Reiko Kato -- Feel Me

 

It's been a happy 24 hours all around here for Canada. Not only did the Blue Jays sweep a series from the Boston Red Sox, but Team Canada managed to thump the Qatari team in the World Cup last night. Not a bad day for sports.

Let us begin Urban Contemporary Friday on KKP then with a song that perhaps straddles the line between regular pop and City Pop (and yes, I do consider City Pop going beyond the 1990s) in my estimation. I only discovered "Feel Me", Reiko Kato's（かとうれいこ）penultimate single from July 1997, just in the last few months and why I think that the song can have at least one foot in the urban contemporary of it all is that its underlying rhythm feels like something that I've heard within the sophisticated pop of bands such as Swingout Sister. Words and music were supplied by the late singer-songwriter Nobuo Ariga（有賀啓雄）who seems to have a lock on some atmospheric arrangements when it comes to his creations including this tune and his own "Rain Dolphin" from a few years back. He was also the man behind the classic duet "Shibuya de Go-ji" (渋谷で5時）.

Reiko Kato -- Spy Dai Sakusen（スパイ大作戦）

 

I have to admit that I only found out about this song just earlier today. But as soon as I saw the title "Spy Dai Sakusen" which is the official Japanese title for the original American TV series "Mission Impossible", I knew that I had to investigate, since I remain a big fan of its first few seasons in the 1960s.

For one thing, what was I going to hear in Reiko Kato's（かとうれいこ）"Spy Dai Sakusen"? A moody City Pop tune or a really jazzy number along the themes for James Bond? Neither as it turns out. First off, "Spy Dai Sakusen" is a track on Kato's January 1995 album "Reiko" and it was created by lyricist Masami Tozawa（戸沢暢美）, composer Mayumi Horikawa（堀川まゆみ）and arranger Yuji Toriyama（鳥山雄司）. It actually sounds like an upbeat whimsical pop song which probably has so-called "combatants" in the spy adventure of love. 

In Kato's J-Wiki article, there is indeed a note about this particular song and that the songwriters were all well aware of the title's significance but that's about it. As it is, Kato's "Spy Dai Sakusen" sounds as if it could have made for a theme song for a show of a totally different stripe instead of Bruce Geller's iconic series of adventure and intrigue.

Reiko Kato -- Walkin' Down The Love

 

It's only been since I started on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" that I got to know Reiko Kato's（かとうれいこ）role as a singer in show business. Before that, I had seen her on television as a tarento and then I found out that she was also a model. However, Marcos and I have been able to unravel some of the musical side of her career.

Kato has been an aidoru but according to the J-Wiki article on her November 1995 7th album "itch", she was going for a more mature approach to the songs here. The first track lays that out plainly as "Walkin' Down The Love" struts out the high-heel shoes on the pavement of the big city. Written by Kenzo Saeki（サエキけんぞう）and composed/arranged by Tomofumi Suzuki（鈴木智文）, the synth-brass and the groove bring out some sophisticated pop this side of Swingout Sister while straddling the line between 1990s City Pop and Shibuya-kei via some Motown rhythm. This might be the ideal song after getting the monthly pay packet and someone deciding that it's Miller Time!🍻

Reiko Kato -- Get Real

Sometimes we forget, but the beautiful Reiko Kato (かとうれいこ), one of Japan’s prime pin-ups during the early 90s, also had a singing career. Unfortunately for the girl, according to J-Wiki, even though she really wanted to be acknowledged by the public as a singer, her music didn’t sell as well as her swimsuit photo books.

At first, between 1990 and 1991, when she was marketed as a pin-up singer, some of her songs even had very alluring titles, like “Virgin Heart” (this one is almost a tradition in the aidoru world, to be honest), “Pool side no Sniper” (プールサイドのSniper), “LOVE MOTION” or “Shuumatsu no Adam & Eve” (週末のアダム&イヴ). All of them great pop/eurobeat songs, by the way. However, after a while, Kato was probably very dissatisfied with the fact that her CD covers were basically extensions of her gravure work, since many of them featured her wearing swimsuits, bikinis or sexy dresses that emphasized specific body parts.

As I’ve already commented with J-Canuck in past articles, Kato’s voice was pleasant enough, since she didn’t have that excruciating high pitch many Japanese aidoru singers had (and have) to employ. Even so, her success as a singer was lackluster.

Around 1992, though, she may have convinced the powers that be to change her image from a pin-up aidoru who sang harmless eurobeat songs into an artist or more mature aidoru. After a while, she changed labels and started becoming more involved in her music, even writing lyrics and composing songs. Honestly, I prefer her early output, but she was trying to have more control of her career, which is always remarkable in a way.

Anyway, even though I don’t find this period of her career as interesting as the first two years, it’s still possible to find a couple of nice songs here and there, with “Get Real” being a good example. Included in Kato’s overall 9th album “Tsuki no Uragawa” (月の裏側), which was released in December 1996, I think “Get Real” represents how she was able to embrace her seductive pin-up persona and combine it with the music. The result is this great funky tune with a more mature sound and alluring delivery by Kato.

Lyrics for “Get Real” were written by Reiko Kato herself, while music was composed by Yoshimasa Inoue (井上ヨシマサ). Also, just to put some emphasis on the right info, for some reason, the uploader on YouTube introduced the song as part of Kato’s album “SPECIAL!” (released in 1991), but, as I’ve pointed out before, it was released five years later as part of “Tsuki no Uragawa”.

Seri Ishikawa/Reiko Kato -- Moonlight Surfer （ムーンライト・サーファー）

I think one of the reasons that the Japanese have been so much in love with Hawaii is surfing. There is nothing more that hints at the pure hedonistic pleasure of leisure than hanging ten on that surfboard on a big wave. And for folks who have often been perceived to approach the act of work like a military mission, hitting the surf must feel like to some as absolute joy.

"Moonlight Surfer" is a song that I've got a couple of copies of. I've got the original by Seri Ishikawa （石川セリ）but over the past Christmas as I was listening to one of my latest acquisitions in the form of "Moonlight Island" by Haruko Kuwana（桑名晴子）, there was a cover of Ishikawa's 8th single from 1979. However, the Kuwana version cannot be found anywhere on the Net but hearing it on the CD was enough for me to talk about the original.

The single may have come out in 1979 but it was originally the first track on Ishikawa's 3rd album, "Kimagure"（気まぐれ...Whimsy）which was released in June 1977. Written and composed by rock singer Haruo Nakamura（中村治雄）, it's about that girl tagging along with her guy who just has this thing for trying to catch that wave at night. There is that hint of 50s in the arrangements, although the tinkling piano intro had me first thinking whether it was Yuming behind the melody as was the case with "Asayake ga Kieru Mae ni"（朝焼けが消える前に）, but it soon became apparent that it musically described that trip down to the beach in that old DeSoto with the surfboards tied up on top.

Marcos V. covered pin-up model-turned-singer/actress/tarento Reiko Kato（かとうれいこ）for her song "Love Motion", and he mentioned about her Eurobeat tunes. Kato's cover of "Moonlight Surfer" had none of that influence, instead going for a slightly reggae beat when it was released as her 3rd single in October 1991. I never knew Kato as a singer since I primarily saw her as a regular on various variety shows on the telly, but she's got a pretty good voice, and especially with her cover here, she does have quite a bit of enthusiasm for the material.

Sorry, only daylight surfers here.

Reiko Kato -- Love Motion

I have a very uncommon relation with Reiko Kato (かとうれいこ). Well, maybe not so uncommon. The truth is I really like her and all the eurobeat stuff she released early in her career. Also, she was diferent from your typical aidoru, even if her facial expressions were cute and lovely. I’m saying that basically bacause her music video collections were just like her sexy image videos, but with her songs playing at the background. In other words, they were not just music videos, but a way to Reiko show off her amazing and busty body, which was her main selling point. And that really applies to the music video for “Love Motion”, which was filmed for her debut music video collection "LISTEN TO YOUR HEART" in 1990.

While the song is not the most adventurous one, but just a catchy eurobeat pop song, “Love Motion” has its charm. Also, while the clubby beats of the original song (yes, it’s a cover) were toned down to result in Reiko’s poppy version, the jarring synths that gives the listener an euphoric feeling were unmodified. As for the video, it’s what it is! We just have to wait for Reiko’s bikini scenes to arrive and give us a moment of innocent pleasure. What a “healthy” girl she was during the early 90s!!!

You can listen to Superlove’s original extended version of “How Deep Is Your Love” (that’s the name of the original song) below. Although it’s not among eurobeat’s strongest offers, it’s a fun song.

Apparently, Reiko’s “Love Motion” was released for the first time in the “Special!” compilation, which was released in 1991.

Chisato Moritaka -- OVERHEAT NIGHT (オーバーヒート・ナイト)

Today I’m going to talk about “OVERHEAT NIGHT”, the second single released by Chisato Moritaka (森高千里), in October 1987. After talking specifically about the song, I make some considerations about the fashion style portrayed by Moritaka and some other sexy idols that were active during the late 80s/early 90s.

In general, “OVERHEAT NIGHT” is a disco inspired song with some eurobeat elements. We can find three different versions of the song in Moritaka’s discography. The single edit version, the full album version found in the “Mi-Ha” album (ミーハー) and the “new recording” version found on the “Moritaka Land” best album (森高ランド). The version presented in the beginning of the article is the single edit and its video features a young and not-very-sexy Moritaka. My favorite one, however, might be the “Moritaka Land” version. Therefore, I decided to share the version performed on the “Mite Special Live” (見て ~スペシャル~ ライヴ) from 1989 (one of my favorite idol concerts ever) because it is similar to the one found on the “Moritaka Land” compilation. This specific recording of the song is even more disco inspired, with a groovy bassline and some nice synth work. Also, we can note that Chisato, during the “Mite Special Live”, makes use of her typical and famous sexy/pin-up persona.

Making some comparisons, we can relate Moritaka’s music to Minako Tanaka (田中美奈子), Aya Sugimoto (杉本彩) and Reiko Katou (かとうれいこ), three idols that were relying heavily in disco/eurobeat inspired songs at the time. About Minako Tanaka, I remember that when I first watched her singing in a TV show, she was almost a replica of Chisato Moritaka: the long/straight/black hair, the up-body outfits, the mini-skirts and, of course, THE LEGS (in my humble opinion, Moritaka’s were better). Aya Sugimoto and Reiko Katou, on the other hand, were overly sexual examples of late 80s/early 90s idol. So, based on these four girls (Chisato, Minako, Aya and Reiko), we can see that a different kind of idol, not focused just on the cute look, was emerging in Japan around the late 80s/early 90s. Therefore, it’s quite suggestive that during the so-called “winter era of idols” or “idol cold age” (Idols and Celebrity in Japanese Media Culture. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN, 2012, p. 24), this new kind of feminine representation came to light in the Japanese idol world.

Take a look at the videos below. The songs are, respectively, “Tell Me” (1989) by Minako Tanaka, “B&S” (1989) by Aya Sugimoto and "Listen To Your Heart" (1990) by Reiko Katou. In general, they are good pieces of late 80s dance-pop music, so enjoy the songs and the girls’ charms.

Although I’m not a late 80s fashion expert, I noticed that Chisato and Minako were influenced by some outfits used in England during the SAW (“Stock Aitken Waterman” production team) heyday. I selected, for example, a performance by singer Sinitta. The name of the campy/cheesy song is “Toy Boy” (1987) and the male dancers’ choreography/outfits are creepy as hell, so forget them and focus on Sinitta, please. Basically, we can see that her clothes are not so far away from the outfits used by the two sexy Japanese idols mentioned above. 

Curiously, I remember watching a 2007 Japanese comedy/sci-fi movie called “Bubble Fiction: Boom or Bust” (バブルへGO!! タイムマシンはドラム式) and, as the title reveals, the movie is passed in 1990, when the bubble economy times were going down of the roof. The plot is kinda cheap and is not very interesting for this article, but the hairstyle and outfits used by the actresses (not Ryoko Hirosue [広末涼子], the main one, because she was a time traveler from 2007) were very similar to the ones used by Chisato Moritaka and Minako Tanaka. As I didn’t live/visit Japan at the time (I couldn’t as I was born in 1990), I can’t really tell if that kind of look was trendy, but based on Chisato, Minako and this particular movie, I created some sort of image of Japanese girls fashion during the late 80s/early 90s. Also, I don’t know if this fashion style was common in the United States as well. I need to check this better someday. But take a look at one scene of the movie below. The song playing in the background is, of course, "Diamonds" by PRINCESS PRINCESS (プリンセス プリンセス), the number one song of the year 1989.

As I said earlier, “OVERHEAT NIGHT” was Moritaka’s second single, released in October 1987. The single reached #24 on the weekly Oricon chart and sold around 22,000 copies (source: generasia). The song was placed in a full format in her second album “Mi-Ha”, released in March 1988. It was later included in three compilations: “Moritaka Land” (1989), “The Best Selection of First Moritaka 1987-1993” (1999) and “The Singles” (2012). The song was written by Hiromasa Ijichi (伊秩弘将) while the music and arrangement were made by Saito Hideo (斉藤英夫).

Even though “OVERHEAT NIGHT” isn’t Moritaka’s best, I enjoy it a lot, and it was one of her first songs that hooked me. So I consider it a special song.

To end this article, here’s a photo of my own copy of “The best Selection of First Moritaka 1987-1993” compilation. “OVERHEAT NIGHT” is the second song from the first disc.