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.
Last week's Reminiscings of Youth entry was "The Hustle" by Van McCoy and the Soul City Symphony, one of the premier songs of disco in the 1970s. I just realized that I'd forgotten to quickly put up another song that had a connection.
Inspired by "The Hustle", the long-running Fuji-TV kids' show "Hirake! Ponkiki"（ひらけ!ポンキッキ）had a couple of songwriters, lyricist Hiroo Takada（高田ひろお）and composer Juichi Sase（佐瀬寿一）, come up with their own brand of disco for the children. Titled "Hustle Baa-chan"(Grandma Hustle), this came out as a single in September 1976 after it got its due being played during the episodes with a fun old lady who may have had to wear the dentures and utilize a cane but could still get down like John Travolta on a Saturday night.
Can't say that it's a verbatim copy of Van McCoy's magnum opus but it's a kid-friendly kayo with some of those disco trappings. It was sung by Inoko Noko（のこいのこ）, who was born Ikuyo Inoko（猪子育代）in Yokohama, and has been known as one of the most prolific commercial jingle singers going from the 20th to the 21st centuries with over 800 jingles under her belt. She's also performed many songs for "Hirake! Ponkiki" as well.
You can give a listen to some of Noko's commercial jingles such as the one for Nikka Salad Oil and even more famous, the one for Onoden Electronics. I used to hear the latter all the time.
I was well into that 3-year period in Toronto between the JET Programme and my really long stay in Japan. A couple of friends were kind enough to send me video tapes of Japanese TV during that time, and one of them actually sent me a tape filled with this new Fuji-TV variety show (debuted in 1993) which knocked the socks off me. It was this crazy program which took the concept of the cooking show and elevated it into gladiator spectacle. And it was hosted by this foppish force-of-nature who presided over the epic proceedings like a benevolent cuisine-obsessed king. Plus, I was stunned to hear most of the background music consisted of the larger-than-life soundtrack from "Backdraft", a score that I liked so much that I bought the CD (still wonder how much Fuji-TV had to pay for the rights to feature that music).
For the first little while, I was fairly obsessed with the original "Ryori no Tetsujin"（料理の鉄人...Iron Chef） which I continued to watch even into my time in Japan since it was on late night on Fridays. But then the inevitable familiarity-breeds-contempt curse of the formula set in and I gradually weaned myself from the show, even not watching the entirety of the final episode in 1999.
Takeshi Kaga（鹿賀丈史）played the grand chairman of the cooking academy and he had the perfect voice and the saturnine looks to pull the whole hammy thing off. He's been an actor since he was a kid (born in 1950) but he also took some time to record a few singles.
Now, it's time for a personal tangent. In my early years of my life in Chiba Prefecture, there was "Ryori no Tetsujin" on Fridays for me to enjoy, and if I'd had a regular job in the Japanese corporate world, I would also have been heralding the start of my weekend. However, I was a NOVA English teacher which meant that regular Saturday/Sunday weekends were as preciously coveted as water in a desert. In that time, my "weekends" consisted of Mondays and Tuesdays, and so my mornings off then and even during the mornings before my afternoon/evening shifts consisted of me leisurely having breakfast and watching another Fuji-TV show, the kiddy program "Ponkikies"（ポンキッキーズ）.
So, why watch a show like that instead of the morning wide programs featuring adult news on the other channels, you may ask? Well, part of it was that "Ponkikies" had some pretty darn catchy tunes (which is why I have the Ponkikies category in the Labels). And one of them was done by Chairman Kaga himself.
With kids' tunes, I think they have to be earworms by nature and although it took me a long while to find out that it was Kaga who sang this one, "Ja-nay", this song hooked me hook, line and sinker right from the get-go. Launching with a rapid-fire torrent of 「じゃない、じゃない、じゃない」like a clickety-clack train, Kaga loopily goes into some nutty lyrics that were probably chosen more for their onomatopoeic pleasure than for any particular story although my theory is that they revolve around some over-caffeinated kid and his will to live life large and not listen to the grown-ups. Plus, "Ja-nay" has this really simple but contagious melody that brings to mind a combination of something country-western and The Beatles' "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" with the same sense of whimsy.
Released in August 1996, I have to admit that "Ja-nay" was one of the tunes that I looked forward to on "Ponkikies", and someone on the production staff had the brain wave to even make it into a quick calisthenics regimen. It could get not only the kids but even some of the adults moving about (didn't quite get me to stand up and move...was too busy flexing my arm to eat my breakfast danish).
"Ja-nay" was written by veteran lyricist Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）and composed by Makoto Mitsui（三井誠）who had come up with an evergreen J-Xmas tune a couple of years earlier. The song peaked at No. 38.
Many of my friends already know this about me but whenever I head to Japan on a visit, it will always be about friends, food and music. People may talk about Japanese cuisine as being healthy but that's really a matter of what one eats there, especially now with all sorts of international cooking and fast food pouring into the nation. And that's been the case since the forced opening of Japan back in the 19th century. When the citizenry were exposed to all of that Westernization, the Japanese twist on Western dishes, called collectively yoshoku（洋食）, came into being.
One of the representative dishes of this genre of Japanese cooking is omurice（オムライス）or rice omelette. Although I never regularly or ravenously gobbled down omurice during my 17 years in the Kanto, I did partake in the dish and enjoyed it thoroughly, especially at that old tea room in Ichigaya, Tokyo, where I had an English circle with a few students on a weekly basis. In terms of ingredients, it's not all that involved, either. Take some day-old rice, ketchup, some tiny pieces of chicken, diced onion, the requisite eggs and perhaps some zesty tomato sauce and just let that scene from the classic ramen western, "Tampopo" guide your way. Well, to be sure, refer to a YouTube recipe video.
As I mentioned before, "Banana Zero Music"（バナナ♪ゼロミュージック）devoted their show last week to food songs. One of them happened to be something that I had completely forgotten from the discography of Chisato Moritaka（森高千里）. Titled "Rockin' Omelette", it came out as her 21st single from January 1994 which had the singer come up with the lyrics of a very happy pair of parents connecting over one of Mama's prize dishes. Hiromasa Ijichi（伊秩弘将）, who has also worked with Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里）, created the jangly rock n' roll music.
I think one reason that I used to hear it before was that it was actually the very first opening theme to the Fuji-TV kids' program "Ponkikies"（ポンキッキーズ）. I'm not sure whether Moritaka was asked to come up with the song specifically for the show, but according to J-Wiki, its short length, catchy melody and relatively easy-to-remember lyrics made "Rockin' Omelette" an ideal song to start a "Ponkikies" episode off.
The single peaked at No. 13 on Oricon and although it was never placed onto an original album, "Rockin' Omelette" did get onto her BEST album "DO THE BEST" from March 1995. It reached No. 2 and became the 10th-ranked album of the year, breaking the million-selling barrier.
I was listening to Disc 1 of Tatsuro Yamashita's（山下達郎）"OPUS 〜ALL TIME BEST 1975-2012〜" earlier this afternoon. Gotta say that even one disc of his is enough to uplift the spirit...right from his starting days of New Music going into his years of City Pop. I'm also happy to say that there is still a number of songs by him to explore for the blog.
One such song is "Parade". Now I actually introduced the song many months ago back in 2015 through EPO's cover of it in her well-regarded 1982 album"Goodies". I did say there that I would talk about Tats' original "soon" but of course, me being me, promises are often forgotten and I did the same here. Well, as I have always said, better late than never.
"Parade" was originally a track on the album "NIAGARA TRIANGLE Vol.1" from March 1976. The album involved having Yamashita collaborate with fellow singer-songwriters Eiichi Ohtaki（大滝詠一）and Ginji Ito（伊藤銀次）to get some songs together on the same LP. They were also helped out by Tats' buddy from his old band Sugar Babe, Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）, Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）and two-thirds of the future Yellow Magic Orchestra, Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）and Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）among some other big lights in New Music.
As for "Parade", whereas the track on that 2012 BEST compilation cuts to the chase, apparently the original version is book-ended by a rolling piano intro and some sort of background music at the end. Perhaps Yamashita wanted "Parade" to feel as if the song suddenly burst in like a real impromptu parade down the main street, capturing everyone's attention for those few minutes. I can also say it's like a melodic sunny day with that nice dollop of 70s soul put in there to support his joyous vocals (I always envision colourful balloons floating into the sky as I hear him).
Considering that I've often featured Yamashita's late 70s/early 80s City Pop work, "Parade" is an interesting example of some happy-go-lucky New Music without too much of that feeling of being in the big city. However, it is darn summery which has been another characteristic of his discography.
(Sorry the Ponkikies video has been taken down.
This is the original by Tats.)
As someone who used to catch the Fuji-TV morning kids' program "Ponkikies"（ポンキッキーズ）after waking up, the above video is natsukashii. It was the custom of the program to provide a happy musical ending to each episode and I did remember this thing about a group of talented girls bopping about with brolleys while a song was playing. I just didn't know at the time that it was Tats and "Parade".
For some reason, "Parade" was even released as a single (his 26th) in January 1994, perhaps in favourable response to the "Ponkikies" ending. It did modestly well by peaking at No. 29. As for "NIAGARA TRIANGLE Vol.1", it also reached as high as No. 29 as an LP.
Since I've gotten into that nostalgic "Ponkikies"（ポンキッキーズ）mood thanks to writing about "Kimi to Boku"（キミとボク）in the last several minutes, I found another catchy song from the Fuji-TV kids' show. The songs used for the program were not only used in the music segments but also for the intros and outros. One particular song that resonated with me at the end of an episode was "Saa Boken da" (Hey, It's An Adventure) since the video involved scenes from the 1902 French movie "A Trip to the Moon".
This was sung by veteran soul singer Akiko Wada（和田アキ子）as her 59th single from September 1995. At first, I hadn't been able to recognize that it was the relatively tall and tough Wada since she approached it vocally with a lighter touch, and certainly it was a different sort of melody for her. In fact, I was downright impressed by the names involved in the making of "Saa Boken da". Chisato Moritaka（森高千里）and Shigesato Itoi（糸井重里）wrote the lyrics while Tatsuya Ishii（石井竜也）of Kome Kome Club（米米CLUB）took care of the music with the band arranging the whole thing.
"Saa Boken da" has that fun and carefree spirit of a road trip whether by car or motorcycle, and it looks like it was filtered through The Beatles with that harmonica in there. However, that melody also seems to be following a pattern similar to that old musical song "Ol' Man River". And just like that standard, "Saa Boken da" keeps rolling along to the next destination.
This particular article takes me back quite nicely. Not to the 70s or 80s, mind you, but to the 90s. A bit recent to be sure but those were the early days of my time in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture. I got to know my immediate neighbourhood in this bedroom community along with the larger Tokyo area, and within the area of pop culture, I started becoming acquainted with a new group of musicians and tarento on TV.
One such person I got to know is in the above video. Born as Tomoko Suzuki（鈴木智子）of Tokyo, her stage name is LanLan Suzuki（鈴木蘭々）. With her complexion and those rather large eyes, I had assumed that the lass was half-Japanese but such was not the case. During the 1990s, she was popping up on TV in ads and shows because of those looks and her adorably goofy personality.
One of the first things that I saw her in was the Fuji-TV kids program "Ponkikies"（ポンキッキーズ）on weekday mornings during which she was paired with future superstar Namie Amuro（安室奈美恵）as a pair of cute bunny figures known collectively as Sister Rabbits to perform just-as-cute songs. Mind you, the above video had the duo doing a fair bit of cosplay. Amuro had the vocal chops but so did LanLan.
Music was one of the attractions of "Ponkikies" (which is why I've added the show as a Label category on the right), and LanLan Suzuki contributed her own song close to the end of her tenure on the show titled "Kimi to Boku" (You and Me) as the 9th of her 10th singles which was released in May 1998.
Written and composed by EPO, this is a nice and light bossa nova ideal for the kiddies with the singalong part inside. I remember seeing LanLan perform this a number of times during the music segments of "Ponkikies" and listening to it again after so many years has given me that nice natsukashii glow. Her delivery with that slight warble reminds me of a mellower Kohmi Hirose（広瀬香美）.
Going into this century, I didn't see her nearly as much as before so I did wonder whether she had retired from showbiz but from what I've read on her J-Wiki bio is that she has still been acting on stage and in TV dramas, although her music career ended in 2001.
Incidentally, I thought Ms. Suzuki's stage name had been spelled as "RanRan" and the article about her on Wikipedia has it spelled that way. However since the lady herself has titled her blog as "LanLan", I will go with that.
In the early days of my time teaching in the Tokyo area, my teaching schedule was askew in that my weekends were Mondays and Tuesdays. The old NOVA school empire definitely made a regular Saturday and Sunday something to be preciously earned over many years...something that didn't sit well with me initially at least. However, there were some advantages in that visiting the various sightseeing sites and restaurants of Tokyo were much less crowded although my social life (such as it was) was slightly cramped when it came to going out with friends on Saturdays and Sundays since I couldn't stay out long at all.
However, I could be more leisurely about things on those Mondays and Tuesdays and there was a certain feeling of satisfaction that while everyone else had to rush out to work on Blue Monday, I was able to sleep in a bit more although for me, sleeping in meant waking up at 8 am. Often after the news was over at that time on Fuji-TV, I ended up watching the program that followed immediately afterwards which was the kid program Ponkikies（ポンキッキーズ）. That show could only have been geared for the kindergarten set since I couldn't imagine any kids older than 5 in Japan still staying at home at that time. But in any case, it was amusing to watch some of the antics of the characters and the music segments, one of which often included the kids' singing & dancing group, Folder.
This group of seven kids was launched from the Okinawa Actors' School, following in the footsteps of Namie Amuro（安室奈美恵）and SPEED. And it consisted of 5 girls and 2 boys of elementary and junior high school age: DAICHI, AKINA, ARISA, HIKARI, NATSU, MOE and JOE (the capital letters were their idea, not mine).
Debuting officially in August 1997 with "Parachuter", I have to say that this pint-sized engine of song & dance could cut quite the rug (my generation's equivalent of "bust a move") and the song created by Kazuko Kobayashi and Minoru Komorita（小林和子・小森田実）is quite catchy. The background vocals made me wonder if either Toshinobu Kubota or Keizo Nakanishi had a hand in the song's production but that didn't seem to be the case.
The single also made it onto Folder's first album"The Earth" which came out in November 1998. I couldn't find out in either the single or the album's case whether they were successful on Oricon but I'm fairly sure from their television exposure that they had a goodly amount of attention.
As Folder, the unit released a total of 7 singles and 2 albums between 1997 and 2000 before the two boys, JOE and DAICHI, left the group leaving just the 5 girls to keep going for a few more years as Folder5. Marcos V. has already written about one of their songs, "Final Fun-Boy" from 2001. Folder5 then folded (oops, sorry) in 2003.
According to J-Wiki, most of Folder have gone on to bigger and better things such as becoming solo singers and choreographers in their own right. But the most famous member has been HIKARI, or as she is known now, actress Hikari Mitsushima（満島ひかり）who is now showing on TV screens on TV Japan on Monday nights portraying the real-life over-the-top actress/host Tetsuko Kuroyanagi in "Totto Terebi"（トットてれび...Totto TV） on NHK.
A technopop tune that even the toddlers would love, which would explain why it got heavy rotation on the Fuji-TV kids show "Ponkikies"（ポンキッキーズ）. When I had the morning shift at NOVA or at my other school, I would have to get up somewhat early and have breakfast while catching a bit of the program. Some time during the half-hour program at 8 a.m., there would be a song of the day which is why I came across "Popo".
I always thought Denki Groove（電気グルーヴ） was a unit that also had a quirky sense of humour, and probably for that reason, some of their creations would have been approachable for the elementary school set. "Popo" just came on in its 1-minute version on "Ponkikies", but it was instantly catchy, and what kids wouldn't love to get on an old SL and become the engineer? Released in November 1994, it was the band's 4th single and was created by members Takkyu Ishino and Pierre Taki（石野卓球・ピエール瀧）.
The above link will take you to that one-minute version I used to see weekly on the show. I had forgotten how fun and funky the video was. The song itself got as high as No. 12 on Oricon and it was also part of Denki Groove's 5th studio album, "Dragon" which came out in December 1994.
The above is a little treat. As I said, a number of cute songs was part of the Ponkikies discography, and here is another train-themed one that I often caught. The two performers here were just teenagers at the time, but one is future actress/tarentoRan Ran Suzuki and the other will become even more famous. See if you can recognize her.
First off, a little lesson on Japanese confections. The above is taiyaki, a sweet bean paste-filled cake made in the shape of tai, or sea bream. The crisp outer shell is made from a pancake or waffle batter. It can be found basically anywhere in Japan, but in Tokyo, if you head over to Asakusa, you're guaranteed in finding a place that makes the stuff. I've had taiyaki myself a few times on visits to the metropolis' traditional quarter.
Now, to the story of this unlikely children's song which has become immortalized in Japanese music legend. "Oyoge! Taiyaki-kun"(Swim! Taiyaki) is a tune about a taiyaki which manages to find temporary emancipation until his inevitable end. Written by Hiroo Takada（高田ひろお） and composed by Juichi Sase（佐瀬寿一）, it had been created as one of the songs for the long-running Fuji-TV kids' show, "Hirake Ponkikki".
It had been first sung on the show in early October 1975 by folk singer Keitaro Ikuta（生田敬太郎）. But when an accident suddenly waylaid Ikuta for some time, singer Masato Shimon（子門真人） came to the rescue and helped in sending the song into the sales stratosphere. Released as a single on Christmas Day 1975, it soon got huge demands in the record stores in the New Year. In fact, it debuted at No. 1 on January 5 1976 and stayed there for 11 straight weeks. I don't think a real taiyaki would have quite that sort of staying power.
It also reached another yet-to-be topped record by becoming the biggest selling single of all time at 4.5 million records in Japan, something that has been noted in The Guinness Book of World Records. And so the question is begged to be asked: what was up with this taiyaki? The answer isn't a profound one. According to J-Wikipedia, it just seemed the perfect storm of melody, Shimon's voice and that mysterious ability to entrance adults as well as the little ones. There have been further examples of a children's song reaching that sort of success: one was "Dango San Kyodai"（団子３兄弟....The Three Dumpling Brothers) in 1999, and perhaps a case can be made for 1990's No. 1 song, "Odoru Ponpokorin"（おどるポンポコリン....Dancing Ponpokorin）, the theme song for anime "Chibi Maruko Chan". And in fact, "Oyoge! Taiyaki-kun" was the No. 1 song for 1976. The eponymous album also reached the exact same heights for the year.
I think that video has also reached a certain legendary status.
