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.
I only had that one two-night stay in Sapporo way back when and that was back in the late spring. If I have a chance to visit the city again, I wouldn't mind doing so during the winter. Even better, I'd like to check out the Snow Festival with its huge ice statues. However, I have to point out that the above photo is of the main entertainment quarter there, Susukino. I did walk along its main street when I visited.
Susukino in the dead of winter is what I think of when I listen to "Blue Night in Sapporo" by Miyoko Tashiro（田代美代子）from 1969. Written and composed by Domei Suzuki（鈴木道明）, it's very much a love-done-me-wrong Mood Kayo thanks to Tashiro's mournful vocals, the just-as-melancholy backing chorus, the sad and shuffling rhythm and of course, the title itself (and don't forget the crying sax). It's probably not the greatest feeling plodding through sub-zero cold after a romantic breakup.
Crazily enough, I discovered that Shinichiro Hakozaki（箱崎晋一朗）would sing this very song a decade later in 1979!
Welcome to the weekly Reminiscings of Youth (or toddlerhood as it is here) where I will once again dive deeply into the vaults of TV theme songs this time. This week is the 1965 "Green Acres" which had premiered about a month before I arrived on Earth. I wasn't a precocious kid at all (more undercooked, actually) but my impression of the show when I was a baby was that it was about an odd old couple who bought a terrible farm and the husband was pretty much angry all the time at the locals. In the years since, I have been surprised lawyer-turned-farmer Oliver Douglas didn't end up needing his own lawyer because he could have easily murdered the entire populace of Hooterville from frustration.
In my early years of TV viewing from the late 1960s, America's CBS was famous for having a lot of rural-based sitcoms such as "Green Acres", "Petticoat Junction", "The Andy Griffith Show" and "The Beverly Hillbillies" (yes, I know that for that last one, the setting was the titular Beverly Hills in Los Angeles, but the main characters were still down-home folks). Viewers must have wondered whether CBS stood for Cornpone Broadcasting System instead of Columbia Broadcasting System. However, when the 1970s arrived, the powers-that-be decided to go on a rural purge and all of the above sitcoms were cancelled with the focus being on more city-based and socially aware fare such as "All in the Family" and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show".
But getting back to "Green Acres", I still remember the opening credits and the theme song by Vic Mizzy. My mother used to tell me (and perhaps everyone within earshot) that I used to bounce on my diapers whenever "Mission: Impossible" came on (that was actually a CBS action drama...nothing countrified there) with its legendary theme song, so there was no way that I wasn't going to do the same with the theme from "Green Acres". At the time, I couldn't quite get the lyrics that main actors Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor sang, but I did get a kick out of the catchy arrangement and got a laugh out of Eddie tossing the pitchfork and then clapping his chest with a straight face. It would also be a while before I realized the irony of Eddie's Oliver driving a dirty tractor while wearing a full business suit.
So, in comparison, let's see what songs were winning the Japan Record Awards back in 1965.
It's always nice when contemporary pop culture brings back a tune or an entire genre from the past to the revelation and delight of a new generation. That was true for jump jive and swing back in the 1990s and of course, we had that "Plastic Love" thing in 2018. And then, several years ago, an episode of "Family Guy" introducing a new character, Lieutenant Commander Dan Quagmire, brought back an old classic to accompany the naval officer's fabulous moves down the stairs.
The thing is that for Japanese music show viewers, this same song had been used as the theme for TBS' often raucous (after all, it had the notorious Takaaki Ishibashi as a co-host) "Utaban"（うたばん）.
For this week's Reminiscings of Youth, I give you Nancy Sinatra's"These Boots Are Made For Walkin'". Mind you, I was only a couple of months old when this song about kissing off a potentially former boyfriend was released in December 1965 so I very much doubt that I would have remembered hearing this when it came out. However, over the years, it did pop up on a number of variety shows and music programs on the major American networks since Sinatra's voice and that melody have instantly activated my memory engrams whenever I hear them. According to the Wikipedia entry for "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'", songwriter Lee Hazlewood came up with the title after hearing a line ("They tell me them boots ain't built for walkin'.") by The Chairman of the Board himself in the comedy-western "4 For Texas" back in 1963. Yes, I'm talking about Hollywood legend Frank Sinatra, Nancy's father.
For a threatening kiss-off song, "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'" is pretty darn sultry and sexy as if Nancy were showing both the carrot and the stick at the same time. Wrong me, I'll mash you into paste, do me right, I'll give you all my lovin'.
The song was a hit worldwide, reaching No. 1 in a number of nations including America, Denmark, Ireland and Argentina. In Canada, it hit No. 2. But even before all of the covers and its usage in "Family Guy" and "Utaban", I knew "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" was also notable for the fact that it had a promotional video which could be acknowledged as one of the first examples of a music video, and this news I got from "The All-Night Show", that local overnight show on the Toronto multicultural channel which was basically the video version of Japan's "Village Vanguard" curio shop.
For this ROY, let's go with what won some of the hardware at the 7th Japan Record Awards for 1965.
Yep, that's the one. This is one of the first albums, Japanese or non-Japanese, that I ever got to hear as a little tyke playing around on the carpet. In fact, I played it last night on my TEAC for the first time in ages; the bass tones have gotten muffled but Herb Alpert's distinctive trumpet is very much intact. And for the first time in ROY history, I'll be talking about an album rather than a single although I will keep things to just a few tracks.
Trumpeter Herb Alpert and the Tiujana Brass has already gotten representation on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" in the Reminiscings of Youth category for their provision of the catchy theme for the first "Casino Royale" movie in 1967. Even when I was watching the movie for the first time and heard the theme, I quickly figured that it had to have been Alpert with that puffy and breathy style of his.
Alpert and the Brass'"Going Places" was their 5th album released in September 1965, just a month or so before I arrived in the world. Listening to the album again last night naturally brought back a whole wave of nostalgia. The first track is "Tijuana Taxi" which is a good song to get acquainted with the guys. Knowing my brother and myself back then, I figured that we were giggling all the time to that bicycle horn blasting away.
The other really recognizable track is "Spanish Flea" which is a playful tune that has a close connection to that "Casino Royale" theme. Probably out of all of the tracks, it's the most famous one in pop culture since it was used as background music for the American game show "The Dating Game" and humourously utilized as the go-to song whenever a TV station had technical difficulties.
"Going Places" is also known as the Alpert album of cover songs and one of them is "Walk, Don't Run" that had originally been a 1954 composition by jazz guitarist Johnny Smith and then covered by The Ventures in 1960. I got really hung up on this song for a while not knowing that it was a cover version. Of course, being that young at the time, my musical vocabulary and comprehension were minimal to say the least so I hadn't realized that the Tijuana Brass wasn't just solely doing the mariachi thing; they were also rocking hard, like with this particular track, and jazzing it up, too.
My final track is "And the Angels Sing" which was originally recorded by Benny Goodman in 1939 as a jazz tune. This was also another favourite of mine for its breezy and easy listening style. Alpert and everyone on the band sounded like they were having a grand old time with this one.
It was fun for me going down memory lane with "Going Places", and apparently so did many people when the album first came out. It stayed at No. 1 on US Billboard for six weeks straight. To finish things off here, I came across some poignancy when I was reading up on Alpert's biography and perhaps this quote could help those who are just starting out in anything and have gotten discouraged. I found it on Wikipedia but the original source is the April 2017 issue of "Off Beat".
All artists should be looking for their own voices. I went through a period of trying to sound like Harry James and Louis Armstrong and Miles [Davis]. And then when Clifford Brown came along, it was almost discouraging. The guy was so good! But I kept at it. I loved playing. And then when I heard Les Paul multitrack his guitar on recordings, I tried that with the trumpet. Boom—that sound came out. After I released ‘The Lonely Bull,’ the record that started A&M in 1962, a lady in Germany wrote a letter to me. She said, ‘Thank you, Mr. Alpert, for sending me on a vicarious trip to Tijuana.’ I realized that music was visual for her, that it took her someplace. I said, ‘That’s the type of music I want to make. I want to make music that transports people.
And of course, he did find his own sound. As much as Miles Davis has his own voice, so does Herb Alpert.
Over a decade ago, I wrote about a classic kayo, "Aishite, Aishite, Aishichattanoyo" (愛して愛して愛しちゃったのよ）, which was performed by the Mood Kayo vocal group Hiroshi Wada（和田弘）and Mahina Stars（マヒナスターズ）along with singer Miyoko Tashiro（田代美代子）. Since then, Mahina Stars have graced the pages of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" a number of times, but unfortunately it has been just the one article for Tokyo-born Tashiro.
Allow me to remedy that. Tashiro was a student at Meiji Gakuin University in Tokyo when she dropped out midway and began her career as a singer. She learned chanson from singer Yoshiko Ishii（石井好子）and jazz from singer Toshio Suzuki（鈴木敏夫）. It wasn't long before she had that hit with Mahina Stars in 1965.
In September 1966, Tashiro released her own single "Inochi wo Kakete Aishitai" (I Want to Risk My Life Loving You), a light love song in the Latin-infused Mood Kayo vein written and composed by Domei Suzuki（鈴木道明）. Characterized by a crying trumpet, bluesy guitar and silken strings, the kayo makes the listener feel like they are in a classy old-fashioned bar with the bartender shaking up a cocktail right then and there while Tashiro is singing on stage. Despite the mid-60s release date, "Inochi wo Kakete Aishitai" sounds somewhat timeless as if it could have been played at any time between the 1930s and the 1960s.
This week's Reminiscings of Youth will be an appropriately seasonal one, and it has to do with a soundtrack for a cartoon that is almost as old as I am and is probably much more beloved. In fact, for anyone who wants that Normal Rockwell Christmas feeling in the house over the Holidays, it wouldn't hurt to have this playing on the stereo.
Of course, the cartoon that I'm talking about is the December 1965"A Charlie Brown Christmas", the 30-minute special which has become a Holiday tradition on TV. Of course, in the early years when I saw this, I didn't understand any of the religious significance or the surprising personality quirks among the characters. However, as I grew older and got to understand why Charles M. Schulz created "Peanuts", I got to notice and appreciate the simplicity, the angst, the poignancy and the message that were all put out there.
A couple of years ago, during the nadir created by the pandemic, I wrote about the main theme for "A Charlie Brown Christmas", "Christmas Time Is Here" by Vince Guaraldi & Lee Mendelson, a lovely and solemn Xmas song (perhaps reflecting Charlie's state of mind) performed by choristers from St. Paul's Episcopal Church, according to Wikipedia. Well, in the time since then, I figured that it's time to shine a light on some of the other wonderful tracks on the soundtrack because they have also made their mark on a lot of Peanuts fans' memories.
It's ironic then that despite watching the special and listening to the Vince Guaraldi Trio's songs there, I wouldn't get the actual album on CD until I was living in Japan. But then again, that was the time when jazz finally grabbed me through artists such as Bill Evans, Diana Krall and Miles Davis. Of course, listening to Evans, especially his trademark "Waltz for Debby", reminded me of that Peanuts music created by Guaraldi and so it wasn't too far down the line before I finally got "A Charlie Brown Christmas".
Allow me then to highlight some of my favourite tracks.
"O Tannebaum" is a gently swinging version of the classic Xmas song. It's amazing how splendidly the tracks were paired with the particular scenes in "A Charlie Brown Christmas", so I remember clearly that Chuck and Linus were shopping for that Christmas tree when Guaraldi's "O Tannebaum" was playing. Listening to the trio go at it here, I simply thought it must have been amazing and maybe terrifying when the decision was made to bring West Coast jazz to a cartoon filled with little kids. But it worked and now I believe that Christmas and jazz go together like bread and butter.
"Linus and Lucy" was and is the song that I will always associate "Peanuts" with. In fact as a kid, I had thought that this was specifically Charlie Brown's theme for years until I got the news that it was titled as such. Of course, the big dance scene is also engraved into my memories and it pops out whenever this Guaraldi jazz boogie comes to mind. Personally, I think the boy in orange deserves the award for Best Dancer. I also think that the dance scene is so iconic, I wouldn't be surprised if there were videos out there with real people trying to perform those dances whenever "Linus and Lucy" comes on at a party.
"Skating" is another Guaraldi/Peanuts representative that I had loved for years before finally finding out what the title was. It's a joyful number that truly and melodically features what a day at the skating rink is like. Folks from 8 to 88 are skimming smoothly over the ice as "Skating" is playing and they're enjoying the simple straight lines and graceful curves; no need for Lutzs or Salchows here.
Along with "O Tannebaum", I was surprised to realize that almost half the soundtrack consists of the Vince Guaraldi Trio's covers of established Xmas classics. Another one is "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" that ends the show and can cause quite a bit of lachrymal flow under the right mood. The Robert Merrill version of the song is truly epic and stirring in its own way but the one used in "A Charlie Brown Christmas" is much quieter but no less triumphant.
"Christmas is Coming" had its debut on "A Charlie Brown Christmas" to start off the dance scene before it got taken over by "Linus and Lucy". Before knowing the title, I'd thought that it didn't really have anything to do with the Holidays, but come to think of it now, there is that big feeling of expectation and excitement imbued into Guaraldi's melody about the impending arrival of Santa Claus and December 25th. Aside from its place in the special, the song could also be an ideal accompaniment during all that cooking and decorating around the house before the big turkey dinner.
I've got one more track here that I'd like to mention. Not only was Beethoven's "Für Elise" as performed on the special the first time that I got to see the serious Schroeder on his toy piano, it was the first time that I'd heard the composition by one of the great masters. Since then, I have heard "Für Elise" in various forms including a cover by either Pink Lady or Candies in Japan. However as they say, it's always the first one.
For this ROY then, let's find out who won some of the Japan Record Awards in 1965.
Doing these Thursday Reminiscings of Youth articles over the past couple of years, I've gone through at least a couple of theme songs for spy franchises. In fact, there was "Mission: Impossible" back in February and then the one for James Bond last month. Both of them had their debuts on the small and big screens respectively in the 1960s and they were joined by Matt Helm, Harry Palmer, Derek Flint and Napoleon Solo.
Of course, when you have a ton of a particular genre of movie and TV show clogging up a decade, then the times are ripe for parody of said genre. Though I know that the "Flint" and "Matt Helm" series were themselves tongue-in-cheek versions of spy-fi, the television effort to poke fun at espionage was the one and only "Get Smart" as created by the one and only Mel Brooks. Debuting in September 1965 (and ending in 1970), a smattering of weeks before I made my debut, this was a show that I grew up with daily in afternoon reruns as Maxwell Smart Agent 86 and his partner at work and in life, Agent 99, improbably succeeded in their missions for CONTROL against the evil forces of KAOS, despite Max's general incompetence and bumbling.
As with Bond and "Mission: Impossible", "Get Smart", which also had its run in Japan under the title of "Sore Ike Smart"（それ行けスマート...Go, Smart, Go） on what would later become TV Asahi, had its own plethora of memorable sayings (Sorry about that, Chief!/Missed it by that much.), characters (Siegfried, Agent 13, etc.) and devices/running gags. One of the favourite examples of that last one was the infamous Cone of Silence.
The late Don Adams was the star and occasional director of "Get Smart". I have my copy of the "Get Smart" handbook, and a couple of trivia items on him was that he was actually born Donald Yarmy, and that when he became an actor, he changed his name to Adams since he used to be one of the final guys called in to audition due to alphabetical order working against him; switching to Adams did quite the opposite. The other point which was truly surprising was that unlike his goofy alter ego, Adams had been a decorated Marine drill instructor, and after viewing some of those drill instructor videos on YouTube, I can only imagine how terrifying he was in real life in basic training. I would love to have seen how some of his recruits reacted to him playing Agent 86. Then again, I kinda wonder how he was when he was directing some of those episodes and he had a bad day on set.
But getting back to the main point, one of my favourite sequences was actually the opening credits. There was the urgent and twangy theme song by Irving Szathmary; maybe it isn't nearly as famous as the themes for those two spy franchises that I've already mentioned, but it's still fully recognizable and appreciated by me. Then, there was the battery of doors that Smart had to go through each time to access CONTROL Headquarters before reaching the phone booth.
It was a sequence that just had to return for the 2008 movie starring Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway. I know that it didn't really get that much love at the box office or with critics, but for an old "Smart" fan like me, it was still a hoot.
Now, what was winning the Japan Record Awards in 1965?
One final thing about "Get Smart" is that in tribute to the recent passing of James Caan, I did find his scene from one episode where he played the evil Rupert of Rathskeller. For those who have remembered him for "The Godfather" and "Rollerball", this is quite the revelation.
In the 50s and 60s, there were the various Mood Kayo bands and their music filling the bars and izakayas as much as the sake and whiskey were filling up the glasses there. On the one side, there were the Latin-based MK groups such as Los Indios and Los Primos, but on the other side, other such groups decided to go Hawaiian. The Mahina Stars were one such band. They started up in 1953 originally under the leadership of Ginji Yamaguchi（山口銀次）until the following year when Yamaguchi retired, leaving steel guitarist Hiroshi Wada（和田弘）as the new man in charge. As usual for such bands, suits were often the sartorial norm.
In June 1965, one of their most popular songs was released, "Aishite, Aishite, Aishichattanoyo"(Love, Love, I've Ended Up Falling In Love). Partnering up with Miyoko Tashiro（田代美代子）, this cute little ditty has become a standard for a number of singers. I used to hear it from time to time on the stereo, and remember watching one of the singalong segments on the 1981 Kohaku Utagassen when a mix of aidoru and enka singers took turns at it, with Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子） being one of them.
The Southern All Stars also had their own version of the song. Keyboardist and Mrs. Keisuke Kuwata, Yuko Hara（原由子）, took the lead singing a dreamier, more laidback cover. Her version could even be considered AOR, it's so relaxing. This cover was included in the "Inamura Jane"（稲村ジェーン）soundtrack released in September 1990. The movie was Keisuke Kuwata's（桑田佳祐）first foray into movie directing.
