PAO/Mariko Kurata -- Sunset Kiss（サンセット・キッス）

 

Never heard of "A Little Romance" before but this 1979 overseas cinematic rom-com starred Laurence Olivier and a 13-year-old Diane "Save Martha" Lane. Certainly, the trailer above pretty much screams "MEET CUTE!".

Following its initial release in the United States in April of that year, "A Little Romance" got its Japanese debut in July. As is often the custom, an image song specific to Japanese audiences was created for the movie, and much to my surprise, it turned out that the obscure New Music/City Pop trio PAO recorded one for this movie.

But this time, true to the nature and setting of "A Little Romance", PAO went for some of that sweeping exotic kayo instead of City Pop in the arrangement. It was released as a single with Side A providing the English-language version while Side B had the Japanese-language version. Side B was written by Masami Sugiyama（杉山政美）and composed/arranged by Toshiyuki Kimori（木森敏之）while Side A had PAO member Sabine Marianne Kaneko（サビーネ金子）helping out with the English lyrics.

I've read some rumours that the lead vocalist was Takako Mamiya（間宮貴子）who had been a member of PAO in its very early days. But seeing that name of Sabine featured very prominently in katakana on the lower-right of the cover for the single and remembering that Mamiya had only been involved in PAO's debut single "Say Yes" in 1978, I believe that there is no sign of the mysterious City Pop singer in "Sunset Kiss" although I can understand how many listeners including myself could initially think that Mamiya was behind the microphone. In any case, the above video has the English version while the one below is of the Japanese version.

Later on in November 1979, Mariko Kurata（倉田まり子）would release her debut album "Anata ni Meguri Aete..."（あなたにめぐり逢えて・・・・Encountering You） and it includes her cover version of "Sunset Kiss". With Nobuyuki Shimizu（清水信之）handling the arrangement, the song takes on a much more City Pop flavour with that downtown groove. Sounds as if the setting of the movie had been moved from Italy to Tokyo.

PAO -- Gin Lime

 

After so many years of waiting, the second season of the hilarious anime adaptation of the original manga "Grand Blue Dreaming" will finally arrive early next month. From what I hear from those who have read the manga, it looks like viewers will happily get some more of the craziness that made "Grand Blue" one of the funniest anime of all time. 

Episode 8 was the one where Iori and the gang visited a local bar and one of their buddies who had a job mixing drinks there whipped up a gin & lime. That got to me thinking that that particular cocktail has possessed quite the profile in Japanese pop culture for decades. It seems to have become quite the popular drink for women, and I distinctly remember a Mieko Nishijima（西島三重子）song by that title from the 1970s. Maybe that mixture was seen (and tasted) as the alcoholic route to adventure and romance.

However when I threw in the English words gin lime into the YouTube search engine, I received a whole bunch of videos for the gimlet. And so at first, I had assumed that a gin and lime was the Japanese way of saying a gimlet, but actually, that wasn't exactly correct according to J-Wiki. There are two key differences apparently: 1) the gin and lime is stirred whereas the gimlet is shaken and 2) the gin lime is a short drink while the gimlet is a tall drink. So I guess that what distinguishes a gin & lime from a gimlet is a matter of aeration, container and volume and perhaps how cold it is. But you can take a look at the two videos above and below. I've never had one myself so some of you folks might be able to let me know about the taste.

Well, all that preamble ramble was for me to introduce the short-lived City Pop group PAO's song "Gin Lime" from their 1980 album "YOU". Written by Teruko Harada and PAO members Sabine Marianne Kaneko（サビーネ金子）and Yoshikazu Miura（三浦義和）and composed by Miura, it's got an interesting intro with the piano and synthesizer, and then Miura starts off the soulful crooning with one of the two female members humming away hauntingly. There is some nice sunset soul going on in "Gin Lime" with the two leads providing their own parts of the vocalization, but the harmonization when the two go at it together isn't particularly smooth; it's as if a little too much gin got mixed with the lime juice during a late-night session at the karaoke box.

PAO -- Loving You

 

It's been a while since I put up a PAO song so I've decided to go with "Loving You" from their one-and-only 1980 "YOU" album. 

As I mentioned in PAO's very first article back in 2018 for another track on "YOU", "We'll Celebrate Tonight", my first listen to the album didn't yield a bumper crop of amazing results because I'd thought that the trio were trying a little too much to emulate the Manhattan Transfer's brand of urban contemporary pop at around the same time. It took a few more rounds on the CD player before the efforts by Sabine Marianne Kaneko（サビーネ金子）, Fumiko Miyazaki（宮崎文子）and Yoshikazu Miura（三浦義和）finally began to work themselves positively into my brain. 

With "Loving You", this is definitely not in the Manhattan Transfer's territory of AOR. Written and composed by PAO vocalist Kaneko and arranged by multi-instrumentalist Satoshi Nakamura（中村哲）, who was also handling the keyboards and sax on "YOU", this is some sunny funk in the big city supported by Miyazaki's and Miura's chorus and some tight horns. Of course, the boppy bass has to be included. "Loving You" has gradually entered the good sides of my brain to the point that listening to the song has gotten me to think about the old lovely walks through West Shinjuku among all of those skyscrapers and hotels.

PAO -- Say Yes/Stay Close to Me

 

About three years ago, I introduced the first article for the obscure City Pop trio known as PAO, and at the time that their one and only album "YOU" came out in 1980, that trio consisted of Sabine Marianne Kaneko（サビーネ金子）, Fumiko Miyazaki（宮崎文子）and Yoshikazu Miura（三浦義和）. As I mentioned in that article in December 2018, "YOU" didn't hit me amazingly when I first listened to the CD but it has grown on me steadily over the last few years.

However, there has been some buzz about PAO since City Pop was given this second life internationally from a few years back, and the reason was that there was news that the Greta ("I want to be alone") Garbo of City Pop, Takako Mamiya（間宮貴子）, had once been a member of the group. That was one of the reasons that I decided to make the effort to grab this rare album...only to find out that by the time of "YOU", Mamiya had already left the trio to be replaced by Miyazaki, although I have to admit that there seems to be some resemblance between the two women from what I've seen of that front cover.

Digging further, I found out that Mamiya was indeed involved in PAO's debut single "Say Yes" which was released sometime in 1978. Kaneko and Miura were on words and music respectively for this disco number that has some vibes of "I Love the Nightlife" by Alicia Bridges from the same year, and Donna Summer's "On The Radio", although the latter song wasn't released until late 1979. From listening to the low vocals and finding out that Kaneko provided the lyrics, I think that it's indeed Kaneko singing "Say Yes" (which is a pretty popular title for singers apparently considering that an 80s aidoru and a veteran duo have used it for their different songs), but Mamiya is helping out there with Miura on the backing vocals. Interestingly enough, the song was used in a commercial for a Showa Oil product called YES! Maybe the oil was able to make an engine dance like a disco star? (reaching, reaching)😏 But hey, that blonde lass on the cover of the single actually made a dancing appearance on the ad!

I believe that this is indeed Mamiya behind the vocals for the B-side, "Stay Close to Me" with Tommy Snyder providing words and music. There seems to be more fusion with a hint of Latin in this one. I like the song but the big thing is that I'm happy to hear the mysterious Ms. Mamiya on something outside of her wonderful "Love Trip" album.

Speaking of the mystery surrounding Mamiya, specifically about where she went following that one album, I think that's probably been the other talking point next to all of the great tracks that she provided on "Love Trip" over the past few years. Within the conversational exchange between the uploader Yoshio Takemoto（竹本善雄）and other folks in the comments under "Say Yes", there is a link to a Japanese blog entry by Yoshiko Shohoji（正法地美子）in which she expresses joy and pride about the tracks on "Love Trip" after putting the CD into the stereo. But also there is the claim by Takemoto that Ms. Shohoji's good friend mentioned in the entry happens to be married to the Takako Mamiya! From what I gather from what I've been able to read from the entry, I don't think that Ms. Shohoji has actually met the singer since she has also referred to Mamiya as that "mysterious singer", but for those Mamiya fans who can read and understand Japanese (including Mr. Takemoto), have a look at the entry and let me know if the mystery has finally been resolved about her post-"Love Trip" life since I'm not 100% sure.

PAO -- We'll Celebrate Tonight

Yup, over a year ago, I actually got my copy of PAO's "YOU" album from 1980 through Tower Records Japan. Before then, I'd still been wondering about the enigma surrounding The Mystery Woman of City Pop, Takako Mamiya（間宮貴子）and in my search, I came across this almost-as-mysterious band that she'd had a connection with back in the late 1970s called PAO.

Not knowing about this group and not seeing (at the time) any videos with any of their songs on YouTube, and not even seeing an entry on them in my "Japanese City Pop", I still figured that if Mamiya had been involved with PAO, then it would have been most likely some sort of AOR or City Pop project. Therefore, I decided to take on a search for this album that I had initially deemed as somewhat quixotic.

Strangely enough, though, Tower Records had reissued "YOU", the trio's lone album back in September 2015, so I didn't hold back and pulled the trigger on my money gun...rather eagerly looking forward to hearing what Mamiya had been up to before her legendary 1982 album "Love Trip".

Well, I will be honest. After my first listen to "YOU", I wasn't particularly overwhelmed in ecstasy at first. Perhaps at the time, I was getting a little bit overly City Popped but it just sounded as if the three members, at least for some of the tracks, were trying a little too hard to imitate The Manhattan Transfer in the delivery of what was primarily English lyrics in a majority of the songs. I think Hi-Fi Set（ハイ・ファイ・セット）and Circus（サーカス）were more accomplished there. As well, I took a gander at that cover on the CD, and just thought "Yeah....I guess folks did wear that sort of fashion non-ironically, didn't they?" Even Toshikazu Kanazawa of www.lightmellow.com mentioned in the liner notes that the one man and two women looked more like a trio of tarento from a Japanese variety show from those days than an actual music group.

However, since then, I've given "YOU" a few more listens and the sound is now coalescing much better in my mind (absence does make the heart grow fonder), and that includes this track, "We'll Celebrate Tonight" which is simply this nice and neat number of living it up in the city (most likely hitting the disco). And despite the 1980 tag on the album, this particular track has a good dollop of City Pop feeling from the 1970s; a bit reminiscent of "Chuo Freeway"（中央フリーウェイ）by Yumi Arai（荒井由実）. Nice guitar by Kenji Ohmura（大村憲司）as well.

Now, the three members of PAO are Sabine Marianne Kaneko（サビーネ金子）, Fumiko Miyazaki（宮崎文子）and Yoshikazu Miura（三浦義和）with Kaneko providing lyrics and Miura creating the melody. Uhhh...where is Takako Mamiya, you are asking? Well, I read those liner notes that Kanazawa had contributed and found out that the mysterious Ms. Mamiya wasn't involved at all in this album. In fact, her only involvement with PAO was on the group's first single in 1978, "Say Yes"（セイ・イエス）. Believe me, I tried to see if that song existed anywhere on the Net, and all I got was Chage & Aska's（チャゲ&飛鳥）hit single of the same name from 1991. However, as a bit of a consolation, the following shows a picture of PAO with Mamiya on the back of the cover sheet of the single (the actual cover only reveals a blonde disco lady).

Both photos are from http://bullet.shop-pro.jp

Briefly, I had been semi-convinced that the lady on the left of the cover drinking her coffee pensively was Mamiya, but it's actually Kaneko who had actually first made her mark by being a model in commercials. Sometime between that first single and "YOU", Miyazaki came in to replace Mamiya. Well, so it goes. Although the mystery surrounding Mamiya continues, I've got an album that's also melodiously continuing its way into my heart and mind.