, Ono and Yamakawa work together on Track 3, "Ojou-san O-te wo Yawaraka ni"（お嬢さんお手やわらかに...Softly, My Lady）, a foppy City Pop tune about that night out on the resort town. I gather that Ozaki and company really wanted to cover all the bases in the potentials of a relationship for this album. Maybe this could also be a Lupin III sort of tune with the snazzy and jazzy horns and an overall beat which suggests a strut down the boardwalk.
Gospel blues come to the fore in "New York Ballad"（ニューヨーク・バラード）which was written by Zenkou Takeda*（武田全弘）and composed by Toshiyuki Kimori（木森敏之）. There's more of that famous Ozaki boomer voice and the brassy chorus that reminds me of "Mata Au Hi Made" as the singer relates his tale of that trip to The Big Apple to forget about some bad times at home. A vacation never hurts and New York City is one place that has always promised plenty of excitement to shoo the blues away.
There is some of Frank Sinatra's"My Way" (an old karaoke song of mine) and maybe even a bit of "I'll Be There" by The Jackson 5 in "My Better Life", a comfy song that was naturally used for an air conditioner commercial. It was also Ozaki's October 1979 single. Once again, Ohno and Yamakawa were behind this ballad that pretty much puts out the slippers and places the hot soup onto the table.
As I mentioned, there are bonus tracks attached to the remastered album...six of them, to be exact. However, I will cover at least some of those in future articles since they are rather different in tone with two of them for a tokusatsu show and one really nice J-Xmas song that I would prefer to cover on its own as we get closer to the Yuletide.
*The first name for Mr. Takeda has a variety of different readings but I went with the first one listed since it was rather unusual. However, someone can correct me on this if I'm in error, that would be greatly appreciated.
In terms of kayo kyoku, the early 1970s heralded the end of the Group Sounds era, the flowering of J-Folk, New Music and the aidoru of that decade, and those male singers with the big booming voices. For that last category, I guess that there was a love for that handsome serenading figure who could relate his own love for a woman in a way that everyone within several square kilometres could hear simultaneously.
Recently, I found this song which originated in the early 1970s called "Go-gatsu no Bara" (May Roses) that may have become a standard for those epic singers. Written by Rei Nakanishi（なかにし礼）and composed by Makoto Kawaguchi（川口真）, this love song was first recorded by a half-Japanese/half-German singer by the name of Franz Friedl（フランツ・フリーデル）in 1970, although by that point, he had changed his name to Akira Tsugawa（津川晃...hope the first name is correct）. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a copy of that song on YouTube.
However, I did find one for the second Japanese singer to cover "Go-gatsu no Bara". Takashi Shikauchi（鹿内孝）is an actor and singer who was born and raised in the same city where I lived for 17 years, Ichikawa in Chiba Prefecture. One interesting point was that for a time, he was leading the famous group, the Blue Comets（ブルーコメッツ）, a few years before Jackey Yoshikawa took over in 1963. Well, in 1972, he recorded his version of the song as a B-side to his "Kokoro ga Samui"（心がさむい...My Heart is Cold）. Listening to his version, though, it's relatively softly delivered.
A year later, Kiyohiko Ozaki（尾崎紀世彦）, one of those boomers, covered it in his 1973 album"Shinobi Ai"（しのび逢い...Rendezvous）, and true enough, he does unleash his voice to a certain extent in the refrain with some nicely boss horns behind him. The arrangement sounds as if it were paying some tribute to the ballads of the 50s and 60s. The album went as high as No. 37 on Oricon.
I had never heard of Mikio Tsukada（塚田三喜夫）before I came across "Go-gatsu no Bara", and it was his version of the song that I had discovered first. Tsukada was born in Tokyo and is known as a baritone-voiced musical actor. His take was released as his second single in July 1977, and it sounds like the backing music tried and succeeded in one-upping the epic feeling of the Ozaki cover. This version peaked at No. 80.
Of course, when I think about those early 70s boomers, I can't leave out Akira Fuse（布施明）. His cover came out all the way forward in September 1991 as a single, and sure enough, he throws his voice out there like a cannon in the refrain. His version sounds like a combination of the original and a laying-out-on-the-chaise-lounge-by-the-Riviera approach.
To finish off, the great Brenda Lee released her own Japanese-language version in 1972 under the title of "Omoide no Bara"（思い出のバラ...Roses of My Memories）. Her cover was a whole lot mellower and lilting like a country ballad, and although I couldn't find any information on whether she learned Japanese during her career, I have to say that she sang the song like a true kayo pro.
Still only the end of April but hey, summer is around the corner, I guess, and today the weather has been quite scrumptious. Therefore, why not throw another TUBE song on the barbie?
TUBE=Summer....a very simple equation. And so, to add another variable in there, here is their 22nd single, "Ano Natsu wo Sagashite" (Search for That Summer) from July 1995. Written by vocalist Nobuteru Maeda（前田亘輝）and composed by guitarist Michiya Haruhata（春畑道哉）, there's really not that much to add to it aside from the fact that it is one of their usual grand and celebratory paeans to the hot season. One would think that the single adorned a Pocari Sweat ad but actually it was the theme song for a Fuji-TV drama based on a manga, "Hyaku Oku no Otoko"（100億の男...The 10 Billion Man）, and nope, it isn't the Japanese version of the 1970s sci-fi TV series "The Six Million Dollar Man" but a show about some poor sap who got saddled with a 10-billion-yen debt. Methinks that the guy would need the Six Million Dollar Man for protection from creditors.
"Ano Natsu wo Sagashite" was another big hit for TUBE. It peaked at No. 2 on Oricon going Platinum while becoming the 98th-ranked single for 1995. I heard it covered quite a lot on TV as well, notably through the old series on NTV's "Yoru mo Hippare"（夜もヒッパレ）on Saturday nights. The above video features the late great Kiyohiko Ozaki（尾崎紀世彦）giving his version of the TUBE song.
In the early days of television in North America when variety shows were a common occurrence over the airwaves, viewers tended to treat the celebrities virtually like extended members of the family. There was comedian Milton Berle who everyone called Uncle Milty since he was a welcome weekly visitor and then there was the legendary newscaster Walter Cronkite who was known as The Most Trusted Man in America and could pretty much seat himself around any table at any household. Basically, the variety show performers and other television personalities were familiar presences. However all that changed starting from the 1970s when variety shows started going extinct for the most part.
But for those who know Japanese TV, the phenomenon never died. Variety shows in all their various forms have continued to thrive, and the tarento and comedians and announcers come into viewers' homes almost on a daily, let alone weekly, basis. That also includes musicians and bands whose shelf life may have come to an end so that they made the transition into familiar tube presences.
During my fascination with the medium, there was one fellow who popped up from time to time. His name was Hiroshi "Monsieur" Kamayatsu（かまやつひろし）and he was a guitarist for the Group Sounds band The Spiders（ザ・スパイダース）. A couple of his bandmates, Masaaki Sakai and Jun Inoue（堺正章・井上順）, have become those extended family members of Japan through their various hosting and guesting and acting duties over the decades. Kamayatsu didn't appear as much since he stayed with his music but there was no way that he could be forgotten. He struck a very unique appearance with his long straggly hair and that wool cap which often covered his head right down to his eyes. Plus, he had that wide and gentle smile. I sometimes wondered whether Totoro had been based on Monsieur. In any case, it took me some years to realize his relationship with Sakai and Inoue but in the meantime, I saw him as that somewhat eccentric but cool uncle who would enter our homes once in a while after another set of adventures.
A few days ago, I saw a photo of him online somewhere and it wasn't a very happy picture which struck me as being very atypical. It was also sadly prophetic for me since I read a few hours ago that Kamayatsu had passed away yesterday from cancer at the age of 78. On Twitter, I kept seeing tweets about the man along with the letters "RIP" and I just went "Aw, man...". A welcome member of the TV and music families has left for greener pastures.
Kamayatsu had started his career about a year before joining The Spiders and of course, after the Group Sounds band had broken up in 1970, he went back to his solo career. His first solo single at the tail end of his time with The Spiders was "Dounika Naru sa" (Somehow It'll Work Out) which was released in April 1970.
"Dounika Naru sa" is a wistful folk song about a fellow who's gotten tired of his old life and has decided to leave the city without any sort of plan to guide him. Riding that train out, he assures himself that things will work out in the end. It's different from the usual kayo about getting homesick and scratching that itch to head back home; the fellow in this song may head back home or perhaps home is also not the answer. Whatever he decides, he will do so on his own.
Considering that Kamayatsu has just died, listening to "Dounika" has probably left quite a few more pangs to the heart for his fans and those who were used to seeing him on television. The guitarist created the song while Michio Yamagami（山上路夫）wrote the lyrics. It peaked at No. 50 on Oricon. The song was also a track on the February 1970 album"Tora 70619"(トラ70619) by the group Sally & Shiro (サリー&シロー) which consisted of the two brothers who had been members of another prominent Group Sounds bandThe Tigers（ザ・タイガース）, Shuzo and Shiro Kishibe（岸部修三・岸部シロー）. Apparently according to J-Wiki, Kamayatsu, who had also been a country music fan, got his inspiration for the song from Hank Williams'"Lonesome Whistle" from 1951. It was also recorded on a 1971 Spiders' album following their breakup, "Dounika Naru sa/Album No. 2".
In that same year, Kiyohiko Ozaki（尾崎紀世彦）did a cover of "Dounika" for his album "Kiyohiko Ozaki Album No. 4"（尾崎紀世彦 アルバムNo.4）. The country feeling was even more pronounced in this version and Ozaki seemed to have reined in his boomer of a voice here which was appropriate. It's ironic about his contribution here since I think the late singer was the first singer mentioned in the blog for whom I did a tribute soon after his passing.
I'm pretty sure that there will be some mention of him tomorrow on NHK and perhaps some tribute to him on a future "Uta Kon" (うたコン). My condolences to his family and friends. And what I only found out a few hours ago was that he was cousins with folk singer Ryoko Moriyama（森山良子）, and his father was jazz singer Tib Kamayatsu（ティーブ・釜萢）.
Currently delving again into the "Seishun Uta Nenkan"（青春歌年鑑）series of CDs, I went through Disc 1 from 1972 earlier this afternoon and I was surprised to find out quite a few numbers that I had never brought onto the blog. Therefore, you may be seeing a few more entries for this year in the coming weeks.
One such song was by the late Kiyohiko Ozaki（尾崎紀世彦）. He was a singer from way back when who had one of the big booming voices, and he's most famous for the happy "Mata Au Hi Made"（また逢う日まで）, one of the classic kayo.
Well, on the 1972 disc, I found his 5th single which came out in November 1971 (perhaps it didn't make waves until 1972), "Ai suru Hito wa Hitori" (Only One I Love). What's notable about this one is how Swingin' 60s it sounds...especially from the intro which has some perkily wicked electric piano and horns that's reminiscent of Burt Bacharach. However, it's the remarkable Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）who's behind the go-go boot-kickin' music with Yu Aku（阿久悠）providing the lyrics. Both of them were also responsible for "Mata Au Hi Made".
Listening to the short-but-sweet song on the CD then hearing it again a couple of times on YouTube, my mind went into music sommelier mode and picked out not only general Bacharach but specific songs such as his "Bond Street" and even "MacArthur Park" created by Jimmy Webb and sung originally by Richard Harris (yep, I mean that Richard Harris from "Harry Potter"). In terms of Oricon success, "Ai suru Hito wa Hitori" reached as high as No. 2.
Now, there might be some folks who wouldn't know "Bond Street" by its title. However, once you listen to the song, you might recognize it as not only a tune that was used late in the original and weird "Casino Royale" from the 1960s but also for any "Family Guy" fans, the song that Stewie Griffin likes to play whenever he wants to have his sexy party.
Also to illustrate how old I am and how much of a Canadian I am, I also remember "Bond Street" being the theme song for the cheesy charades game show "Party Game" back in the 1970s. And yep, I was a devoted viewer.
Last week on "Kayo Concert", actor/singer Kanji Ishimaru（石丸幹二）gave this dramatic rendition of a song that I had never heard...or at least do not remember hearing...under the title of "Yuki ga Furu" (Snow Falls). It was originally sung by Salvatore Adamo who also wrote and composed the ballad in 1963. "Tombe La Neige" (the original title) became a huge hit for the singer-songwriter, who is known as Belgium's most successful musician, all over the planet in countries including Spain, France, Latin America and Japan.
I'm not surprised that "Yuki ga Furu" became a hit as well in Japan since the song has that certain shibui quality which envisages a fellow walking totally alone in the midst of heavy snow with only a cigarette in his mouth to keep him company...couldn't get more Mood Kayo than that. Plus, the original is in French, and I think the ladies were just absolutely ga-ga about Alain Delon at the time.
Sure enough, there would be covers of "Yuki ga Furu". And I figured that the big-voiced fellows would have been happy to give their own contributions to the Japanese version which was given lyrics by Kazumi Yasui（安井かずみ）. Of course, there is the late, great Kiyohiko Ozaki（尾崎紀世彦）who provided his take on the classic as his 4th single in October 1971 accompanied by a saxophone. The song reached No. 68 on Oricon. Adamo's delivery, by the way, reminded me a lot of another leather-lunged singer, Shigeru Matsuzaki（松崎しげる）.
And here is Adamo singing the original French version.
Slow dance, guys! Lights are down low and that disco ball is sending beams of light onto couples swirling so close together that parents would be breaking into a sweat.
Yep, that's how I think ofHiro Tsunoda's（つのだ☆ひろ）"Mary Jane". It's like that one slow song to relax the guys and gals down after a series of fast tunes. My first exposure to it was on an anniversary special of The Tunnels' Thursday-night variety show, "Tunnels no Minasan no Okage Desu"（とんねるずのみなさんのおかげです）, and for some reason, regular member Marina Watanabe had to slow dance with Checkers' Fumiya Fujii in a rather awkward moment while the song was playing.
Since then, I've heard the song off-and-on over the years. And the golden vocals behind "Mary Jane", Hiro Tsunoda (full name: Hirotami Tsunoda...角田博民) has been an occasional presence on TV, almost reaching tarento status. He is a singer, composer, lyricist and drummer...the complete package who originally hails from Fukushima Prefecture. Making his debut as a professional drummer while in high school, he started in the late 1960s as a member of jazz unit The Mitsuhiko Sato Trio, after which he jointly appeared with bands such as Akai Tori（赤い鳥）, Sadistic Mika Band（サディスティック・ミカ・バンド）,Miyuki Nakajima（中島みゆき）and Akiko Yano（矢野顕子）along with others. He also wrote and composed another 70skayo classic, "Shitsuren Resutoran"（失恋レストラン）for actor/singer Kentaro Shimizu（清水健太郎）. Another notable thing about Tsunoda is that he was also the deep sultry voice in the intro for Akemi Ishii's（石井明美）first big hit, "Cha-Cha-Cha" in the mid-80s (never mentioned that piece of trivia in the original article).
But Tsunoda will always be known for "Mary Jane". While the song was composed by Tsunoda, Fujio Hasumi（蓮見不二男）wrote the lyrics pining for the title character under his pseudonym of Christopher Lyn. Originally appearing on the album "Oshima ga Chikyuu ni Yatte Kita Hi"（大島が地球にやってきた日...The Day The Big Island Came To Earth）by Tsunoda's old band Strawberry Pass in June 1971, it had a longer title, "Mary Jane On My Mind" before it got slightly more truncated. Although it has that 50s ballad feeling, I think it also possesses a certain timeless quality since whenever I've heard it on TV, it never came across as dated. And Tsunoda himself has got that certain larger-than-life quality as that one shibui/cool dude.
That term "timeless" often signifies a lot of covers of the song. And folks like the late Kiyohiko Ozaki（尾崎紀世彦）and Yoko Oginome（荻野目洋子）have given "Mary Jane" their tribute. One of the big surprises, though, was finding out that the American vocal group The Platters performed one of the early cover versions of the song back in 1976. Yes...The Platters of "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" fame.
My mother played this single over and over again of the late Kiyohiko Ozaki's（尾崎紀世彦） rendition of the love theme from "The Godfather" to such an extent that I frankly thought Ozaki had been the original singer all along. Finally seeing the original movie, I had been personally flattered that Francis Ford Coppola would use a Japanese singer's ballad for his masterpiece. Of course, I would be corrected some time later.
Still, Ozaki hits this one out of the park, and I think his performance here, years after he had originally released this as part of his 7th single released in July 1972, has even more gravitas. The single went as high as No. 9 on the charts.
I'm not sure whether there were ever lyrics attached to the love theme in the original movie, but I think Ozaki proved that they should've been in there. To be honest, he kinda looks like Don Corleone in the video.
The 45" of Kiyohiko Ozaki's "Love Theme
from the Godfather"
