Hibari Misora -- Watashi no Boyfriend（私のボーイフレンド）

A couple of days back, I received a message from a lady in London who was interested in Hibari Misora's（美空ひばり）famous "Kanashii Sake"（悲しい酒）, and so I decided that it was perhaps time to put up another Misora song onto the blog. I was a few lines into "Namida no Beni Bara"（涙の紅バラ）when I realized that I had already written about her 3rd single from March 1950 more than two years ago. I think I did mention about my aging memory last night.

However, I will not be deterred when it comes to the legendary Ms. Misora, so I went to the flip side of "Namida no Beni Bara", which was "Watashi no Boyfriend" (My Boyfriend), a very straight-ahead title. It's that playful mix of jazz and kayo with the nearly 13-year-old Misora singing happily away about her new beau.

What was interesting about Yutaka Kadota's（門田ゆたか）lyrics, though, was the amount of English in there. English has been used tons in Japanese pop music for some decades but I had never really expected it in a Hibari Misora kayo early in the postwar period, but here she is starting the verses off with a "One, two, three, four..." instead of "Ichi, ni, san, shi...". Plus, she refers to her beau as her knight while she herself is the queen; I guess the knight has a bit more of an exciting swagger than a dusty ol' king.

Rokuro Hara（原六朗）, who also composed a few other songs for Misora including the later "O-Matsuri Mambo"（お祭りマンボ）, came up with the swinging melody for her giddy performance. At first, I had assumed that "Watashi no Boyfriend" would be one of those tunes that hadn't been revisited by the singer since it just seemed so...well, kiddy, and it was a song that I had never heard before today, but it looks like even well into adulthood, she could still bring the fun and swing into her performance without sounding corny.

Even though the B-side to her 3rd single may not be a major contribution to her vast discography, "Watashi no Boyfriend" is a pleasant ol' kayo and makes me wonder about a lot of her other "hidden" B-sides and non-single album tracks, especially in the first couple of decades in her career.

Hibari Misora -- Suteki na Rendezvous （素適なランデブー）

Here I was, having just seen the latest "Uta Kon"（うたコン）a couple of nights ago and enjoying the performance of "O-Matsuri Mambo"（お祭りマンボ）by the Eternal Queen of Kayo Kyoku, Hibari Misora（美空ひばり）, that I was going to write about it. However, I realized that I had already written about it over 3 years ago. Such is my crumbly memory and the fact that "Kayo Kyoku Plus" has lasted as long as it already has.

Well, I wasn't going to be discouraged from putting up a Misora song so easily. It took a little time but I did manage to find one of her happy-go-lucky kayo from all the way back in 1955. "Suteki na Rendezvous" (A Wonderful Rendezvous) is not only a song whose cheerful music and lyrics rang off some memory engrams in my head but it was a tune used in the first of a series of movies starring the Sannin Musume（三人娘...The Three Girls）, the trio consisting of Japanese cinematic starlets, Misora, Izumi Yukimura（雪村いづみ）and Chiemi Eri（江利チエミ）when they would have been graduating from high school. The movie was titled "Janken Musume"（ジャンケン娘）which literally translated as "Rock, Paper and Scissors Girls" but is known less awkwardly in English as "So Young, So Bright".

Written and composed by Rokuro Hara（原六郎）, who had also created the aforementioned "O-Matsuri Mambo", "Suteki na Rendezvous" is notable for that catchy melody which, if it had been made in Hollywood, would have been great for any sort of 1950s musical based in Gay Paree starring an older Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly or Danny Kaye (as for the starring women, I would have had either Nanette Fabray or Debbie Reynolds sing it). Plus it has those lines "ren-ren-ren-ren-rendezvous, I-I-I-I-I love you" which have been the most memorable part of the song for me.

Although the song is performed just by Misora, I've still included Yukimura and Eri in the Labels merely for sentiment. And the ladies do perform a small part of it together up below at 2:24. It's a poignant scene since of the three, only Yukimura is still alive.

Hibari Misora -- O-Matsuri Mambo （お祭りマンボ）

In Japan, there are simply 2 types of people when it comes to a summer mikoshi (portable shrine) festival: those who carry the mikoshi, and those who watch those who carry the mikoshi. I was invited some years ago by a couple of my students to join in the "fun" of carrying one since I had never done it before. I learned the hard way (which is usually the default way for me) that I should be a watcher not a carrier. Another thing I learned is that veteran mikoshi carriers don't like greenhorns who look like they're not having fun carrying them. Consider me a wiser if sore student of Japanese culture.

Hibari Misora's（美空ひばり） classic "O-Matsuri Mambo" (Festival Mambo) of 1952 was her 9th single. It's another one of those old enka songs for which I remember the melody but not the title nor the original singer. But the other night, NHK's "Kayo Concert" had its customary tribute show to the legendary Misora, and this was one of the songs featured. "O-Matsuri Mambo", written and composed by Rokuro Hara（原六朗）, has nothing to do with any Latin American melodies but it does carry the energy of any festival anywhere. And in Japan, they do love their festivals. Misora sings in the raucous patter that a lot of the eager festival participants yell out in, and the song seems to go through the day (or the night) that a festival burns through, until that last verse in which Misora slows down noticeably to signal the exhausted but satisfying end to a wonderfully chaotic time....until at the very end, when she revs it up once more to let everyone know that another day of merriment is on the way.

As with many a Misora song, many artists have given their take on "O-Matsuri Mambo", including AKB 48 at the concert commemorating the 23rd anniversary of the singer's passing. No doubt, as this summer gets underway in Japan, there will probably as many performances of this song as mikoshi rumbling through the streets. I'll be watching.