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.
This is not the weekly scheduled Reminiscings of Youth article today but I still wanted to provide a tribute to singer Connie Francis who had passed away yesterday at the age of 87. In the late 1950s and into the following decade, her hits were popular enough that in 1960, she was considered to be the most successful female recording artist in many countries including Japan. She's had a great tie with this blog in that a number of female Japanese singers covered her tunes to success themselves, something that has been noted within the articles here.
Kyoko Koizumi, etc. -- Collar ni Kuchibeni（カラーに口紅）
The last pair with "Lipstick On Your Collar" is something that I hadn't covered but I have heard the Francis original before through the many commercials featuring her hit compilations on television when I was a kid. As with the other covers, 80s aidoru Kyoko Koizumi（小泉今日子）was among a number of other Japanese singers who have covered the song under the Japanese title of "Collar ni Kuchibeni". I had never heard of this one by Kyon-Kyon before because it was on a September 1983 album of hers called "Separation Kyoko" which was only available on audiotape although it has been available online since 2013.
There are probably at least a few more of Francis' songs that have been covered but in any case, I would like to offer my condolences to her family, friends and many fans out there.
It was probably one of the few times that "Uta Con"（うたコン）showed an episode tonight which didn't have a particular theme for the first fifteen minutes or so. However, one highlight was seeing 60s aidoru Yukari Ito（伊東ゆかり）and Mie Nakao（中尾ミエ）appear. Those two and Mari Sono（園まり）had formed one of the earliest kayo kyoku Gosanke（御三家）,the Spark Sannin Musume（スパーク3人娘）, in that decade. And unfortunately, the reason that Sono herself didn't show up with her former comrades is that the singer had passed away on July 26th this year at the age of 80 from heart failure.
The Spark Sannin Musume were scheduled to do a medley of their hits. However, a clumsy scene cut and the one performance of "Aitakute, Aitakute"（逢いたくて逢いたくて）by the remaining members tonight and Sono herself via vintage footage made it pretty clear that Jme had to cut out the rest of the medley in the high likelihood that those songs were Japanese covers of American hit tunes (due to the usual copyright issues). A lot of pop singers back then were doing those as much as they were doing original Japanese kayo.
Well, for my own tribute to Sono, I've decided to feature her January 1964 single"Kiichatta! Utacchata! Naichatta!" (I Heard It! I Sang It! I Cried to It!). It's an original Japanese tune done in a doo-wop rock n' roll style with Hiroshi Miyagawa（宮川泰）handling the music while Kazumi Yasui（安井かずみ）took care of the lyrics. It's pretty darn slick enough so that perhaps even fans of the old American pop from the 50s and 60s might wonder if it had been a cover of something by Connie Francis.
Sono may have had the A-side but both Nakao and Ito also sang the song as B-sides to their own January 1964 singles, "Onna no Ko damon"（おんなのこだもん...Cause I'm a Girl） for Nakao (above) and "Uta wo Oshiete"（歌をおしえて...Teach Me a Song） for Ito (below), with fairly different arrangements.
My belated condolences to Sono's family, friends and fans...and also to her Gosanke mates, Ito and Nakao.
Well, let's see...Ann-Margret started off the article for "Begin the Beguine" when I posted it a couple of days ago, and now she's launching this article for "Bye Bye Birdie". I guess out of courtesy then, her name is gonna have to be entered into Labels, especially when I'm planning to have her spearhead a ROY article sometime in the foreseeable future. Welcome aboard, Ann!
In any case, I remember this movie showing up one lazy Sunday afternoon on one of the Buffalo affiliates and it starts off with Ann-Margret's Kim MacAfee singing her heart out for the titular theme of the 1963 comedy "Bye Bye Birdie". Couldn't get more lovelorn bobbysoxer teen than Kim as she vocally pines for her idol, Conrad Birdie. Didn't see the movie end-to-end so I didn't know that a slightly more grown-up Kim sings the theme again to end things.
Back in the 50s and 60s, the earliest aidoru, whether men or women, were usually covering Japanese-language versions of the American and British pop hits. As such, "Bye Bye Birdie" got its cover out in October 1963 and it was recorded by a teenaged Mie Nakao（中尾ミエ）as she also belts it out of the stands. Unfortunately, I couldn't find out who had taken care of the Japanese lyrics.
To emphasize how much time has flown by since Nakao provided hits such as "Bye Bye Birdie" and "Kawaii Baby"（可愛いベイビー）, she's now 78 years old (and still plenty feisty). I actually saw her last night on an NHK edutainment show focusing on senior citizens with the theme being on shared houses. Somehow, I'm not sure if I can really imagine her sharing a house with anyone, though.
Strangely enough, this trio isn't listed at "idol.ne.jp" which has had that page with the long scroll of Gosanke（御三家...The Big Three） and Sannin Musume（三人娘...The Three Girls）. And yet, the Spark Sannin Musume (The 3 Spark Girls) kinda bridged the gap with 1960s female aidoru Yukari Ito（伊東ゆかり）, Mie Nakao（中尾ミエ）and Mari Sono（園まり）between the Ganso Sannin Musume（元祖三人娘）of the 1950s and the Shin Sannin Musume（新三人娘）of the 1970s. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that the newspapers and magazines didn't come up with the name but the show that starred the ladies.
For about 18 months between 1962 and 1963, Fuji-TV featured a Sunday afternoon music-variety show called "Morinaga Spark Show"（森永スパーク・ショー）with the Spark referring to the sponsor, confectionary company Morinaga & Company's own brand of cola. Initially, the star was rockabilly singer/actor Takashi Fujiki（藤木孝）but midway through the show's run, he left not only the program but singing altogether which meant that the spotlight was trained onto the other co-stars: Ito, Nakao and Sono who then became known as the Spark Sannin Musume.
I couldn't help but hear the British band's baroque pop classic "Whiter Shade of Pale" when I first listened to Mie Nakao's（中尾ミエ）"Kataomoi"(One-Sided Love), her November 1971 single, which was actually a cover of Michiru Maki's（槇みちる）B-side to her November 1969"Suzu no Oto ga Kikoeru"（鈴の音がきこえる...I Can Hear the Sound of the Bells）. That introductory organ made me wonder if it were indeed a Hammond M102 being played here as was the case with "Whiter Shade of Pale". For that matter, I could also hear something along the lines of The Jackson 5's "I'll Be There" within the melancholy "Kataomoi" which was written by Kazumi Yasui（安井かずみ）and composed by Makoto Kawaguchi（川口真）. Certainly, through Nakao's vocals, it doesn't sound like the woman's ardent love for that man will be reflected back soon, if ever.
According to J-Wiki's article on "Kataomoi", when it was first released, the single didn't do much of anything despite the singer and the songwriters. However, when it was played again several years later in 1977 on cable radio in Sapporo, its popularity suddenly launched into the sky which prompted Japan Victor, the original record company for the single, to re-release it in June. This time, "Kataomoi" reached a respectable No. 28 on Oricon and became the 99th-ranked single for that year. It just goes to show that sometimes a song needs time and re-discovery to become that belated hit. Just look at Tatsuro Yamashita's（山下達郎）"Christmas Eve".
Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）, along with a few other singers, did record a cover of "Kataomoi" as part of her single "Aibu"（愛撫）released in March 1994 (peaked at No. 17). Instead of that baroque pop sound, though, Nakamori's cover sounds as if it had been meant as the grand theme song for a four-handkerchief romantic tragedy made in the 1960s. Her vocals are quite similar to those of Nakao's when she first recorded the song. "Kataomoi" also made it onto Nakamori's first album of covers that came out in the same month as "Aibu","Utahime"（歌姫）which hit No. 5 on the charts.
The other night, I received a comment on the article for Reiko Mari's（万里れい子）"Psyche na Machi"（サイケな街）, the go-go number from the late 1960s, It was from Chasing Showa who told me about this website run by former Tokyo DJ Sheila Burgel who has a love for various kinds of music including the girl pop performed by Japanese singers in the 1960s. He also informed me about a couple of albums paying tribute to that era, "Nippon Girls" and "Goodnight Tokyo". It was quite interesting to hear some of the singers and bands who had been included in those releases let go of their inner yeah-yeah shagadelia because some of them at least used to do some of the more traditional kayo in the early 1960s.
You can have a listen to the videos above but don't blame me if you suddenly get the urge to twist or shrug or pony.
One of those singers that I was referring to happens to be Mie Nakao（中尾ミエ）. Although I know of her more as a regular tarento and a participant in those late-night informercials in Japan, she did start her career as one of the big aidoru of the 1960s. And one of the more famous old kayo from way back when was her 1962 debut single"Kawaii Baby"（可愛いベイビー）, a cover of a Connie Francis number.
Well, in July 1968, she released a new single called "Koi no Sharock", a funky and fuzzy tune that had me imagining the young Nakao discovering some dance moves on the psychedelic dance floor. The thing is, though, I really don't know what sharock is all about. At first, I had thought that the word was derived from Sherlock...as in Sherlock Holmes, the great detective. Holmes is well known in Japan, and I had assumed that the title would be translated as "Sherlock of Love" as in someone tracking down and masterfully figuring out the emotion.
But from what I've read on one Japanese-language site, that doesn't seem to be the case. In the era of Group Sounds, namely the late 1960s, there was another music genre name that seemed to have been bandied about: New Rhythm that would go along with all of those cool dances from America such as The Twist, The Pony and The Swim. Considering the fuzzy guitars as well, perhaps I could also include anything by The Rolling Stones from that time. However, the powerful Watanabe Productions management agency wanted to get in on the naming action behind this new sound so they came up with....you guessed it, sharock.
I still have no idea what the sha- is all about. The term is written in katakana so I don't know about any kanji for sha- or whether it was even derived from kanji. I doubt the sha- would refer to the kanji for company「社」. Corporate rock? Sounds rather oxymoronic...especially in those days. Maybe the sha- refers to terse and powerful onomatopoeia, kinda like when a martial artist or Ultraman yells something when he does his move.
Getting back to "Koi no Sharock", the lyricist was Chizuko Matsubara（松原智津子）with an assist from Kazumi Yasui（安井かずみ）while the music was composed by Kazuyoshi Arai（新居一芳）, otherwise known as Masao Saiki（彩木雅夫）, the fellow who would later create the Mood Kayo classic "Nagasaki wa Kyou mo Ame Datta"（長崎は今日も雨だった）for Hiroshi Uchiyamada and The Cool Five（内山田洋とクール・ファイブ）. Just so that the new sound of sharock was well understood and permeating into the youth of Japan at the time, Side B for Nakao's single was given the title of "Sharock No. 1". If anyone else out there can tell me what that prefix means, I would be most appreciative of a contact.
Well, rather glad that I am here tonight since I had quite the load of text to translate for much of the day today. It's nice to get back to writing what I like.
I've come across my fair share of new and wonderful songs over the years of doing this blog but once in a while, a few of my commenters have also introduced me to some of those new names and songs. I got that opportunity again earlier today before work when Stevie contacted me about a tune that he'd fallen for on a video of 1960s kayo kyoku that was performed in movies.
(Sorry but the video has been taken down.)
At about 7:13 of the above video, young and virile Wakadaisho Yuzo Kayama（加山雄三）enters a room to see an all-female band playing with the lead singer going go-go. It just happens to be Mie Nakao（中尾ミエ）whom I've seen all the time on variety shows but up to now had only known one song by her, "Kawaii Baby"（可愛いベイビー）, a cover of a Connie Francis hit from the early 1960s.
Well, some years after that, she came out with a single from January 1968 titled "Hana no Sadame"(Fate of a Flower) which is mis-named in the description below the YouTube video as "Koi no Sadame"（恋のさだめ...Fate of Love）. And it looks like Nakao was channeling more Nancy Sinatra back then.
Stevie had wanted to find the full version of the song and so he asked for my help. I took a look at her discography on J-Wiki and although I couldn't find a "Koi no Sadame", I did find "Hana no Sadame" and did a cut-and-paste on YouTube. Voila! It turned out to be the full version. And crazily enough, I started enjoying it myself. I guess there's something about a 60s Japanese teenybopper doing a more mature and fairly rockin' pop song with a fuzzy guitar intro that gets my attention. So I'm just as indebted to Stevie now.
"Hana no Sadame" was written by Rei Nakanishi（なかにし礼）and composed by Masaaki Hirao（平尾昌晃）. I'm not sure how it did on the then-embryonic Oricon charts but I'm sure if any of the kayo shows want to pay tribute to the psychedelic/go-go boot music of the late 60s, well, this song can certainly be a candidate. In a way, it reminds me of how Hibari Misora（美空ひばり）did her own go-go thing with "Makkana Taiyo"（赤な太陽）some six months earlier. Peace, man!
Will have to do some more perusing of that top video.
Ensure that you haven't eaten any cakes or chocolates before viewing the above video (alas, that video is gone but Nakao still looks very cute above). The sugar shock could kill you. It's indeed "Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww"-some.
In any case, Mie Nakao's（中尾ミエ）debut tune, "Kawaii Baby" (Pretty Little Baby) is one of those songs that has buried itself in my brain so thoroughly as an early Japanese music hit that it's almost hard to believe that it had actually been a Connie Francis 1961 song. And I think it's been pretty much Nakao's trademark song since its release in April 1962. This was back in the pre-Oricon days, but it did hit the No. 1 spot in the rankings within the longtime Japanese music magazine, "Music Life". And what must've sent the then-16-year-old over the moon, her rendition of the Francis song ultimately sold 1 million copies. And I have to say that at least for me Nakao does sound as if Francis had internalized the Japanese language.
My image of Mie Nakao when I was over in Japan was of a friendly straight-talking middle-aged lady who occasionally appeared on variety shows or music retrospectives and more often on those late-night infomercials. If I hadn't heard her song on tape or seen her on video performing the song, I would never have pegged her as a former teen singer. But that she was. And in fact, she was placed alongside two other teen idols, Mari Sono and Yukari Ito（園まり・伊東ゆかり） as a triumvirate known as Spark Sannin Musume （スパーク３人娘....The 3 Spark Girls). At the time, the three young ladies, who all belonged to the all-powerful Watanabe Productions (the same company who took care of The Peanuts and Candies), helped host a show titled "Morinaga Spark Show"(森永スパーク・ショー）for 18 months from 1962, ostensibly to show the talents of Takashi Fujiki（藤木孝）, a rockabilly singer. However, when Nakao, Sono and Ito gained even further popularity, Spark Sannin Musume stuck around for a few more years.
(Sorry but the video has been taken down.)
The above video is of the 1963 Kohaku Utagassen with the Musume doing something called "The Cutie Pie Medley" at around 31:30 with Ito, Sono and Nakao performing in that order. During the medley, Nakao does another cover of another old 60s hit, "Bye Bye Birdie". It's interesting to watch as a snippet of how a certain segment of Japanese pop music at the time liked to emulate American pop culture in terms of music and fashion.
