AKB48 -- Aitakatta（会いたかった）

 

Happy Monday! Just to let you know how much time has flown, any girls who had been born in the year that this song was first released are probably now old enough to audition for the group itself, maybe by singing this very song. I can recommend some stores which sell Metamucil or Geritol.👴

Indeed, I am talking about "Aitakatta" which can be translated as "I Missed You" or "I Wanted to Meet You" depending on which site you check, one of AKB48's signature tunes and their first one under a major label. Released in October 2006, I was surprised that there hadn't been any sign of "Aitakatta" on the blog up to now; I'd always assumed that one of the other writers posted an article on it. 

Written by alphabet aidoru group Svengali Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）and appropriately composed by BOUNCEBACK, "Aitakatta" is indeed a bouncy tune that did make a splash for AKB48. It also has those classic aidoru-themed lyrics of making that brave move to kokuhaku that lucky high school guy. It hit No. 12 on Oricon, going Gold, and was placed onto the group's first BEST compilation, "Set List: Greatest Songs 2006-2007"（SET LIST〜グレイテストソングス 2006-2007〜）which was released on New Year's Day 2008, peaking at No. 29.

To be honest, the impetus for me putting up "Aitakatta" happened earlier this morning as I was watching NHK News. I found out that choreographer and director Mayumi Natsu（夏まゆみ）had passed away in June this year at the age of 61 from cancer. She not only came up with the choreography for this particular song but had worked with many aidoru and aidoru groups over the past few decades, and that includes the Hello Project ladies with for example, Morning Musume（モーニング娘。）.

I've never posted anything on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" regarding choreographers but I am making a case for Natsu because I remember her very well through footage when the girls in Morning Musume were working on their own dancing for performances and music videos. As with anyone who has to train entertainers to be at their most professional, Natsu ran her sessions hard like basic training at a Marine base, so I often got to see her snarling at the troops on TV.

And of course, when it came to those hit songs, fans also remember the dancing. So I leave you with a few of the songs that she helped translate into moves on stage. My condolences go to Natsu's family, friends, fans and of course, all of the singers that she trained.

Morning Musume -- Love Machine (LOVEマシーン）

Taiyou to Ciscomoon -- Tsuki to Taiyou（月と太陽）

Maki Goto -- Ai no Bakayarou （愛のバカやろう）

Morning Musume -- Xmas Medley and 60s Hits/Hello Project -- Kayo Medley (Courtesy of "HAPPY Xmas SHOW")

 

Not an article about a song per se but more on a special performance by Morning Musume（モーニング娘。）. Yesterday, I wrote about Mariya Takeuchi's（竹内まりや）"Christmas wa Issho ni"（クリスマスは一緒に）which was used as an ending theme in 2006 for the annual NTV Yuletide special "HAPPY Xmas SHOW" that ran for half a decade in the 2000s.

Well, I'd actually come across the above video once before some years ago but it was yesterday that I decided that it could be used for a KKP article. In the inaugural 2003 edition, Morning Musume joined the proceedings to perform not only the usual Xmas tunes but also some of the 1960s hits by female singing groups such as The Supremes and The Ronettes. Near the end of the video, there's even a special guest appearance by Anri（杏里）.

The following year in 2004, the show was broadcast right on Xmas Day with three members of Hello! Project (two of them graduates from Morning Musume): Miki Fujimoto（藤本美貴）, Maki Goto（後藤真希）and Aya Matsuura（松浦亜弥）providing a medley of some of the kayo kyoku of the 1950s and 1960s originally recorded by singers such as Hibari Misora（美空ひばり）and Izumi Yukimura（雪村いづみ）. The performance starts at around 2:00.

Salvatore Adamo/Fubuki Koshiji/RC Succession/Maki Goto -- Sans Toi M'amie（サン・トワ・マミー）

As I said in one of my articles from yesterday, I was blessed with a large number of kayo singles and albums from my friend Steve in Manhattan through a large package since he wanted to unload his record collection before moving out West. One of the 45s I saw among the records is a Japanese chanson classic, "Sans Toi M'amie" by the Queen of Chanson in Japan, the late Fubuki Koshiji（越路吹雪）.

But before I come to her, "Sans Toi M'amie" (Without You, My Love) was originally created and recorded by Belgium's Salvatore Adamo, a singer that I have already profiled in this blog through his other hit "Tombe La Neige", known in Japanese as "Yuki ga Furu"（雪が降る）. Adamo was only 19 when he sang "Sans Toi M'amie" for the first time in 1962.

A couple of years later in June 1964, Koshiji released her version of "Sans Toi M'amie", and it is the version that I know the best. In fact, I was surprised that I hadn't yet covered it in "Kayo Kyoku Plus". It's one of Koshiji's trademark hits along with "Ai no Sanka"（愛の讃歌）and although it has that hint of grandness that I've come to associate with chanson, the song is somewhat tempered by a certain lightness in the arrangement as if the singer is asking listeners not to take things so seriously. There is that feeling of a boozy waltz, thanks to the laidback instrumental accompaniment, and yeah, I think it can be danced to.

Tokiko Iwatani（岩谷時子）provided the Japanese lyrics to "Sans Toi M'amie". Koshiji herself was invited onto the Kohaku Utagassen of 1964 to perform it.

However, "Sans Toi M'amie" was not left behind as a relic of the music of the 1960s. It has been covered by a number of other artists with their own musical imprint. The band RC Succession gave the song its own rocking beat in their covers album, obviously titled "COVERS" which came out in August 1988. It hit No. 1 and went Gold.

I also like freshly-graduated Morning Musume（モーニング娘。）member Maki Goto's（後藤真希）take on "Sans Toi M'amie" with its relaxing pop sound that has an echo from the past. This was her 5th single from December 2002, and I think it's because I didn't follow her solo career all that doggedly that her more mature delivery stood out all the more to me. Her version peaked at No. 6. It was also a track on Goto's special album for a soundtrack from a musical that she starred in, "Ken & Mary no Meriken-ko On Stage!"（けん&メリーのメリケン粉オンステージ!...Ken & Mary's Wheat Flour On Stage!）from March 2003. It went as high as No. 59 on the album charts.

Maki Goto -- Ai no Bakayarou （愛のバカやろう）

I remember the first time I saw Maki Goto（後藤真希）on TV. It was either just before or after she was officially brought in as the sole 3rd-generation member of Morning Musume（モーニング娘。）back at the end of the century. She kinda wobbled in on those high-heel shoes like a newborn fawn, all arms and legs. It was quite the contrast with the 1st-generation member who had left, the more pixie-ish Asuka Fukuda（福田明日香）. Because of the timing of her arrival, I will always see her as the one face for MM's monster hit "Love Machine" although I am well aware that it was a group effort.

A couple of years later after being with the main group, it was decided that she would start her own parallel solo career. And so Goto started off with a song that had a pretty in-your-face title "Ai no Bakayarou" (Fool of Love). Yeah, the way I translated it right now doesn't make it sound too threatening, does it (for those who know their Japanese)? Well, the way I know bakayarou, I would have to choose from a few profanities, including one which also starts with the letter F. So, we'll just go with fool and just imagine it as being supercharged in meaning.

Getting back to the main topic "Ai no Bakayarou" made quite the splash when it was released in March 2001 due to Goto herself, the title perhaps and the lyrics by Tsunku (つんく) which were perhaps seen as being a bit racy for a 15-year-old to handle. Mind you, Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）had done much the same thing back in the early 1970s with some of her songs when she was about the same age as Goto. Not that the words rated the label "NSFW" or "Explicit" by any stretch of the imagination but I guess the folks in Japan thought that a teenage aidoru from Hello Project expressing rage and despair about a romance gone wrong was a bit of a leap in maturity.

I guess another comparison to Yamaguchi would be in order since Goto was raging away in a way that reminded me of the Aki and Uzaki-fueled hits for the legendary 70s aidoru when she sang about some angry and embittered women.

"Ai no Bakayarou" got a lot of airplay as I remember since I kept seeing Goto dancing about in that hall of mirrors in the video almost daily. I hadn't been paying too much attention to the lyrics at the time but whatever the lyrics were like, she sang them sweetly if forcefully. Finally reading them, I realized that Goto's heroine was alternately cursing her ex while at the same time missing him. There was some pretty interesting imagery in the video as well with that desert, the image of the innocent Goto of the past in her regular clothes compared to the Goto in that exotic regalia of the present...maybe representing someone in mourning. And perhaps there was something about the hall of mirrors possibly reflecting the various aspects of her. But before I lose all of us in fake psychoanalysis, I have to say that desert reminds me an awful lot of the same environment used for Cyndi Lauper's "True Colors" video...it was out on rental, maybe?

Tsunku composed the music which also provided a departure from the usual Morning Musume mode along with the lyrics. At the time, I was accustomed to a bit of old-timey 70s disco with the MM, but with "Ai no Bakayarou", there was more 80s synthpop in there although I don't think I could really compare it with anything by Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark.

"Ai no Bakayarou" hit No. 1 right from the get-go (eventually ranked at No. 37 on the yearly charts), and apparently it is still the only single by a solo artist from Hello Project to reach the top spot. Furthermore, Goto became the youngest solo female singer at 15.5 years to hit No. 1 since 80s aidoru Marina Watanabe（渡辺満里奈）reached that mark at nearly 16 years of age back in 1986. According to J-Wiki, that record still stands.

Incidentally, the youngest singer to hit No. 1 is Osamu Minagawa（皆川おさむ）for "Kuroneko no Tango"（黒猫のタンゴ）all the way back in 1970. He was only 6 years and 9 months old.