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.
Usually the weekly Yutaka Kimura Speaks article would end Urban Contemporary Fridays on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", but earlier today, I read off the news scroll that the great Brazilian musician, Sergio Mendes, had passed away yesterday at the age of 83.
The first time that I actually registered the name and who he was in the music industry was back in 1983 when his contribution to the ballad "Never Gonna Let You Go" resulted in it becoming one of the big hits of that year. I used to hear it all the time on radio and that included when I was painting fences all day in that townhouse development as a part of my summer job to earn money for university. Considering my natural affinity for AOR, it wasn't difficult for me to get into "Never Gonna Let You Go". I definitely didn't let it go.
Strangely enough, I had heard "Mas que Nada" a number of times as a kid much earlier in life but didn't make the connection for years that this was Mendes' song when it was recorded with his band Brasil '66 in 1966. Actually, I was surprised to find out that this was not Mendes' original song but a cover of Jorge Ben's song from 1963. However, I think for most fans outside of Brazil, it will always be Mendes' version that they will cherish.
"Mas que Nada" is someone's exhortation to leave them be and let them dance their samba and jazz, namely bossa nova. Yup, I can understand that sentiment. Whenever I hear "Mas que Nada", I get images of swivel-hipped men and women in stylish party garb dancing their way onto the floor while carrying and sipping their martinis at the same time. The scatting and the percussion are very inviting for even a lummox like me to whip my legs and arms around. That's the magic of this song: it brings the image of a certain time but still gets folks in later decades to sing and move and groove.
My condolences to Mendes' family, friends and what are probably millions of fans around the planet.
Happy Monday to you all, especially since we're on the final Monday for April 2023. I thought that we can start this KKP week with something mellow once more. Bossa nova has always been one of my favourite genres anywhere around the planet, and so, I often think of Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 and their classic "Mas que Nada" which I will really have to cover on a future Reminiscings of Youth. I actually have covered a Mendes song through ROY but it was one of his AOR hits, "Never Gonna Let You Go" from 1983 which still retains a lot of sentimental value to me.
I read that Mendes, who at one point was on the same level as the late legendary Pele in terms of world-class popularity among Brazilian celebrities, had changed the double digits for his band as the decades passed. Therefore in 1971, Brasil '66 changed to Brasil '77 with Mendes' promise that the music would come out with a bit more rock and a bit more Brazilian authenticity.
Bossa nova was and is a popular genre in Japan although I'm unsure whether Mendes and his band have that same sort of Big-in-Japan love that The Carpenters and The Ventures have enjoyed for years and years. Regardless, I was surprised to find out yesterday that Mendes & Brasil '77 had put out a Japan-only single in 1975 titled "Aisareta Ato de" (After Being Loved). Written by the late Rei Nakanishi（なかにし礼）and composed by Shunichi Tokura（都倉俊一）, it's certainly got the genre vibes in there including the flute and those delectable rhythms, but something inside me also believes that there is some of that kayo feeling as well.
If I'm not mistaken, the vocals are provided by Bonnie Bowden and maybe Mendes' wife Gracinha Leporace, but perhaps someone can confirm that one for me. They were both responsible for vocalizing Nakanishi's Japanese lyrics on the A-side and then the English version on the B-side under the title of "The Magic Wheels".
Glad to have found out about this single since there is nary any information about Brasil '77 on either Wikipedia or J-Wiki, let alone anything about this one-off single for Japan. It's finding this gem that has always made me grateful for the blog.
This morning, I did something that I hadn't done in 37 years. No...not that, my bladder is still as tight as a kettle drum. Actually, I am referring to the fact that I painted fences for the first time since the summer of 1983 since our superintendent sent around a flyer asking residents to handle the painting of their area fences over the weekend. So I went to the superintendent's office yesterday morning to pick up the stain, the brush and the stir stick and waited until this morning to get started because yesterday was a meteorological washout. Today, however, is a fine day so I got out after breakfast and did Part 1 of the job in about an hour. It was rather nice to be doing something outside of translating, teaching or blogging for a change.
As I said, the summer of 1983 was the time for me to earn my first amount of money in a summer job, so I got to paint a whole ton of fences during July and August for a particular townhouse area in Agincourt in the northeastern part of Toronto. I also had to pick up garbage and water the lawns in what was a pretty hot summer. Ended up with the worst case of athlete's foot but all in all, it was good honest work to earn some money for university.
It was also a somewhat eerie experience because for most of my days there, I swore that I thought I was the only person anywhere in the development. I gather that most of the adults were off at work and the kids were off to summer camp. Whenever I needed more paint, I would leave a message for my boss, and by the next morning, the paint would be there without me ever meeting the delivery person.
However having said that, at one point, there was one townhouse resident who apparently had his/her radio on fairly loudly and it was playing all sorts of pop music. The one song that I remember distinctly was "Never Gonna Let You Go" that had been produced by Sergio Mendes as an April 1983 single and was also included on his self-titled album that came out the same time. It was created by Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann and sung by Joe Pizzulo and Leeza Miller to become a No. 1 hit on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart. Apparently, though, according to Wikipedia, "Never Gonna Let You Go" in the form I know wasn't the first rodeo for the romantic ballad. In 1982, Dionne Warwick and Stevie Woods recorded their own versions on their own albums, but the Pizzulo and Miller version was the one to take things to the top.
For all intents and purposes, that was the first time I had ever heard of Sergio Mendes...through his AOR phase in the 1980s. It wouldn't be until much later that I learned about his major contributions to bossa nova through Brasil '66, and of course, their classic "Mas que Nada".
"Never Gonna Let You Go" is a ballad that is so 1980s that it can make me want to put on a skinny tie and grow a mullet again. And in fact, when I got out to do the painting, that very song entered my head once more. But it wasn't just something that I heard out among the wooden fences. I also knew about how popular it was because of the late Casey Kasem's televised "America's Top 10" in which it got plenty of notice (although the program above doesn't have it in the Top 10 here).
Speaking of discovering someone anew, I had no idea that Kasem had been a veteran radio DJ and was surprised to find out that the voice actor behind Shaggy of "Scooby Doo" and team leader Mark on the imported and dubbed version of "Gatchaman" (aka "Battle of the Planets") had been spinning discs all this time. Now...back to the countdown.
So, what were the Top 3 singles on Oricon for April 1983?
September 27, 2022: Oh, by the way, I just came across this Rick Beato YouTube video proclaiming "Never Gonna Let You Go" as the most complex pop song of all time.
