Modern Choki Chokies -- Santa ga Machi ni Matteiru（サンタがまちにまっている）

 

Actress, tarento and singer Mari Hamada（濱田マリ）...not to be mistaken for rock singer-songwriter Mari Hamada（浜田麻里）...has been showing up on television so regularly in dramas and variety programming for so long that it would be natural to forget that a lot of us had first known her primarily as a singer of some eccentric tunes with her old band Modern Choki Chokies（モダンチョキチョキズ）.

From what I remember, the band also took on their fair share of music with some jazziness so it is with delight that I introduce "Santa ga Machi ni Matteiru" (Santa's Waiting In Town). I've heard of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" so I guess this MCC song could apply to Toronto and its world-infamous traffic in which case the title ought to be "Santa's Waiting...and Waiting...and Waiting In Town".

All jokes and rimshots aside, "Santa ga Machi ni Matteiru" is a lovely jazz tune in desperate need of NBC Studios at the top of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel as Hamada sings about waiting for her Christmas present most rapturously and impatiently. Starting with something similar to a Salvation Army brass phrase, the song written and composed by MCC guitarist Osamu Isoda（磯田収）quickly enters a cool and jaunty jazz arrangement. What sells the song to me is Hamada's little girl vocals that are so adorable that I want to grab the song by its cheeks and pinch them. The chorus is also wonderful.

"Santa ga Machi ni Matteiru" can be found on Modern Choki Chokies' 3rd album "Bessatsu Moda Choki Rinji Zoukangou"（別冊モダチョキ臨時増刊号...Supplementary Moda Choki Temporary Special Issue） from June 1994.

Modern Choki Chokies -- Kuma-chan（くまちゃん）

From goodfreephotos

 

The closest that I had ever been to a bear in the wild was when I was traveling through Banff, Alberta, and from our minibus, I could see young Smokey lumbering about in the distance in the open grass field. That's about as close as I would prefer it. 

I'm convinced that the bear was probably thinking about where it was going to get its next meal from (thankfully not us...I guess to it, we may have been canned food), and certainly not about getting a physical checkup. But that is what the title track for zany Modern Choki Chokies's（モダンチョキチョキズ）November 1994 4th album "Kuma-chan" (Bear-chan or Little Bear) is all about. 

Written by TV broadcast writer Yoshio Urasawa（浦沢義雄）and composed by Yusuke Honma（本間勇輔）, a man who has come up with his share of television soundtracks including the one for detective Ninzaburo Furuhata（古畑任三郎のテーマ）, "Kuma-chan" is a Big Band jazzy tune about the titular bear whining about having to be stuck in a hospital undergoing tons of tests. I can relate to that. Modern Choki Chokies' vocalist (and "nurse") Mari Hamada（濱田マリ）shares the mike with comedian and actor Ichiro Zaitsu（財津一郎）acting as the suffering bruin. It's all very silly but I'm always a sucker for swing jazz and this one has similarities to that old chestnut, "Four Brothers".

My previous article on Modern Choki Chokies made its appearance on the blog exactly four months ago with a track from the same album, "Uebe Yoshiko-san"（上辺よし子さん）.

Modern Choki Chokies -- Uebe Yoshiko-san（上辺よし子さん）

I haven't heard Mari Hamada's（濱田マリ）singing voice in many years, and nope I'm not referring to the rock singer Mari Hamada who has a different set of kanji for her name（浜田麻里）. Actually, I'm talking about the current tarento and actress who used to be the vocalist for the eccentric band Modern Choki Chokies（モダンチョキチョキズ）way back when. Still, I used to remember her well for being the unseen narrator for the TV Asahi 5-minute series known as "Ashita Manana"（あしたまにあ〜な） which would show any upcoming movies, TV series, CDs and DVDs. Hamada has always been known for that perky voice of hers.

The last time that I wrote about Modern Choki Chokies, it was for their February 1994 single "THE Zetsubou Koushinkyoku"（THE絶望行進曲）, a grand swinging jazz kayo. It was also part of the band's 3rd album from June of that year, "Bessatsu Modachoki Rinji Zoukangou"（別冊モダチョキ臨時増刊号...Separate Modern Choki Chokies Extra Edition）.

Well, the 4th album was released even later in November. Titled "Kuma-chan"（くまちゃん...Bear-chan）, I did find one track titled "Uebe Yoshiko-san" (Ms. Yoshiko Uebe). A very different animal from "THE Zetsubou Koushinkyoku", "Uebe Yoshiko-san" is an urgently running technopop piece with a feeling of Yellow Magic Orchestra and Denki Groove（電気グルーヴ）. Hamada herself was behind words and music and those distinctive vocals of high-pitch are instantly recognizable. Not quite sure what the song is on about even though I've seen the lyrics, and Ms. Uebe isn't even mentioned once. To be honest, I'm not even sure if the name has been transcribed correctly since the kanji for that last name can be read as either "Uebe" or "Uwabe". So, if anyone can help out, that would be greatly appreciated.

Modern Choki Chokies -- THE Zetsubou Koushinkyoku（THE絶望行進曲）

 

I've been listening to Scott's latest podcast on his "Holly Jolly X'masu" show, and yes, considering that it's absolutely steaming outside (my "swimming-in-atmosphere" catchphrase is coming into play today) like an August day in Tokyo, it's been nice and perhaps cooling to hear some of the Yuletide music. The subject of his most recent episode whirls around the late composer and conductor Naozumi Yamamoto（山本直純）and his 1973 album "Xmas Home Party". Yes, indeed, Yamamoto loved his jolly orchestral marches and paired with the Holiday spirit, there's a lot in the album that reminds me of Leroy Anderson and Arthur Fiedler & The Boston Pops. 

But it still surprised me to discover through his J-Wiki profile that Yamamoto was the first Japanese person to become a guest conductor for the Boston Pops twice in 1979 and 1980. The music that he concocted does fit the bill, though.

Going down the article for Yamamoto, I found out that he provided a lot of music for everything from commercials to comedy-variety shows. Plus, he did help out the comical jazz band Hana Hajime and Crazy Cats（ハナ肇とクレージーキャッツ）, and so it isn't surprising in this paragraph to find out that he also composed a song for Modern Choki Chokies（モダンチョキチョキズ）, which I've realized is the 1990s version of those funny musicians such as Crazy Cats.

Released in February 1994 as the band's 4th single, "THE Zetsubou Koushinkyoku" (The March of Hopelessness) and sung by Modern Choki Chokies high-pitched vocalist and actress Mari Hamada（濱田マリ）, band member Kenichi Yasuda（安田謙一）wrote the lyrics of humourous despair of life that even a Dreams Come True song cannot solve (directly mentioned in the words). Yamamoto came up with a brash and jazzy arrangement that could have been performed by Crazy Cats themselves for some variety show of the 1950s or 1960s, and there's even a segment in there that could have been quite commercial jingle-worthy.

"THE Zetsubou Koushinkyoku" was used as the ending theme for a couple of shows including "Kuniko to Tohru no Anta ga Shuyaku"（邦子と徹のあんたが主役...Kuniko & Tohru's "You're The Star"）, a TV Asahi program in the early 1990s which seems to have been the Japanese equivalent of ABC's "America's Funniest Videos". The other program was NTV's "Super Jockey"（スーパージョッキー）, the Sunday afternoon show hosted by Beat Takeshi（ビートたけし）.

Modern Choki Chokies -- Hakata no Hito（博多の女）

 

The first time that I had ever seen or heard of the Modern Choki Chokies（モダンチョキチョキズ）was through the above commercial where vocalist Mari Hamada（濱田マリ）, and she's not to be confused with pop-rock singer Mari Hamada（浜田麻理）, tasted some potato chips called Jungle and did a cute little spin. I later found out that the impish little Hamada belonged to this group called the Modern Choki Chokies which had the size and energy of the epic Kome Kome Club（米米ＣＬＵＢ）but perhaps were even more bohemian in approach.

According to J-Wiki, their initial run spanned between 1989 and 1997, although they've apparently gotten together again in the last couple of years. I'd actually written about them briefly back in 2013 when I found out that their debut single in 1992 was a cover of the theme song for the anime "Obake no Q-Taro"（オバケのＱ太郎）.

When I was writing up about the Saburo Kitajima（北島三郎）kayo "Hakata no Hito" (Woman of Hakata) earlier this afternoon, I discovered that the Modern Choki Chokies had their own "Hakata no Hito" but instead of it being a cover of the 1967 enka/Mood Kayo tune, it was totally the band's own creation with the same title. That title is the only common denominator since ModaChoki (their nickname) came up with a snazzy, jazzy and funky ditty that not only sounds like something out of the K2C playbook but also has that feel of a "Lupin III"（ルパン三世）soundtrack, thanks to the work of Masamichi Ohmachi（大町昌路）and the band's bassist, Hiroshi Uchikado（内門洋）.

The lyrics were created by band member Tomoki Yoshimura（吉村智樹）who's been listed as one of ModaChoki's "brains" on J-Wiki, so take that however you will. His "Hakata no Hito" doesn't refer to an old flame in Fukuoka as is the case in Kitajima's song but it actually refers to a brand of manjuu (饅頭...sweet bean buns) with that name. Apparently, the protagonist had received a box of Hakata no Hito as a souvenir from a friend who went to that area, and frankly found it no different from any other manjuu. It lacks imagination, originality and identity. Well, if he doesn't want the stuff, I'd be happy to take it off his hands.

Hamada is definitely helping out in the vocals but I'm not sure who the male vocalist is since there were at least a couple of guys who are listed as singers in ModaChoki. The main takeaway here is that for a song about a disappointed manjuu eater (even Egypt isn't safe), "Hakata no Hito" really whips up the musical entertainment index and I couldn't help but feel that there is also a Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra element with that funky brass and even something of the old kayo.

"Hakata no Hito" was a track on the Modern Choki Chokies' 2nd album "Bongengan Bangara Bingen no Densetsu"（ボンゲンガンバンガラビンゲンの伝説...The Legend of Bongengan Bangara Bingen） from June 1993.

Hamada has since become a tarento, actress and narrator so she became quite familiar to me on the telly. In fact, her distinctive kittenish voice was often heard through the five-minute program on TV Asahi, "Ashita Mañana"（あしたまにあ〜な）in which she gave a summary on the next day's programming. The title basically brings together the Japanese and Spanish words for "tomorrow" and is a slight pun on the Spanish "hasta mañana". Hamada was the narrator for the show for around 7 years between 1998 and 2005.

Junko Hori/Modern Choki Chokies -- Obake no Q-Taro （オバケのＱ太郎）

Back in 1972, when we were spending the summer at our grandfather's farm, it wasn't just the tokusatsu shows like "Ultraman" and "Kamen Rider" that had our eyes glued to the screen, but we were also watching this anime of a cute white glob and his little brother, an even cuter pink glob, "Obake no Q-Taro".

Now, the title could be translated as "Q-Taro The Ghost", but actually an obake is more of a supernatural creature that can shapeshift. Unfortunately, for Q-Taro, he apparently lost the ability, and his little brother, O-Jiro, could only say one word, "Bakaretta!" although Q could apparently translate the real meaning behind it each time. "Obake no Q-Taro" started as a manga first drawn up by Fujiko Fujio（藤子不二雄） in 1964; Fujiko would go onto even bigger fame several years later when they started "Doraemon"（ドラえもん）, a series that still continues now on TV and on the big screen. Incidentally, Fujiko Fujio is the duo name for Fujiko F. Fujio (aka Hiroshi Fujimoto/藤本弘) and Fujiko A. Fujio (Motoo Abiko/安孫子素雄); their nom de plume even in English has the family name first. Fujiko F. Fujio（藤子・F・不二雄）passed away in September 1996 while Fujiko A. Fujio（藤子不二雄Ⓐ）left this mortal coil in April 2022.

"Obake no Q-Taro" was made into an anime in 1965 on NTV, and the show in its first incarnation lasted 3 years. However, the one that my brother and I got to know was the 2nd series that appeared from 1971-1972. And one of the other reasons that I still remember it over 40 years later is the jazzy theme song, sung by the voice behind Q himself, veteran seiyuu Junko Hori.（堀洵子） with help from The New Royal. Many years later, she also voiced Bart Simpson in the Japanese-dubbed version of "The Simpsons". The above video has the original theme song from the 1965 edition, followed by the 1971 song. The song itself was written by Tokyo Movie Kikaku-bu（東京ムービー企画部...The Tokyo Movie Planning Division) and composed by Naozumi Yamamoto（山本直純）.

The Modern Choki Chokies（モダンチョキチョキズ） was a band that seemed to take a page out of the playbook of Kome Kome Club and The Crazy Cats in terms of its many colourful band members and theatricality. I only got to know about them via commercials on which they appeared. The main vocalist was Mari Hamada（濱田マリ）, not to be confused with the rock singer（浜田麻理）whose kanji is different. Looking like a precocious elementary school student, she and the band had their time in the sun in the early 90s, and their debut single was their cover of the "Q-Taro"theme song. Hamada herself has gone on to become a character actress in a number of dramas such as last year's NHK morning serial, "Carnation", and a TV personality on variety shows.

One of my souvenirs from that first trip to Japan was a Q-Taro eraser with the fresh smell of synthetic bananas!