Miho Morikawa -- Positive

 

Singer-songwriter Miho Morikawa（森川美穂）is someone that I've been slowly piecing together in terms of her discography. The first time I got to know her was when she provided the snazzy and upbeat opening and ending themes for the 1990 NHK anime "Fushigi no Umi no Nadia"（不思議の海のナディア...Nadia, The Secret of Blue Water). But then, I later discovered that she had started her career as an aidoru from the mid-1980s after which she apparently took an express lane to more urban contemporary heights with brassier results.

A couple of days ago, a commenter asked me about her 15th single from November 1991, "Positive". To be honest, I'd never heard it before so I decided to give it a try, and true to its title, it sure is positive. Well, that would be an understatement; it's the brassy 1990s form of City Pop that I also enjoy thanks to composer Tsukasa Nishi（西司）and arranger Satoshi Nakamura（中村哲）, and it would make for part of the soundtrack for a nice drive through West Shinjuku although the Bubble Era had already been collapsing by that point.

Just to keep on the positive note, "Positive" is a prime example of making a negative into a positive. The lyricist, Junko Sato（佐藤純子）, had been down in the dumps after an end of a relationship so she poured her feelings into the lyrics when she was given the offer to write this one. And a few years ago, tarento and singer Shoko Nakagawa（中川翔子）even tearfully admitted in an interview (according to Morikawa's website) that "Positive" had helped pull her out of some major doldrums at the time. Just imagine how many other listeners this song could have helped.

And yet, the primary raison d'etre for "Positive" was as one of the many ending themes for the 1989 anime "Ranma ½ Nettōhen" (らんま ⁠1/2⁠熱闘編). Never saw the series myself but from what I've read so far, this particular incarnation seems to have been a Take Two of the show after an aborted first attempt. "Positive" managed to peak at No. 59 on Oricon, and it was also included in Morikawa's 2nd BEST compilation, "Voices", which was released in December 1992 and got a No. 11 ranking.

Miyoko Yoshimoto -- Private Lesson（プライベート・レッスン）

 

In my career as an English conversation teacher, along with my base schools, I also had my side gigs teaching private lessons. Some of them went swimmingly and therefore, they lasted for a number of years while others seemed to just stumble a lot (i.e. kids' lessons). However, I made my yen and it was a nice living for a long time.

Of course, I don't think I was ever in Miyoko Yoshimoto's（芳本美代子）situation in her rendition of her 2nd single "Private Lesson" from June 1985. A nice bloopy and shuffling aidoru tune about a student falling for her private tutor, I'm not sure how the kid could focus with all those valentines flying around her head all the time. For that matter, it must have been frustrating for the handsome tutor trying to pound in some education into her head. 

"Private Lesson" managed to reach No. 18 on Oricon. The lyricist was Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）with Daisuke Inoue（井上大輔）as the composer and Satoshi Nakamura（中村哲）arranging it all. 

Misato Watanabe -- I'm Free/Don't Cry

 

You might think that this is a rare Sunday edition of Reminiscings of Youth, but it isn't, although the above two songs are from my beloved 1980s. The first one is Kenny Loggins' "I'm Free (Heaven Helps the Man)" from the "Footloose" soundtrack. Meanwhile, the second one below that one is British supergroup Asia's "Don't Cry". I never really heard Loggins' "I'm Free" (though I'm still a fan of his earlier material such as the sublime "Heart to Heart") and I barely remember "Don't Cry" from the music video shows. To be frank, I know Loggins' title song "Footloose" and Asia's "Heat of the Moment" far better.

However, the two songs are linked through a Japanese source and her name happens to be Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里）. Folks can be forgiven for thinking that Watanabe first exploded onto the pop music scene with her iconic "My Revolution" but that 1986 hit was her 4th single. Her debut single had come out almost a year earlier and that 45" record included her cover versions of "I'm Free" and "Don't Cry". Yup, cover versions were our introduction to Watanabe in May 1985.

The A-side was "I'm Free" with Chinfa Kan（康珍化）coming up with the Japanese lyrics to accompany Loggins' original melody which is a bit more reserved here. For that matter, considering that Misato's voice has always struck me as being a boomer, her vocals also sounded a little more tied down so it'll be interesting to see hear whether they stayed reserved until that important 4th single. 

The B-side which is "Don't Cry", under the Japanese title of "Tough na Kimochi de"（タフな気持で...Being Tough）, diverges even further from the Asia original since it feels downright poppy, especially with that tinkly keyboard. Natsumi Tadano（只野菜摘）provided the Japanese lyrics here. However, even more than "I'm Free", I can hear the potential of Watanabe's delivery in "Don't Cry". The single itself scored a No. 64 ranking on Oricon. Both songs were also used in the TBS drama "Super Police"（スーパーポリス）with the A-side being the opening theme. It's too bad though that I couldn't find the opening credits for that program. Both songs, by the way, were arranged by Satoshi Nakamura（中村哲）.

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.

C.C. Girls -- Namida Nashi ja Ienai（涙なしじゃ言えない）

 

Although I couldn't find the actual footage of it, the first time that I had ever heard of the group C.C. Girls（C.C.ガールズ）was actually via a "Crayon Shin-chan"（クレヨンしんちゃん）episode in which the main character was getting hot and bothered over the ladies. Strangely enough, we saw this through a VHS video at one of our JCSA weekly video meets at the University of Toronto in the early 1990s.

Looking at the above video where C.C. Girls were being introduced, there is a good dollop of nostalgia watching them come out with those sauvage hairdos and the dance club fashion. And hey, one of them was playing Super Mario World! As one commenter has pointed out, "...this is the most 90s thing ever".

If I've interpreted the J-Wiki article correctly, C.C. Girls had their origins through something called the Japan Beauty Awards in 1990 from where Noriko Aota（青田典子）, Noriko Harada（原田徳子）, Rie Fujiwara（藤原理恵）and Yuko Fujimori（藤森夕子）began the group. Because of their appearances as singers and variety show guests, this started off the so-called "sexy group" boom of the 1990s which included units such as Giri Giri☆GIRLS（ギリギリガールズ）and T-Backs in comparison with the conventional aidoru groups such as CoCo and Ribbon. Apparently at first, they were called D.D. Gaps but to match that Cool and Classy image, their name was changed to C.C. Girls sometime early in 1992. That combination of initials and noun was inspired by B.B. Queens who had 1990's biggest hit song, "Odoru Ponpokorin" （おどるポンポコリン）.

Their 5th single under either the D.D. Gaps or C.C. Girls banner was "Namida Nashi ja Ienai" (Can't Say It Without Tears) from March 1993. I may have to ask for some help from Marcos V. and/or any other KKP reader/commenter who has some additional knowledge about dance music since I'm not quite sure what this pattern of beats underlying Koji Makaino's（馬飼野康二）melody and Satoshi Nakamura's（中村哲）arrangement is. I can hear some of that early 90s City Pop along with perhaps Eurobeat from that time period. Maybe it can be likened to some of the danceable R&B from the United States at the same time as well but it's a melange that perhaps one of you guys can deconstruct for me. Goro Matsui（松井五郎）provided the lyrics.

(15:33)

A slow changing of the guard regarding the members began around 1995 with a second generation being completed by 1998. C.C. Girls finally disbanded in 2003, but C.C. Girls 3 rose up in late 2019 with a whole new slate of members. As for original leader Aota, she would release some music on her own and provide some photobooks. In 2010, she married Anzen Chitai（安全地帯）vocalist Koji Tamaki（玉置浩二）and suspended her own activities to support him at home and on concert tours.

Akina Nakamori -- Cruise (follow-up)

 

Looks like "Kayo Kyoku Plus" viewers will be getting a double dose of Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）this week after Marcos V.'s splendid article on the thrilling "Melancholy Festa" (メランコリー・フェスタ) last night. And why not? Folks can compare that 1984 song when Akina was still an early 80s aidoru with that higher-pitched voice to the tracks on her July 1989 album "Cruise" when her vocals were much lower and richer and she had long become that pop superstar in Japan.

I first wrote about "Cruise" almost exactly 9 years ago as one of the early articles on KKP in which I spoke about four of the tracks, and since I already wrote about the circumstances surrounding the July 1989 album's release, you can read about them in the original article. As I may have indicated there, "Cruise" was quite the contemplative and melancholy album with the singer herself seemingly appearing as a beautiful but fragile flower. Crazy as it sounds, I actually neglected to add how it did on the charts: No. 1 on Oricon and the No. 31 album of the year.

Strangely enough, it had been my intent to post this one up on her birthday back on July 13th instead of "Refrain"（リ・フ・レ・イ・ン）, but I gather that I fell under the charms of that B-side to her "Kita Wing"（北ウィング）hit. But allow me to make amends now with the remaining six tracks on "Cruise" after doing four of them in the original article.

When I first heard "Cruise" after purchasing it during my orientation session on the JET Programme in Tokyo, it was akin to having a particularly rich buffet; I hadn't been too fond of her immediately preceding albums but "Cruise" was something that angled a little differently but still there was a lot to digest at great leisure. Track 2, for example, is "Akai Mystery"（赤い不思議...Red Mystery）, a song characterized by Akina's distant and haunting vocals, a just-as-haunting synthesizer, and what sounds like a murmuring bassoon. "Akai Mystery" was written and composed by singer-songwriter Akiko Kosaka（小坂明子）and arranged by Kazuo Shiina（椎名和夫）, and it could have made for the ideal theme song for one of those frequent weekly TV suspense-mystery shows in Japan as doubts are seeping through the cracks of a relationship.

For a song titled "Ranbi"（乱火...Raging Fire）, it actually comes across as a quietly tragic tune thanks to the music and arrangement by Kisaburo Suzuki（鈴木キサブロー）and Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二） respectively. I'm not sure if I've read into Akira Ohtsu's（大津あきら）lyrics correctly but the story rendered here almost feels like some sort of sadomasochism as a woman relentlessly goes through periods of tenderness and despair like the regular tides at the Bay of Fundy.

"Standing in Blue" is a jazzy and relatively upbeat song on "Cruise" that also has some hints of the old exotic kayo of the late 1970s. Written by SHOW, composed by Osny Melo and arranged by Satoshi Nakamura（中村哲）, the song is about someone realizing that a remembrance of an old romance has also become a revelation that they have been able to move onto better pastures since the breakup. I'd like to add there is that torch song feeling, too.

"Kaze wa Sora no Kanata"（風は空の彼方...The Wind is Behind the Sky） is a wistful ballad about hoping to see a loved one sometime again in the future, although I don't know whether that person has physically gone away a long distance or has simply left this mortal coil. It's one of the lovelier tracks on "Cruise" with lyrics by Qumico Fucci, music by Nick Wood and arrangement by Akira Nishihara（西平彰）. "Kaze wa Sora no Kanata" strikes me as being somewhat baroque and there is even something that is faintly Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）there due to the piano work.

I think "SINGER" is something that I can identify as City Pop with its rhythms including a hint of Sade-like jazz. Nakamori goes even sultrier here as if she's having that slow dance with the solo saxophone itself. As was the case with "Standing In Blue", Osny Melo, SHOW and Nakamura are behind this penultimate track for "Cruise" as the singer acts the role as the seductress behind the mike, forever enticing the listener into her realm.

In keeping with my impression of the album, the final track is the appropriately sad "Ame ga Futteta..."（雨が降ってた…It Was Raining...）, a lush and lovely ballad that has me thinking of songs from 1960s French movies such as "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" with Michel LeGrand as the composer. However, the lyricist and composer here are Yuuho Iwasato and Chika Ueda（岩里祐穂・上田知華）respectively with Kei Wakakusa（若草恵）as the arranger. Iwasato and Ueda were a duo who were coming up with some of Miki Imai's（今井美樹）songs at around the same time. Through the former's lyrics, we get to discover that there is a woman remembering the time when she was just standing in the rain, probably in aghast shock, realizing that the affair was indeed over.

I recall that when I finished up the original "Cruise" article back in September 2012 that this particular album was one that I had no trepidation in picking up unlike some of her immediately preceding releases. Still, partially because of force of habit and partially because of what had happened to Akina several days before its release, it still took a fair amount of time for me to get accustomed to the overall theme and the songs themselves. However, I have come to appreciate the various tracks over the years, and I think that it's a major accomplishment to have so many different lyricists, composers and arrangers contributing their abilities to "Cruise", and yet the album feels like it has a certain united theme of wistful and perhaps wiser sadness. Whether or not "Cruise" is now treated as one of Nakamori's classics, I don't know but for me, I believe that it's definitely one album that has stood out not just in her own discography but among all of the albums that I've had on my shelves.

Satoshi Nakamura & Splaash -- City Lights

 

I was rolling through the backlog of songs that I could write about, especially an urban contemporary one since it is Friday today, and I did find one which might possibly have listeners irresistibly grab some sort of sipping libation, sit on a sofa and sigh peacefully. Even better would be having a high enough balcony to enjoy a sunset view.

Coincidentally enough, I was just talking about musician/arranger Satoshi Nakamura（中村哲）a couple of days ago for his work with the band Platinum 900 in the 1990s, and I mentioned even then that he's had a long and varied career helping all sorts of singers. Well, I tracked down his J-Wiki file and he's got a mighty huge block of clients for whom he has provided composing and arranging services. I've also read that he provided the soundtrack for a 1978 TV drama starring internationally famous action star Sonny Chiba（千葉真一）who passed away a couple of weeks ago. As well, Nakamura has helped out a few bands such as Spectrum（スペクトラム）, Prism, Paradigm Shift and Anzen Band（あんぜんバンド）.

Well, it looks like he had been able to gather some top-notch musicians to form a group called Satoshi Nakamura & Splaash (and yeah, the double-a is intentional) which released an album in 1979 titled "Splaash". Categorized on Discogs as a fusion and Latin jazz album, I gave the first track, "City Lights", a whirl and as I said in the introductory paragraph, this is a sipping liquor-friendly tune.

Of course, Nakamura not only composed and arranged "City Lights" but he also shared tenor sax duties with Yasuaki Shimizu（清水信之）. Katsutoshi Morizono（ 森園勝敏）and Kenji Omura（大村憲司）, who are also represented on KKP, are on guitar, and Nobuyuki Shimizu（清水信之）is on the acoustic piano among other stars who all help provide some relaxing bluesy fusion. Nothing better than this on a Friday night before a weekend (especially a long one that we will be having here in Toronto over the next few days) to chill out.

Platinum 900 -- Mercedes Life

 

Back on Christmas Day last year, KKP contributor HRLE92 introduced himself and one of the underrated and overlooked urban contemporary bands, Platinum 900, and from listening to some of their material, I do feel that I should have rated and looked at them if given the chance. Alas, I had never even heard of these guys during my time in Japan between 1994 and 2011.

HRLE92 mentioned the album "Concerto für Jazz, Disco and Bossa Nova", Platinum 900's sophomore effort from 1998, and even one of the tracks in there, "Mercedes Life". Written by Jon Miles and vocalist Naoko Sakata（坂田直子）with guitarist and bassist Kazuhiko Nishimura (西村一彦), and keyboardist Hiroshi Iihoshi (飯星裕史) handling the melody-making, "Mercedes Life" is one splendid automobile journey of velvety soul and some disco strings. Sakata especially sounds as if she had temporally transported herself from a New York record studio in the early 1970s with that groovalicious voice of hers. Satoshi Nakamura（中村哲）, a saxophonist and keyboardist who's had a working relationship with the Anzen Band（あんぜんバンド）, took care of the arrangement with those strings and the flute.

"Mercedes Life" is the ideal mix of those 70s sunny soul nights and the Japanese music industry's late 90s/early 00s' foray into its own R&B filled with that disco, soul and funk which invited singers such as Misia, Bird and Tomita Lab（冨田ラボ）. I gave the analogy above about the song being a wonderful car ride. Well, obviously, that conveyance just has to be that titular Mercedes-Benz driving through the highways and byways of Tokyo. Moreover, although the Bubble Era had burst itself onto the ash heap of history almost a decade previously, "Mercedes Life" brings that sort of hedonistic mood back in a cool way. But in this case, the setting is not a chaotic Julianas dance club but a far more chill lounge several floors up in a Roppongi skyscraper.

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.