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.
In the last several weeks, I've been able to introduce singer-songwriter Maimi Tanaka（田中マイミ）and singer-actress Chie Kobayashi（小林千絵）onto KKP. Tanaka, as I've mentioned before, is famous for coming up with the Don Quixote jingle while Kobayashi is an Osaka celebrity who I debuted onto the blog with her folksy "Hotel Osaka"（ホテルOSAKA）. It's just too bad that my most recent article for Tanaka, the only video showing off her 1981 "Namida no Lonely Boy"（涙のロンリー・ボーイ）has been taken offline for the usual copyright reasons.
Still, I can show off a project that involved both Tanaka and Kobayashi. The latter's follow-up single to "Hotel Osaka" is "Kimagure My Love"(My Capricious Love) was released in July 1986 and it was written and composed by Tanaka. With arrangement by Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂）, this is a more lighthearted tune in comparison to the slightly heavier "Hotel Osaka"; in fact, I think it almost approaches an aidoru tone although Kobayashi was never treated as such.
It's been quite the rabbit hole over the past few weeks regarding singer-songwriter Maimi Tanaka（田中マイミ）. I first found out about her as the executive behind the theme song for the shopping emporium Don Quixote in Japan, and then I discovered that she once had a discography and a clientele of other singers including former Pink LadyKeiko Masuda（増田恵子）.
(Unfortunately the video has been taken down.)
Admittedly, her own discography is very small compared to the list of songs that she provided other singers. However, one song from her own list when she was known as Mami Tanaka（田中真美）was the pleasant title track from her sole 1981 album"Namida no Lonely Boy" (Lonely Boy in Tears). Written and composed by her, it's got the amiable country twang in the arrangement. Not sure how it did on the Oricon charts.
It's an obscure song to be sure, so I was surprised that it was selected as one of the tracks on Junichi Inagaki's（稲垣潤一）fifth album of his series of duet albums titled "Otoko to Onna 5"（男と女5...Men and Women 5）released in September 2015. With Nobuyuki Shimizu（清水信之）as the arranger, this version of "Namida no Lonely Boy" has a more 50s or 60s pop feeling filtered through some percolating synths.
Inagaki's partner for "Namida no Lonely Boy" was none other than actress/singer/model Anna Tsuchiya（土屋アンナ）. I knew about her when I was living in Japan as someone with the personality of a tough lady who didn't suffer fools at all, but I'm a little surprised that she had yet to appear on "Kayo Kyoku Plus". She was mentioned once before in passing because I had done an article back in 2014 for Ringo Shiina & Neko Saito's（椎名林檎・斉藤ネコ）"Heisei Fuuzoku"（平成風俗）which was basically the soundtrack to the 2007 "Sakuran"（さくらん）, a movie starring Tsuchiya herself. In any case, although the above video has the full version of the duet, the music video below is truncated.
Seeing that it's once again Hump Day this week and we're still in the deep freeze here in Toronto, maybe some light and happy would be nice to start off this KKP broadcasting day.
Not that Erina Shima's（島エリナ）lyrics for Keiko Masuda's（増田恵子）"Yesterday & Today" are the happiest out there because they are comparing the happy yesterdays of a relationship and the realistic todays of no longer having that beau by one's side. Still, it seems as if the heroine of the song has moved on. Plus, the melody by Mami Tanaka（田中真美）is indeed light and happy (with a touch of 50s girl pop) to reflect that brighter days are coming again. The song was part of Masuda's 2nd album"Koi Suru O-Tomodachi"（恋するお友達...Friends in Love） which was released in November 1982.
Just to remind folks and fans, Masuda was once known as Kei from Pink Lady about whom I posted an article only a few days ago. As well, composer Tanaka is someone that I've posted about once before; she's now known as Maimi Tanaka（田中マイミ）and her biggest claim to fame is creating the theme song for the commercial emporium that is Don Quixote.
The one thing that I had always wanted to know about the Japanese consumer goods bargain emporium Don Quixote (since 1980) was how the place got its name. Well, the founder, Takao Yasuda（安田隆夫）, had wanted a name to reflect the drive to take on new challenges and that was summed up in the famous novel "Don Quixote" by Miguel de Cervantes with the main character more than willing to tilt at windmills.
I have visited the odd Don Quixote during my years in the Kanto area including the above Hollywood-looking Asakusa branch. They sell anything and everything although I have to admit that I was rather stunned that the Kit Kat chocolate section was only a tight corridor away from some rotating sexual devices. That's a real twist!
Ahem...anyways, what I hadn't known was that Don Quixote had its own theme. Well, I should have known. Other major stores have come up with their own tunes including Yodobashi Camera（ヨドバシカメラ）so why not the Don as well?
Mind you, "MIRACLE SHOPPING ~ Don Quixote no Tehma" (The Don Quixote Theme Song) didn't come about until some two decades after its founding. Its arrival in 1999 or 2000 was due to Maimi Tanaka（田中マイミ）, who had been a singer-songwriter since at least the early 1980s, but actually entered Don Quixote as a new part-time employee in 1994. Gaining responsibilities and success in sales and the famous jungle-like design of the store interiors, Tanaka became a full employee and then a department chief. Founder Yasuda then asked her to draw on her old songwriting abilities to come up with a jingle song for the store. It had to be catchy enough to get the shoppers inside to bounce about and purchase stuff. Well, that she has done thanks to the synthpop arrangement along boogie jazz lines.
In her early years, Tanaka had provided songs for other artists such as Junichi Inagaki（稲垣潤一）, Beat Takeshi（ビートたけし）and Hitomi Ishikawa（石川ひとみ）. Before "MIRACLE SHOPPING", she has also put out her own single back in 1980 and an album the following year.
