Gary Portnoy -- Where Everybody Knows Your Name (Theme from "Cheers")

 

There was a place that I used to call my home away from home and that was the International Student Centre at the University of Toronto. I started there as a volunteer to help out with the welcoming of foreign students in the fall and ended up as the main receptionist there for a few years. In between those two positions, I was the usual Tuesday night guy behind the front desk where I took care of things after the main staff had gone home. There were the usual clubs (such as the Society of Creative Anachronism) that booked rooms in the ISC so I got to know them well, and even better, some of my friends from the Japanese-Canadian Students' Association dropped by to hang out by the desk. Even when I did lock up, we sometimes went out for a late dinner in Chinatown 10 minutes' walk away. Good times!

I appreciated being part of a social hub like that, but perhaps the seed for that idea came years previously with an NBC sitcom called "Cheers" that had a run of more than a decade starting from September 1982. I remember the original commercial for the series; it just had one amiable fellow who looked like he was about to hit a classy downtown bar on a dark stage simply describing this upcoming situation comedy called "Cheers" which promised to be something a little out of the ordinary.

And it turned out to be so. "Cheers" was about the humourous goings-on within a Boston bar run by former Bosox pitcher Sam "Mayday" Malone. For the first several years, everything basically took place within the comfortable old-style trappings of Cheers the bar among the regular customers who came in for a pint or ten. The above video shows the very first scene from the very first episode, and I still had to catch myself laughing.

One absolutely faithful barfly at Cheers was the lovable Norm Petersen played by George Wendt. He would always burst through the door and then everyone in the bar would yell "NORM!!" in greetings before a brief snarky exchange. It was sad to hear of Wendt's passing yesterday at 76. He's been in other projects although I believe that he preferred performing on the stage, but I will always remember him as ever-imbibing Norm.

Yup, this is an atypical Reminiscings of Youth although we'll have the regularly scheduled one tomorrow but since I enjoyed "Cheers" in the early years especially when Shelley Long and Nicholas Colasanto were part of the cast, I wanted to pay tribute to Wendt. Plus, since hearing about his death, the theme song has been playing in my head frequently.

As you know, I have lavishly included TV theme songs from my childhood and youth within the ROY series, and I think this one for "Cheers" is up there with the best. Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart-Angelo were the ones behind "Where Everybody Knows Your Name" with the former singing the song. Anchored by a piano that sounds as if it belongs to a bar like Cheers, Portnoy gives this truly sympathetic delivery and the equivalent of an arm around the shoulder as if helping a buddy in the blues and inviting him for a round on him at their beloved drinking establishment where the rest of the guys are waiting.

A full version of the song was released by Portnoy in early 1983. Of course, my condolences go to Wendt's family, friends and many fans. NORM!! So, at around the time that "Cheers" came out, what was up at the top of Oricon? I have the Top 3 from September 27th 1982.

1. Aming -- Matsu wa (待つわ）

2. Hiromi Go -- Aishuu no Casablanca （哀愁のカサブランカ）

3. Mio Takagi -- Dance wa Umaku Odorenai （ダンスはうまく踊れない）

Thompson Twins -- Lies

 

Welcome back to the weekly Reminiscings of Youth article. It was quite the time for me in terms of music back then. I got so much into Japanese music and also Western music with music videos, British New Wave and American R&B along with many other genres. To be honest, it was a wonder that I didn't end up draining my embryonic bank account but somehow I was able to keep on an even keel. Well, probably the guards who were my parents assisted in that.

The killer combination for me was New Wave/synthpop and music videos. I mean, there were folks like Thomas Dolby, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and Gary Numan, and for that matter, The Plastics in Japan and Spoons here in Canada. Music video was the wild frontier back then and it seemed like the New Wave guys were having a lot of creative fun with this particular canvas.

Another example was the British group Thompson Twins. Wikipedia has labeled them a pop group that first formed in 1977. They were initially seen as a New Wave band but then morphed into a more conventional pop unit in later years. Still, I think their October 1982 hit "Lies" is very much New Wave. Though I enjoy the song on its own merits, it was the music video that first hooked me. It just seemed to warn me that this is what would happen if a patient got a little too much anesthetic before surgery.

It wasn't the lies that got me...it was the syn-drums, the eerie synths and the loopy synth-bass that did. Yup, all that synthpop in one song, and it was a darn catchy melody by band members Tom Bailey, Alannah Currie and Joe Leeway. I'm just surprised that "Lies" only got as high as No. 67 on the UK chart and then No. 30 on the Billboard Singles chart in America. However, also according to the Wikipedia article on the song, it did hit No. 1 for a couple of weeks on the American dance chart early in 1983.

Normally, I would be putting up the Top Three Oricon singles for October 1982, but they've already been spoken for, thanks to another earlier ROY article for DeBarge's "All This Love" which came out that same month. Therefore, I'm going to go with Nos. 5, 6 and 7 instead.

5. Mio Takagi -- Dance wa Umaku Odorenai （ダンスはうまく踊れない）

6. Akina Nakamori -- Shojo A （少女Ａ）

7. Kenji Sawada -- Rokubanme no Yu-u-u-tsu （６番目のユ・ウ・ウ・ツ）

Mio Takagi -- MIO - SUN

Maybe another trend that I've been able to pick up on Showa Era Japanese popular music is that around the late 1970s and early 1980s, some musicians may have been inspired by The Eagles' "Desperado" or even Michael Johnson's "Bluer Than Blue" and concocted these epic ballads with shimmering strings and a hint of Country-Western.

I think the thought hit me when I discovered this 1981 song by actress-singer Mio Takagi（高樹澪）, "MIO - SUN" via her debut single, "Koi no Onna no Story"（恋の女のストーリー...The Story of a Woman in Love）. With instruments sounding somewhat like howling coyotes (and yes, the strings are in there), Takagi enters into this down-home ballad that reminds me of that lonesome cowboy coming home after a long day in the field, ready to kick off his boots and kick back with a beer. "MIO - SUN" was written and composed by Keisuke Kuwata（桑田佳祐）from Southern All Stars. I like the chorus here and there is a lovely ending with those strings and the guitar.

As for some of those other epic ballads, I refer you to Saburo Tokito's（時任三郎）"Kawa no Nagare wo Daite Nemuritai" (川の流れを抱いて眠りたい）and Ruiko Kurahashi's（倉橋ルイ子）"Never Fall In Love".

Mio Takagi -- Heart ~ Futte mo Harete mo（ハート〜降っても晴れても〜）

My shoulders are taking on a more granite-like texture thanks to several hours of translating today. Yes, I realize that it is the weekend and the due date isn't until Tuesday but I'm never too crazy about leaving something half-done. I simply get a little jittery when that happens. This probably explains why I've been doing "Kayo Kyoku Plus" for so long on nearly a daily basis. Anyways, it's done and I can now enjoy my Saturday...at least until my English lesson tonight.

Mio Takagi（高樹澪）is an actress and singer but I've only known her for just her version of the sultry song "Dance wa Umaku Odorenai"（ダンスはうまく踊れない）. Well, I did find another single of hers recently. This would be her 6th single "Heart ~ Futte mo Hareto mo" (Come Rain Or Shine) from October 1983.

It's a nice and light synth-based ditty that was written and created by Yoshihiro Kai（甲斐祥弘）of the Kai Band（甲斐バンド）as the theme song for the NTV comedy-drama "Minna ga Daisuki!"（みんな大好き!...I Adore Everyone!）. The slightly doo-wop beat reminds me of Billy Joel's "The Longest Time" from his 1983 album "An Innocent Man", a release whose tracks I've listened to over and over again on the radio until I finally got the CD years later. It is pretty cheerful which goes in keeping with the program's premise of a fellow from the countryside coming into Tokyo for a round of unplanned hijinks while trying to keep his upbeat attitude. The song still manages to retain a bit of sultriness thanks to Takagi's delivery.

Seri Ishikawa/Mio Takagi/Yosui Inoue/Akina Nakamori -- Dance wa Umaku Odorenai （ダンスはうまく踊れない）

"Dance wa Umaku Odorenai"(I Can't Dance Well) is a cool song. Written and composed by Yosui Inoue（井上揚水）, it's been covered by a number of singers over the decades, including once by Yosui himself. Despite the title, the music does the amazing thing of portraying a bit of a challenging tango: mostly sweeping across the dance floor but then suddenly and briefly, a burst of quick stepping. Yosui had originally created this song for his then-girlfriend (and current wife), Seri Ishikawa（石川セリ）, as a present early in their relationship (you sly devil, Yosui, you). It was released in April 1977 as her 6th single and became a minor hit for the singer. It was also a track on her 3rd album, "Kimagure"（気まぐれ...A Whim), released in June of the same year.

The version that I've known the longest though is the one that was released in July 1982 by singer/actress Mio Takagi（高木澪）. Takagi's version, her 3rd single, is a bit more ethereal than the folksier original by Ishikawa. I first heard it on "Sounds of Japan", and since then it's popped up on a number of compilation albums for Showa-era pop songs. Apparently, Ishikawa was none too pleased that her present had been given to someone else.... I guess to her it was the musical version of "re-gifting". Still, the song was able to eclipse Ishikawa's original by selling 800,000 records although the entamedata.web site only gives a more modest figure of 300,000 which means that it could've scored even higher than the 35th-place ranking it got in the annual Oricon charts.

As I mentioned above, Inoue also did his own cover of "Dance wa Umaku Odorenai" a couple of years later for his December 1984 album of covers, "9.5 Carat". His version is a bit more City Pop with some electronic bells and whistles, although the violin near the end gives it a somewhat more otherworldly quality, for a lack of a better expression.

I have to say, though, that Akina Nakamori's (中森明菜）take on the song is probably the most appealing version....to me, at least. Her cover was on her first album of covers, "Utahime"（歌姫...Diva) released in March 1994. Her light but resonant delivery, and frankly that aura that has surrounded her since she came back from her suicide attempt, just seems to fit this song to a T. Perhaps not only because of the arrangement.... it's also because of Inoue's lyrics which talk about someone who would love to have a dance with someone.... with all of the beauty and glamour involved...but just has to stumble along in the meantime by herself (probably only in her self-deprecating opinion.... I think the protagonist dances quite well). There is that sense of vulnerability and loneliness that rather runs through the whole song that may also describe Akina herself. But that's about as much pop psychology as I try for today. It is a lovely version of a decades-old pop song, though.