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.
Showing posts with label Sayuri Ishikawa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sayuri Ishikawa. Show all posts
Yes, I realize that 85% to 90% of all plants have flowers but I hadn't been aware that the typical daikon was one of them. Of course for me, when it comes to daikon, I always think of the root part being grated into that pungent-tasting condiment for fish and tempura.
That is why question marks popped up around my head while I was watching enka legend Sayuri Ishikawa（石川さゆり）perform "Daikon no Hana" (Daikon Flowers) on the weekly broadcast of "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本のうた）a couple of days ago. How would one make a song about these blossoms that I hadn't heard about?
Well, feel free to ask lyricist Osamu Yoshioka（吉岡治）and composer Chiaki Oka（岡千秋）since they were the ones behind Ishikawa's 97th single from March 2010. Yoshioka's lyrics read like a gentle treatise on how to approach life with all of its hills and valleys; the daikon blossoms only show up in one line as Ishikawa sings about how they will still be there as constantly as the sun rising up. Often when I've heard the singer perform recently, there's been a certain playfulness in her delivery but with "Daikon no Hana", that's been replaced by a reassuring grace and wisdom.
I've also realized that this is the first time that Ishikawa has been on the byline for an article since 2022. Good to see her again in the pages of KKP.
First off, thanks go to The history man on YouTube for providing this video on the life and career of kayo kyoku songwriting legend Yu Aku (1937-2007) who apparently remains the 2nd-most prolific lyricist in Japan following Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）. Yesterday, the return of NHK's "Uta Con"（うたコン）after the Olympic break was a big one for all of the kayo fans since a good chunk of the program was a tribute to the works of Aku who would have been 89 back on February 7th..
This isn't an Author's Picks because I wasn't the one who came up with these songs for performance on the show last night. Of course, it was the NHK producers who did that but I still wanted to acknowledge the Aku songs that had been sung on the Shibuya stage since they have remained part of the bread and butter that make up a lot of this blog. You can also take a look at a Creator article that I wrote up back in 2015 regarding Aku and his constitution on writing those lyrics.
It's another national holiday in Japan today. If it's September, that means Respect-for-the-Aged Day（敬老の日）and I found out just last weekend that the holiday had been first formed in the immediate postwar era in Hyogo Prefecture.
As such, I was thinking of putting up a list of favourite karaoke tunes among the more elderly. Admittedly though, sexagenarians don't strike me as being quite that old but at least their choices were easy to track down on the blog, and of course, I'm not too far from that group of people, age-wise. So, I'll be divvying things up between the Top 3 karaoke songs for both men and women in their 60s according to the Nagoya-based Takeshi Vocal Studio, a karaoke training school.
Yesterday, I posted an article on singer and seiyuu Emi Shinohara's（篠原恵美）"Wasureru tame ni Koi wo Shinai de"（忘れるために恋をしないで）on hearing of her untimely passing a few days ago. This was on top of the news that actor James Earl Jones had also died on September 8th at the age of 93. He had been in so many different movies such as "Dr. Strangelove", "Field of Dreams" and "The Hunt for Red October", but of course, I'm always going to know him as the voice of one of the greatest movie villains, Darth Vader from "Star Wars".
As a kid, I'd always wondered who that was inside the armour to be able to voice Vader in that iconic way. That breathing, the basso profundo, and the elegant but threatening delivery (and a talent for asphyxiation) that struck awe and fear in not only mouthy Imperial commanders but millions of theatregoers. We would later find out that it was a tandem operation with David Prowse as the Dark Lord of the Sith in body while the voice was provided by Jones.
The two of them worked together to create this master bad guy who received as many cheers as did Luke, Yoda and Obi-Wan. When "Star Wars" became this huge phenomenon in 1977, the characters including Vader showed up everywhere including the ABC music-variety show "Donny & Marie". I remember seeing that specific episode with the kitschy spoof involving Donny Osmond, sister Marie and actor Kris Kristofferson along with C-3PO and R2-D2. Darth Vader even showed up (though he was voiced by someone else) in sketches to literally rip apart settings such as a gym locker room through his Sith ways.
I remember when "The Empire Strikes Back" premiered in 1980 at the University Theatre in downtown Toronto. It was absolute joyous mayhem as the lines snaked around the cinema like a naruto. It took two tries over as many days, but my brother and I finally got into the theatre to see the sequel and the cheering and clapping were incredible. All of us especially wanted to hear Jones speak out those words as Vader and we got them, accompanied by the new epic "Imperial March" theme. It was always a moment to hear him speak, and for me, some of my favourite quotes were: "I find your lack of faith disturbing", "The Force is strong with this one", "You have failed me for the last time", and of course, "I am your father". All of my condolences go to Jones' family, friends and fans...may the Force be with him.
As a tribute to him, my weekly Reminiscings of Youth article will be on this song connected with the franchise. Interestingly enough, as much as I have raved about John Williams' theme for "Star Wars" in its own article from 2022, I have to confess that the original Williams Main Title isn't the first version that I ever heard. That award has to go to Meco's"Star Wars/Cantina Band" which was part of his album "Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk", released in the summer of 1977, only a few months after the movie had gotten into theatres.
Rona Barrett's"Good Morning America" feature on the original movie which included the famous TIE fighter vs. Millennium Falcon scene was the first that I'd ever seen of "Star Wars", but a few months later, I heard this snazzy disco epic or Meco-ized version of the Main Title, the Cantina Band jazz and even a bit of the Jedi theme on K-Tel commercials or even ads about the movie itself. For some reason, I didn't hear it too much on the local radio, though. I'd assumed that the mononymed Meco was some flamboyant artiste from European discos but he actually hails from Pennsylvania.
Yeah, I know disco is all about the dancing but I'd never seen people dance to Meco's "Star Wars" until today. Just listening to it was good enough for me; such was the genius of John Williams. By October 1977, it hit No. 1 for a couple of weeks in the United States and in Canada, it was also a chart-topper. Eventually, I would hear the original Main Title and then in 1979, my father finally took me to see the movie itself, two years after its premiere. The Fairview had been showing "Star Wars" every day for those two years and yet there were still lines snaking all over the place and people were still exploding in delight when the Death Star blew up.
Looks like Kayo Grace has finally gotten to do a painting of her guy instead of herself all the time. Anyways, last week, I posted up the AI gallery with representatives of enka tunes sung by male performers, so I should also include the women as well. As with that one, I threw in my descriptions of the images that I got from listening and/or reading the lyrics of the songs.
Well, allow Kayo Grace Kyoku and me to wish "Kayo Kyoku Plus" a Happy 12th birthday today. Yup, a dozen years ago, I launched the blog with a posting on one of the big hits of 1981, Jun Horie's（堀江淳）"Memory Glass"（メモリーグラス）and haven't looked back. As usual, I'd like to express my thanks to everyone who's helped out over the years with their own articles: JTM, nikala, jari, Marcos, Noelle, Larry, Joana, HRLE92, Oliver and T-Cat as well as commenters including Michael, YMOfan04, Jim, Brian and Fireminer for their recommendations and insights. Last but not least, I am also grateful for all those who have stopped by for a spell and taken a look at some of the 10,000+ articles we've put up since January 30th 2012.
I was kinda wondering what I would do to commemorate No. 12. At first, I had thought about posting songs with the number 12 in their titles but all I got were tunes involving the month of December which would be somewhat confusing since we are near the end of January. Then, a light bulb came over my head regarding silk which is the traditional gift for a 12th anniversary but nothing popped up on the search engines about kayo kyoku with that relationship.
Finally, I opted for any singer who was born on January 30th just like KKP. Well in that situation, I did hit pay dirt. I was able to find three singers who fit the profile. And so, Happy Birthday to them as well (I've listed their birth years below. As for the years of release for the songs, you can check the Labels below the article or go to the original articles via the links).
Doing another reference to last night's "Uta Con"（うたコン）, the episode began with Sayuri Ishikawa's（石川さゆり）non-enka hit, the jazzy "Whiskey ga O-Suki deshou?" (ウィスキーが、お好きでしょ）and the singer naturally sang it in the middle of a whiskey distillery. Not sure if she got free samples afterwards; it certainly couldn't have been beforehand.
But it did get me to think about another Author's Picks list about kayo kyoku involving alcoholic libations. It's a natural fit, too, since Japan has been said to possess a bar culture. Noting how much the Japanese love their drink whether it be the native sake and shochu or the imported beer, whiskey, cocktails, etc, the culture has basically woven itself into the practice of doing business in the nation. Weirdly enough, I never considered myself even a social drinker. How I (or my liver) managed to survive nearly two decades in Japan, I'll never know but I was practically forced to learn to appreciate beer in mass quantities.
However, before this article ends up as a sermon at Alcoholics Anonymous, let me show you some Alcohol Kayo Kyoku.
It's darn rare for me to put up a quartet of articles on a Tuesday and it's pretty darn unusual for me to post an article on a particular episode of any show, let alone NHK's "Uta Con". However, after having last week's broadcast of the kayo kyoku program cancelled on Japan TV because of all of the copyright concerns regarding Western musical tunes being covered in that one, we (and notably I) were given a memorable episode this week since a lot of the songs featured were ones that got me into this crazy musical world (and blog) in the first place. I just had to mention this episode and well, this is a blog after all. I can use it as a diary.
As I mentioned only some minutes ago in the previous article, there was the somber announcement that Yoshinori Monta（もんたよしのり）of Monta and Brothers had passed away on October 18th. However before and after that, I was able to catch a lot of the Japanese songs of my youth that got me interested in kayo kyoku, enka and all that jazz. A lot of it was powered by a tribute to singer-songwriter Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）with the appearance of the man himself along with guests EPO, Momoko Kikuchi（菊池桃子）, Sayuri Ishikawa（石川さゆり）, Masaki Ueda（上田正樹）and Hitomi Ishikawa（石川ひとみ）. In a way, it was like getting a sneak preview of that Hayashi tribute concert that will be happening in Tokyo on November 5th.
I'm not sure what the remaining schedule for NHK's "Uta Con"（うたコン）will be like for December. As I recall, the series wraps up in early December and basically goes on hiatus until sometime in January. So it's possible that "Uta Con" may have already said its goodbyes to 2022 for a couple of reasons: 1) I don't see any other episode coming up on the lineup at its website, and 2) last night's episode was a very special one in that it was a documentary focusing on one veteran singer.
Indeed, I am talking about Sayuri Ishikawa（石川さゆり）who is celebrating her 50th anniversary in show business. Many congratulations to her. The special last night not only showed off her hits in enka but also her prowess in tackling other genres such as jazz and rap (not saying that Drake has anything to worry from her, but she still has gumption). It also went over her life including her beginnings in music as a teenage aidoru.
However this song (which was featured last night), her 10th single from October 1975"Watashi de Yokoreba"(If I Can Be the One), certainly sounds as if she's gone headfirst into the enka genre from the teenybopper one. At the time, she had yet to don the kimono that has become her signature form of dress in performances, but the arrangement and the voice are such that I wouldn't really call this an aidoru tune. Written by Kazuya Senke（千家和也）and composed by Shosuke Ichikawa（市川昭介）, it's a jaunty tune about a young girl asking her love to accept her.
From callow aidoru to current grande dame of enka, it's been a good 50 years for Ishikawa. Hope there are still many more years for her to entertain us.
Although the shore by my grandfather's village in Wakayama Prefecture was too small to have any of the large fishing vessels moored there, as a kid visiting the place in 1972, I do remember witnessing my grandfather and his fellow villagers bringing in the nets filled with fish. The name that I heard mentioned for that fish was kamasu（かます）, and I recollect that it was delicious grilled, although it was still years before I finally appreciated sushi and sashimi. The thing is though when I looked up kamasu in the J-E dictionary, the translation came out as barracuda! My impression had been that one was more likely to be bitten by a barracuda than vice versa.
In any case, to start off this week of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" tunes, I'm going with Sayuri Ishikawa's（石川さゆり）105th single, "Hamauta" (Ballad of the Shore) which was released in March 2012. With the guitar-powered brio of contemporary enka but lyrics that seem to be more evocative of older enka regarding sending fishing fleets out to sea for their daily bountiful catch, it has Ishikawa once again putting her all into her vocals. Folks like Saburo Kitajima（北島三郎）would probably nod in respect.
Rei Nakanishi（なかにし礼）came up with the lyrics while Tetsuya Gen（弦哲也）composed "Hamauta". Looking through the lyrics, I thought it would be some sort of go-touchi song like the ones that I have been writing about every Saturday, but there is no mention of any specific place in the lyrics so the song can apply to anywhere around the Japanese archipelago.
Welcome to the third in the weekly series of "Go-Touchi Songs", those tunes that reflect a certain region or prefecture or city in Japan. Last week, I devoted the sophomore effort to the Kanto region, which includes Chiba and Gunma Prefectures where I lived at different times in my young life, and now we move further westward and southward to cover the Chubu region. Incidentally, this area covers Aichi, Fukui, Gifu, Ishikawa, Nagano, Niigata, Shizuoka, Toyama, and Yamanashi Prefectures, a whopping nine provinces. However, although I couldn't get go-touchi songs from KKP to represent all of the areas, there are some pretty famous kayo among the ones that I could find. Next week, I'll take care of the Kinki region.
1. Kenichi Mikawa -- Niigata Blues （新潟ブルース）for Niigata City in Niigata (1967)
2. Sayuri Ishikawa -- Noto Hanto （能登半島）for the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa (1977)
4. Shigeru Amachi -- Nagoya Blues（名古屋ブルース）for Nagoya in Aichi (1981)
5. Tetsuya Ryu -- Oku-Hida Bojou （奥飛騨慕情）for the Hida area in Gifu (1980)
6. Kiyoshi Hikawa -- Oi Okkake Otojiro (大井追っかけ音次郎) for the Oi River in Shizuoka (2001)
As usual, why don't we end this session with some regional delicacies? This time, we have sasa dango（笹団子）from Niigata Prefecture and then miso katsu（味噌カツ）from Nagoya.
When we were watching the venerable historical TV drama "Mito Komon"（水戸黄門）as kids, I noticed that each episode followed a set pattern. It would start out with the disguised former vice-shogun Tokugawa and his heroic party entering a certain area in which by coincidence, someone was being victimized by evil officials. Then, there would be the gradual infiltration and investigation of the crimes being committed before the final sword-flashing mayhem takes place. Then, Tokugawa's samurai retainer would whip out the inro case near the end showing the villains and victims alike that justice has arrived and will be served.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find that particular scene on YouTube, but I'd like to go back to one of those tropes of "Mito Komon". I'm not sure if this had been the case with every episode, but whenever Tokugawa and his band entered a region, one of them, the ever-famished Hachibei, would always remark (or swoon) that the area was famous for some sort of food. And this was where I got my first hint that the prefectures and territories of Japan prided themselves on some aspect that set themselves apart. Yup, food was and is one example.
But of course, this is a music blog and not a foodie-based one. Watching the most recent episode of NHK's "Uta Con"（うたコン）, the theme was go-touchi kayo or songs that made the case for a certain city, region or prefecture, often with the name of such place as part of the song's title. I've been hearing the term for years now, but last week's episode finally sparked within me the idea of putting up some of those geographically based tunes up here. By the way, the above video by YouTuber Roman Hiko gives a full rundown on the go-touchi songs for the entire country so that ought to give you folks a good grounding of what we're talking about here.
Let's consider this particular article the first of a short weekly series of go-touchi songs representing areas of Japan, and for this week, I'm going to cover the northern area including Hokkaido（北海道）and the Tohoku（東北）region (Aomori, Akita, Miyagi, Iwate, Yamagata and Fukushima Prefectures). Obviously, my humble list is way too small, but I just wanted to display some of the songs. As well, you can check out the J-Wiki link to see the whole kit and kaboodle of go-touchi tunes.
6. Muneyuki Sato -- Aoba-jo Koi Uta （青葉城恋唄）for Sendai in Miyagi (1978)
7. Yuji Mori and Southern Cross -- Suki desu Sapporo（好きですサッポロ）for Sapporo in Hokkaido (1981)
I'll go into the Kanto area next week. By the way, I know that I said above that "Kayo Kyoku Plus" isn't a foodie blog, but I will simply leave this article with a couple of dishes from Hokkaido and the Tohoku region: jingisukan（ジンギスカン）and kiritanpo（きりたんぽ...Akita, to be specific） respectively.
Summer has come back with a blast here today as the heat and humidity have soared once more. The Canadian National Exhibition, one of our local examples of late summer festivities, will be wrapping up its time over the Labour Day weekend. I'm sure that even now the Japanese summer festivals are still being held throughout the nation, although I think the bulk of them got their time last month. All that yukata-wearing, food-noshing, fireworks-viewing and sparkler-holding stuff have become so ingrained into culture that even anime franchises would be lacking if they didn't have a summer festival episode.
I'm covering an entire single by enka singer Sayuri Ishikawa（石川さゆり）but I'm beginning from the coupling song. "Natsu, Ureshii ne"(Summer's Fun) is an enka/pop tune celebrating the season. Written by Satoshi Tarumi（垂水佐敏）and composed by Masato Sugimoto（杉本真人）, it's a traditional-sounding jaunty song centering around the quintessential scene of romantic couples in their summer garb making the rounds at the festival at night.
The above video has a number of commercials for mostly Kincho insect repellants, another symbol of summer life in Japan. At 1:00, one ad uses "Natsu, Ureshii ne" as the jingle.
The A-side, so to speak, was Ishikawa's 67th single from July 1995, "Osaka no Onna" (Woman of Osaka). This is definitely solid enka written by Osamu Yoshioka（吉岡治）and composed by Chiaki Oka（岡千秋）, and the lyrics perhaps tell of a story of a woman working at a bar in the titular metropolis falling for one of her customers and quixotically hoping that the magic elixir of sake will change his attitude into a more accommodating one toward her. Well, there are such things called affairs. I didn't see any indication that "Osaka no Onna" was ever used for any commercial dealing with a sake brand, but on second thought, perhaps taking into consideration the lyrics, it was a good thing that it wasn't used in that way.😅
Took a little break to refresh myself after tackling Part 1 of Tsugutoshi Goto's Creator article, and now I'll go for Part 2.
With all of Goto's bass work and provision of cool tunes for folks like Shinji Harada（原田真二）and Kenji Sawada（沢田研二）, the musician and songwriter has also given lots of music to various aidoru over the decades and that includes the first mighty aidoru supergroup, Onyanko Club（おニャン子クラブ）, and its individual members. For example, one such song was "O-saki ni Shitsurei"（お先に失礼...Sorry In Advance）, which was composed by Goto alongside Yasushi Akimoto's（秋元康）lyrics. At one point, the two of them were known as a golden combination for songwriting, and "O-saki ni Shitsurei" was the Club's July 1986 5th single and a No. 1 hit for the group, thanks to the cute lead vocals by Harumi Tomikawa（富川春美）, Yukiko Iwai（岩井由紀子）, Tomoko Fukawa（布川智子）and Marina Watanabe（渡辺満里奈）, and that rockabilly arrangement by Goto. It ended up as the 69th-ranked single of the year.
Cue ahead twenty years and that golden combination was still working for another aidoru supergroup, AKB48. According to J-Wiki, there was a set list for Team A's 2nd Stage performance "Aitakatta"（会いたかった...Wanted to See You） in 2006 with one of the songs being "Rio no Kakumei"（リオの革命...Rio's Revolution）, a catchy dance-club type of tune.
As I mentioned above, Goto also provided songs for the individual members of Onyanko Club including Sonoko Kawai（河合その子）. In fact, a number of her tunes were composed by Goto and some of them are represented on this blog along with her "Jessy no Higeki"（ジェシーの悲劇）. Over here, we have her second single"Ochiba no Crescendo"（落葉のクレッシェンド...Fallen Leaves Crescendo） released in November 1985. Once again, the golden combination of Akimoto and Goto were at work to provide Kawai with a surprisingly summery-sounding tune despite the title's hint of autumn. The song peaked at No. 2 and became the 54th-ranked single of 1985.
One interesting point that I discovered about Goto on his J-Wiki profile was that he had been known as The Aidoru Killer. The reason for such a fearful nickname was that he had "dared" to break the cardinal rule and actually have romantic relationships with the female teenyboppers. In fact, he first married Tae Tamai（玉井タエ）of the folk duo Simons (シモンズ). Then later on, he was wed to 70s aidoruMidori Kinouchi（木之内みどり）for a while before finally getting married in 1994 to the aforementioned Kawai.
But it wasn't just only the female aidoru for whom Goto created songs. He also composed and arranged for the male aidoru including popular 80s Johnny's groupShibugakitai（シブがき隊）. For them, he came up with "Sushi Kui ne!"（スシ食いねェ！）and over here, we have his "Samurai Nippon"（サムライ・ニッポン）, another rousing rockabilly-like number for the boys. Masao Urino（売野雅勇）came up with the lyrics for this hit which got as high as No. 3.
Goto delved a bit into enka as well here and there. He composed and arranged "Natsu Koi Bayashi"（夏恋囃子...Summer Love Band） for Sayuri Ishikawa（石川さゆり）with bit of extra guitar-led brio in 1998. The song was used for a Kincho mosquito coil commercial which does fit since those spiral insect repellants are as much a sign of summer as any local festival. Masao Urino（売野雅勇）came up with the lyrics.
My final song for the works of Tsugutoshi Goto, although it's obvious that I've only scratched the surface of his creations, is Mariko Takahashi's（高橋真梨子）"Apple City"（アップルシティ）. This was a track on Takahashi's 2nd album"Sunny Afternoon", and it was composed/arranged by the bassist alongside the singer's own lyrics. So, along with his ability with the enka idiom, Goto was also able to come up with some of that exotic kayo flavour for the late 1970s going into the new decade. I never got the impression that this was another tribute to New York City, especially with what sounds like a bouzouki in the arrangement. As such, I thought that this was a vacation through Greece.
To get a better idea of the breadth and depth of Goto's works, you can browse through the Tsugutoshi Goto file here or go through the deeper list for his songs on J-Wiki. I'm just going to go take a catnap before dinner.
Kamiya Bar（神谷バー）is an Asakusa institution that was literally around the corner from my NOVA branch although I only went there once since I was never much of a drinker. Supposedly, it is the oldest bar of its type in Japan and it is also the place where the Japanese cocktail Denki Bran（電気ブラン...Electric Brandy） was invented in the late 19th century.
The website "Cool Material" has a description of what Denki Bran is all about but what goes into the drink and in what quantities are apparently still secret. As for the above video by Sanpo suru Android（散歩するアンドロイド...The Walking Android）, we get to see the young lady enjoy a meal and the famed libation at the source itself. That one time that I visited Kamiya Bar, I did try a Denki Bran and had some of those dishes that go well with the drink, but perhaps unsurprisingly, I don't remember very much. However, I can say that I did visit this famous place.
During my years in Japan, I did visit the various izakaya chains with friends and students to celebrate certain events and/or to just hang out after catching a movie in Shinjuku or Ginza. But I don't recall ever going to a bar just because I wanted to drown my sorrows in drink following a bad day or relationship. Doing such a thing though is definitely one reason to hit the watering holes in any nation.
"Hitorizake" (Drinking Alone) is a lovingly arranged enka sung by veteran Sayuri Ishikawa（石川さゆり）as her August 2021 single. Composed by Keisuke Hama（浜圭介）, it's not one of those electric guitar-powered gutsy songs but an enka with a gentle guitar and strings that are as reassuring as the sympathetic hostess of one's favourite nomiya who will always act as the salve. But the lyrics by Makoto Kitajo（喜多條忠）and singer-songwriter kinuyo don't play up the fact that the typical bar is on the same level as a medical clinic. It is simply the place to drown those sorrows, no better or worse.
Ishikawa showed up on last week's "Uta Con"（うたコン）to sing "Hitorizake" and to talk of the late Kitajo. She mentioned that her single may have indeed been the final song that he wrote before he left this mortal coil in November.
I gather that the powers-that-be or even the singer herself came to the conclusion that she and alcoholic beverages make a standout pair, and I don't mean that in a bad way at all.
With me being a casual jazz fan, Sayuri Ishikawa（石川さゆり）, who is usually an enka singer, stood out for her torch song "Whiskey ga O-Suki deshou?" (ウィスキーが、お好きでしょ）. I don't touch the stuff myself but even on ordering a Bailey's Irish Cream, I would probably end up having the song get into my head.
That particular single of Ishikawa was released back in 1990 and variations of it have made it onto Suntory Whiskey commercials since then. Not sure if the wine industry has been given the Ishikawa touch, but in June 2017, the veteran singer came out with her 115th single, "Shunkashuutou"（春夏秋冬...The Four Seasons） whose coupling song was "Wine wo Erande"(You Choose the Wine). This time, Ishikawa is going for not only a different alcoholic libation but a slight shift in genres: bossa jazz, always welcome music in my books.
The interesting observation here is that "Wine wo Erande" was written, composed and arranged by none other than Senri Oe（大江千里）, who began his career in the 1980s as the cutest boy wonder pop singer-songwriter but has since gone full bore into jazz. And with "Wine wo Erande", he has concocted quite the glass of velvety Brazilian with some robust class, hints of whirlwind romance and a soupcon of tease. On that note, I will end my sommelier analogy.
I was going to end it right there but then by happenstance, I came across this English-language interview with Oe about going from pop to jazz.
Almost to the day a year ago, I wrote up a Reminiscings of Youth article on Carpenters'"Close to You", arguably one of the most well-known songs by the sibling pop duo of Karen and Richard Carpenter from 1970. Naturally, hearing Carpenters songs on the radio while I was a kid was par for the course.
When I first went to live in Japan, I soon realized that the Carpenters had even more fame and love in the country of my ancestors than in the United States. In addition to the usual hits, I even discovered a song by them that I hadn't heard before, shockingly enough. And that song was "Yesterday Once More". It was originally a Carpenters single that was released in May 1973, but the first time I heard it was as a the theme song for "19xx Bokutachi no Natsukashii Melody"（僕たちの懐かしいメロディー）, a late-night (or early-morning) Fuji-TV series that quietly showcased some of the oldies from Japanese pop. I remember catching it as I shivered underneath my futon in the wintry depths of Gunma Prefecture in 1990. There was nothing like the velvety voice of Karen to keep me warm before the kayo poured out. Ironically, videos of the show on YouTube have now garnered a lot of nostalgic feelings for it, a show that had been produced to display the nostalgic songs in the first place.
Y'know...if there were ever a theme song for the ROY articles or for the blog in general, it would be "Yesterday Once More" since the vast majority of the entries here is all about the nostalgia and good ol' days of music and kayo. The whole song sounded nostalgic even when it was first released in the early 1970s, and I've found out that this was totally intentional according to the Wikipedia article for the song since it goes along the 50s progression chord that was all the rage for songwriters back in the 1950s and early 1960s. Apparently one of the number of nicknames for it was the doo-wop progression.
I've found out over the years since watching "19xx" that "Yesterday Once More" has also been a popular karaoke tune to be warbled among the students that I've had; it's up there with "Top of the World" and the aforementioned "Close to You". To be honest, I've had a go with "Yesterday Once More" a few times myself at places like Karaoke Kan and Big Echo with varying results.
Furthermore, according to that Wikipedia article, the song hit No. 1 on the Billboard Easy Listening chart and has become the Carpenters' biggest-selling single worldwide, so I've definitely been missing out on some information there. And it doesn't hurt that Richard has stated that "Yesterday Once More" is his favourite creation. For me, though, no matter how much I listen to it, I will always think of it as the theme song for "19xx".
So what were the singles that got released in May 1973?
Happy Monday! Perhaps a bit late in the year to do this one since this is titled "Haru no Uta" (Song of Spring) but, hey, it's warm and jaunty...just the thing to start off this final week in July. Besides, there's a bit of a story behind this one that I hadn't been aware about.
The term "heavy rotation" has been internalized within anyone who listens to music often enough, and there's even an AKB48 hit that has that very title. Certainly during my years growing up, I've noticed which songs were getting a ton of airplay on the radio and, for that matter, which music videos were getting their heavy rotation on television.
Well, I found out that almost a century ago, Japan had their own early version of heavy rotation through a radio program called "Kokumin Kayo"（国民歌謡...The People's Kayo） which was on the air between 1936 and 1941. Said program featured a new kayo and played it every night for a week from Monday to Saturday during its 5-minute time from 12:35 am. That was a heck of a time to play a song that wanted to become a hit. I guess folks really liked listening to the radio that late.
Anyways, one such song that did get the Queen Bee treatment was "Haru no Uta" which was written by Gen Uchida*（内田元）and composed by Kunizo Kishi（喜志邦三）. It was first featured on "Kokumin Kayo" from March 1 1937 and was sung by Mitsuko Watanabe（渡辺光子）, a Showa Era singer who had apparently gone by a lot of stage names such as Haruko Wada（和田春子）, Nobuko Kawashima（川島信子）and Ayako Kawase（川瀬綾子）. For "Haru no Uta", though, her official stage name at that time was Mitsuko Tsukimura（月村光子）. It became a huge hit once it went on sale on that old 78 rpm later in July, and it was certainly a skip-worthy song to celebrate the coming of the green season.
To be honest, I'd encountered the cover version of "Haru no Uta" first via Sayuri Ishikawa's（石川さゆり）1974 2nd album"Omoide/Aoi Sanmyaku"（おもいで・青い山脈...Memories/The Blue Mountains） during her early aidoru phase. I had simply assumed that "Haru no Uta" was a song that was originally created for Ishikawa since my impression was that the then-teenaged singer was singing all these very cutesy kayo. Her take on the 1937 original was also in that vein with the marimba and mariachi trumpets playing away, a combination back then that I usually associated with comical or kiddy tunes.
*「元」can be pronounced as Gen, Moto or a number of other ways as a given name. If anyone can confirm the lyricist's name, that would be greatly appreciated.
Alright, what's with the Reminiscings of Youth article on a Wednesday night? Yeah, I know I know. The ROY articles usually get posted on Thursdays (and there will be the usual one tomorrow), but I'm doing a special today. It all got started during a Facebook exchange of comments with friends about a video that I posted on EAS alarms around the world and I noted that the one for Germany was absolutely danceable (it's the final one)! Well, one of my friends who I've known since undergrad days let me know that July 22nd in Japan has been regarded as Disco Day (which is already here over there).
My curiosity was peaked. When I asked why July 22nd would be given that musical honour, she informed me that the movie "Saturday Night Fever" had been released in Japan for the first time on that date in 1978, although the John Travolta star-making film was originally out in theatres Stateside far earlier in December 1977.
I never caught "Saturday Night Fever" at the theatre when it first came out since I probably would not have been able to get in, but the music and the clips still managed to explode out onto radio and television, especially when Travolta was dancing up his disco storm. Mind you, I should actually think about getting my copy of the soundtrack sometime soon.
Speaking about that soundtrack, that's how I first heard about the Bee Gees with the Gibb brothers. I hadn't known at all that they had been in the music business since 1958 and that they'd been known for much tamer fare before the brothers unleashed their disco power. A number of their songs got onto the soundtrack but of course, the most famous one is the one that starts the album (and the movie) "Stayin' Alive".
My first impression as a kid hearing "Stayin' Alive" was how could a guy sound that high vocally speaking? Did it involve surgery? The second impression was that, yep, it was disco and my third impression was that I couldn't imagine a better song to accompany Travolta's character, Tony Manero, strutting down that Brooklyn street with a can of paint. Basically, whenever I think of the Bee Gees and disco in general, this song or KC and the Sunshine Band's "That's the Way (I Like It)" will always pop up first in my head.
Interestingly enough, there's another movie that often has me thinking of "Stayin' Alive", and that's the parody movie "Airplane" (1980) thanks to one of the many hilarious scenes.
Well, "Stayin' Alive" was a 1977 single so for tonight's comparative list with what was big in Japan back then, I've decided to go with the three ladies who won Performance awards at the 19th Japan Record Awards that year.
To wrap up, there are probably much younger viewers who have recently seen "Saturday Night Fever" and remarked on how svelte and kakkoii Travolta looked way back then. Well, I knew him even earlier than that on an old sitcom.
Ah, yes! "Up your nose with a rubber hose!" Anyways, I realize that the odds of anyone in Japan holding a Disco Day party in a dance club should be none considering the current pandemic, but I hope that perhaps something might be done virtually via Zoom or something.
It's a two-for-one thing on this week's Reminiscings of Youth article and the first one for one of my favourite bands, The Manhattan Transfer. In fact, it's so much one of my favourite bands that for a person like me who doesn't really attend concerts, I actually paid out the yen to get the ticket to see them with my own eyes at The Blue Note in Tokyo, some time in the last few years of my life in Japan.
It was a packed house and as has been the case with a number of other acts over the decades such as The Ventures and Carpenters, The Manhattan Transfer has been a beloved musical guest in Japan. I've known about Tim Hauser, Alan Paul, Laurel Masse (to be replaced by Cheryl Bentyne), and Janis Siegel since I was an elementary school student, and to see Hauser, Paul, Masse and Bentyne a mere four or five metres away from me on the stage at last performing their biggest and most recognizable hits was a singular thrill. I remember one middle-aged fan even closer in front jumping to her feet as either Siegel or Bentyne sang right to her face. Hygiene issues aside, I'm sure that the fan's life was fulfilled. For me, it was also poignant because Hauser would pass away a few years later at the age of 72.
Although I did pick up their "Bodies & Souls" album from 1983 when I was in university, I really didn't go onto the purchasing binge for their discography until my time in Japan. I was in my jazz phase then so being a regular at the various CD stores, I started snatching up a number of their early albums including the two BEST compilations that you see at the top and bottom. The wonderful thing about The Transfer was their ability to tackle not only vocalese jazz, but also urban contemporary, Latin and doo-wop (and others). Their vocal stylings were truly magnificent instruments on their own and although a lot of their songs were covers of earlier numbers, they really made them their own.
One such example is "Tuxedo Junction" (Buddy Feyne, Erskine Hawkins, Bill Johnson, and Julian Dash) which was originally recorded in 1939 by legendary trombonist and band leader Glenn Miller. However, the first version that I heard was by The Manhattan Transfer for their self-titled 2nd album from April 1975. I'm always going to enjoy that intro with Hauser, Masse, Siegel and Paul (oo-pah, oo-PAH...I think), and the collaboration of those joyous harmonies and the boogie-woogie horns helped me decide that this Tuxedo Junction was truly the happening place in Birmingham, Alabama where folks got together in their finest clothing for a magical night of dance and music.
I very vaguely recall that The Transfer did have a TV show as a summer fill-in which turned out to be in 1975. Perhaps it can be said that Sunday nights on the network back then were indeed the televised Tuxedo Junction. I've known that "Birdland", another landmark song by the quartet, has been considered to be their theme song, but I have to admit that I enjoy "Tuxedo Junction" better as the song by them so it was nice to read on the article for the song itself that it was indeed the theme for them.
I definitely remember the first time that I heard "Chanson D'Amour" which was a track (and a 1977 single) on The Manhattan Transfer's 3rd album"Coming Out" from August 1976. When I was in junior high school, my friends and I were picked up from the school one Friday afternoon by my friend's father. As we were waiting for the last guy to come in, "Chanson D'Amour" was playing on the car radio and along with the Edith Piaf imitation by Siegel, there was the catchy "ra da da da da" chorus to insinuate it deep into my musical memories.
Reading about "Chanson D'Amour" on Wikipedia, I discovered that The Transfer's take on the song was a cover of the 1958 original created by American songwriter Wayne Shanklin and recorded by the husband-and-wife singing duo, Art and Dotty Todd.
As with a lot of the other singers and bands covered in ROY articles, The Manhattan Transfer will get some more of their songs covered here in the months to come. But of course, we have to find out what was being released in Japan when "Tuxedo Junction" and "Chanson D'Amour" made their presence known Stateside.
Well, in April 1975 (although once again, J-Wiki reports that it was March) it was:
