I've been a fan of Japanese popular music for 40 years, and have managed to collect a lot of material during that time. So I decided I wanted to talk about Showa Era music with like-minded fans. My particular era is the 70s and 80s (thus the "kayo kyoku"). The plus part includes a number of songs and artists from the last 30 years and also the early kayo. So, let's talk about New Music, aidoru, City Pop and enka.
Credits
I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.
Showing posts with label Mariya Takeuchi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mariya Takeuchi. Show all posts
Oh, dopey me. I'm four days late in wishing singer-songwriter Mariya Takeuchi a Happy Birthday! But here's hoping that her family enjoyed themselves on the special day. Last year (when I did remember her birthday), I acknowledged the day with a Yutaka Kimura Speaks translated piece about the singer. When I thought about whether to do a Creator article about her, I quickly realized that I had already done one back in 2019.
However for that first entry, I introduced some songs created by Takeuchi in that article that had never been covered before. Well, then, I decided that for this one, I'll bring the comfort food...songs by her that have their own articles from way back when just to remind viewers about what she has given other singers. And of course, this is by no means a comprehensive list.
Considering that we seem to be getting our jollies out of putting up those Author's Picks over the past several days, I might as well post something related to parties. After all in North America at least, tonight is the biggest party night of the year. So, let us bring over some song titles with "party" in them.
All the way back in the winter of 2017...some months before I even made that trip to visit Tokyo again which tells you how far back into personal ancient history we're venturing, I posted about the 1986 Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）album "Crimson". I gave my story about how I had abandoned it initially as another weird and unlistenable tape after going through the earlier "Fushigi"（不思議）. However, giving it another chance again many years later, I realized that it actually contained some pretty decent tracks. My mind had been simply too attached to Akina and her razzmatazz singles so that when the singer tried something different, it quickly rejected them.
Well, another song from "Crimson" that I've had to eat crow about as something that also sounds really quite snazzy is the second-last track "Aka no Enamel"(Red Enamel), written and composed by Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）and arranged by Kazuo Shiina（椎名和夫）. The only thing that I had remembered about this one is the "bang-bang-bang" chorus that begins with a tick-tock rhythm and follows with a torch ballad delivery intro by Akina. Then the song goes into a cool urban contemporary gear with smooth background vocals behind her as the singer reminisces about a past relationship. I had first assumed that the red enamel in the title referred to her nail polish, but it was actually the heels that she once wore while dating the now-gone guy.
Sometimes, I wonder whether I'm a little too content with buying the original album instead of the remastered version with bonus tracks. Mind you, I've purchased my fair share of new versions of albums with those scrumptious extra songs including once-abandoned B-sides and remix takes, but one example that I didn't do that for is Takeuchi's "Variety" from 1984. I just have the original version but in 2014, a 30th anniversary edition of "Variety" was released (yes, a few years before "Plastic Love" exploded in one corner of YouTube) and it included a cobbled-together "Aka no Enamel" by Mariya. The vocal and rhythm tracks had been laid down before time constraints forced the song to be thrown by the wayside for years. However, it came back for the 30th anniversary edition and in not too bad a shape although it's less than three minutes and a bit sparse.
I mentioned at the beginning of this KKP broadcasting day on the tribute to Sugar Babe's"Downtown" that the auspicious anniversary for the band's one album "SONGS" wasn't the only target of a special anniversary for a Japanese music piece.
April 25th 2025 also happens to be the 41st anniversary of the release of Mariya Takeuchi's（竹内まりや）single "Plastic Love", a song whose original YouTube video not only launched 7 million views in a few months but helped start along with a few other songs from Japan, the City Pop boom beginning in the late 2010s.
I first wrote about "Plastic Love" and the rest of the album "Variety" back in 2012, some years before that one corner of YouTube exploded with joy and discovery of this particular song. I was no Nostradamus so there was no way that I could have predicted how incredibly popular it would become, but even back then, I wrote down how cool and urban "Plastic Love" was and how it compared to Steely Dan's material and even the more adult contemporary songs that the Manhattan Transfer sang in the late 70s going into the early 1980s. Before then, I knew her primarily for her very early stuff bringing together 50s/60s girl pop along with country music and her much later pop balladry.
It was just that one short paragraph for "Plastic Love" in the article for "Variety", so I had always wanted to write something fuller since the song's fortunes dramatically changed from the late 2010s forwards. For a song that has become one of my favourites when it comes to Takeuchi's huge discography, it's ironic that I wouldn't even know of the song's existence until 2008, almost a quarter-century after its release, and I had been a Mariya fan since I first heard her sing "September" in 1982 on the local radio program "Sounds of Japan". 2008 was the year of my discovery of "Plastic Love" through her hit BEST compilation "Expressions" which was released to much fanfare in October of that year. I had bought her previous BEST album "Impressions" back in 1994 but "Plastic Love" hadn't been included in that one.
During my years in Japan, I'd wondered from time to time if there would ever be a Japanese pop song that could be the second coming of Kyu Sakamoto's（坂本九）"Sukiyaki" song (1961) in terms of surprising out-of-the-blue worldwide popularity. Names including Hikaru Utada（宇多田ヒカル）, Dreams Come True and Toshinobu Kubota（久保田利伸）came to mind but none of them really hit the global big time. But then came along "Plastic Love" via YouTube as "Sukiyaki" did through radio DJ booths in the UK and the US, and suddenly an unlikely hit was born. Mind you, "Plastic Love" hit the ceiling outside of Japan over three decades after its initial release, but my long-awaiting question was finally answered.
I've heard a few secondhand reports but my new question is still out there. How has Ms. Takeuchi felt about this second wind to "Plastic Love"?
And here we all thought that Yutaka Kimura Speaks ended its time a few weeks ago on March 7th with the 100th entry from "Japanese City Pop Masterpieces 100" finally posted. I certainly had thought so but then going through the source book "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised" (2020 edition) in the days since, I realized that there were other parts of it that I could still translate and put up here for at least some more weeks since it was Kimura's writings on some of the singers who were part and parcel of the original City Pop boom back in the 1970s and 1980s.
At the same time, I knew that Mariya Takeuchi's 70th birthday was coming and I just had to provide some sort of commemorative effort on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" today on her special March 20th. Well, I put two and two together and came up with the idea to put up Kimura's thoughts on Takeuchi right here and now (specifically from Page 56 in the book). Any future entries on this new section of Yutaka Kimura Speaks will return back on Friday night. Anyways, happy birthday to Mariya and hope she's having some of that strange peach pie. Kimura's feelings will start from under the video.
There has probably never been a female artist up to now who has been blessed by the surrounding musicians, songwriters and staff as Mariya Takeuchi since she debuted in 1978 with the single “Modotte Oide/Watashi no Jikan”（戻っておいて、私の時間）and the album “Beginning”.
During her time with RCA up to the early 1980s, Takeuchi had been provided with songs by composers including Kazuhiko Kato（加藤和彦）, Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司） and Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎） but also by her old university bandmates Masamichi Sugi（杉真理）and Yasuhiro Abe（安部恭弘）. She’s also been backed up by the band Sentimental City Romance and the best musicians along America’s West Coast. And then in 1982, after getting married to Yamashita and switching to Moon Records, she developed a solid pop world with her husband’s wholehearted support that has been continuing up to now.
In terms of this book, when it comes to the progress of this lady, it feels as if she’s truly taken the best parts, and it was precisely because of this favourable environment that it can be said that she herself was able to gradually develop her hidden talent of songwriting.
As the singing and songwriting housewife, as she has dubbed herself, she’s created songs in her spare time and has released albums at her own pace. After getting married, her stance on her work, when compared to Yumi Matsutoya’s（松任谷由実）emblematic stance as a career woman, is exactly the opposite, but though both of them are Japan’s leading female songwriters, in particular the fact that Mariya Takeuchi's pop music, which is by no means pretentious, has such strong support speaks to the maturity of the Japanese pop music scene in a certain way.
However, Takeuchi is not one to go after well-mannered pop music only, considering that in the 1980s, she’d written a ton of songs on having affairs and adored rustic rock music along the lines of The Band. Her essence lies in human, tasteful music.
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised"(2020).
I think it's safe to say that people of a certain age and over, even those who aren't into jazz, have heard of "Moonlight Serenade" by Glenn Miller. Even if they don't know the title or the man behind it, they can recognize it. And even before I got into jazz wholeheartedly during my years in Japan, I remember hearing this all the time on radio and seeing performances of it on television.
Coincidentally enough, I'm writing this ROY article just a couple of days shy of what would have been Miller's 121st birthday. Much has been made about his death, declared in absentia, after his plane had disappeared over the English Channel in December 1944 during World War II. But let's focus on "Moonlight Serenade" which made its premiere in 1939 with the clarinets in front and the horns backing them up. Considering that Miller purportedly wasn't the warmest person on the planet, one of his masterpieces apparently had listeners getting all lumpy in the throat.
As someone who attended his fair share of school dance parties, there was always a song at the end of those soirees which made for a far better way of saying that it was time to go home than having the janitor crankily switch the lights on and off repeatedly. It would always be a ballad of sorts to get lovers up for that final cheek-to-cheek and then everyone would slowly sashay off the floor and out of the building. I think "Moonlight Serenade" may have been the jazz equivalent of the last song of the party. Mind you, I never heard Miller's magnum opus ever played at the end of my own dance parties, but I could imagine it gently delivering folks up into the night sky under the moon before quietly depositing them out the door.
The Boston Pops is a pop orchestra that has been with me ever since I was a baby. Their contributions are included in that 5-LP set of "50 Years Of Hits In Stereo" by RCA that we got with our huge stereo. Led by Arthur Fiedler in my early years, the Pops always struck me as the coolest orchestra because they could handle not only classical music but also provide their own distinct classy touch to modern hits. Perhaps they are the one unit that managed to merge the jazz that had once been disdained as the devil's music and the more acceptable "beautiful music" of a century ago.
And then, in what would become one example of music's equivalent of bringing Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Dodgers together, maestro John Williams, the king of the blockbuster soundtrack, became the new conductor for the Boston Pops from 1980 to 1993. PBS used to have the summer weekly shows featuring the Pops which I remember watching quite a bit.
I recently discovered that Williams and the Pops had released an album covering some of the jazz classics titled "Unforgettable" back in 1993, and their take on "Moonlight Serenade" was indeed splendiferous. It still hews to the Miller original but the Pops' touches are there such as those shimmering strings. In a way, their take would be the ideal version to finish off a TV series or movie franchise with the main character walking off into the distance after having confessed to his love for "Moonlight Serenade" years or entries earlier. Not a bad way to go.
Well, when it comes to 1939 and 1993, I was obviously alive in only one of those two years, so let's go with what was winningthe Japan Record Awards in the latter year.
Not sure how this idea came about but last night, it got into my mind (through inception?) about how Japanese popular music shared one trope with Western pop material in that there have been plenty of songs with female names in the titles. Of course, we have Paul Anka's"Diana", Kool & The Gang's"Joanna" and TOTO's "Rosanna". Well, over the years of KKP, I've noticed that kayo kyoku and J-Pop has had its share already listed, so just to keep myself busy on this very snowy Sunday, here is a short list of such songs. I'll probably get a short list of male names up next week.
Just to give everyone who may not know her a preview, this is former competitive skater Mao Asada（浅田真央）. She's become quite the legend due to her feats on the ice and has been a regular face on Japanese TV not just because of her skating but also through commercials.
Apparently, she's now broken into the world of music videos. That is indeed Asada against the backdrop of a different form of H2O as Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）sings her latest release, "Days of Love" which got its debut on YouTube a couple of days ago. Written by Takeuchi and composed by her husband Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）, it does have that Tats feeling of twangy guitar and languid rhythm that has often gone into one of his songs.
"Days of Love" is now being used as the campaign song for Airweave, a mattress company. It's a nice fit, considering how relaxing the song feels.
Well, c'mon...it was too tempting to resist. Christmas has arrived at the AI Gallery! I figure that Edition 1 will help start things off and perhaps in a month...on Xmas Eve itself...the second edition will have a few more songs. Plus, Kayo Grace Kyoku is just raring to go on those Yuletide parties.
Well, after about a year of waiting and occasional updates, singer-songwriter Taylor Swift and her Eras Tour along with a ton of Swifties have descended upon Toronto like an army of Valkyries. She's here for six concerts over the next couple of weeks and Performance No. 1 is tonight. It should be interesting to see how things go with the downtown core pretty much sealed tight for her and security.
I'm not particularly a Swift fan myself although "Shake It Off" and "You Need to Calm Down" are catchy and fun. However, I've read that one of Swift's inspirations has been Sir Paul McCartney. Of course, since the Beatles broke up, Sir Paul hasn't exactly retired from the music business, going full bore with his own band Wings and then his solo work.
As you all know, my full dive into pop music on either side of the Pacific began around the late 1970s and early 1980s, coincidentally when music videos became this fresh new thing to express songs. One of the first videos that caught my eyes and ears was McCartney's"Coming Up" which was released as a single in April 1980. The funk is there and the affected delivery by the man himself has always had me thinking New Wave. It's all very uptempo and amiably quirky but it was the music video that really grabbed me.
I'd assumed that Wings and a few other studio musicians were behind the former Beatle but as it turned out, it was mostly different versions of him playing and dancing about (his late wife Linda was playing the two backup singers) including a Buddy Holly version, a Sparks' Ron Mael version and even his 1963 persona. I had even thought that his wild drummer version was a riff off of The Muppets' Animal, but actually it was John Bonham of Led Zeppelin. It was quite the stunning presentation. There was a part of me that believed that Swift's video for "Shake It Off" was a spiritual cousin for the "Coming Up" video but Wikipedia let me know that the inspirations for that one were actually Audrey Hepburn, Daft Punk andToni Basil.
"Coming Up" made it to the top spot on both the Canadian and American charts while it hit No. 2 in McCartney's native UK. Now, what was hitting the top of the Oricon charts at around the same time of the song's release?
Back on June 14th, the weekly Yutaka Kimura Speaks ~ Japanese City Pop Masterpieces 100 article was devoted to Sentimental City Romance's（センチメンタル・シティ・ロマンス）"Natsu no Hi no Omoide ~ Dancing Music"（夏の日の想い出 ~ ダンシング・ミュージック）. In it, there was a reference to Mariya Takeuchi's（竹内まりや）"Synchronicity".
Now, to be perfectly transparent, I hadn't ever heard about "Synchronicity" which was Takeuchi's 32nd single. Actually, I should correct myself. The official title for the single was "Henshin/Synchronicity ~ Suteki na Guuzen"（返信/シンクロニシティ (素敵な偶然)...The Reply/Synchronicity ~ A Splendid Coincidence） that came out in September 2006.
So, one of those A-sides, "Synchronicity" is a song of a couple completely in lockstep with each other, written and composed by Mariya while her husband, Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）, took care of the arrangement. As for why Kimura referred to it in his glowing review for "Natsu no Hi no Omoide", he felt that it was an extension of the good ol' days of Sentimental City Romance back in the 1970s, and that's not surprising. As we can hear and see in the official music video, it looks like the Yamashitas brought back SCR to record the song together. The return of the steel pedal guitar gives it away immediately (of course, Tats is in the circle keeping his usual low profile while strumming away at his guitar).
Yeah, it's a sunny and pleasant country pop tune, and not only do I think it is an extension of the early days of Sentimental City Romance, perhaps it is also an extension of Mariya's debut album"Beginning"from 1978 because the band helped out a lot in the recording there, too. I guess I can consider the "Synchronicity" project a reunion of sorts.
The single hit No. 8 on Oricon and "Synchronicity" was used as a Meiji Chocolate chocolate-covered almonds commercial song. You can take a look at a very early ad below. I used to devour those like anything.
Isn't that nice? Kayo Grace Kyoku has taken up a new hobby of creating her own art. Perhaps she has a lot of time on her hands. It would seem that I may have just a little too much time on my own hands.
As you know, for the past several months, I've been using the Bing AI art generator sometimes to come up with some pics of Kayo Grace along with the odd other picture...usually reflecting City Pop. Well, in the past few days, I was kinda thinking about what would happen if I threw in a few famous song titles into the Bing-ster. What would pop out?
For the inaugural AI Gallery, I decided to throw in a few famous City Pop song titles but also added "...in anime style". Unsurprisingly, for two of the three results, I did get a cute anime girl in there. I tried it again last night with those two titles without the anime tag. The third title was fine enough after the first shot. So, below are five pictures and so I'm not seen as chintzy, I've also included the music.
"Todokanu Omoi"(Unreachable Feelings) is the most urban track within "Variety" which reveals a variety of expressions song by song. On top of that, Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）has established herself as someone who has made songs on adultery into everyday parlance, but this time around, the song isn't so mundane, so can it be enjoyed purely as a pop song? Chuck Findley's flugelhorn solo is exquisite which raises the level of urbanity here.
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised" (2020).
Hello. J-Canuck here. Here I thought that I had completed taking care of the entirety of "Variety" over the years of KKP, but in actual fact, there are still a few remaining tracks that I haven't covered including this one, "Todokanu Omoi". But I've been in situations like this on Yutaka Kimura Speaks before so it's no real problem.
To be honest, I still think this track's fellow track mate, "Plastic Love", is the most urban tune. Maybe his referral to the fooling around in Mariya's lyrics gives "Todokanu Omoi" that city edge although I think affairs can absolutely exist out in the countryside. Regardless, the main rhythm in the song is something that I do remember and it feels unsurprisingly very Tatsuro（山下達郎）. There is a certain melancholy feeling imbued as a woman is called over to some place by a man who may be her paramour in sin. Perhaps the place is his apartment or even a remote stockroom in the company where they work. Will they carry out the affair or will both avert the potential cliff and return to their normal relationships?
After I put up Kana Hanazawa's（花澤香菜）"Time Machine wa Totsuzen ni"（タイムマシーンは突然に）onto "Kayo Kyoku Plus" the other day, I came to the realization that there were quite a few songs in Japan regarding time travel or at least there was some mention of it in the title. In fact, I found a few that I hadn't covered but perhaps I will in a future article. But in the meantime, here are a few that we did cover over the years.
Well, I'm a day or so late but allow me to wish Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）a very Happy Birthday since she was born on March 20th. I'm fairly sure that she wouldn't have wanted to celebrate it here in Toronto since for the second day of spring, we were suffering a -13-degree Celsius wind chill factor this morning.
I'd been wondering which song of hers to pick out to celebrate the occasion but I really couldn't find one that I hadn't already covered, and of course over a dozen years of KKP, I will have covered quite a bit of Mariya's discography since she is one of my favourites. As such, I've opted to do another Author's Pick list; to be specific, this is a sequel to "J-Canuck's Favourite 6 Mariya Takeuchi Songs" that I wrote up over the Holidays at the end of 2015. The lady's discography has so many catchy tunes and ballads that I figured that I could afford one more list. So, without further ado (and this time, I'm not ranking them as I did in the first list):
After getting to know Mariya for so many years and then discovering City Pop crooner Yasuhiro Abe（安部恭弘）over the past decade and change, I know now to never ignore any collaboration between them, and that's what happened here when this snazzy and jazzy tune was made for her "Love Songs" album. There have been cover versions by professionals and amateurs of "Gosenshi", and it's no wonder. It's such a timeless standard and personally, I'm a sucker for wonderful doo-wopjazz harmonies.
Another collaboration that I won't leave alone is anything by Mariya and Airplay. Sure, it was the late Alan O'Day and her husband-to-be Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）behind words and music respectively but "Every Night" was one of the tracks of Side A on her "Miss M" album that were produced and recorded in Los Angeles. Plus it was David Foster and Jay Graydon who were responsible for the rhythm arrangements. Yamashita may not have been all that praiseworthy with the original version (he even did a Take That of sorts by providing his own version on his 1982 "For You") but this AOR hound will never deny the groove and smoothness of his wife's "Every Night".
With "Secret Love" included on this list along with its trackmate above and another "Miss M" song "Morning Glory" on the first list, I can pretty much admit that "Miss M" is one of my very favourite albums by Mariya and it's pretty much one of my favourite City Pop albums. I don't think I ever mentioned this in the original article for the song but there is something about the first minute or so in the arrangement and Mariya's exclamation of "Hero..." which has made me wonder whether "Secret Love" is the Malibu cousin to The Eagles' "Desperado".
"Just Friends" (or "Just Friend" as pronounced in the original Japanese) struck me right from Note One with that dramatic intro. Speaking of collaborations, this was Mariya from her inaugural album"Beginning" and her cooperation with the rock band Sentimental City Romance on a number of the tracks including this one with its soft rock vibe. I can pick up on some of that country twang in there, but the images flowing through my head as "Just Friends" is playing include an intrepid walk through the old part of any city on the globe...probably after getting dumped.
The very first full album of hers that I ever bought was "Quiet Life". Before that, I'd gotten a couple of CD singles while I was in Gunma Prefecture but the 1992 release was my first Mariya album. All of the tracks have been solid but the first track that caught me was "Forever Friends", one of those without-a-care-in-the-world sort of pop tunes. It sounds just perfect as the accompanying song for a stroll in the park, alone or with buddies.
For the end, we will go to the beginning...or pre-beginning...or pre-"Beginning". Indeed, I'm being cute here. But I am talking about "Hollywood Café", a song that isn't on any original Mariya album because it and another song of hers were actually on a special 1978 compilation known as "Loft Sessions Vol. 1", which had been released eight months before she even officially came out with her debut single and album. It's also one of my favourites because although it's undeniably Mariya behind the mike (albeit in a slower and thicker mode of voice), the melody and arrangement aren't in the usual Mariya vein but that same melody and arrangement are also things that I have enjoyed listening to...usually by Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）, and Ohnuki was involved in the song although it was for the lyrics only. Mariya herself came up with the melody. Interestingly enough, Ohnuki wouldn't fully get into the European introspective balladry for another few years.
In any case, I hope that Mariya and family were able to enjoy that birthday cake or a sumptuous dinner somewhere in Tokyo or at home.
"Happy Days Are Here Again" is an American standard that's been around since it first made its appearance in 1929 according to Wikipedia. Lots of interpretations have been done of it in its first century but the one that I've been most familiar with is the one by the Norman Luboff Choir that was a track on my parents' copy of "50 Years Of Hits In Stereo", the 5-LP set that we got with our RCA stereo. It's about as happy a version as I've ever heard from the Normal Luboff Choir which I usually associate with some of the more melancholy takes of standards. But here, the original by Milton Ager and Jack Yellen is given that 60s mambo-tinged martini-friendly lounge music touch which probably cheered up a lot of listeners (the vodka helped out, too, obviously).🍸
Well, as I've noted in the byline, I've watched the NHK coverage and read the "Japan Times" article "Japan's Nikkei index surpasses 40,000 points for first time", and the media has suddenly grabbed that old footage of the Bubble Boom era of the late 1980s in the nation. To be specific, the index closed today at 40,109.23 points. Is it time to be saying that happy days are here again in Japan? Hmmm...I'm sure stockholders are pretty buoyant along with exporting companies, and certainly depending on the country, tourists will be making their reservations for Japan. Not sure though about importers, Japanese tourists or even those supposed to be going to international conferences from Japan this year.
Mentioning that the mass media has started excavating the scenes of the bubbly times, I'm always going to be thinking about the famous Juliana's in Tokyo with all of those bodicon dancers and their plume fans. Supposedly, this new meteoric rise in the Nikkei is based on something far more stable than was the case in the late 1980s but...tongue-in-cheek...I keep wondering about gold flakes scattered on virtually every dish and million-dollar golf club entry fees once more.
The Nikkei record at the peak of the Bubble Era happened on December 29th 1989 with a close of 38,915.87 points. So I was left thinking about the music that was hot at the time, and strangely enough, I was actually in the nation back on that day...most likely, I was either in Osaka or Wakayama Prefecture with the relatives for the New Year's holidays. I couldn't find anything for that day exactly but I did find something for January 1st 1990 at this site. Therefore as such, here are just a few of the songs from the Top 10 on that auspicious day along with their rankings.
Daddy Takechiyo & Tokyo Otoboke Cats（ダディ竹千代&東京おとぼけCATS）, led by Daddy, aka Go Kajiki（加治木剛）, was a comical and talented band which I discovered via a track in that "Light Mellow" CD series. That led to my first article about them for a breezy City Pop-esque 1980 song called "Itsuwari no DJ"（偽りのDJ）back in the summer of 2020.
I've now found a track from their 1980 first album, logically titled "First". "Yuugata Friend" (Sunset Friend) seems to be a playful pun on the Carole King song "You've Got a Friend" but that's where any similarities end. Written and composed by Daddy Takechiyo, it's a bopping track which starts out with what sounds like a polite rejection letter to the leader's confession of love from a pleasant-sounding young lady. The young lady just happens to be twentysomething Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）, and I did mention in the "Itsuwari no DJ" posting that he and the Cats had some connections with not only Mariya but also her future husband, Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）.
Hey, if I got rejected by the lovely Ms. Takeuchi, I would be crawling into a corner of my room (the one with the most dust and ant carcasses) myself for a certain amount of time, so I cannot blame Daddy for getting into the doldrums in the first verses of "Yuugata Friend" and thinking that he needs to drink his way into a stupor. There's something not surprisingly Tom Waits bluesy here but it doesn't take too long before he and the Cats get back on their feet and move on, thanks to some James Brown-style R&B. By the end of the five minutes and change, it's as if the rejection never occurred. Tats and Mariya are together and Daddy and his band are together as well.
Not that I ever was a John Travolta on the disco floor myself, but Kayo Grace, I'm not sure if that is a disco move you're making there. But hey, who am I to criticize? You're enjoying yourself...that's the important thing.
Anyways, just out of a sense of whimsy...and "Kayo Kyoku Plus" has shown plenty of that over the past twelve years, I'm putting up some of my favourite disco-tinged tunes. Good times!
Yes, nothing says Christmas in Japan more than Sylvester Stallone and Ito Ham. My goodness...that glorious mane of hair back in the day could rival anything on KKP AI representative Kayo Grace Kyoku's head.
But just to get away from the weirdness of Hollywood celebrities in Japanese commercials, let's think about some of those other wholesome ads promising things like chicken covered in eleven herbs and spices and ten thousand calories (that was certainly the case when I was living in Chiba) when it comes to J-Xmas. Consider this special Yuletide Author's Pick a summary of those J-Xmas tunes for ads that I've already covered over the past dozen years.
(1983) Tatsuro Yamashita -- Christmas Eve for Japan Railways
(2000) Mariya Takeuchi -- Suteki na Holiday（すてきなホリデイ）for Kentucky Fried Chicken
Winter officially arrives here in Toronto at 10:30 pm Eastern Standard Time. There was no snow today but it certainly felt quite bone-chilling out there. In all likelihood, the collective moaning in the wind was from millions of Torontonians rolling their eyes and grimacing that several months of the cold season are now upon them.
That begs the question then. Wearying from the cold and snow, what do the residents in The Six do? Well, a lot of them usually head down to Florida and perhaps take that Caribbean cruise from Fort Lauderdale, and if they are "snowbirds" which is our term for retirees who go south, they decide to live half the year in the warmer Everglade State.
OK, second question, hotshot. When Pokémon get tired and stressed out, what do they do? Naturally, they head to the Pokémon Resort! A post-battle Pikachu probably has some rather sore shoulders...hm, does Pikachu even have shoulders? In any case, Netflix will be premiering "Pokémon Concierge"（ポケモン コンシェルジュ）on December 28th which sounds like the "Fantasy Island" for the pocket monsters. Karen Fukuhara will be starring as the main character of Haru on the English-dubbed version which is definitely a change from her other series "The Boys". For one thing, I don't believe Haru as the titular concierge will have to handle any messiness such as body explosions following penile intrusions.
From Know Your Meme
Yes, I'm sorry, Pikachu! Perhaps I shouldn't have mentioned that. Moving on, I realize that "Pokémon Concierge" is a stop-action series but considering that up to now, it's all been about the anime, I gather that we can overlook the technicalities and place the Anime label onto it.
But I realized all of the above when I discovered last night that none other than Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）was going to handle the theme song. In fact, it was released as a single on December 20th, approximately a week before the show goes to air. "Kimi no Ibasho" (The Place Where You Belong) was written and composed by Takeuchi and arranged by her husband Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）. It's a nice glass of tropical punch and a very welcoming tune to the Pokémon Resort. I also have to mention the adorable music video since the powers-that-be figured that if Tats could show up as a cute CG figure in one of his videos, then so can his wife.
The above is the Japanese trailer with Rena Nonen（能年玲奈）as Haru.
