Teruhiko Aoi/Miyoko Yoshimoto -- Sentimental Carnival（センチメンタル・カーニバル）

 

Another blistering day out there. As such, this has been the earliest that our family has pulled out the air conditioner and activated it. Mind you, from tomorrow, the high temperatures will plummet like rocks for the rest of the week, but that's OK. We'll be happy to have the AC on standby for the eventual summer that does arrive.

A couple of days ago, I was watching "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本のうた）and encountered a new song that I hadn't heard before titled "Sentimental Carnival" by Teruhiko Aoi（あおい輝彦）. Listening to it on the show and then hearing it on YouTube, I had assumed that it was a Group Sounds/pop creation from the 1960s, only to realize that Aoi had released it as his 14th single in June 1977. Yes, the very first "Star Wars" movie is older than this song. 

But as written and composed by Toshiro Abe（阿部敏郎）, it's still quite the jangly and twist-happy tune. Yesterday, I wrote about The Tube's "Midnight Beach" and how the seashore at night can make for a romantic setting. Well, I gather that the same can be had for the annual carnival although folks will be a lot busier on the rides or just strolling hand-in-hand through the various games and concession stands. With the snappy arrangement by Shunichi Makaino（馬飼野俊一）, "Sentimental Carnival" was Aoi's final Top 10 hit, peaking at No. 8 and eventually becoming the 53rd-ranked single of 1977.

Eleven years later, "Sentimental Carnival" was covered by aidoru Miyoko Yoshimoto（芳本美代子）as her own 14th single in June 1988. As arranged by Shiro Sagisu（鷺巣詩郎）, it was given some snazzy contemporizing with synths, syn-drums and sharp horns, and it earned the snaggle-toothed lass a No. 20 ranking on Oricon. Maybe it's just me, but I think Yoshimoto's voice seems a fair bit more mature here.

Miyoko Yoshimoto -- Sky Escape（スカイ・エスケイプ）

 

One of the tropes for kayo kyoku that I've often repeated is that especially for the late 80s aidoru, the arrangements surrounding them were very lush and top-notch.

Case in point: I've been listening to aidoru Miyoko Yoshimoto's（芳本美代子）first track from her December 1987 5th album "Yesterday's", "Sky Escape". Not quite sure how to describe Kazuo Zaitsu's（財津和夫）melody and its arrangement by veteran Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）, but it all just sounds so refined and it has some key changes that hit me right here: 💓. And I know that Zaitsu can twirl around a melody line wonderfully, in particular after hearing his marvelous "Fuyu no Main Street"（冬のメイン・ストリート）. Keiko Aso（麻生圭子）was the lyricist here. As for the album, it hit No. 53 on Oricon.

Miyoko Yoshimoto -- Private Lesson（プライベート・レッスン）

 

In my career as an English conversation teacher, along with my base schools, I also had my side gigs teaching private lessons. Some of them went swimmingly and therefore, they lasted for a number of years while others seemed to just stumble a lot (i.e. kids' lessons). However, I made my yen and it was a nice living for a long time.

Of course, I don't think I was ever in Miyoko Yoshimoto's（芳本美代子）situation in her rendition of her 2nd single "Private Lesson" from June 1985. A nice bloopy and shuffling aidoru tune about a student falling for her private tutor, I'm not sure how the kid could focus with all those valentines flying around her head all the time. For that matter, it must have been frustrating for the handsome tutor trying to pound in some education into her head. 

"Private Lesson" managed to reach No. 18 on Oricon. The lyricist was Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）with Daisuke Inoue（井上大輔）as the composer and Satoshi Nakamura（中村哲）arranging it all. 

Miyoko Yoshimoto -- Secret Passion

 

Uh, no. The above isn't representative of late 80s aidoru Miyoko Yoshimoto's（芳本美代子）song being featured in this article. From the looks of it, "Ame no High School"（雨のハイスクール...Rainy High School） is more of her pure teenybopper material, but "Secret Passion" is definitely a different animal.

For one thing, the strutting melody by Steve Kipner and John Parker takes things more into the City Pop and soul/funk sphere. In fact, I believe that the underlying rhythm of "Secret Passion" should have the song join the club of Whitney Houston and Jermaine Jackson's "Take Good Care of My Heart", a club that also has the Suzukis'（鈴木雅之・鈴木聖美）"Lonely Chaplin"（ロンリーチャップリン）and "Eien no Morning Moon" （永遠のモーニング・ムーン）by Etsuko Sai and Toshinobu Kubota （彩恵津子・久保田利伸）as members in terms of similar groove. Not that I'm complaining at all. Shun Taguchi（田口俊）provided the lyrics. Yoshimoto also tries her best at giving those sultry vibes.

"Secret Passion" was the first track on Yoshimoto's August 1989 album "Power of Love". According to Discogs, the album has its fill of City Pop, boogie and synthpop so I'd be intrigued in sampling some more tracks.

Miyoko Yoshimoto -- Groovy Glory

 

In late 2019, I made the delightful discovery that Momoko Kikuchi（菊池桃子）wasn't the only one of the latter-80s aidoru to embrace her inner City Pop. Kikuchi was a teen idol that I did get to know fairly well through her discography, but Miyoko Yoshimoto（芳本美代子）was someone that I knew mostly from going into the colourful pages of "Myojo"（明星）.

Yup, like Kikuchi, Yoshimoto did have her own purely aidoru tunes such as "Shiroi Basket Shoes" （白いバスケット・シューズ）but I was surprised when I found out about her July 1987 album "I'm The One" and got the distinct impression that she was going all urban contemporary through listening to her cool "Wanna Catch" as one of the tracks. I wrote that one up back at the time that I mentioned right off the top, and so I was rather disappointed when the usual video takedown had occurred. Mind you, I was able to resurrect it somewhat through a link to the Tower Records site which has short excerpts from "I'm The One".

But in the vain hopes of finding another video for "Wanna Catch", I did find instead another track from the album. "Groovy Glory" is a fun little city shuffle down the road lined with some of that caviar-and-champagne keyboard and horn pavement that has led to many a nice sophisticated pop work. Not surprisingly, the same tandem behind "Wanna Catch", lyricist Masami Tozawa（戸沢暢美）and composer Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）, was behind "Groovy Glory". Yoshimoto holds her own here although at certain high points, she almost gets a bit overwhelmed by the bright lights and big city.

Miyoko Yoshimoto -- Tokyo Sickness（東京Sickness）

 

Quite an interesting discovery here.

I hadn't been a great purveyor of the works of 80s aidoru Miyoko Yoshimoto（芳本美代子）when she had her heyday back in the 1980s so I'm as much a contemporary explorer when it comes to her as are some others who are now delving into the teenybopper tunes of Japan from 35-40 years ago (uhh...just aged myself again). Therefore, it is with some intrigue that I'm listening to "Tokyo Sickness" which was Yoshimoto's 10th single from June 1987.

Yesterday, I wrote about Mina Aoe's（青江三奈）"Ginza Blue Night"（銀座ブルー・ナイト）, a bluesy Mood Kayo about love and loneliness in one major area in Tokyo. It seems that we have something similar in theme with "Tokyo Sickness" but of course, the arrangement is all different...and done by Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）, someone that I will always be interested in for her ways of creating and weaving melodies. This time, she took care of Ken Sato's（佐藤健）melody with Masami Tozawa's（戸沢暢美）lyrics.

As I said, melodically speaking, "Tokyo Sickness" is worlds apart from the 1974 "Ginza Blue Night". It's perky and it seems to have a mix of styles going on in there. Commenters for the video have indicated that it is a City Pop-themed aidoru song although I'm not sure whether Yamakawa, who did have her time with Tohoku Shinkansen, meant it to be City Pop. I'm not sure totally myself although I hear hints here and there with the bass and one particular ghostly keyboard. There is that aidoru perkiness although it's a bit more subdued; at the same time, there also seems to be that Tiki bar-friendly Resort Pop vibe. It's definitely got my attention for that reason. Yoshimoto's delivery even has that slight sultriness which reminds me of NOKKO from Rebecca（レベッカ）.

Underneath Sato's melody, Tozawa's lyrics describe a young woman's Tokyo sickness as something afflicting her as a general malaise against another round of heartbreak in the cold megalopolis. She's become coldly immune to the romantic roundabouts in the various dance clubs and hangouts but doesn't show any hints of sadness. However, she can't quite get out of Tokyo or get Tokyo out of her system. In a way, the whole story behind "Tokyo Sickness" reminds me of Mariya Takeuchi's（竹内まりや）"Plastic Love" from a few years earlier.

Miyoko Yoshimoto -- Kokoro no Tobira（心の扉）

Unfortunately, I couldn't find the proper clip on YouTube but earlier tonight, I was watching "Chibi Maruko-chan"（ちびまる子ちゃん）and it was most likely the episode that aired following Hideki Saijo's（西城秀樹）passing a few years ago. For those who don't know the connection between him and the show, Maruko's older sister, Sakiko, has long had a major crush on the 1970s aidoru, and the segment dealt with how Sakiko would feel with Saijo as a husband. Of course, having anime characters going ga-ga over other characters and famous people is one of the many tropes that inhabit such a show.

This rather led me to putting up 80s aidoru Miyoko Yoshimoto's（芳本美代子）"Kokoro no Tobira" (Door to Your Heart) that had been in the backlog for some time. It's more on the bubbly and breezy side with a sprinkle of 50s novelty pop sense in there which would probably explain why it sounds more like an early 1980s aidoru tune instead of a song that was released in March 1986 as Yoshimoto's 5th single. However, there are those sweeping strings which I've usually heard in the more European fantastical aidoru songs in the late 1980s. Kazuo Zaitsu（財津和夫）was responsible for the melody with Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）behind the arrangement.

Written by Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）, the lyrics reflect those falling-in-love anime scenes as the young lady in "Kokoro no Tobira" is doing some major swooning over a guy and fantasizing about holding onto his arm while taking that romantic walk together. I also gotta say that for an aidoru, Yoshimoto doesn't have a bad delivery...fairly solid on hitting those notes, aside from some of those high ones.

Miyoko Yoshimoto -- Wanna Catch

Just on the heels of writing an article about a singer with the initials of M.Y., I've suddenly done a sharp veer to another different singer from the 1980s who shares those same initials. This would be 80s aidoru Miyoko Yoshimoto（芳本美代子）.

(36:45)

And the reason that I suddenly decided to put up one of her songs onto the blog is that as I was listening to New J Channel's broadcast, a Yoshimoto song came on board. Now, as I've mentioned before in the only other article on her, I barely have any read on her discography. I'd only known her as the typically snaggle-toothed aidoru

But then this song by Yoshimoto made its appearance that caught me off-guard. It was actually very City Pop soulful. "WAIT!!", I went, "This is the aidoru Miyoko Yoshimoto, ain't it?" Yup, the cover was for her July 1987 album "I'm The One" and the final track "Wanna Catch" was indeed included, and I've already listened to it four times now as I write this. I had no idea that Yoshimoto could sing this well. In fact, I was reluctant to put on an aidoru tag on this one since "Wanna Catch" doesn't sound anything like an aidoru tune but that's how she's been categorized during her singing career, so it's in the Labels section. But I've definitely put on the City Pop tag, too.

"Wanna Catch" is definitely something very downtown Tokyo with all of the swagger of folks painting the town red on a Friday night. Written by Masami Tozawa（戸沢暢美）and composed by Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）, the song comes off as a tune that could easily be performed by Miho Nakayama（中山美穂）, who I thought was the late 80s aidoru for urban contemporary dance-pop, or even by City Pop chanteuse Junko Yagami（八神純子）. However, it's indeed Yoshimoto handling the reins with rather good aplomb, may I add. A very pleasant surprise tonight.

Miyoko Yoshimoto -- Shiroi Basket Shoes （白いバスケット・シューズ）

Gotta be honest here...the reason I put up this article here is that I had never heard any of Miyoko Yoshimoto's（芳本美代子）aidoru output until tonight. I've been curious since I used to see her pop up once in a while on Japanese variety TV and also there is the fact that I often saw her snaggle-toothed visage on many a Myojo or Heibon magazine. Seeing that quintessential photo of a yaeba grin on an 80s aidoru, I always thought that she was an orthodontist's dream project.

So, I went to the beginning. Here is the debut single for the Yamaguchi Prefecture-born singer "Shiroi Basket Shoes" (White Basketball Sneakers) which came out in March 1985. Written by Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）and composed by Daisuke Inoue（井上大輔）, it's a pleasant enough tune about a high school girl falling for that handsome fellow in school...whether he is playing for the basketball team or not, I really don't know. And at least for this first song, Yoshimoto has that nice and light delivery.

Since those early days, the former aidoru has gotten that corrective work on her teeth...as did I on my own choppers in the same decade.