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.
It's been a standard through all audio media for the decades that it has been in existence since its release by singer-songwriter Bobby Hebb in February 1966. Yep, "Sunny" has popped up here and there in my life via radio and records and now on YouTube.
But now through my browsings of YouTube, I've discovered that there have been a couple of remarkable cover versions of "Sunny" in Japan. One was by the late Taeko Morino（森野多恵子）who was a member of the Group Sounds band The White Kicks（ザ・ホワイト・キックス）via an appearance on a 1968 music show that was preciously saved on audiotape by YouTuber Old But Cool (something that I would like to be).
As I mentioned in the lone article thus far regarding The White Kicks, Morino went by a few names during her life and career which were sadly cut short in 1998 at the age of 50. She was also known as Tan Tan, known for her disco and City Pop material from the late 1970s, and then as Harumi Ohzora（大空はるみ）going into the 1980s as she specialized in techno jazz. Morino didn't leave The White Kicks until 1971 but she gave a fine solo performance for "Sunny" with a really brassy voice to match the brass accompanying her.
Then, a couple of surprises greeted me when I discovered via the Wikipedia article for "Sunny" that the late Mieko Hirota（弘田三枝子）had recorded the song. Surprise One was that she had recorded the standard onto her January 1966 album"Miko in New York"...several weeks before Hebb himself released his version to the world, although the song had been created by Hebb all the way back in 1963. So, does that mean Hirota was the very first person to show "Sunny" to the world? As for Surprise Two, that would be the singer herself who sounded far more mature and rich for someone who wouldn't reach the age of 19 for another few weeks when she was in the recording booth.
Today is Family Day and much of Canada is celebrating this regional holiday (under different names depending on the province), although since it's not a federal holiday, we should still be getting our mail. We did have our family get-together last night with some fine platters of sushi.
No matter the level of holiday though, it still means that it's time for a special Reminiscings of Youth article, and under the theme of Family Day, I thought it would be appropriate to bring in one of my fondly-remembered TV theme songs. "The Brady Bunch" was one of the many sitcoms that peppered my childhood through its first run and then reruns. If I recall, it was on Friday nights on ABC for the first half of the 1970s and from what I saw on the Wikipedia page for it, it was never a ratings winner despite its longevity but then Friday nights were usually seen as the death slot of TV shows.
"The Brady Bunch" was the quintessential family half-hour sitcom back in the day. There was nothing controversial about it...just each of the kids having their easily solvable problems and then getting help from the parents, Mike and Carol, and perhaps even their maid Alice. There were some plot lines that I remember from the series which lasted from 1969 to 1974 such as the gang heading to Hawaii and the Grand Canyon, the truth about Jesse James, the kids cutting their own hit songs, and the one depicted above where little Bobby gets his first kiss from a schoolmate portrayed by Melissa Sue Anderson who would become even more famous as one of the Ingalls' daughters on "Little House on the Prairie". In addition, the kids literally grew up right in front of our eyes and even Mike and Carol eventually got groovier with the times in their fashion and hairstyles.
Of course, there is the famous opening credits sequence with the nine squares showing off the parents, kids and Alice with the sweetly sung theme song which delivered how this blended family got together in the first place. However, my memories of "The Brady Bunch" began from the second season when the actors portraying the children sang the theme for the rest of the series. For some reason, reruns of the first season wouldn't start playing on TV here in Toronto until several years later, and it was pretty amazing seeing how young and 60s everyone looked back then. The first season's rendition of the theme was recorded by a sunshine pop band known as the Peppermint Trolley Company with series producer Sherwood Schwarz and prolific composer Frank DeVol (probably one of the great inspirers for Shibuya-kei to be born) creating the song. No matter who sang the theme, it still remains very hummable; I was doing some of that myself while typing this.
After "The Brady Bunch" got cancelled in the spring of 1974, the show was a regular rerun on many a channel, and it seems as if there were folks who wanted to bring it back in some shape or other. I remember "The Brady Bunch Variety Hour" and the animated series starring the kids. And a decade later, there was even "The Brady Brides" and eventually a film franchise taking a parodic approach. There was even "The Bradys", a dramedy sequel that lasted all of a month in 1990; I hadn't even heard of that one since I was in Japan that year.
"The Brady Bunch" did get aired in Japan on Fuji-TV between 1970 and 1971 under the title "Yukai na Brady-ke"（ゆかいなブレディー家）which translates into "The Happy Bradys", and yes, they certainly were. I couldn't find any footage of the Fuji-TV version; the only thing I could find was this Japanese-subbed commercial that aired during the Super Bowl of 2015. Yup, it was epic. And good heavens...there was that episode about Marcia getting her nose broken by a football!
So, with the show premiering on September 26th 1969, what was at the top of the Oricon list at around that time? Here are the Top 3 from September 29th.
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.
I had been around for only a few years when these dances of the 1960s were popular so alas I missed out on trying these moves out. Not that I would have dared to show them in public if I'd been old enough to give them a go. My Mashed Potato would have been runny spuds.
So, dances such as the Twist and the Swim came to mind as I was listening to this snappy number by the late Mieko Hirota（弘田三枝子）. "Tokyo Ni-juu-shichi-ji"(3:00 am Tokyo) is the title track from Hirota's May 1999 mini-album, a project that had Fantastic Plastic Machine and Pizzicato Five'sYasuharu Konishi（小西康陽）helping out, so I could imagine that there was going to be plenty of Shibuya-kei and tributes to the swinging pop music of the 1960s. And yep, I got plenty of that dance music along with what seems to be a shoutout to The 5th Dimension's"Up, Up and Away" in Konishi's melody and arrangement. Shimmy away, folks!
Also, have a look at Toni Basil'svideo of those 60s dances. Quite a few celebs knew how to move!
I'm not a Mieko Hirota（弘田三枝子）super fan or expert by any means but when I found this single by her, I began to wonder about the different voices that the late singer possessed in her singing arsenal. The last few times I've written about her, they've involved her early prodigy-level teen jazz scatting in songs such as "Comin' Home Baby" from 1965 and then her Cleo Laine approach with her City Pop"Body Talk"（ボディー・トーク）in 1980.
And in between those two songs, and yep, I realize that there are a good 15 years between them, there was also her 42nd single"Kawaii Uso"(Pretty Lies) which was released in September 1968. Created by the golden songwriting duo of lyricist Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）and composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）, the J-Wiki article for the song noted that the team had basically gone for a Motown kayo kyoku based on The Temptations' "My Girl". At the same time, we also got another new voice from Hirota: that of the velvety and purring sex kitten surreptitiously twirling her beau around her pinkie while at the same time admitting that she really does have feelings for the guy.
Veteran singer Mieko Hirota（弘田三枝子）, who passed away in the summer of 2020 at the age of 73, was someone who tried out her fair share of genres including kayo kyoku, jazz and City Pop. It was only in the last couple of weeks that I discovered that she had also hooked onto the revival of 1950s and 1960s pop arrangements in Japanese popular culture of the late 1970s and early 1980s, and that was through one of her last singles "Mr. Shadow" from September 1980.
According to her discography on J-Wiki,"Mr. Shadow" was her 61st of 66 singles and it was her first new single in over three years and after that, she wouldn't release another single until 1983, "Ai no Nokori ga"（愛のNOKORIGA）. "Mr. Shadow" was written by Ikuko Okado（おかどいくこ）and composed by Erika Takagi（高木エリカ）with Kei Wakakusa（若草恵）as the arranger who came up with the old-style 50s pop twist albeit with a touch of synthesizer added. It may have been a homecoming of sorts for Hirota since her career had begun at the dawn of the 1960s when that particular music style was popular.
The B-side, "Body Talk", also by Okado and Takagi, takes things more into the also-popular City Pop territory under the arrangement of Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）. It's some good ol' jazz and disco, and Hirota has that Cleo Laine vibe in her vocals (including some scatting) as she sounds quite slinky and kittenish. Seeing an image of the original 45", I noticed that Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）had taken care of the chorus arrangement. I know that the list of musicians doesn't usually show up on a 45" liner sheet but I would love to know who was twiddling professionally on the guitar there. Maybe it's Matsushita but I don't know if that's usually his style.
First off, for everyone in Japan: 「新年あけましておめでとうございます。今年もよろしくお願いします。」🎍
Here in North America, we're still in New Year's Eve and awaiting our own clock to strike midnight in several hours. It's been the usual December 31st with my family...quiet, getting things cleaned up and of course, I woke up this morning a couple of hours into the live broadcast of the 74th edition of the Kohaku Utagassen on NHK. Now, the thumbnail aside, I will give my own thoughts on the Red-and-White Song Festival when I get to see the whole she-bang over the next week or so and I have a feeling that a few more of us on the blog will do the same. However, to begin the final blogging on KKP for 2023, I'd like to go back in the Kohaku's history...60 years back, to be exact.
Yup, to keep within the theme of the New Year's Eve special, I'm heading back to the 14th edition at the end of 1963. It was a very different time and circumstances since the Kohaku that year scored an average rating of over 81%, the very peak of its popularity. In those days, there wasn't quite as much to do and see outside of the home as there is now, and music access wasn't nearly as widespread.
For the 74th edition, we had this year's media darlings Atarashii Gakko no Leaders（新しい学校のリーダーズ）and JO1 leading things off. However, according to the J-Wiki account of the 14th edition, that show's top two batters were teenage sparkplug Mieko Hirota（弘田三枝子）and new Mood Kayo singer Yasuo Tanabe（田辺靖雄）which is why I'm doing the two-in-one today. Hirota, who was coming to the Kohaku for the 2nd time, launched the show off with her rendition of Susan Singer's 1963"Lock Your Heart Away", titled in Japanese as "Kanashiki Heart" (Sad Heart) and released in July that year as her 13th single with Kazumi Minami（みナみカズみ）handling the Japanese lyrics over John Schroeder's original melody.
As I said, she was quite the sparkplug with that 60s girl pop. She looked like she could rival Wild Child Suzuka of Atarashii Gakko no Leaders in spunk.
Yasuo Tanabe is someone that I'd mentioned in his first article that has had quite the show business connections, including the fact that he is the son of Masaharu Tanabe（田辺正晴）who actually hosted the first two editions of the national network's Kohaku Utagassen on radio in 1951 and 1952. So I gather that he may have been quite nervous making his debut onto the special in 1963. He sang "Kumo ni Kiite Okure yo"(Go Ask the Clouds), a song written and composed by Seiji Hiraoka（平岡精二）and one of those finger-snapping jazz orchestral standards that were common back in the day. The song has been attributed to him but I haven't been able to find it as a single or even as a B-side in his own J-Wiki discography so perhaps it was on one of this early albums or J-Wiki simply forgot to add it in.
Anyways, I'll be seeing if I can catch the re-broadcast of the 74th edition later tonight.
Soon after I had posted up the weekly Reminiscings of Youth on Shirley Bassey's scintillating "Goldfinger" for the 007 movie of the same name, I received a comment from someone who pointed out that only the late Mieko Hirota（弘田三枝子）and Hatsumi Shibata（しばたはつみ）could approach doing a great cover of that theme song.
Maybe this song isn't exactly the one to put in as proof in the pudding when it comes to the above claim since it requires a certain coolness and sultriness here compared to the brass in "Goldfinger". However, I have had to keep reminding herself that Hirota was still all of around eighteen years of age (heck in that outfit on the cover in the thumbnail above, she still appears like a high school kid!) when she released her "Miko in New York" in 1965 and knocked me off my seat hearing her scat like a pro for "Comin' Home Baby", one of the tracks. As much as she was one of the classic kayo singers with hits like "Ningyo no Ie"（人形の家）, she was also a pretty snazzy jazz chanteuse as well. Might I also give my compliments to the Billy Taylor Trio and their inclusion of "Sakura, Sakura" within the arrangement.
Ben Tucker had first come up with the 1961 instrumental jazz tune "Comin' Home Baby" with the Dave Bailey Quintet recording it. Bob Dorough then added lyrics after which The Velvet Fog, Mel Tormé, sang it into a hit in 1962. I was able to get the information from the Wikipedia article on the song.
Good golly! I remember this oh-so-1970s commercial as if it had been playing yesterday on the old telly. Lowney's Cherry Blossoms were a treat that I had to eat from time to time as they were readily available in supermarkets and convenience stores in Canada. They not only raised my caloric input but most likely decreased my life expectancy without me realizing it. Mind you, we have a box of the Laura Secord version on the coffee table but those blossoms are thankfully far less potent.
Chocolate in their bars and other forms were just as popular in Japan, too. I believe that I actually did buy a few boxes of Look Chocolate at the local 7-11 or am/pm during my time there. Certainly, the shapes look very familiar. I'm also happy that someone on YouTube was enterprising enough to put up an ancient commercial for Look which does have that mild psychedelic appeal. The jingle seems to have come out of some 1960s Italian movie.
Look is still putting forth chocolates and commercials today as you can see from the fellows of Snow Man making their mark.
I was actually doing a bit of research on the legendary kayo writing team of lyricist Rokusuke Ei and composer Hachidai Nakamura（永六輔・中村八大）. Of course, the two have been immortalized for the "Sukiyaki" song, aka "Ue wo Muite Arukou"（上を向いて歩こう）, but I also saw on their list that they were also responsible for one jingle for Look which was created in 1963, a couple of years following "Sukiyaki".
Titled simply "Look Chocolate no Uta"(The Look Chocolate Song), it was recorded by the late Mieko Hirota（弘田三枝子）. Short and sweet as any chocolate jingle ought to be, it has that catchy twist-friendly arrangement, and maybe the kids were doing their little jig while whining at their parents to take a look at Look.
Going further down the rabbit hole to find out about "Look Chocolate no Uta", I discovered via Discogs that it had been a B-side for a 1965 45" single of chocolate jingles. The A-side had "Topsy no Uta" (The Topsy Song) for a chocolate of that name which no longer exists. Composer Nakamura was also responsible for this jingle but the lyricist for this one was Tokiko Iwatani（岩谷時子）. And the singer here was none other than Bob McGrath of "Sesame Street" fame who just passed away late last year. It's got quite the dramatic and romantic heft for chocolate, doesn't it? Bob did a pretty bang-up job on the Japanese, too.
It's been about a couple of years since singer Mieko Hirota（弘田三枝子）passed away and during her time, she was known as the Queen of Pops. From the 1960s onwards, she was one of the kayo stalwarts with one of her standard-bearers being the 1969 "Ningyo no Ie"（人形の家）.
But her discography extended into the first half of the 1980s, too, with four singles and two albums coming out. For instance, her 38th single from March 1983 is "Ai no Nokori ga" (Remains of Love) which is a swinging combination of some old-style jazz and the new City Pop. It rather feels like going out on that high-flying and high-paying night out in Shinjuku, Akasaka and Ginza.
We can thank Yuji Ohno（大野雄二）, the same fellow behind the famous "Lupin III" theme song, for all that jazz in "Ai no Nokori ga" while singer-lyricist Mebae Miyahara（宮原芽映）under her pen name of Yu Chino（茅野遊）took care of the words. "Ai no Nokori ga" can also be found on Hirota's album "Touch of Breeze" which came out on the same day as the single.
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.
Sad to say but I seem to be seeing and reading about these obituaries of figures in the Japanese music industry all too often these days. This morning, NHK reported the death of songwriter and actor Asei Kobayashi at the age of 88 after he had suffered heart failure on May 30th. I had just written another article regarding one of his creations a little more than a month ago.
My knowledge about Japanese lyricists, composers and arrangers has grown only because of my work on the blog, so before 2012, the name Asei Kobayashi was one that I was barely aware of. In terms of the visual medium of television, however, I've known about Kobayashi for years on sight alone since as a thespian, he became famous for his very first role as Kantaro Terauchi, the stonemason with the volcanic temper from the mid-1970s TBS drama"Terauchi Kantaro Ikka"（寺内貫太郎一家...Kantaro Terauchi's Family）. Looking like the most terrifying and willful Showa Era father, his most famous scene involved him literally tearing up his own living room and painting the walls with his family (albeit in a comical fashion), including young heartthrob singer Hideki Saijo（西城秀樹）. I don't know whether Kobayashi had ever created a song that was recorded by Saijo.
Interestingly enough, from reading an article on this website, I found out that "Terauchi Kantaro Ikka" was famous for tackling some of the social issues of the day, and considering Terauchi's personality, I immediately wondered whether this program was the Japanese equivalent of America's"All in the Family" which was becoming a controversial hit on CBS at the same time.
However, I was to gradually discover that Kobayashi's true forte was as a composer. He was born in August 1932 in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, and he was named after a playwright that his mother, a member of a drama troupe, had greatly admired. His father was a government official, and it had been his hope that young Asei would become a physician and so the lad attended Keio University. But much to his parents' dismay, he jumped ship so to speak to become a composer under the tutelage of Tadashi Hattori（服部正）.
I was also surprised to find out that the actor behind the fiery Kantaro was the same fellow who created the beloved themes for the following anime among other shows:
Yuuki Hide, Kotaro Asa and Singers Three -- Hitachi no Ki（日立の樹）(1973)
Kobayashi also composed a lot of commercial songs for various products, and in fact, in the same way he made quite the splash as a first-time thespian in "Terauchi Kantaro Ikka" in the 1970s, he became famous for one of his earliest creations (words and music) for a television ad, "Wansaka Musume"（ワンサカ娘...The Wansaka Girl） for the Renown company which specialized in textiles and clothing.
Originally recorded by Hiroshi Kamayatsu（かまやつひろし）in 1961, "Wansaka Musume" was taken up as the song for Renown and this time it was Mieko Hirota's（弘田三枝子）turn behind the mike in 1964.
Then in 1965, singer and actress Sylvie Vartan performed her own yé-yé cover of "Wansaka Musume". I tried looking it up but I couldn't find out what the wansaka meant. Maybe it's just onomatopoeia but hopefully one of you veteran readers can let me know. Anyways since then, "Wansaka Musume" has been given further covers by acts including Duke Aces（デューク・エイセス）and Ann Lewis（アン・ルイス）.
Kobayashi also had his regular appearances on game shows and his own commercials. He had quite the voice, and I'm not talking about his yelling one from "Terauchi Kantaro Ikka".
I figured that I would be including the increasingly media-ubiquitous world of Marvel Comics into "Kayo Kyoku Plus" someday. After all, I have a hero of the DC universe already included here although not as a ROY article, so I gotta make mine Marvel! And why not start Marvel's entry into my humble little blog with a hero who's been quite close to my heart in terms of childhood and personality? Rather ironic considering that because of my first summer trip to Japan in 1972, I ended up with a years-long case of arachnophobia (them spiders are big in Wakayama).
Of course, true believers, I am talking about The Amazing Spider-Man. Yes, we all know about the various incarnations of Peter Parker and his alter-ego over the past 20 years on the big screen starting with Tobey Maguire, then Andrew Garfield and now Tom Holland, but for this Torontonian, it all began with the animated series that went from 1967 to 1970.
"Spider-Man" the cartoon was a joint production between the United States for the animation and Canada for the voice acting according to the Wikipedia article for the series. Every morning when I woke up at the bleary-eyed hour of 6:30 for school (ugh!), the TV would be on CHCH-TV on Channel 11 from the city of Hamilton, west of Toronto with "Spider-Man" beginning my childhood day. He'd be fighting folks like the Rhino, the Green Goblin and J. Jonah Jameson constantly.
What also greeted me was the finger-snapping vocal jazz of the theme song. Although I would later come to realize that jazz and standards were my musical companions for the early years of my life, at the time I was hearing the "Spider-Man" theme, it was just one catchy tune starting with the lyrics "Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can...". By the way, I have to mention that the song was created by Paul Francis Webster and Bob Harris.
Little did I know that the theme was actually recorded right here in my city by members of The Billy Van Singers and Laurie Bower Singers, and I was especially surprised by that first group since Billy Van was a Canadian comedian who was also a part of my TV experience as a kid through his appearances as a featured player on the old "Sonny & Cher" variety show, the local game show "Party Game" and the kids' series "The Hilarious House of Frightenstein" where Van played a scion of Dracula. Maybe there was as much maple syrup flowing through Peter Parker's web shooters as there was web fluid!
It's a pity then to find out that the singers got paid for the recording session but never got any of the residuals, especially since that very theme has been used even in the latest movies with Tom Holland. When we caught "Spider-Man: Homecoming", the audience cheered the moment when Michael Giacchino provided an epic orchestral version during the introduction of the logo.
But even earlier in the "Spider-Man" franchise, there was an excerpt of Michael Bublé's even jazzier love letter remix to the theme in the ending credits of "Spider-Man 2" in 2004. Partnering with Junkie XL, the original song got fortified with warp engines, some amazing Big Band swing and Bublé's grand voice. My only regret is that it wasn't used in that final scene of the movie when Spider-Man got that kiss and approval from Mary Jane and flew out in joy while he was on his way to another rescue with police choppers accompanying him. Yup, I indeed bought the single!
March 12 2021: I received a tweet from Greg Oliver who has written a biography with Stacey Case on Billy Van. I would like to thank him for providing a clarification about what I've written above.
Cool article. It was quite common for arrangers like Billy Van and Laurie Bower to collect up friends to do jingles in that era. Billy Van, however, was NOT one of the voices on Spider-Man. His then-wife and sister-in-law tell the story in my book.
So, what was released in September 1967 in Japan when "Spider-Man" first made its way onto TV screens? Interestingly enough, the first entry here by the Queen of Kayo Kyoku is quite swingy (but in a 60s rock sense) in itself.
Received some sad news via commenter Sentimental Vika earlier this morning that singer Mieko Hirota（弘田三枝子）had passed away on July 21st at the age of 73 due to heart failure, although the announcement wasn't made until the 27th. I hadn't known until I read the comment and I haven't seen any news announcement footage via YouTube which is somewhat unusual when it comes to the death of a Japanese celebrity. I had only written up the most recent article with Hirota a little over a month ago regarding her 1967 song"Nagisa no Uwasa"（渚のうわさ）.
I'm not very knowledgeable about the discography of Hirota but usually when her name comes to mind, her 1969 hit"Ningyo no Ie"（人形の家）is the song that pops up. As well, my image of her has always been the one that appeared when that song first made its presence known...the long-tressed 22-year-old woman with that smoky air of mystery.
However, Hirota made her official debut as a fresh-faced teenybopper singer the better part of a decade prior back in 1961 with the Japanese-language cover of Helen Shapiro's"Don't Treat Me Like A Child" (by John Schroeder and Mike Hawker) when Hirota was only 14 years old. For that matter, according to its Wikipedia article, Shapiro herself was the same age when she recorded the original. The Japanese lyrics were provided by Kenji Sazanami（漣健児）and the title was "Kodomo janai no" (I'm Not A Child).
Like a lot of teenage singers in those days such as Yukari Ito（伊東ゆかり）, Hirota had that twin-branched discography in her early years: covers of overseas pop songs and homegrown fare created by Japanese songwriters. One of the former was her own cover of Connie Francis'"VACATION". For both Hirota and Shapiro, I've marveled at how incredible they sounded at 14 years of age. Perhaps the one Japanese pop singer that I can compare with them in terms of her boomer vocal stylings and debut is Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里）.
Hirota's first kayo single was released in June 1962, "Nebusoku nano" (I'm Sleepy), a giddy pop tune about not getting those 40 winks due to getting all hot and bothered over that boy she's fallen hard for. It's got quite the fun and jazzy beat, and Hirota gives some great brass in her vocals, although I'm not sure how local PTAs reacted on hearing those yawns on the record.😪 And it was the same duo behind the famous "Sukiyaki" song that was responsible for "Nebusoku nano", lyricist Hachidai Nakamura and composer Rokusuke Ei（中村八大・永六輔）.
I'll finish off here with Shapiro's"Don't Treat Me Like A Child". My condolences to Hirota's family on their loss. I am sure that there is a lot of her discography that I have to cover in the months and years to come.
It's Friday and I tend to put up a few City Pop tunes on Fridays but I just wanted to start off today's batch with something more wistful and appropriately seasonal.
And for that matter, I'm starting today with a song from quite a ways back. This would be "Nagisa no Uwasa" which directly translated as "Beach Rumours" but the official English title is "The End of Summer", and it was first sung by Mieko Hirota（弘田三枝子）.
This was Hirota's 18th single from July 1967 and that English title fits things here as the singer relates the story of a woman walking alone on a beach while wondering whatever became of her perhaps all-too-brief romance with that special someone. Of course, when it comes to an end-of-summer kayo, it's often about the end of relationships. The woman asks around the area to see if anyone has heard of anything regarding her lost beau so it's really quite melancholy despite the fairly upbeat melody.
The partnership between lyricist Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）and composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）were behind the creation of "Nagisa no Uwasa", and according to J-Wiki, it turned out to be the composer's first big hit of his career as the song was able to sell around 300,000 records. It also got Hirota her 5th of eight appearances on the Kohaku Utagassen.
"Nagisa no Uwasa" was covered by other singers a number of times, including Yuki Okazaki（岡崎友紀）via her June 1972 album"Album 4". There isn't all that much different in the basic arrangement but there is a bit more wistfulness in Okazaki's version compared to some of the brio that Hirota injected in the original song. I think with both versions there is a slight sense of "Where the Boys Are" by Connie Francis with a bit less drama.
I'm risking sounding like a K-Tel TV announcer but for some of us older folks, do you remember Lesley Gore's classic "It's My Party"? A couple of nights ago, I heard a Japanese cover of it on Van Paugam'sYouTube City Pop radio by actress/singer Mao Daichi（大地真央）, and it was pretty darn snazzy. It's just too bad that I can't find a version of it on its own on the platform.
Then there is Gore's song of defiance, "You Don't Own Me" from December 1963 which was created by David White and John Madara. It wasn't ever part of my collection or my father's collection of 45"s but somehow I have been able to hear it a number of times over the decades.
Of course, back in the early 1960s, kayo kyoku included cover versions of American and British pop songs sung by the teen aidoru of the day including Mieko Hirota（弘田三枝子）. And in 1964, Hirota recorded a Japanese language version of "You Don't Own Me" titled "Koi to Namida no Juu-Nana Sai"(Love and a Tearful 17) which seemed to have had a slightly more brassy and orchestral arrangement. You might say that it was perhaps more kayo-esque. However, Hirota's voice sounded quite similar to Gore's.
Several days ago, I got the usual Tower Records advertisement in my inbox touting a number of old albums which included an album by Kaori Tsuchiya（つちやかおり）. At first, I went "Who the heck is that?", and then I remembered that I actually had mentioned her in the blog. Specifically, the song was the technopop "Aishuu no Orient Express"（哀愁のオリエント急行）, her 2nd single from September 1982.
However, her debut single from June 1982 was another cover version of "Koi to Namida no Juu-Nana Sai" whose arrangement was closer to Gore's original although Tsuchiya's voice didn't have quite the heft that Gore's had. The Japanese lyrics for Tsuchiya's version were provided by Reiko Yukawa（湯川れい子）; for some reason, I couldn't find out who the lyricist was for the Hirota cover back in 1964. For that matter, I don't know how the song did on Oricon.
After writing the article for one of the more inspired choices for an anime ending theme, a cover of the late France Gall's"Le temps de la rentrée" for "Hisone to Masotan"（ひそねとまそたん）, a commenter remarked that there was another song by Gall that had also made some traction in Japanese pop culture back in the day.
On hearing "Poupée de cire, poupée de son" (Wax Doll, Rag Doll), originally released in 1965, I realized that I had heard this back in Japan a number of times through TV commercials. The Japanese really love their yé-yé tunes. Writer and composer Serge Gainsbourg created the song and there is a detailed analysis of it on Wikipedia. In fact, music journalist Sylvie Simmons through her book "Serge Gainsbourg: A Fistful of Gitanes" gave an interesting quotation here from Wiki:
(She) wrote that the song is about "the ironies and incongruities inherent in baby pop"—that "the songs young people turn to for help in their first attempts at discovering what life and love are about are sung by people too young and inexperienced themselves to be of much assistance, and condemned by their celebrity to be unlikely to soon find out."
I kinda wonder what Simmons would think of Japanese aidoru then. Moving on...
Perhaps within a smattering of months following the release of Gall's original, a Japanese cover was recorded in August of that year by Mieko Hirota（弘田三枝子）. The title in Japanese is "Yume Miru Chanson Ningyo"(Dreaming Chanson Doll) with lyrics by Tokiko Iwatani（岩谷時子）. There is quite a brassier edge to the arrangement.
An extensive list on the Japanese article for the song exists with all of the singers who have covered "Yume Miru Chanson Ningyo". This includes Eiko Matsumoto（松本英子）who did her version as a coupling song for her January 2003 single"Kotoshi no Fuyu"（今年の冬...This Winter）. Nice boogie-woogie arrangement.
Although her name is not on that list, I found Hitomi Ishikawa's（石川ひとみ）gentler and folkier cover particularly nice as well. Not sure when she recorded her version.
I don't know Mieko Hirota（弘田三枝子）all too well outside of her rare appearances on TV nowadays and her trademark song "Ningyo no Ie"（人形の家）, but I did encounter this ballad she released a number of years after that hit.
Titled "Cho no Ame" (Butterfly in the Rain), I saw a YouTube comment comparing it to an Italian canzone in terms of its passion and delivery. And I had also thought that Hirota had been providing a Japanese-language cover of a song originally performed in Italy or France. However, as it turned out, this was a Japanese creation all the way. Lyricist Rei Nakanishi（なかにし礼）and composer Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）were responsible for this ardent love song about the depths of a woman's love being compared to a butterfly withstanding all that rain.
Apparently, this April 1974 single didn't score too highly on Oricon which is a pity. However, being counter-intuitive here, perhaps in a way it is good for me since this has turned out to be a pleasant discovery that hasn't gotten too much exposure...kinda like my own little treasure. Makaino also arranged "Cho no Ame" which starts out softly with piano and Hirota's soft voice before things get more epic with her vocals soaring high and a boss brass section punching itself in.
I saw this performance not on this past week's "Kayo Concert" but the one the week before when the theme was on duets, so it was Yuuki Seguchi and Airi Suzuki（瀬口侑希・ 鈴木愛理）above (sorry, but that video has been taken down but here's Mieko Hirota's version) who performed this summery and sepia song titled "Suna ni Kieta Namida"（砂に消えた涙...Tears In The Sand）. I found out from the introduction that it was originally done by The Peanuts.
So it wasn't too difficult to find the YouTube video with The Peanuts' performance of "Suna ni Kieta Namida" from 1965. It is vintage Peanuts but what I found interesting about the song was the arrangement since it sounded like the type of tune that Eiichi Ohtaki（大瀧詠一）and Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）would perform a decade or so later. As I mentioned earlier, there is a laid back and summery vibe to the song that brings to mind those old "Beach Blanket Bingo" and "Gidget" movies that I used to see on Sunday afternoons. Strangely enough, I couldn't find the song as a single release but perhaps it was inserted into one of their albums.
In the same year that The Peanuts released the song, singer Yukari Ito（伊東ゆかり）gave her own version of "Suna ni Kieta Namida". I actually like this version even more than The Peanuts' take since it's even more relaxing. Ito's velvety voice also helps in that regard. Kenji Sazanami（漣健児）provided the Japanese lyrics, but as you can hear on this version, Ito sings part of the song in Italian.
The reason for this was that the song had first been sung by legendary Italian songstress Mina in 1964. "Un buco nella sabbia" was the title which meant "Hole In The Sand". The original songwriters were Alberto Testa and Piero Soffici.
Well, I did mention Mariya Takeuchi, didn't I? Just by happenstance, I discovered this old video of her and Kaguyahime's Kousetsu Minami（南こうせつ）doing their own sweet duet of the song. Not sure how long this will stay up, so savor the moment.
May 1st: in Canada, it's just a regular day (although the debut of "Avengers: Age of Ultron" today pretty much launched blockbuster season with warp drive). In Japan, it's the early days of Golden Week, one of the major holiday seasons of the year over there. A lot of folks are heading out on vacation on the various planes and trains for those precious few days of leisure, but I do wonder if everybody needs a second vacation after going through the hell of the crowds during exodus and return. As for me, I always enjoyed my relative stay-cation; never went outside of Tokyo or Chiba in all of my Golden Weeks. Plenty of things to do and plenty of friends to see in my area.
So, to start off my contribution to "Kayo Kyoku Plus" for May, I've gone with the appropriate "Vacation". And yep, for those old-time music fans, it is indeed the cover of the Connie Francis classic from 1962 (and not the Go-Gos tune from the 80s). In my household, I heard the Japanese version as often as I did the original, but was never quite sure who sang the cover. In any case, there was an audiotape that my parents' played that had one of those brassy young ladies from the 60s belting out the tune.
I found out that it was both Mieko Hirota（弘田三枝子）and Yukari Ito（伊東ゆかり）who released their own cover versions in the same year that the original had come out. Ito was the one that I had first associated with "Vacation" since I knew that she often did covers of the old American tunes throughout her career. However, Hirota is the one who probably had the most successful version since it sold about 200,000 records after its release in November 1962. For Hirota, it was her second cover song after her take on Helen Shapiro's"Don't Treat Me Like A Child" which seems to be her debut single from 1961.
Here is Ito's version above. I'm actually not quite that surprised if it is indeed the case that Hirota's version outsold Ito's cover. There's quite a bit more oomph in the former's take on the Francis classic. Incidentally, Francis along with Gary Weston and Hank Hunter created the song which would be the singer's final Top 10 hit, but the Japanese lyrics were handled by the late Kenji Sazanami（漣健児）which was a pen name for Shoichi Kusano（草野昌一）.
After hearing the Japanese version on audiotape all those years, my family was able to catch the performance on videotape after purchasing our first VCR machine in the early 80s. And often was the case on those myriad predecessors of "Kayo Concert" that there would be a rendition of "Vacation". Above is another former 60s teenybopper singer, Mie Nakao（中尾ミエ）, taking care of things with a whole bunch of friends. In fact, I also assumed that Nakao had also been the original Japanese singer of the song, but I don't think she ever released her version of it. It certainly seems that she has adopted it in her arsenal on TV, though.
Of course, I gotta leave you with original by Connie Francis herself. We're not quite in vacation mode here in Toronto, but the weather this weekend will more than make up for it...especially after a long hard winter.
