Shuki Levy -- Theme from "Inspector Gadget"

 

It's a local holiday Monday here in our neck of the woods so I figured it was time for a Holiday edition of Reminiscings of Youth. 

Now, just to be completely transparent and as I have mentioned in other articles, I never became a bona fide fan of the September 1983 cartoon "Inspector Gadget" (produced in Canada for its first season), although I knew of the character's famous catchphrase, "Go, go, gadget (fill in the blank)" and the iconic voice work of the late Don Adams of "Get Smart" fame. Also, there is the supremely catchy theme song by Shuki Levy (that I used to hear in the mornings and the afternoons), and for you regular KKP readers, if that name sounds familiar to you, then worry not because he has been in the pages of this blog due to his contributions to the Great Japanese Songbook by providing kayo kyoku to singers such as 1970s aidoru Sakiko Ito（伊藤咲子）and even taking part in the duo Shuki & Aviva during that same decade.

But since then, Levy has provided plenty of music, a lot of that within the children's show realm and "Inspector Gadget" was one of the themes. What I was surprised about but should have realized was that Levy had been inspired by the famous "In the Hall of the Mountain King" when he came up with the theme song for the intrepid inspector. But Levy created the theme by mixing a splendid combination of humour, mystery and lighthearted adventure which is what the show was all about.

So, what singles were coming out in Japan in September 1983 when Inspector Gadget was solving his crimes haphazardly?

Jiro Atsumi -- Busan Ko e Kaere (釜山港へ帰れ)

Checkers -- Gizagiza Heart no Komori Uta（ギザギザハートの子守唄）

Yu Hayami -- Lucky Lips (ラッキィ・リップス)

Shuki & Aviva -- Aijou no Hanasaku Ki（愛情の花咲く樹）

Woke up early yesterday morning at 5:55 for whatever reason. My brain then suddenly thrust out the idea of "go, go, go" (go being the Japanese word for "five"・五), but I didn't start thinking about the famous sound meme from "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure". Strangely enough, it was the following.

Yup, I immediately thought of Inspector Gadget and his way of summoning his vast array of gadgets by saying "Go, go, gadget something or other". I was never a dedicated fan of the cartoon but I did see the odd scene here and there as the character was voiced by the late Don Adams whom I knew better as the bumbling original Maxwell Smart Agent 86 on "Get Smart" as a kid.

Recently, I did find out that composer and television producer Shuki Levy was behind the music for "Inspector Gadget" and loads more of other animated shows such as "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" and "The Real Ghostbusters". On top of that, many years earlier, he had been a singer and in 1970, he teamed up with Aviva Paz to form the duo Shuki & Aviva with their songs becoming popular in Europe, Asia and Africa.

One of their songs was "Love Is Like" for which I couldn't find the original version by Jane Schwartz and Levy with Zack Laurence as arranger. However, I did find the Japanese-language version sung by Shuki & Aviva which was given the longer title of "Aijou no Hanasaku Ki" (The Tree with the Blossoms of Affection). This was released as the duo's debut single and their first of four singles recorded in 1973. The Japanese lyrics were provided by veteran Yu Aku（阿久悠）.

How about that? Thanks to the commenter below, I was able to find the French-language version under the title of "L' amour c' est la musique de la vie".

A very short but pretty intense song, the slightly fuzzy guitar and the vocals caught my attention. Levy's voice really reminded me of at least one of the Bee Gees, and the beat felt like the drama was taking place in France.

Peking Ducks -- Techno Duck（テクノダック）

I'm gonna sound like that announcer from those K-Tel record ads but do any of you remember radio DJ Rick Dees' 1976 recording of "Disco Duck"? Just like Pepperidge Farm, I myself do remember since it was on all of the commercials when disco could do no wrong back then. Could never imagine that Donald could pull that one off.

Well, I recently discovered the genre cousin of "Disco Duck". Several years later in 1982, someone or a group called Peking Ducks（北京ダックス）recorded their own novelty techno kayo titled "Techno Duck". Aside from the year of the recording, that's basically all I could find about the song or the band. It's definitely more playful than "Disco Duck" but it still has all the quacking that you would want although I'm not sure if it's ducks or chipmunks that have the speaking roles here.

Anyways, if any of you have more information about Peking Ducks or "Techno Duck", please let me know.

Sakiko Ito -- Himawari Musume （ひまわり娘）

On Saturday, I had just come home from watching "Spiderman: Homecoming" (good but not perfect) and having ramen at the suburban Sansotei (very good), so I mostly missed out on the annual "Omoide no Melody"（思い出のメロディー...Melodies of Memories） on NHK. However, I did catch the last several minutes of it which was better than nothing.

In fact, I had just set my bag down in my room when I returned to the living room and saw former 70s aidoru Sakiko Ito（伊藤咲子）performing a song whose melody fired off some memory engrams. It was her debut single "Himawari Musume" (Sunflower Girl) from April 1974. I knew I must have heard those familiar notes somewhere and sometime.

Yu Aku（阿久悠）really put on the gushy honey-dripping lyrics for "Himawari Girl" as Ito sings out a girl's confession of her being the titular flower while the boy of her dreams is the sun. Awww. Plus, Shuki Levy's（シュキ・レヴィ）down-home melody gets the old nostalgia going in listeners. The song peaked at No. 20 on Oricon. Ito's debut album from July 1974 also had the same title.

I found quite an interesting story about the composer Levy. During the 1970s, he and his partner Aviva Paz became a popular singing duo, Shuki & Aviva, in Europe but what wasn't written on the Wikipedia entry but written on the J-Wiki article was that they also had a measure of success in Japan with a few songs.

But then in the 1980s and 1990s, Levy also became a famous soundtrack composer for a lot of American cartoons including "Spiderman" and "Inspector Gadget". And that included the famous theme song for the latter series. Go, go, gadget pop culture connections!