Charan-Po-Rantan -- Showa Hyaku Nen（唱和百年）

 

This isn't true with everybody but sometimes I associated certain bands and singers with famous areas. Southern All Stars（サザン・オール・スターズ）will always be connected to seaside Chigasaki because they are from that area, so that is easy. However on the other hand, I've felt that the late kayo chanteuse Keiko Fuji（藤圭子）and Shinjuku made a good pairing (although she's originally from Hokkaido) not only because she sang "Shinjuku no Onna"（新宿の女）but she just fit that urban angst in the back streets of that Tokyo neighbourhood.

This is straight from their website.
Please don't kill me, Momo and Koharu.

Well, as for the eclectic accordion-driven sibling duo Charan-Po-Rantan（チャラン・ポ・ランタン）, I picture them setting up shop in the shitamachi districts of Tokyo such as Ueno or Kanda. They actually do hail from the nation's capital (though the sisters Momo and Koharu were born in Chiba) but I don't know exactly where they were raised. Now as to why I think they feel just at home in the traditional quarter of town, and this is even before they released their album of kayo covers "Showa Hyaku Nen" (The 100th Year of the Showa Era) on Christmas Eve last year, their music always hit me as being something just as comfy, old-fashioned and woodsy as the architecture of the Taisho and early Showa eras. I'm not sure whether 2025 or 2026 would be considered Showa 100 according to the Japanese reign year system if Emperor Showa had survived up to now but let's give the sisters the benefit of a doubt.

So, let's take a look at three of the tracks from "Showa Hyaku Nen". One is a cover of Takao Hirata & Sellsters'（平田隆夫とセルスターズ）"Hachi no Musashi wa Shinda no sa"（ハチのムサシは死んだのさ）, the novelty pop hit from 1972. Some great sisterly harmonizing here with the song taking on an arrangement that seems to be part ska and part old-fashioned street band chindon'ya style. And it comes with a music video that's swift and reminiscent of the old anime style from that decade. I'm especially happy that Charan-Po-Rantan picked this one since I don't think "Hachi no Musashi wa Shinda no sa" usually gets selected in any kayo kyoku retrospective either on TV or compilation album.

Hey, and we all get a lovely video of vocalist Momo not only singing but showing off a bit of summery 80s aidoru cheesecake in the music video for the duo's rendition of Meiko Nakahara's（中原めいこ）1984 hit "Kimi Tachi Kiwi Papaya Mango da ne" （君たちキウイ・パパヤ・マンゴだね。）The Charan-Po-Rantan style is fully in play here as well.

Finally, here is the Hibari Misora（美空ひばり）classic "Makkana Taiyo"（真赤な太陽）from 1967. There's perhaps even more of a funky element in this cover and Momo adds some Ringo Shiina（椎名林檎）growl and Ego-Wrappin' attitude into her delivery. That chindon'ya saxophone really chews into the arrangement like me on a tenderloin steak. Frankly, "Makkana Taiyo" is a song that just begs to be covered in any kayo cover album because the singers can really have at it.

Feel free to take a look at the rest of the tracklist via the link to the album above and there are some more of the songs up on YouTube.

Hibari Misora -- Murasaki no Yoake（むらさきの夜明け）

As much as my image of the late legendary Hibari Misora（美空ひばり）has been that of the grande dame of kayo, alternately wearing a kimono or a sparkly jazzy dress, I was surprised to find out that she did have her time of "getting down", so to speak. And I think that was in the late 1960s when she started getting hep with mini-skirts and go-go boots in her performance of "Makkana Taiyo"（真赤な太陽）. It was quite the eye-opener seeing her perform this one on TV via YouTube.

Well, it looks like she wanted to keep the good times (rock n') rollin' since the year following that massive hit "Makkana Taiyo", Misora retained the same two songwriters, lyricist Osamu Yoshioka（吉岡治）and composer/jazz tenor sax player Nobuo Hara（原信夫）, to create "Murasaki no Yoake" (Purple Sunrise) in January 1968.

With a mix of kayo and a beat similar to the one used by Group Sounds bands, "Murasaki no Yoake" has quite the similarity with "Makkana Taiyo". Not sure how it did on the embryonic Oricon charts; maybe not as well as the first song since of that similarity but it's still intriguing to watch the Queen of Kayo Kyoku shimmy.

Hibari Misora -- Makkana Taiyo （真赤な太陽）

This afternoon, I went to a Japanese dance recital starring my friend's dance troupe, The Toronto Buddhist Church Buyo Group. The theme of the show was Hibari Misora's（美空ひばり） songs. So, all of the classics were there for the dancers to dance to: "Kawa no Nagare no you ni"（川の流れのように.... Just Like the Flow of the River), "Ringo Oiwake" (リンゴ追分...The Apple Forked Road) and "Yawara"（柔）. But the very last song was "Makkana Taiyo"(Scarlet Sun), released in May 1967.

I had heard the song before over the years but didn't realize/remember that it was Misora who had sung it. For people who usually see her as the Grande Dame of enka in a kimono, "Makkana Taiyo" is an eye-opener...or an ear-opener. Partnering up with the Group Sounds band, Jackie Yoshikawa and The Blue Comets (who were just savoring their big hit, "Blue Chateau"), Misora comes up with a shimmy-shammy-friendly shaker of a dance number. You'd almost think she was channeling any of the Cool Britannnia groups while singing it. I could imagine Austin Powers hitting the dance floor with it.

And you gotta see the original performance. Wigged out in a short bob, Go-Go boots and...gasp...a mini-skirt, Misora is just shimmying out the joint. Considering that the year before, she had come out with one of the most famous enka ballads in her repertoire, the tearjerking "Kanashii Sake"（悲しい酒....Sad Sake), this was quite the twist (no pun intended). "Makkana Taiyo" was written by Osamu Yoshioka（吉岡治） and composed by Nobuo Hara（原信夫）, and sold a record 1.4 million copies. It ranks 4th in Misora's all-time most successful singles.