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 Misato Watanabe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Misato Watanabe. Show all posts
Once again, we have come to Hump Day and at least here in Toronto, it certainly feels and looks like a Hump Day meteorologically speaking. It's all gray, dreary and drizzly out there. So, let's try for something or someone very up with people and happiness. And I was thinking about Misato Watanabe. I hadn't written about her in quite a while and I realized while going through her KKP file, I had yet to provide my own favourite tunes by her.
Of course, I'm going to start with his one since this is the first song by her that I came to know her by. I think it's also safe to say that "My Revolution" is one of the pop songs of the 1980s in Japan. I will always remember the original music video where she showed herself basically as a human anime figure with that huge hair and just-as-huge eyes.
As I mentioned in the actual article for the song, I misunderstood the meaning of the song...initially assuming that this was some commemorative tune in Misato's career. It was really just about the protagonist's look back on her own decade as a working woman. Still, I'm sure that the singer herself has used the song for her own anniversaries. I don't know of too many tunes that are both elegiac and celebratory.
I think next to "My Revolution", "Summetime Blues" is the Misato tune that I'll always remember her for. It sounds both old-fashioned and contemporary at the same time, and obviously, it has her up-with-people pizzazz. And indeed, it was used as the campaign song for what is now the Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Company...gotta keep the insured healthy and happy through the gift of music.
As much as my favourites are along the pop vein, I know that Misato has had the vocals and movement style of a happy and hard rocker. "Koi Suru Punks" (Punks in Love) is one reflection of that from her 1990 "Tokyo" album. Nope, it was never put out as a single but I'm sticking with this one because it is so much fun to hear with ska and rock thrown into the cosmic blender like so much kale for a smoothie.
This is another non-single track...this time for the 1991 album "Lucky", and it's a perennial favourite to be played when the Holidays approach. It may be a domestic creation with Misato herself behind the lyrics, but whenever I listen to it, I just get those Phil Spector Wall of Sound thoughts from the 1960s. Merry Christmas, indeed.🎄
Any particular Misato favourites from your end? Let us know. Ah, one PS...she'll be celebrating her 60th birthday later in July.
Welcome to the regular Reminiscings of Youth article where I post about a song or an album from the West that caught my ears back in my adolescence or childhood. And one of the biggest and happiest purchases that I ever made was for Anita Baker's"Rapture", her second album from March 1986. Back in early 2021, I put up a ROY recognizing the Queen of Quiet Storm's big hit "Sweet Love" which launches "Rapture", and you can read about all the emotions I got from hearing that one for the first time on radio. Well, for this ROY, I've decided to also give some of the other great tracks their time in the KKP sun.
"Caught Up In the Rapture" isn't only the third track on "Rapture" but the third single to come out from the album. It did pretty well on the Billboard charts by coming in at No. 37 but also No. 6 on Billboard's Hot Black Singles chart. Back on my "If I Had an All-Night Radio Show..." article, I had placed "Sweet Love" as one of the songs to play on the first show; my second show would have automatically followed up with "Caught Up In the Rapture". It's a wonderful soul ballad.
"Same Ole Love (365 Days a Year)" is the fourth single that came out in February 1987 which also broke the Top 10 on the Hot Black Singles chart by placing in at No. 8 and doing more modestly on the Billboard general chart at No. 44. I've often written about how certain songs have reminded me of certain places, and for "Same Ole Love", I've reminisced about the Toronto Blue Jays' old base of operations, Exhibition Stadium, downtown before Skydome was constructed and opened in 1989. When I was there for one game at the old stadium, "Same Ole Love" just happened to be playing before the teams made their way out onto the field.
"You Bring Me Joy" wasn't released as a single. Instead, it is the second track following "Sweet Love" on the album which I have always thought somewhat strange because I feel that it should have been the final track on "Rapture". This gospel soul ballad is so explosively sung by Baker that it could have been one showstopper of an ending to a brilliant album especially when she and the chorus yell out "MY JOY!". I was at one party at the end where I was dancing with a lass to this one; that was quite the surge of energy to finish off things.
There are other tracks but I'll leave it here for now because there is especially one other track on "Rapture" that I'd like to feature solo. "Rapture" peaked at No. 11 on Billboard, won two Grammy awards and sold three million copies by October 1987. In Canada, it reached No. 25 on RPM.
So, what was hitting the Top 10 of Oricon just a few days before the release of "Rapture"? I give you Nos. 3, 4 and 5.
I'm not sure if this is the gastronomic trend in Japan for 2025, but through a couple of Japanese programs including yesterday's final episode of "Asaichi"（あさイチ）before going on summer hiatus, I found out that the drink known as a tea soda may be getting lots of love around the country. Through the other variety show, the tea soda (which is what the name says) originated in one area of Japan and has remained a local favourite but suddenly it's making its way around the country.
Now, at first impression, the thought of mixing cold Earl Grey tea and soda water doesn't exactly thrill me but then again, I have to remind myself, I once had the same reluctance with Calpis soda since I thoroughly enjoyed the original Calpis syrup mixed with plain cold water. I'm OK with it now although I will still prefer the unfizzy version. But once the heat over there comes back down to something more humane, those who are heading to Japan on vacation might want to see if a café is serving the stuff. I'd be game to try it out.
Seeing tea soda last night did have me thinking about another Author's Picks, and this time, it's revolving around tunes that have something to do with the basic drinks of coffee, tea and milk. It took a bit of doing, but I was able to track down six. Wherever you are, enjoy a cup or glass!🥛
In my collection, I have a number of Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里）singles and BEST compilations, but I've been a little neglectful when it comes to her now-long discography of albums, especially the early ones. So I've been missing out on some great non-single entries.
"Tsumetai Milk"(Cold Milk) is one and it's a track from her July 1989 5th studio album, "Flower Bed". Written by Watanabe, composed by Yasuyuki Okamura（岡村靖幸）and arranged by Nobuyuki Shimizu（清水信之）, one would think from the title that this was something that the Japanese Dairy Association had assigned the singer (and indeed, milk does a body good...unless you have lactose intolerance). However, although the glass of cold cow juice is something that the protagonist swigs down in the story provided in the lyrics, the tale is far more about a guy living the usual urban life in New York City but still remembering an old flame back in Japan.
The work by Okamura and Shimizu seems to start off with a tribute to the Doobie Brothers' 1976"Takin' It to the Streets" but as the song progresses, the feeling is that things are a bit more subdued as if the action begins in the early hours of a New York weekday when the guy wakes up and gets ready for another day of work in Manhattan. Things start rolling in the chorus with the feeling of hitting the subway or the streets filled with commuters, but even then, Watanabe herself is holding in her boomer voice relatively speaking in a kinda reverse lullaby way. But of course, you gotta have that bluesy sax solo for a Big Apple tune, and overall, "Tsumetai Milk" comes across as a 70s or 80s AOR track.
"Flower Bed" also has the mysterious "Moonlight Dance"（ムーンライト・ダンス）that you can give a listen to.
You might think that this is a rare Sunday edition of Reminiscings of Youth, but it isn't, although the above two songs are from my beloved 1980s. The first one is Kenny Loggins'"I'm Free (Heaven Helps the Man)" from the "Footloose" soundtrack. Meanwhile, the second one below that one is British supergroup Asia's"Don't Cry". I never really heard Loggins' "I'm Free" (though I'm still a fan of his earlier material such as the sublime "Heart to Heart") and I barely remember "Don't Cry" from the music video shows. To be frank, I know Loggins' title song "Footloose" and Asia's "Heat of the Moment" far better.
However, the two songs are linked through a Japanese source and her name happens to be Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里）. Folks can be forgiven for thinking that Watanabe first exploded onto the pop music scene with her iconic "My Revolution" but that 1986 hit was her 4th single. Her debut single had come out almost a year earlier and that 45" record included her cover versions of "I'm Free" and "Don't Cry". Yup, cover versions were our introduction to Watanabe in May 1985.
The A-side was "I'm Free" with Chinfa Kan（康珍化）coming up with the Japanese lyrics to accompany Loggins' original melody which is a bit more reserved here. For that matter, considering that Misato's voice has always struck me as being a boomer, her vocals also sounded a little more tied down so it'll be interesting to see hear whether they stayed reserved until that important 4th single.
The B-side which is "Don't Cry", under the Japanese title of "Tough na Kimochi de"（タフな気持で...Being Tough）, diverges even further from the Asia original since it feels downright poppy, especially with that tinkly keyboard. Natsumi Tadano（只野菜摘）provided the Japanese lyrics here. However, even more than "I'm Free", I can hear the potential of Watanabe's delivery in "Don't Cry". The single itself scored a No. 64 ranking on Oricon. Both songs were also used in the TBS drama "Super Police"（スーパーポリス）with the A-side being the opening theme. It's too bad though that I couldn't find the opening credits for that program. Both songs, by the way, were arranged by Satoshi Nakamura（中村哲）.
We're bringing back Kayo Grace Kyoku in the environs of a Japanese inn during winter. I've been hearing about the snow and ice that has been blanketing much of Japan. Temps over here in Toronto have been hovering around the freezing point this week with a mix of rain and snow.
It's been a while since I posted anything by the boomer-voiced Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里）so I was doing a search and I came across this coupling song to her February 1993 25th single"Itsuka Kitto" (いつかきっと). "Winter Melody" is somewhat more of the bittersweet tune compared to the A-side with Watanabe taking care of the lyrics while frequent collaborator Hiromasa Ijichi（伊秩弘将）, who has also worked with the 90s girl group SPEED, took care of this winter melody.
About a woman coming to grips with her new life following a romantic breakup, the intro sounds like something from the Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由実）handbook at that time. Watanabe's vocals once again take on the form of a reassuring shoulder to cry upon while the arrangement goes into a contemporary pop mode although I wouldn't place it as a City Pop song. Surprisingly, the music gets increasingly epic...perhaps to signify the woman's rise out of despair but I think the synth brass and strings get a little overwrought by the end. Images of the lady suddenly getting into the cockpit of an F-14 Tomcat and flying off to challenge Tom Cruise have come to mind. And I'm kinda left wondering what happened to the winter.
I'll never not marvel at the observation that Canada's Thanksgiving and Japan's Sports Day fall on the same day...the second Monday in October, considering one nation feasts while the other nation promotes strenuous physical activity. Regardless, I wish my fellow Canadians a Happy Thanksgiving. Our family had the regular get-together last night but since I'm the only person who likes turkey, it was sushi for dinner.
I figure that depending on the family and the logistics (or lack of them), there will be those who are having a pretty manic Monday getting ready to greet extended family after spending time, money and energy to create that traditional turkey dinner with all of the trimmings. So, as such on the usual special holiday edition of Reminiscings of Youth, I give you "Manic Monday" by The Bangles.
According to the Wikipedia article regarding the song, although it had originally been written and composed by Prince in 1984 as a duet between him and Apollonia 6, the deal with "Manic Monday" didn't quite make it, and a couple of years later, he offered it under the pseudonym Christopher to The Bangles. It was released as the band's single at the end of January 1986.
I remember first seeing the music video showing Susanna Hoffs singing while her fellow bandmates were making like regular folks trying to start off their Monday mornings. The lyrics and the music both come across as a relatable happy-go-lucky day-in-the-life pop tune about resignedly schlumping off to work while wishing that the weekend hadn't ended.
For both the American and Canadian charts, "Manic Monday" hit No. 2, and even in Japan, it managed to get as high as No. 56 on Oricon.
Interestingly enough, although I'd planned to consult the Oricon Top 10 for January 1986 for the comparative hits in Japan, I realized that I had already done so a couple of weeks ago for Sade's"Is It a Crime?" which was also released in that month. Therefore, let's go with the singles that were released back then.
Back on my wistful and whimsical imaginary Gosanke（御三家）series where I come up with my own trio of singers depending on my own times and experiences. Last week, my musings took me to the harmony-laden vocal groups of my past. Today though will be more about four (!) individual female singers that I remember fondly while I was on the JET Programme between 1989 and 1991. Now of course, I knew more than four female singers but these are the ones that hit my psyche the best during my time in Gunma Prefecture.
Now, I was just going to go with Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里）, Mariko Nagai（永井真理子）and Kahoru Kohiruimaki（小比類巻かほる）as would be the case for the typical trio of singers. But then, I recollect that I got to know Miki Imai（今井美樹）for the very first time while I was having tea in a stylish lodge-style café on the way home after a JET seminar, and I was absolutely smitten. So, you'll forgive me if I push the envelope a tad and extend beyond the usual Sannin Musume（三人娘）to Yonin Musume（四人娘）.
Of all the places, it was on local news channel CP24's news ticker where I found out that Kanagawa Prefecture resident Seiichi Sano（佐野誠一）had been certified by the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest active male surfer at the age of 89 (there's an article on "The Daily News"). Many congratulations to him and I hope that he does have many more years of hanging ten. Naturally, as the whimsiness within me is wont to do, I just had to start today with an Author's Picks regarding surf-related or at least surf-titled Japanese tunes since on seeing the news scroll by this morning, a number of them popped up in my head.
There has been of late some love for the pop culture zeitgeist of the 1980s. The hit show "Stranger Things" have brought back Kate Bush's"Running Up That Hill" to prominence after nearly 40 years, Kenny Loggins'"Footloose" got its day in the sun on "The Umbrella Academy", and there's that whole thing for Japanese City Pop since the late 2010s. And now I hear that one of my personal 1980s cultural touchstones may be making a comeback: Max Headroom! One of the streaming networks is thinking about rebooting the suave and stuttering AI for a TV show in the not-too-distant future (maybe 20 minutes later). I told this to my brother last weekend and on hearing that Matt Frewer will be returning as Max, he remarked on how carbon-dated he had to be.
When the smarmy Max Headroom first popped up on television screens whether it be through MTV or those Coke commercials, I actually thought (hoped) that he was actually the first sentient artificial intelligence since I was (and still am) a hopeless nerd. But as it turned out, he was actor Frewer in some elaborate makeup against greenscreen. Still, the character invented in the mid-1980s by George Stone, Annabel Jankel (whose brother is up here on the blog) and Rocky Morton was a hit because of the allure of all that cyberpunk and computer animation. Those brief appearances turned into a British TV sci-fi movie, a music video show hosted by VJ Max and then a 1987 American television series adaptation of the original British movie.
I remember catching that ABC series which I think lasted for a year. I ended up having an increasingly tenuous relationship with the show as the episodes crept along since I believe that the producers were perhaps a little overly focused on the techno-dystopian elements than they were in a long-standing and cogent story. Not even sure whether Max was all that compelling to anyone by the end which made me think that wrapping an entire series around a pop cultural phenomenon was a step too far.
Anyways, this special holiday edition of Reminiscings of Youth (it's a Civic Holiday here in much of the country) features this wholly appropriate collaboration between this bizarre 80s pop icon and the avant-garde synthpop of Art of Noise. Released as a single in April 1986, "Paranoimia" is all about Max's difficulty in getting to sleep due to various extreme worries (the title is a portmanteau of "paranoia" and "insomnia") while the usual AON bells and whistles are whirling around his ironically soothing tones.
"Paranoimia" hit No. 31 on Canada's RPM singles chart while in America, it got as high as No. 32 on Billboard's Top 100. I got my original version as a track on Art of Noise's album "In Visible Silence" which came out in the same month as the single. The above video features an extended mix.
So, how was the Oricon chart for April 1986 doing? Well, I've got No. 3, No. 5 and No. 6.
Once again, Happy Birthday to "Kayo Kyoku Plus" and thanks to all who have surrounded the blog for the past 10 years. As mentioned in my tribute article yesterday, I'm providing a couple of specials today beginning with this article under the Author's Picks banner. I had been wondering for some weeks about what I would do to commemorate January 30th. Would I provide a Jun Horie（堀江淳）song since his "Memory Glass" was the first subject that I tackled on the blog?
But I decided to nix that idea (no offense meant to Mr. Horie) and had the brainwave about putting up a list of singers who had singles in or about their 10th year of their careers. Those songs weren't necessarily released as a commemoration of reaching their first decade, mind you, at least not officially. So without further ado, have a gander below.
Although this last song wasn't actually a 10th anniversary song (although it was placed on her 10th anniversary album) for her, I thought it would be appropriate to finish things here.
It's been almost a couple of years since my last Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里）article and the message in this song is probably something that resonates within a whole lot of people especially over the last couple of years of this pandemic.
Watanabe's "Nude" is a track from her July 1993 8th album"Big Wave", and despite the title, there is nothing particularly naked about this song. Instead, her lyrics are prodding at the average woman in the work force about getting out and enjoying life...basically take that much-needed tropical vacation and if she's lucky, land that guy. Meanwhile, Takeshi Kobayashi's（小林武史）composition and arrangement (and I think that those are his hands on the keyboard) are all quite sunny and groovy with a hint of 1970s soul including some familiar strings and flute.
I certainly wouldn't mind that vacation myself but I'm holding for that sign that I can go back to Japan again someday, preferably in about a year. Anyways, "Big Wave" hit No. 1 on the chart and ended up as the 18th-ranked album of the year.
Time for another ROY article. Recently, it came to my attention that episodes of the original "Peter Gunn" gumshoe series were coming up onto YouTube including the pilot which indeed I did see. Yep, I now realized where a lot of those lone-wolf detective conventions originated from: the sardonic voiceover by the main character, the down-and-dirty jazz soundtrack and the surprisingly preferred setting of not-so-nice areas of town. And yet, Peter Gunn himself was not just urban but also urbane and sophisticated which apparently wasn't the usual description of movie or TV private eyes back in the day.
"Peter Gunn" had a short-but-sweet run on NBC and then ABC between 1958 and 1961, so the famous theme has been much better remembered than the actual series with Craig Stevens. And to reiterate, it wasn't the theme that begat the show but the show that begat the fame for the theme originally by the legendary composer and arranger Henry Mancini. That's how incredible the song has been.
It was one of the first songs that I had ever heard in my life thanks to that collection of standards which came with our old oak Victor stereo. And the version that I preferred (which was on that collection of standards) among the original takes of it wasn't the one with Duane Eddy or the one that played in the brief opening credits, but the one with John Williams (yep that John Williams) on the piano and the French horns trumpeting like mad elephants warning of danger. No matter which version, though, "Peter Gunn" was the song that you wanted accompanying you if you went outside on the town and were in that "I gotta a job to do!" mood. You'd invest in the trench coat, even.
"Peter Gunn" has probably popped up in a number of TV shows and movies over the decades to show just that sort of atmosphere for the characters. For example, there was "The Blues Brothers".
Then several years later, I was absolutely gobsmacked when avant-garde pop group Art of Noise (with the help of the aforementioned Duane Eddy and his guitar), whom I'd known for some of the most weirdly infectious songs that had ever come out of the 1980s such as "Beat Box", "Close to the Edit" and "Legs", actually tackled one of the coolest songs ever. I think that I saw the music video first before hearing the song on radio, and that video was glorious with the late Rik Mayall as it took some affectionate pokes at the genre that the original series was representing.
Art of Noise's"Peter Gunn" was unmistakably Art of Noise and unmistakably "Peter Gunn". It was a musical synthesis made in heaven for me and became a must-hear whenever it got onto radio and even now, whenever I need a boost in my energy levels, I go to YouTube to listen to it among other cool tunes. Not surprisingly, it won Best Rock (!) Instrumental Performance (Orchestra, Group Or Soloist) at the Grammys in that same year.
I regret not ever buying the remix LPs back in the day but I finally got my copy of AON's"In Visible Silence" which had originally come out on April 14 1986 with both this song and "Legs".
So now that I've gushed forth my love for Art of Noise's"Peter Gunn", what were some of the top-sellers on Oricon in the month that "In Visible Silence" came out? Well, I got Nos. 3, 5 and 6 for you.
Well, it's amazing how a music video can change a viewer's perception on what a song really means.
Here I was looking at the concert version down below of Misato Watanabe's（渡辺美里）9th single"Kanashii ne"(Sad, Isn't It?) from December 1987. As I was listening to this song that I hadn't heard all that much and taking a look at the lyrics by Watanabe herself, I was assuming that this was another ballad about how parting is such sweet sorrow for a romantic couple.
Well, the above official music video for the pretty and melancholy "Kanashii ne" (if you just want to get to the song, go forward to around the 2:07 mark) paints the story in a different light. As things begin with a poor pencil getting kicked down to the ground and then rescued by college student Misato, I realized that the song could be used as a message about things that used to get a lot of love eventually being abandoned to the cruel elements, and by the last half, there's even a rather stark image of mass pollution. The images and song even had me remembering one of the plots in the "Toy Story" franchise.
"Kanashii ne" was composed by Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）and it peaked at No. 2 on Oricon. Incidentally, the song was also part of Watanabe's 4th album"ribbon" released in May 1988 which hit No. 1 and ended up as the 3rd-ranked album for that year.
I've currently got a television right behind me that started its life when Ronald Reagan was still President of the United States. It died quietly one day a few weeks ago. It lived a good life but after watching the music video, I'm kinda wondering what to do with it now, outside of kicking it to that part of the parking lot for larger electronics garbage.
As a formerly little kid with a baby brother, one of the rituals that we had was visiting various family friends in the city. It would be a few hours of the parentals talking with the other grown-ups while we children played down in the basement. Of course, when our father came on down, we would all sigh with some melancholy since we knew that he would say that it was time to go home. It took a bit of doing but he got us out of there.
I remember being in the back seat in the car when we drove home. No matter the season, there was always the AM radio being played and one of the songs that I often heard on Toronto stations such as CKEY (which is now the Chinese-language radio station CHKT) was:
Roberta Flack's classic "Killing Me Softly With His Song" was often the radio-driven lullaby that placed me into that twilight zone between awake and asleep. I mean, imagine listening to this at night while the car was driving down the Don Valley Parkway with the highway lights flashing by at regular intervals. At the time, I couldn't quite figure out why music was trying to murder Roberta (I thought she was a perfectly decent person) but it was a soothing ballad all the same.
Well, I got the reminder of my childhood a few nights ago when I discovered this cover version by Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里）. I'd been trying to find a song by her to talk about since it had been several months since my last article on the wide-eyed songstress with the boomer voice. Happily enough, I came across this bossa nova version by Watanabe which was released under the Japanese title of "Yasashiku Utatte"（やさしく歌って）as her 40th single in February 2002. The arranger made the bossa nova part quite clear with some hints of the bossa nova ballad "The Girl From Ipanema" infused into the song.
Although I think going into the latter half of Watanabe's "Killing Me Softly", things get a little too over-produced by my estimation, she does a nice job singing the ballad in the original English. The single peaked at No. 63 on Oricon. It was also placed on the singer's first album of covers, "Cafe mocha ~ Uta no Ki ~"（うたの木...Tree of Song） which came out a month after the single. That album went as high as No. 27.
"Killing Me Softly With His Song" has apparently been covered by a number of Japanese singers over the decades including Kiyohiko Ozaki（尾崎紀世彦）and Minako Honda（本田美奈子）. However, a couple of other folks that I would love to hear give their take on what is arguably Flack's most famous song would be EPO (who is Watanabe's senpai) and Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）.
Before the summer does peter out next week, I need to get some of those seasonal tunes out of the way. I was rather surprised that I hadn't covered another summery Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里）tune. The last one that I did that was dedicated to her was all the way back in January.
And this one is another inspirational one called "BELIEVE" which was Misato's 7th single from October 1986. When I think of her early songs from the 1980s, I always come up with sweet, innocent and spunky, and "BELIEVE" has all that. Not surprisingly, this was another collaboration between the singer (lyrics) and Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）on music.
As well, with her songs, I always think that there is some heartwarming and spirit-renewing story behind the words and music. It usually involves high school kids going up against all odds (underconfidence, stodgy teachers, student rivals, etc.) to get that prize at the cultural festival or the sports meet. The TV producers must have felt that way since "BELIEVE" was used as the theme song for the TBS drama "Tsuukai! OL Dori"（痛快!OL通り...Thrilling! Office Lady Avenue）, although the setting is in an apparel company.
"BELIEVE" peaked at No. 2 and was a track on Watanabe's 4th album"ribbon" from May 1988. The album hit the top spot on the charts and was the 3rd-ranked album of the year.
Yes, I could use with a good vat of sangria over the next number of days since the forecast for my city is Humidex figures in the 40s. Summer is definitely not over with us yet...not by a long shot. And summer is not done with this article, Part 2 of my own favourite summer tunes coming over from Part 1 earlier this afternoon. Without further ado:
I didn't mention this in the original article that I wrote for Jun'ichi Inagaki's dreamy "Natsu no Claxon"（夏のクラクション）but I think I may have heard and seen this through a concert video that was put on Fuji-TV in the early morning winter hours as I was shivering in my futon in Gunma. Oh, the irony. But then again, either Fuji-TV had a very sardonic sense of humour or the network was trying to get us folks thinking of summer thoughts to get us through the bitter snowy season. In any case, I think "Natsu no Claxon" is one of the summer J-AOR classics, and compared with the early summer vibe of "Summer Connection" by Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）who I also listed in Part 1, I like to think of Inagaki's signature song as something more mindful of the last few weeks of summer...namely now.
Ugh! Trying to think of an absolute favourite summer song by Yamashita would be like a parent choosing which one of his/her kids is his/her favourite...in front of all of the kids. I just can't do it and any one I choose will probably get some push back from the Tats fans, so let me just phrase things diplomatically and say that "Loveland, Island" is the representative of the vast number of beloved hot season tunes by the singer-songwriter. And I gotta say, I really love the song. I mean, I'm not too big on traveling but listening to "Loveland, Island" could make even me want to head off to tropical climes. Viva Tatsuro!
When the 2020 Olympics finally hit the big stage in less than 2 years, I hope that NHK will pick a theme song for its coverage that at least matches the epic heights of Maki Ohguro's fiery "Atsukunare"（熱くなれ）which was used for the network's broadcast of the 1996 Games in Atlanta. Living in Ichikawa at that point, I did watch my fair share of the events but I have to confess that the big thing I wanted to watch at the end of each highlight show on NHK was the above video showing the agony and ecstasy of competition while "Atsukunare" was playing. Got the heart pumping, it did.
The above is the extended version but even the single version has been a very pleasurable melodic trip through Brazil. I was wondering in the few weeks before I finally bought this collaboration between music producer Mondo Grosso and the wonderful Bird who created this fun number although I was able to peg the singer in an instant. It's one of the relatively few songs that could instantly make me bop about in my chair...not an easy thing to do when I'm typing, but that's how much I love "Life".
TUBE was definitely not going to be left out of this list by any stretch of the imagination. If there is any Japanese band that could be known as the permanent resident of the beach, it would be Nobuteru Maeda（前田亘輝）and the guys. And again, tons and tons of summer fun have been provided by the band over the years, but if I have to pick something, I will always go with their first bona fide hit, "Season in the Sun". I'm just surprised that it wasn't used by any of the TV networks as a theme song for one of their dramas.
My next two favourites for the summer were picked because I first heard them over my cherished radio program "Sounds of Japan" during the summer itself. 70s aidoru Yamaguchi's"Yume Saki Annainin"（夢先案内人）may have been released in Spring 1977, but everything about it says summer to me. The song could apply to walking through the streets of Tokyo or the beaches of Shonan at that time but the weather is always blisteringly sunny and hot. It may be rather uncomfortable out there in a typical Japanese summer but Momoe makes it darn inviting.
"Mizuiro no Ame"（みずいろの雨）is another tune that I picked up on "Sounds of Japan" back in 1982, and along with the dulcet tones of Mariko Takahashi（高橋真梨子）, Junko Yagami was another wonderful voice who made me realize that there were some truly amazing singers in Japan. Years before I even knew of the Japanese genres of New Music and City Pop, Yagami was already charming me with her brand of cool urban contemporary material with a Latin twist. I know that a lot of folks are going ga-ga over "Tasogare no Bay City"（黄昏のBAY CITY）on YouTube, and I love it too, but I will still have a special place in my kayo kyoku heart for "Mizuiro no Ame".
I will finish my tunes here with "Summertime Blues" which is not only a great Misato favourite but also one of my musical touchstones of my time in Gunma Prefecture. Perhaps even more than her most iconic "My Revolution", this particular single reflects Watanabe's big and bright presence on stage. I think everything about it brings back the memories of summer in Japan without the annoying heat and humidity...although I will accept the sounds of cicadas.
Well, that is my list and there are quite a number of songs this time around but as I hinted in the first article, it's awfully hard to pare these down. Perhaps some of you collaborators and commenters have your own favourite summertime tunes. If so, let all of us know!
Nope, sorry, couldn't find any photos with big waves among my 2014 Japan shots. But then again, I didn't think that the shores of Kanagawa really had anything to rival the monsters in Hawaii.
The preamble above was to introduce another tune from the Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里）file. This time, it's "Big Wave Yattekita" (The Big Wave Has Come),her 26th single from July 1993 that has that hint of a surf rock song thanks to Yasuyuki Okamura's（岡村靖幸）melody and Takeshi Kobayashi's（小林武史）arrangement. Watanabe wrote the words to this cheer-up song that says when love has got you down, there's nothing like hauling the surfboard and hitting the waves to get back on top.
"Big Wave Yattekita" crashed into the Top 10 by peaking at No. 7 and it was also the title track for Watanabe's 8th album"Big Wave" which also came out in the same month. It hit the top spot on Oricon and was the 18th-ranked album of 1993. However, outside of her very early 90s discography, my interest in the big-voiced singer started to wane around here. She was still making some nice tunes but they weren't quite on the same level as her output back in the late 1980s.
Happy Weekend to you all! It's been a long time since I put up a Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里）song and as much as she loves you, we all love her so it is indeed time to rectify that situation.
My impression of Watanabe as she entered her 2nd decade of show business is that she was starting to get mellower. She still possessed that boomer voice from her beginnings in the mid-1980s but I think she was no longer bouncing off the walls like that eternal teen with the huge anime eyes as she entered the mid-1990s..
Her 31st single was "My Love, Your Love" with the Japanese subtitle of "Tatta Hitorishika Inai Anata e"（たったひとりしかいない あなたへ...To You, The Only One）from June 1996. Now if my memory serves me correctly, the song had been used as a campaign song for the Atlanta Olympics in the summer of that year for one of the commercial networks. Maki Ohguro's（大黒摩季）"Atsukunare"（熱くなれ）was the pop/rock barnburner for NHK, while Anri's（杏里）"Ano Natsu ni Modoritai"（あの夏に戻りたい）was the relaxing and tropical entry for TV Asahi's contribution to the Games. "My Love, Your Love" then was more of the pub-friendly singalong for those folks who may have wanted to watch the Olympics on the bar TV with buddies.
The song got as high as No. 13 on Oricon. It made its debut on an original album via Misato's 10th release"Spirits" which was released in July 1996. That album peaked at No. 5 and ended up as the 93rd-ranked album of the year. It's also included on her 15th-anniversary BEST album"Sweet 15th Diamond" from July 2000. And no, it's not on "She Loves You" which was her 10th anniversary album since it was too early.
Until I saw last night's "Uta Kon" (うたコン), I had completely forgotten that this was the graduation season in Japan. After all, in a few days, it will be the beginning of a new fiscal year including a new school one. So, there are plenty of cherry blossoms to scatter, tons of tears to be shed, and lots of uniform buttons to be given by the guys to the girls.
Basically, this Author's Pick isn't really a list of revelatory favourites but more of a summary of some of the graduation-themed songs that I've already written about in the blog and have known for decades. At least two of them were played and sung by the teachers for the graduating senior year students in my junior high school on the JET Programme with the tear ducts flowing like crazy.
My fellow teacher on JET who lived in the next village once remarked that he wanted to smash this song into smithereens (he's more of a rock guy anyways) after hearing it so often during graduation season. Well, to each his own. But I still like Hi-Fi Set's old-style version.
Along with "Omoide ga Ippai" above, this was the other song that had my students' waterworks starting up. And who better to send the grads off to a new chapter in their lives than the ultimate TV teacher of Japan himself?
I don't know Saito's "Sotsugyo" as well as the others on the list but I have to say that having young Saito sing it brought that feeling of sweet innocence to the proceedings of leaving school.
This may be a graduation song but I keep getting the expression "insurance company" popping in my brain whenever I heard this one. Mind you, it was used as the campaign song for Meiji Insurance, and there's nothing like a life-changing event to think of life insurance.
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