Billy Joel -- The Bridge

 

Looking at the above public domain-friendly photo from Wikimedia Commons, he's got considerably less hair and he's got more of a paunch but he'll always be Billy Joel to me (ha, ha). Yup, the Piano Man turned 77 a few months ago but I will always see him in that work-a-day suit tickling the ivories. 

A few weeks ago, I did a Reminiscings of Youth posting on Level 42' s "Running in the Family" album, one of those EPs that I put onto audiotape as one of the go-to listenings during those times overnight when I just had to get a thesis done or cram for an exam during university. Well, I forgot that Joel's July 25th 1986 album "The Bridge" was another one of those musical energy drinks that I had also transferred to tape. Incidentally, it is a holiday here in Toronto so I'm doing the usual special ROY post.

"The Bridge" isn't up there with Joel's absolute best such as "The Stranger" or "Turnstiles" or "An Innocent Man", and even Billy himself agreed with his critics that "The Bridge" wasn't the greatest work he's created. But I have to state that even a self-professed not-so-great album by Billy Joel is still not a bad thing at all. Having said that, I'm not giving "The Bridge" the same treatment as my two-parter on "The Stranger" in which every track was deserving of some comment.

One reason that I ended up buying Joel's 10th studio album was because of "Big Man on Mulberry Street", a Big Band jazz blast that was the Piano Man's contribution to a "Moonlighting" episode in which Maddie Hayes, played by Cybill Shepherd, dreams an epic old Hollywood song-and-dance sequence starring his love-and-hate detective partner David Addison, played by Bruce Willis. 

Yep, you (who are younger than 40) read that correctly...Bruce Willis. As with Joel, he now has less hair and more of a paunch, but back then, who knew that he could trip the light fantastic with a bunch of choreographers? But seeing that sequence and hearing "Big Man on Mulberry Street", the story of a nebbish in New York City who punched way too high above his station in life, I was just so impressed that this 70s pop-and-rock guy could swing jazz as well that I knew I had to get "The Bridge" just for this track.

Tracks from the album did make it out as singles. And I did hear "Modern Woman" and "A Matter of Trust" on the radio all the time, but to be honest, they never really stuck with me. However, if "Big Man on Mulberry Street" was the reason that I purchased "The Bridge", then the first track "Running on Ice" was the reason that I've kept "The Bridge" all these years. 

"Running on Ice" is the equivalent of Charlie Brown skating and failing horribly as he takes out every single Peanuts character on the frozen pond and with everyone from Lucy to Snoopy out to get him, he just causes more mayhem. I heard it has been used in a spoof drama on the US version of "The Office" and perhaps it can be used for some sort of comedic ice hockey montage. The drums by Liberty DeVitto are incredible and absolutely vital for the song to work.

I've known that Joel is a singing chameleon of sorts. He's done Ray Charles on "New York State of Mind", Mick Jagger on "It's Still Rock n' Roll to Me" and even Frankie Valli for "Uptown Girl". But I had no idea that Joel was channeling The Police for "Running on Ice". I had been wondering why he clipped his vocals so high on that one and it turned out he was trying to emulate Sting. 

The last song I'm featuring here is another jazzy one and speaking of Ray Charles, he finally and successfully got associated with Joel on "Baby Grand". Billy may not have been able to get the legendary Charles to do "New York State of Mind" initially but a decade later, the two of them were having fun with their ballad in tribute to the baby grand piano.

In Canada, "The Bridge" made it up to No. 10 on RPM while it reached No. 7 on America's Billboard. Its highest rankings came in Australia and Japan where it peaked at No. 2 in both nations. So, as usual, let's find out what singles were coming out onto record store shelves in Japan in June 1986.

KUWATA BAND -- Merry X'mas in Summer

Kyoko Koizumi -- Yoake no MEW （夜明けのMEW）

Onyanko Club -- O-saki ni Shitsurei（お先に失礼）

Morton Gould -- So In Love/Night and Day

Wikimedia Commons

This week's Reminiscings of Youth will be a little more unusual and involved so please bear with me today. For one thing, this really ought to be one of those Reminiscings of Babyhood articles actually, but I'll explain as we go along.

For citizens and international residents of Japan of a certain age such as myself, there was the weekly Sunday night Hollywood movie of the week on TV Asahi that lasted for decades since the 1960s. So, folks could watch anything from that decade to something more contemporary like a Steven Seagal action flick but it had to fit within the tight two-hour slot with commercials...which often meant that the movie had a fair amount of footage slashed out. Annoying as heck, but that's the way it was. 

The host of "Nichiyou Youga Gekijo"（日曜洋画劇場...The Sunday Western Movie Theatre） for most of its time was the avuncular and dapper movie critic and tarento Nagaharu Yodogawa（淀川長治）. He always showed up at the beginning of the show to introduce the film and then wrap up with his thoughts about it for a few minutes before signing off with "Sayonara, sayonara, sayonara". 

Then, there were the ending credits for "Nichiyou Youga Gekijo" which had stills or slow-motion footage of the movie just presented while this really dramatic and melancholy-sounding song played in the background. In fact, I found the music so sad that I was more than happy to switch the channel. I wouldn't find out until literally several days ago that the piece was a Cole Porter standard called "So In Love" as interpreted by conductor and arranger Morton Gould.

"So In Love" was a song used in one of Porter's famous musicals "Kiss Me Kate" from 1948. It was also used in the 1953 cinematic adaptation, but Gould's interpretation was presumably from 1951. Now that I've heard the whole thing above, I have a better view of it as something more epic and moving. Japanese commenters have complimented it as being very nostalgic since they used to watch the Sunday movie of the week when they were younger.

But "So In Love" hadn't been the main target for my ROY ROB this week. That was merely a happenstance stumbling discovery. Actually, it was for another Porter classic "Night and Day" which had been created in 1932. I remember getting to see it performed on the 2004 "De-Lovely", the Porter biopic musical starring Kevin Kline where I could glean some more insight into what the song was about.

Now, I realize that there have been many renditions of "Night and Day", sung and instrumental. But the reason that I started all this was that I remember the very first rendition that I heard of this song and it was by the aforementioned Morton Gould through his 1961 record "Kern/Porter Favorites" although that track later showed up on our "RCA 50 Years Of Hits In Stereo" that I wrote about last October. 

According to his Wikipedia article, Gould was a master of interweaving different musical genres into formal classical structure without losing any of the main elements from either the adopted genres or the original song. Gould had a few more contributions to my family's "RCA 50 Years of Hits In Stereo" which were "Brazil" and "Blues in the Night" and I note that he was epic and playful with those.

With "Night and Day", he showed that same verve for grandness. His take took the ultimate song of pining away in love and made it into his own overture movie. To me, his "Night and Day" sounds like a romance between two people rudely interrupted by war with the happy and grateful return interpreted as this huge orchestral rush. And it just happened to be a song that I heard often enough as a kid on the old RCA stereo.

So, let's see about some of the major singles of 1961 in Japan.

Kyu Sakamoto -- Ue wo Muite Arukou (上を向いて歩こう)

Yujiro Ishihara & Junko Makimura -- Ginza no Koi no Monogatari （銀座の恋の物語）

Hitoshi Ueki -- Suudara Bushi (スーダラ節）

Olivia Newton-John -- Twist of Fate

By Alan Light via Wikimedia Commons

The last time I brought Olivia Newton-John into Reminiscings of Youth was a little over a year ago when I wrote about her early 1970s ballad "I Honestly Love You". When I look back on her career from that time forward a decade, it's amazing how much she changed her style. And yes, I'm well aware that we are approaching the 4th anniversary of her passing.

From a well-scrubbed country lass back in those 1970s to a New Wave diva of the early 1980s (and a disco gamine in between...along with her time in "Grease"). Yep, I'm referring to the above music video for her October 1983 hit "Twist of Fate" which I saw a lot on the video shows. I'm not sure whether a lot of folks actually watched the movie that it was attached to, the 1983 "Two of a Kind", starring Newton-John and her old buddy from "Grease", John Travolta, but the song and the video sure were popular. 

As I mentioned, "Twist of Fate" was a synthpop/New Wave-y concoction produced by David Foster and created by Steve Kipner and Peter Beckett that was catchy and pretty much screamed "I'M OF THE 80'S!" in its arrangement. Maybe it could have gotten folks onto the dance floor as well. But it was the music video that got my attention at least with a glammed-up Olivia strutting into a seemingly futuristic court. I swear that she looked halfway to becoming a live-action version of Memphis Group art. I think even the singer mocked herself in a later interview about how much lipstick she spackled onto her mouth for the video, although I thought she looked dang hot to be honest.😉

In Canada, "Twist of Fate" reached No. 5 on RPM while in the United States, the song peaked at No. 5 as well. So, what was up on the Oricon charts on October 24th 1983, a few days after the release of this OJN hit? Just for fun, let's go with Nos. 18-20.

18. Tomio Umezawa -- Yume Shibai （夢芝居）

19. Yuki Katsuragi -- Bohemian （ボヘミアン）

20. H2O -- Omoide ga Ippai （思い出がいっぱい）

Level 42 -- Running in the Family

 

It's been said that Level 42's "Something About You" from 1985 remains as the band's biggest accomplishment, and I couldn't disagree since it was the first song that I heard by the English group on the radio and it really grabbed me by the shoulders and has never let go. However, having said that, I think Mark King and his guys released a lot of other great tunes as well, some of which I'll be writing about on this week's Reminiscings of Youth...this time as an album, namely their March 1987 "Running in the Family".

Buying the LP and then recording it onto audiotape, "Running in the Family" became one of those go-to albums that I played whenever I had to pull an all-nighter during university. In fact, it was one of three LPs that I put onto tape, the others being Hiromi Iwasaki's（岩崎宏美）1986 "Wagamama"（わがまま）and "Uchuu Senkan Yamato Kanketsuhen Tehma Ongakushuu II"（宇宙戦艦ヤマト 完結編 テーマ音楽集Ⅱ）, one of the soundtracks for the 1983 anime movie "Final Yamato". Yes, it's a rather eclectic musical triumvirate but I was playing these guys non-stop while typing away to desperately get my thesis done and keep away that bothersome gnat called sleep. The cups of green tea helped as well.

I just wanted to feature my three favourite tracks from "Running in the Family" although the entire album is great. These three were all released as singles with arguably the most famous one being "Lessons In Love" that had actually been released almost a year before the album itself. The album, by the way, has been categorized as a sophisti-pop creation which I'm not sure about. Sophisti-pop is something that I actually think has plenty of champagne-clinking strings and brass along the lines of Swingout Sister. "Lessons In Love" certainly sounds more like funk-rock plus pop, and it's an infectiously fun piece either in its original four-minute-and-change form or the longer extended take, and I think it was the latter where I first heard "Lessons In Love" which was another grab of my shoulders. I got to know more about the famous King slap-bass technique through this one, too.

"Lessons In Love" reached No. 14 in Canada and No. 12 in the United States while it reached No. 1 in nations like Denmark, Finland and Spain.

The second of my favourites is the title track. "Running in the Family" is a cheerful melodic treatise on the average family with average rambunctious kids. In a way, although the band's description of the family is not really dysfunctional, I've often wondered if this could have made for a pretty cool theme tune for a movie on a really dysfunctional family such as "The Royal Tenenbaums". The blasting synth riff will always live rent-free in my head. The single was released in February 1987 and it was also hitting the Top 10 in several countries including the band's own UK.

"To Be With You Again" starts off on Side B of the original LP and it has such a great intro that I was always looking forward to it on the tape to get my eyes and brain fully awake once more in the overnight hours. It's quite the soaring piece and I have to mention here that I've always liked the vocal combination of keyboardist Mike Lindup with his high voice and King's deeper and grounded tones. The song was also the first single from "Running in the Family" to be released after the album's release by coming out in April 1987. It did more modestly than the aforementioned songs although it did come in at No. 6 in Italy and the Netherlands.

Meanwhile, the album reached No. 6 in Canada, No. 23 in America and No. 2 in the UK. I haven't done all-nighters since the first George Bush was US President but wouldn't it be nice to place that audiotape into the machine again (although I'm still worried about Jaws!)? Then again, I have a perfectly benign record player that can handle the LP.

So, what were three singles in Japan that were being released in the merry month of March 1987?

Fuyumi Sakamoto -- Abaredaiko (あばれ太鼓)

Checkers -- I Love You, SAYONARA

Miho Nakayama -- Hade!!!（「派手!!!」）

Bonnie Tyler -- It's a Heartache

Wikimedia Commons

I was watching the local news here when the breaking news hit the screen that singer Bonnie Tyler had passed away at the age of 75 today. Apparently since the information came out regarding her death, her 1983 hit "Total Eclipse of the Heart" has been getting a lot of looks. Tyler already has recognition on this blog for that very song and I'd been thinking of using today's ROY slot to give tribute to her 1984 "Holding Out for a Hero", but then, I realized that when I had posted Miki Asakura's（麻倉未稀）cover of the song, I basically treated the article also as a proto-ROY one.

So, I've gone back several years before her really large feathery hair music video days in those 1980s and back to her 1970s days to listen to her "It's a Heartache". Released on November 4th 1977 as her 5th single, this was created by Ronnie Scott and Steve Wolfe and I remember it as this genteel country ballad that got a lot of airplay on AM radio. And strangely enough, I only heard it on radio and never saw the face behind the song. At the time, I wasn't much for remembering names so I was surprised years later that it was indeed Bonnie Tyler who had sung this one although it should have been recognizable because of her famously husky voice.

"It's a Heartache" was a No. 1 hit in several countries including Canada and France. In the United States, it got as high as No. 3 while in the UK, it reached No. 4. 

Speaking of her husky voice, that all came about from a surgical procedure earlier to remove some nodules from her vocal cords. "It's a Heartache" was one of her first recordings following that surgery and from what I've read on the article for the song, her "new" voice made the song and most likely her entire career from that point onwards. Of course, I was interested in how Tyler had sounded in her first few singles before surgery so I pulled out her debut single "My! My! Honeycomb" from 1976. To be honest, I find her voice here to be a smoother version without the extra burr.

The Oricon rankings had their weekly report on November 7th 1977. So, what was up at the top of the list? Also, my condolences go out to Tyler's family, friends and fans throughout the world.

1. Pink Lady -- Wanted

2. Joe Yamanaka -- Ningen no Shomei （人間の証明）

3. Momoe Yamaguchi -- Cosmos (秋桜)

Whitney Houston -- How Will I Know

 

So far, in the Reminiscings of Youth file, I've only put up one Whitney Houston article and that was for the fabulous "Saving All My Love for You". She was one of the great love song balladeers.

But of course, Houston could do the upbeat stuff, too. And this one, her November 1985 single "How Will I Know" was one long-lasting hit on the airwaves as well as the video ones. I think it was pretty much fait accompli that I would see the music video for "How Will I Know" weekly for months on end. My impression of the video was that Whitney and her dancers were going through a labyrinth designed jointly by United Colors of Benetton and the makers of fruit-bottom yogurt. The song was a synthpop-funk treat that was created by George Merrill, Shannon Rubicam and Narada Michael Walden, and I couldn't quite believe that it had been first offered to Janet Jackson but was passed over to Houston.

In Canada, "How Will I Know" reached No. 1 while in America, the song was also a No. 1 hit. It also hit the top spot in Iceland. At the time, everything Houston touched turned to gold. So, what else was hitting the charts over in Japan on November 25th 1985, a few days after "How Will I Know" had been released?

1. Akiko Kobayashi -- Koi ni Ochite (恋におちて）

2. Checkers -- Kamisama Help!（神様ヘルプ！）

3. Kiyotaka Sugiyama & Omega Tribe -- Garasu no Palm Tree（ガラスのPALM TREE）

Bruce Cockburn/Barenaked Ladies -- Lovers in a Dangerous Time

World Atlas via Wikimedia Commons

On this blisteringly hot day, Canada is 159 years old. Happy Birthday to the Great White North! Personally, I'm trying to stay cool in my room with the decades-old electric fan helping me out. 

Of course, being a national holiday and all, Reminiscings of Youth will be having a special article today (along with the regular weekly one tomorrow) to commemorate Canada Day. Glad to read that Ottawa-born singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn (pronounced KOH-bərn...like James Coburn) is with us at the age of 81. Forty-two years ago in 1984, he released his "Lovers in a Dangerous Time" which became a Top 40 hit here and a long resident on the music video charts on television. There were some contrasts here: 1) the contrast of young teens finding fresh new love during a time when the spectre of the Cold War was still looming large and 2) Cockburn's button-down and soothing pop-rock arrangement meshed with a performance video of what I could describe as something quite avant-garde Cirque du Soleil. 

In Canada, "Lovers in a Dangerous Time" reached No. 24 on the RPM charts while on US Billboard, it peaked at No. 56.

Barenaked Ladies was a band born in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough. It's nicknamed Scarberia because of how desolate parts of it can look like during the winter (just look at the music video) but it also has a ton of restaurants of all nationalities that can keep people very happy and fed. Anyways, Barenaked Ladies was the same band behind the theme song for the long-running American sitcom "The Big Bang Theory", and they've been a bunch of good local boys who love to rock with a sense of humour. I first found out about them through a friend's car tape-cassette recorder when he was playing a compilation of their stuff which included their cover of "Lovers in a Dangerous Time". 

It's a friendly, folksy and peppy take on Cockburn's original and watching Ed Robertson and the gang perform from the back of a pickup truck while it drives on the streets of Scarborough in the dead of winter is probably one of the most Canadian things I've ever posted on the blog. Their cover first appeared on the 1991 Cockburn tribute album "Kick at the Darkness" and it was released as the band's debut single in 1992.

The original song peaked on August 18th 1984, so why don't we see what was hitting the top of the Oricon charts a couple of days later? Let's go with a scattering of songs here with Nos. 5, 7 and 10.

5. Mariko Takahashi -- Momo Iro Toiki （桃色吐息）

7. Southern All Stars -- Miss Brand-New Day

10. Mari Iijima -- Ai Oboeteimasuka? （愛・おぼえていますか）

Jerry Goldsmith -- Theme from "Barnaby Jones"

Wikimedia Commons

"A Quinn Martin production!"

For anyone who grew up in the 60s and 70s and was at least able to catch a little bit of the prime-time police procedurals or detective shows on television (usually it was just the opening credits since my brother and I were told in no uncertain terms to head to bed at the time they began), the name Quinn Martin was a familiar one.

At first, I'd thought that there was a Mr. Quinn and a Mr. Martin producing these cop shows but no, it was really one person named Quinn Martin. And although he didn't apply it to every one of his programs, there was a certain formula to the opening credits. A cool dramatic theme and graphic design intro sequence would start up with the gravitas-laden narrator stating the title of the show and the aforementioned quote at the top. Then, he would continue by introducing the main cast, the guest actors and finally the name of the episode title emblazoned on the screen. This was nicely parodied for the brief comedy series "Police Squad!".

The late great Jerry Goldsmith already has a lengthening file on KKP which includes his majestic theme for "Star Trek: The Motion Picture". And for all of the exciting intros for Quinn Martin shows, my favourite theme song was his contribution to the series "Barnaby Jones". For a detective series regarding an elderly but wise ol' gumshoe played by Buddy Ebsen, this was a pretty kickass theme with the stomping brass and a calm and calculating flute sequence. Ever since I decided to write about this one for Reminiscings of Youth, the theme has been stuck in my head.

The audience must have gone crazy when they were watching the 1993 cinematic redux of "The Beverly Hillbillies" when Barnaby Jones showed up in a cameo. Ebsen was the star of the original TV sitcom which lasted even longer than "Barnaby Jones".

In any case, the detective series premiered on January 28th 1973. Now, what was hitting the top of the Oricon charts the next day afterwards?

1. Shiro Miya & The Pinkara Trio -- Onna no Michi (女のみち）

2. Naomi Chiaki -- Kassai （喝采）

3. Mari Amachi -- Futari no Nichiyoubi (ふたりの日曜日)

ABBA -- SOS

 

Welcome to another Reminiscings of Youth article where I go over some of the songs from America, Canada, the UK and other nations outside of Japan that resonated happily in my ears and brains when I was a little tadpole. 

ABBA already has a small but growing file in KKP. "Dancing Queen" was the big hit of theirs that did become a part of my musical memories because of folks loving to sing it at karaoke both in Toronto and Tokyo. However, their earlier June 1975 single "SOS" was something that I first heard via those K-Tel record compilation commercials when I just kept hearing the chorus. "SOS" became one of those builder-uppers as I started getting more of their parts together. After the chorus, I finally got to hear the beginning with the somewhat contemplative piano and then the mournful lyrics by vocalist Agnetha Fältskog. It took a while but I finally got the entire song into my head. As for the music video above, they really liked their crane shots and reflective mirrors. No need for CG or AI here although those of course wouldn't be around for a few more decades.

On Canada's RPM, "SOS" made it up to No. 17 while in America, it peaked at No. 15. It did hit No. 1 in Australia, Belgium, New Zealand, South Africa, and West Germany.

Not only have I brought "SOS" to KKP just a little after its 51st anniversary but it's being posted about a year after my last ABBA tune, "Super Trouper". So, what was hitting the top of the Oricon charts a day before the release of "SOS"? I have Nos. 1, 2 and 4.

1. Akira Fuse -- Cyclamen no Kaori （シクラメンのかほり）

2. Downtown Boogie-Woogie Band -- Minato no Yoko, Yokohama Yokosuka （港のヨーコ・ヨコハマ・ヨコスカ）

4. Sakura to Ichiro -- Showa Kare Susuki （昭和枯れすゝき）

Peabo Bryson -- If Ever You're in My Arms Again

Kingkongphoto & www.celebrity-photos.com
via Wikimedia Commons

As KKP readers know, I do the weekly Reminiscings of Youth on Thursday and I did provide the one for Nik Kershaw earlier this afternoon. However, considering what I've heard in the last 24 hours or so, I feel that I have to write one more ROY tonight especially in the light of the passings of a few Japanese representatives in the music industry within the last month: songwriters Yuji Ohno（大野雄二）and Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）along with singer Yoichi Sugawara（菅原洋一）.

Singer Peabo Bryson passed away on June 2nd a couple of days ago at the age of 75 due to what may have been a stroke. The obituaries on television often mentioned his 90s duets for "Aladdin" and "Beauty of the Beast", but I had known him for a decade prior because of his songs coming onto radio frequently. And he's already got representation on KKP through two of those wonderful melodies from his work with Roberta Flack via the 1983 album "Born to Love".

The following year, another wonderful ballad was released by Bryson titled "If Ever You're in My Arms Again", which came out in April 1984. It's a lush Quiet Storm ballad of second chances that was created by Cynthia Weil, Michael Masser and Tom Snow, and listening to it once more reminded me that they don't come up with this sort of love song anymore. Some of those notes he hits! From the list of musicians involved, I notice that at least a few of them have worked with Japanese singers such as guitarist Paul Jackson Jr. and bassist Neil Steubenhaus. On the Adult Contemporary charts in both Canada and the United States, the song hit No. 1 with it staying at the top of the US chart for four weeks. I'm glad that a new generation is discovering his wonderful abilities.

My condolences go out to Bryson's family, friends and many fans. 

What else was coming out as singles in April 1984 in Japan?

Anzen Chitai -- Mayonaka Sugi no Koi （真夜中すぎの恋）

Meiko Nakahara -- Kimi Tachi Kiwi Papaya Mango da ne （君たちキウイ・パパヤ・マンゴだね。）

Yoko Oginome -- Mirai Koukai ~ Sailing （未来航海）

Nik Kershaw -- Wouldn't It Be Good?

 

I hadn't quite understood what the music video for Nik Kershaw's January 1984 hit "Wouldn't It Be Good?" was all about but dang, I really did enjoy the New Wave song. I finally realized that Kershaw had been acting as some alien curious about what humans were like and after having a good tasting, decided that they weren't all that healthy after all and scampered back off to his home planet. 

Still, as I said, "Wouldn't It Be Good?" was a good load of fun to listen to, and just for YMOfan04's benefit, I can explain that the synths used were a PPG Wave 2.2 and a Yamaha DX7. It made for quite an interesting riff, and I was surprised to find out that the cool instrumental bridge in the extended version was actually an "orchestra of electric guitars" rather than a bank of synth-horns which now makes things even cooler. 

I'd probably say that I heard "Wouldn't It Be Good?" more on the radio than saw the video on TV. The radio back then was giving it a whole lot of heavy airplay. In Canada, it hit No. 9 on RPM and in the United States, it only got as high as No. 46. Meanwhile in Kershaw's UK, it peaked at No. 4 on the OCC. 

So, what was occupying the Oricon charts a few days following the release of "Wouldn't It Be Good?" in the world? I have Nos. 5, 6 and 7.

5. Feifei Ouyang -- Love Is Over

6. Anri -- Kanashimi ga Tomaranai (悲しみがとまらない）

7. Jiro Atsumi -- Busan Ko e Kaere (釜山港へ帰れ)

A Taste of Honey -- Boogie Oogie Oogie

 

The disco/R&B band A Taste of Honey has had residency on KKP since the blog was three weeks old. I was tackling one of the great kayo classics in "Ue wo Muite Arukou" (上を向いて歩こう）, aka "Sukiyaki", when I also mentioned that A Taste of Honey provided their own cover on the song in the early 1980s...which proved to be their second and final hit in their career thus far.

However, as commendable as their elegant cover of the iconic Kyu Sakamoto（坂本九）song was, their first big hit has been the one that has been usually recognized when it comes to A Taste of Honey. The strange thing is that when I first heard their 1978 debut single "Boogie Oogie Oogie", it was through a TV performance of this song by then-teen sibling stars Kristy and Jimmy McNichol on some sort of nighttime special. With the whole mainstream disco craze, the McNichols' popularity at the time, and the novelty song-esque nature of that title, I actually did assume that this was the McNichols' tune, front and centre.

And yes, the above has Kristy and Jimmy, but no, it isn't for "Boogie Oogie Oogie".

So, it was actually many years later that I found out the truth that "Boogie Oogie Oogie" was by A Taste of Honey, and yeah as performed by Janice-Marie Johnson (and Hazel Payne) while slapping that bass hard and wearing those heels, maybe even the folks who were thinking that disco started to suck would have been willing to give a reprieve to this one. Heck, if I had been born a decade earlier, I probably would have been rarin' to run to my nearest disco and hit the dance floor. My dancing would have sucked for sure but I would have had oodles of fun doing so.

"Boogie Oogie Oogie" was not only a hit on the dance floor but also a hit outside of it as well. It hit No. 1 on Billboard's pop, disco and soul charts in September 1978, and according to the Wikipedia article for the song, it also became the first certified Platinum single in the history of Capitol Records by selling over 2 million records. I would probably posit that the chairman's office became a disco dance floor in celebration. 

So, we've got one of the primo disco songs coming out in 1978. What else was winning at the Japan Record Awards that year? 

Grand Prize: Pink Lady -- UFO

Best New Artist: Machiko Watanabe -- Kamome ga Tonda Hi （かもめが翔んだ日）

Gold Prize: Naoko Ken -- Kamome wa Kamome （かもめはかもめ）

Art of Noise -- Beat Box

 

I've already posted a number of Art of Noise articles in the past ten years as parts of the Reminiscings of Youth file here on KKP, and indeed, the avant-garde synthpop group consisting of Anne Dudley, Trevor Horn and all of the rest made up some of the most incredible collages of sounds to form music to add pleasure to my time in the 1980s. By the time that they came up with their version of "Dragnet" for the movie starring Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks in 1987, they were very much a welcome part and parcel of the decade's pop panoply.

However, several years earlier, I was honestly taken aback and maybe even somewhat intimidated by the Art of Noise when I heard their December 1983 debut single "Beatbox". It was nothing that I had ever heard before; they made this beloved song in the breakdancing world out of various sounds which emanated like and not like human voices screeching out a march alongside some pounding percussion and perhaps my first exposure to orchestral hits.

I've read and heard that there have been various takes (or diversions) on "Beatbox" on record and in music video. If so, then the music video below is the one that I've seen because I remember seeing that image of the London police officer getting duplicated and stretched out. It was quite the tourist video for London as well.

Among all of the diversions (I've seen No. 10), I think the one that I heard the most on radio was Diversion 1 which lasts more than eight minutes and finishes with a classy classical piano take on the core song. It's almost as if AON was trying to let us know that no matter all of the technology and sampling, music still comes down to a basic beautiful melody played out on an old-fashioned instrument.

So, as I said, "Beat Box" was released in December 1983. What else was being released in Japan in that month?

Yutaka Ozaki -- Juu-go no Yoru（15の夜）

Yoshie Kashiwabara -- Camouflage （カム・フラージュ）

Tatsuro Yamashita -- Christmas Eve

Stanley Clarke and George Duke -- Sweet Baby

It is a national holiday today so as per KKP custom, we have a special holiday version of Reminiscings of Youth. I'd say this story goes back almost thirty years but when I was teaching a class in Tokyo, I recall asking the students regarding their favourite ice cream flavour (my classes were often quite whimsical). One of the students was a half-French/half-Japanese lass named Francoise who was quite popular in the group and had quite the outgoing personality. As usual, she went beyond the parameters of the question and gave us her own choice of an invented ice cream flavour. When I then asked her what she would name this new taste, she enthusiastically chirped "SWEET BABY".

Not too long after, I was at Yamano Music in Ginza doing my usual browsing of anything interesting in the CD department. I ended up purchasing the two discs making up the BRIO AOR collection, one of which had a song by a couple of musicians that I had never heard before: the late American keyboardist George Duke and American bassist Stanley Clarke, and the two of them had apparently collaborated back in 1981 through an album titled "The Clarke/Duke Project". The song from that album was the song chosen for the BRIO collection and it was called surprisingly enough, "Sweet Baby".

Yes, I will always remember Francoise and her ice cream flavour through Clarke and Duke's "Sweet Baby". For one thing, the song is probably one of the smoothest and most enjoyable AOR songs that my ears have had the honour to absorb and digest, and for another, it came out in the year that I was finally awakened to the wonders of not only Japan but also music in general. My only regret is that I hadn't discovered it back then and that I would have to wait until the end of the century to finally know about it. And who would have thought that an AOR tune would invite an electric sitar into the mix? To finally reach full circle, I would love to encounter an ice cream at a parlor somewhere that was actually called Sweet Baby.

"The Clarke/Duke Project" came out in April 1981, so let's find out what else came out that month in Japan. 

Toshiyuki Nishida -- Moshimo Piano ga Hiketanara（もしもピアノが弾けたなら）

Hitomi Ishikawa -- Machibuse（まちぶせ）

Saki Kubota -- Orange Airmail Special

Prince -- When Doves Cry

 

A commenter told me a few weeks ago that the 10th anniversary of Prince's untimely death had occurred on April 21st and so I said that I would try and get another Prince song up as soon as possible. Well, just a couple of days shy of the 42nd anniversary since its release on May 16th 1984, I give you "When Doves Cry".

Prince already has half a dozen songs up on KKP but this is just his third ROY article as a performer after "Batdance"; the rest of the articles are up here because he contributed to the songwriting whether it be for Kahoru Kohiruimaki（小比類巻かほる）or other fellow artists such as Chaka Khan. But although I provided "Batdance" as his first ROY on the blog, I think it's safe to say that "When Doves Cry" is the more significant one in terms of his discography and legacy within music (it's ranked No. 37 on the "Rolling Stone" 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list).

Personally, my memories of "When Doves Cry" is the video which had heavy heavy airplay on the various music shows. For a period of several months, I frankly thought that it would become a permanent entry on any Top 10 video list. I had a friend who lived in a university dormitory who often woke up to this song along with one other tune; apparently he'd dance to it as well which is one good way to wake up for classes, although I'm not sure how his downstairs neighbour felt. 

Now that I've listened to it once more after a very long time, I realize that I'm having a tough time trying to categorize it. And apparently, Wikipedia has had a tough time of it, too, throwing a number of genres at it including avant-pop and neo-psychedelia which I never would have thought of. In the end, my Labels list has it as pop and R&B, but you readers may have different opinions. It is indeed a distinct song in the universe and many folks came to the same opinion as well as it topped the Billboard charts for months in America. It did the same in Canada, too.

Well, exactly 42 years ago to the day, what was up on the Top 10 of Oricon just about when "When Doves Cry" was released?

1. Checkers -- Kanashikute Jealousy （哀しくてジェラシー）

2. Akina Nakamori -- Southern Wind （サザンウインド）

3. Off-Course -- Kimi ga, Uso wo, Tsuita（君が、嘘を、ついた）

Fred Steiner -- Park Avenue Beat (The Perry Mason Theme)

 

Back on Monday, when I wrote up the piece on Hachiro Izawa's（井沢八郎）"Otokogasa"（男傘）, I made mention of the observation that there was a pounding on the piano keys in that kayo kyoku which reminded me of one of the earliest and most memorable television theme songs that I'd ever heard. I also stated that I would cover this today as this week's Reminiscings of Youth entry.

Well, here it is. Actually, this should be called a Reminiscings of Baby entry because when I was born, "Perry Mason" (1957-1966) was in its final season but of course, even back then in the age of black-and-white TV sets, there were the reruns so I got to hear the dramatic theme song over and over again. Perhaps my parents were into the legal series although I couldn't imagine that they could understand what was going on in Perry's courtroom. 

The theme song for "Perry Mason" by Fred Steiner turned up a lot of interesting tidbits...kinda like a typical episode of the show itself. For one thing, it's one of the few times that I've encountered a TV theme song that actually had a proper title and not just the "The Theme from (blank)". It was called "Park Avenue Beat" and a fellow Blogger blog "Ill Folks" gave its own story on the theme back in 2013 so have a look at that one.

Another good point about the theme was that it mixed the saucy R&B/jazz of the streets where a lot of the sordidness that Perry and his staff had to wade through existed with the elegant symphonic strings of the high life of fancy restaurants and dance halls which Perry also inhabited. I also think that "Park Avenue Beat" melodically traced the usual episode of "Perry Mason": it starts with an ominous trill and crash which could reflect a violent crime being committed and then it goes into the jazzy symphony as the burly Raymond Burr as Perry comes into the picture and investigates the heck out of the case before winning it by the end. Considering that glowering expression and his linebacker appearance (albeit decked out in one fine suit), I was surprised that I never saw Mason use his fists and that it was his mind and voice that he used as weapons.

We're talking about 1957 here today. What were the hits of that year?

Akira Wakayama -- Yorokobi mo Kanashimi mo Ikutoshitsuki（喜びも悲しみも幾歳月）

Haruo Minami -- Chanchiki Okesa (チャンチキおけさ)

John Bahler -- Wonder Woman/Kaoru Yumi -- Ai no Boukensha（愛の冒険者）

 

I believe I mentioned that I finally caught Zack Snyder's very long take on "Justice League" recently, and I was a lot more satisfied with that than with the version that I had caught some years previously at the theatre. Most notably, I was really happy with the scene involving Wonder Woman as played by Gal Gadot taking on those psychos in London early in the movie. Once I heard that warrior theme by Rupert Gregson-Williams, I knew I was going to witness some massive ass-kicking by Diana of Themyscira. 

One day, the Snyderverse take showed up on the local sci-fi channel and that same scene popped up when I turned on the channel. My mother who has never understood or liked any form of superhero media surprised me when she verbally identified Wonder Woman. But then again, she had seen Diana many moons ago.

That's right. There was a time in the mid-1970s when my brother and I saw the weekly TV series "Wonder Woman" with Lynda Carter. So, we got to see the indestructible bracelets, the Lasso of Truth and the spinning around each episode. 

Yes, I still remember when a pre-"An Officer and a Gentleman" Debra Winger guested as Diana's little sister, aka Wonder Girl. In fact, I think I prefer the first season when the show had been set during World War II instead of the more contemporary setting for the last couple of seasons. 

At the time, I was also confused when I was watching the opening credits which paid homage to the original comic book from decades ago, and yet, the theme song was decidedly cheesy disco boogie.  I mean, nowadays it all comes to me as very nostalgic but at the time, I thought it was pretty progressive to hear a superhero theme song that sounded like something one would dance to in the clubs.

I never knew who was behind the theme song for "Wonder Woman" the 1975 series. As it turns out, it was John Bahler of the Ron Hicklin Singers on the main vocals, Marti McCall, Carolyn Willis of the R&B group Honey Cone, and Julia Waters of the R&B group The Waters according to Wikipedia. Charles Fox and Normal Gimbel made up the songwriting team.

November 7th 1975 was the date when "Wonder Woman" premiered. Well, what was hitting the Oricon charts a few days earlier on the 3rd? We have Nos. 3 and 6.

3. Kenji Sawada -- Toki no Sugi Yuku Mama ni （時の過ぎゆくままに）

6. Hiromi Iwasaki -- Romance （ロマンス）

But as the informercial announcer says...Wait! There's more!

"Wonder Woman" did make its way to Japan sometime down the line and though the Bahler theme song was played for that first season, the subsequent seasons had actress/singer Kaoru Yumi（由美かおる）provide a Japanese theme tune in the form of "Ai no Boukensha" (Adventurer of Love) which was specifically for the series; Machiko Ryu's（竜真知子）lyrics give a blatant shoutout to Wonder Woman. Meanwhile, the melody by Ken Sato（佐藤健）and arrangement by Akira Inoue（井上鑑）also follow a disco line but more on the AOR side of things.

This is Yumi's first time on the blog. From what I remember of her, she had a recurring role in the legendary jidaigeki series "Mito Komon"（水戸黄門）as quite a warrior herself. She was also famous in that show for her bathing scenes which you can see being parodied in the commercial below.

Madonna -- Material Girl

 

Welcome to the weekly Reminiscings of Youth for this Thursday. I heard that Madonna was coming out with a new album sometime later this year. I went WOW since for a guy like me who's nearing retirement age, I first knew about Ms. Ciccone when I was in my late teens. Man, has this been a career for her!

Since hearing her for the first time back in 1983 for "Holiday", it was pretty much Madonna everywhere for the rest of the 1980s. I'm not sure how many nicknames she's picked up during that time, but one of them was The Material Girl because of that January 1985 single, "Material Girl", and it's the nickname that I usually associate with her (I just read that she hasn't been too fond of that one, though).

As with a lot of her hits, "Material Girl" was all over the airwaves and the music video was on heavy rotation on the local video shows with her going all Marilyn Monroe. Songwriters Peter Brown and Robert Rans wrote the lyrics to show that Madonna was all about the glam and goodies but the music video impressed upon the viewers that she was quite the opposite. The melody itself hit me as a synthy and slightly sinful song for Madonna done up in a cutesy yet sly fashion, and it was quite the change to see the lady done up in a totally different fashion compared to her previous videos. I also forgot that there were a couple of other celebs involved in the video: Keith Carradine and Robert Wuhl.

"Material Girl" reached No. 2 on America's Billboard and No. 4 on Canada's RPM. So, what else was hitting the record stores in Japan in January 1985?

Yutaka Ozaki -- Sotsugyo （卒業）

Yoshie Kashiwabara -- Lonely Canary （ロンリー・カナリア）

Seiko Matsuda -- Tenshi no Wink （天使のウィンク）