Shingo Katori & Akina Nakamori -- TATTOO

 

One of my favourite Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）songs of all time has been "TATTOO". The 1988 single having the pop superstar go hard into a tune that spoke of "Blade Runner" replicants and dove into swing jazz that the folks at Mos Eisley spaceport would love got me right here because of that magical combination of jazz and technopop, years before electro swing became a thing. Akina in that tight red body-hugging dress didn't hurt my eyes, either.

I'm not surprised that "TATTOO" has been covered a few times over the past 36 years since its release, and its newest incarnation arrived several days ago. Former SMAP member Shingo Katori（香取慎吾）has still been on his own swing jazz kick for the past little while which has involved collaborations with acts such as Atarashii Gakko no Leaders（新しい学校のリーダーズ）. Well, it looks like Katori's next dance partner, so to speak, is the Divine Ms. Nakamori herself in their own more standard jazz take on her old hit. 

The new duet on "TATTOO" can be found on Katori's newest album "Circus Funk" which is now available for download and streaming. It's an interesting blend of voices with the young and hungry Katori chiming in with the veteran cigarettes-and-whiskey Akina. Just kinda wished that the arrangement hadn't taken that little tangent near the end. In any case, the original "TATTOO" will remain my "TATTOO".

Shingo Katori feat. Atarashii Gakko no Leaders/Hibari Misora -- Tokyo Tower（東京タワー）🗼

 

I had an old friend of mine who lives in Japan ask me whether I would be returning for a visit anytime this year. Unfortunately, my answer wasn't too positive due to current financial and logistical issues. Of course, I would love to go back and see my old friends and former students/colleagues, and if I could, I would also enjoy returning to the ol' Tokyo Prince Hotel. Among other things, it is across the street from Tokyo Tower, still a major symbol of the capital of Japan. Wouldn't it be nice to get a room with a view of the old tower, although most likely it would cost a ton of yen for the night.

Last Tuesday, I wrote up an article on Toshihiko Tahara's（田原俊彦）old-style jazzy "Romanticist de Ii janai"（ロマンティストでいいじゃない）and right at the start, I referenced an even older article regarding former SMAP member Shingo Katori（香取慎吾）in jazz mode himself via his 2022 album "Tokyo SNG". Well, a commenter below then pointed out another song from that album which happened to have the dapper Katori teaming up with none other than the amazingly zany song and dance team, Atarashii Gakko no Leaders（新しい学校のリーダーズ）.

Well, I replied that I would have to check this one out. The video itself appeared on Katori's own YouTube channel only a week ago, and the song is simply "Tokyo Tower". Katori and Atarashii Gakko no Leaders make like the most congenial tokusatsu monster figures this side of baby Mothra as they all do a lovely singing soft-shoe reminiscent of the good ol' days of live TV music-variety shows. I know that crazy Suzuka has often performed the lead vocals for the group, but she really does stand out here in her duet with Katori.

Now, as usually would be the case for any song getting onto KKP, I did search for the songwriters behind "Tokyo Tower". My first assumption had been that it was a couple of folks in this century who just knew how to create the old stuff. However, my look at the JASRAC database revealed the composer to be the late Toru Funamura（船村徹）, one of the foremost songwriters of the kayo era. As it turns out, "Tokyo Tower" is an old chestnut of the kayo era! In fact, none other than Hibari Misora（美空ひばり）, the Queen of Kayo Kyoku herself, recorded "Tokyo Tower" as her 151st single and released it in March 1959. With Toshio Nomura（野村俊夫）behind the lyrics, Misora sings in a higher pitch than I'm accustomed to. Other than that, it's a jazzy kayo about the wonders of the then newly-built Tokyo Tower that had been completed in December 1958.

Wonderful, wonderful!🗼

Shingo Katori -- Tokyo SNG（東京SNG）

 

Yesterday, I was talking about the sprinkle of snow that had alighted on the streets of Toronto. Well, about that...it turned out to become much more of a major snowfall by this morning. It's definitely one of our earliest first snows in recent memory so it was a tad slippery going out, but if it all stays for the weekend, it will make for a great environment for the return of the Santa Claus Parade this Sunday. Then, my city's unofficial Xmas season can begin (although on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", that will be from the 25th).

It is quite cold outside so let's try something hot and jazzy. The last time I saw former SMAP member Shingo Katori（香取慎吾）, it was on "Uta Con"（うたコン）a few months ago as he went on a new swing direction. It was such that I soon followed up with "Kon'ya Saikou ne"（今夜最高ね）on the blog; it's a track on his recent April 2022 album "Tokyo SNG".

Well, this time, I have the title track here and I gather that the SNG stands for "swing". And this tune surely does swing. "Kon'ya Saikou ne" has some City Pop mixed in, but "Tokyo SNG" is something straight out of the 1940s with the jazz orchestra going all out on instruments while Katori has opted for a Duke Ellington-like performance. Written and composed by Katori, Shuutoku Mukai（向井秀徳）and Hiroaki Yamashita（山下宏明）, the whole thing about "Tokyo SNG" is forgetting all about the tearful past and just tear through an amazing present in Japan's capital. Looks like Kagurazaka, the Bayside Expressway and Odaiba are the places to be.

Shingo Katori -- Kon'ya Saikou ne（今夜最高ね）

 

In the last few weeks, I've been made aware of the return of a former SMAP member who kinda laid low for several months to a couple of years following the breakup of the stupendously successful Johnny's Entertainment band. He was following his artistic muse for a while, as I recall. Shingo Katori（香取慎吾）always struck me as being the tall and goofily lovable funny guy of SMAP in contrast with the angry young rebel Takuya Kimura（木村拓哉）and the affable leader Masahiro Nakai（中居正広）. In fact, when it came to any solo musical works, I will always remember Katori dressed up like a mother out of a 1970s Japanese home comedy-drama singing "Shingo Mama no Oha Rock"（慎吾ママのおはロック）, a big hit.

Well, what a difference a couple of decades make. Katori is now all dapper and grown up in a tuxedo, and he released a solo album earlier in April titled "Tokyo SNG"（東京SNG）which seems to be him going all Michael Bublé or Harry Connick Jr. Yup, he's going the swing jazz route and one track that has gotten my attention is "Kon'ya Saikou ne" (Tonight's The Greatest). He's performed this already on a couple of shows that I've watched: an episode of "Uta Con"（うたコン）a few weeks ago and then on a Sanma Akashiya（明石家さんま）special earlier tonight. The lad's sense of humour has gotten a bit more droll.

Regardless, "Kon'ya Saikou ne" is some swing jazz given a bit of a contemporary spin...maybe even some Steely Dan chords in the arrangement. As well, I'm even picking up on some Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra (sans the ska of course) and BLU-SWING. Words and music were supplied by Sohsaku Ohtake（大竹創作）, the vocalist of a band called Ossan（乙三.）. I've just been looking into some of their works and they've gotten my attention as well since they seem to be all about the jazz and rock. I will definitely have to cover at least one song of theirs in the next few days.

Eito -- Kousui（香水）

 

I've been hearing about this song off and on for the past few months, and then came the announcement that this Kanagawa Prefecture-born singer-songwriter Eito Takahashi（高橋瑛人）or just Eito was selected to come onto the Kohaku Utagassen this year. 

Eito has already released 6 digital download singles up to December 18th this year but everyone has been talking about his very first single, "Kousui" (Perfume), which actually was released all the way back in April 2019. In fact, the song title has even been nominated as one of the words/catchphrases of 2020.

For me, last Saturday was the time that I got to hear "Kousui" in full form when Eito appeared on comedian Sanma Akashiya's（明石家さんま）annual year-end special "Akashiya Kohaku!"（明石家紅白!） where a number of singers and bands that he likes are invited for some chat and song. Not sure if I heard this right, but during the give-and-take between Akashiya and Eito, the latter admitted that he speaks with a voice that sounds as if he's having some adenoidal issues but thanks to voice training, he can sing without the nasality.

As for "Kousui", which was written and composed by Eito under his songwriting moniker of 8s, it's got that appealingly laidback melody which reminds me of Eric Clapton unplugged. However, the lyrics can be analogized by that scene in "Avengers: Endgame" where a post-Snap emotionally-crushed Hawkeye is approached by old buddy Black Widow to whom he pleads "Don't do that! Don't give me hope." In Eito's case, an old flame suddenly calls him up three years after the breakup to see how he's doing and all sorts of emotions including regret and self-pity well up within him along with the scent memory of the Dolce & Gabbana perfume that she probably still wears. According to a Buzzfeed interview via J-Wiki, that particular scent was Sport and it was worn by his old boss at the hamburger joint that Eito used to work at.

Y'know...I actually used a Marvel analogy, but considering that reunion, I also remember that scene in "Casablanca" where Rick rushes out to chew out Sam for playing that song when he sees Ilsa for the first time in several years.

Anyhow, I gather that "Kousui" has been a slow burner up the ladder of success. It was released back in April 2019 but through various actions such as Amazon Japan putting the song onto CD back in February this year and Eito's appearances on television such as the music program "Music Station", the song's fame started growing, jumping from No. 22 on Oricon in early May 2020 up to No. 1 within a couple of weeks. Up to September, it was bobbing up and down in the Top 10.

Then, there have been a lot of singers and TV personalities who have also decided to cover the song themselves such as one-half of the comedy duo Oriental Radio, Shingo Fujimori（藤森慎吾）, and former SMAP member Shingo Katori（香取慎吾）.

"Kousui" will make its way onto Eito's first full album "Sukkarakan"（すっからかん）which is due to come out on New Year's Day, 2021. But let's see how he does on the Kohaku.

Shingo Katori -- Shingo Mama no Oha Rock （慎吾ママのおはロック）

Man, has it been that long?! I remember when this song and the singer behind it were all over the airwaves.

Japan is the one country I know whose pop culture is whimsical enough that one word or phrase can catch so much of the popular imagination that the Top 10 Catchphrases of the Year has been a mainstay year-end event since 1984. And for one year, it helped spawn a hit song that just managed to miss getting into the Top 10 for 2000.

My daily schedule back in Japan was such that I often didn't need to leave the apartment for work until some hours later in the day. So I often lounged around past breakfast doing some channel surfing, and aside from the morning news shows, there were quite a few kids' programs around including one on TV Tokyo called "Oha Suta"（おはスタ...Mornin' Studio） in which one of the ways of greeting was "Ohhaa~".

Well, the goofy member of SMAP, Shingo Katori（香取慎吾）, had a comical character which originated on one of the many SMAP shows scattered all over Japanese TV "Sata Smap"（サタ☆スマ...Saturday SMAP） who looked like a hybrid of June Cleaver and an ostrich by the name of Shingo Mama（慎吾ママ）. Somehow he and the "Ohhaa~" expression got together and a phenomenon was born. I can no longer see Shingo Mama without hearing "her" cheerful "Ohhaa~"....not that I've seen Katori's alter ego in the past decade or so.

Then Mama and "Ohhaa~" got a further bump up by getting their own song. Given the drawn-out title of "Shingo Mama no Oha Rock", the single was released in August 2000 and was written, composed and produced by Yasuharu Konishi（小西康陽）from Pizzicato Five. And as would be expected with such a combination of folks and contagious pop gimmick here, it sounded like a kids' tune on a couple of cans of Red Bull. Thanks to Konishi, it's pretty darn catchy and Shingo Mama doesn't sound too bad.

The video for "Shingo Mama no Oha Rock" further amped things up with not only a cast of dozens doing the goofball choreography (that probably had the kids of the nation dancing in the living room) but a fistful of cameos by actors, comedians and tarento (plus Shingo's bandmates) chanting out the mot d'annee on a scale similar to the "Ghostbusters" music video. The one jaw-dropper is seeing a certain American music legend even getting in on the act near the end.

Shingo Mama hit No. 1 on Oricon and quickly became the 12th-ranked song of the year. It was also the first hit single by a solo SMAP member to reach the top spot, selling around 1.3 million copies.