Swingout Sister -- Fooled by a Smile

From Good Free Photos

 

Going into the last few days of 2023, we are indeed going to be talking about the "last" of a number of things here, including the final Reminiscings of Youth article for this year.

I've opted for the sophisticated pop of Swingout Sister once more. Earlier this year, I tackled the band's "Twilight World" which went for a more mysterious 60s spy movie feel, but this time around, I'm returning to sunnier climes where they're concerned via their June 1987 single "Fooled by a Smile". Back to that vibe of breezy 60s romantic comedy, "Fooled by a Smile" is another one of my favourites by Corinne Drewery, Andy Connell and Martin Jackson. As I've frequently said, I'm always going to be a sucker for a battery of jazzy horns and Drewery's splendid vocals.

"Fooled by a Smile" only scored on the UK Singles chart at No. 43 and as I recall, I didn't hear much from Swingout Sister after "Twilight World" when I was still at university...which is a pity. I'm hoping that folks afterwards have been able to discover some of the wonders from their later singles and albums.

For this final ROY of 2023, what was also coming out in Japan as singles in June 1987?

Yoko Oginome -- Sayonara no Kajitsutachi （さよならの果実たち）

Teresa Teng -- Wakare no Yokan （別れの予感）

Shonentai -- Kimi Dake ni （君だけに）

Swingout Sister -- Twilight World

 

Welcome to the regular Thursday edition of Reminiscings of Youth. And it's always wonderful to come back to the song stylings of Corinne Drewry and Swingout Sister with their touch of sophisticated pop class. In the past, I've covered their introspectively romantic "Now You're Not Here" and their "Let's have a great time!" breakout "Breakout".

Today, I'm looking at their fourth single "Twilight World" which was released in April 1987 in the UK and then months later in December in the USA. For me, it was the second song by Swingout Sister that I took notice of following the smashing "Breakout", and in terms of tone, it's somewhere between "Breakout" and "Now You're Not Here". It's not a ballad but there's a bit more darkness and mystery in "Twilight World" than in the gloriously happy "Breakout" although the music video (which I saw for the first time only ten minutes ago) still has Drewry and company truly feeling that it's better to travel.

Despite the difference in tone, "Twilight World" is still a Swingout Sister-style smash with the sophisti-pop horns and strings returning. Reading the lyrics by the band, the song seems to be one for anti-romance as Drewry warns listeners about the dangers of love and preferring the anonymity and solitude of the crowds. Maybe that's why there is that train station announcement in Japan at the beginning. Nothing more crowded than Tokyo or Shinjuku Station at rush hour. The music also hits me as something appropriate for a 1960s spy thriller along the lines of James Bond or Harry Palmer, so try to imagine "Twilight World" being used in "You Only Live Twice" within the exotic setting of Japan.

Being both a Swingout Sister fan and an admirer of the swinging jazz spy themes of the 1960s, it was a foregone conclusion that I would get the record of "Twilight World" with the original and the remix tracks. In both the UK and the US, the single managed to get up into the low 30s on their respective charts.

So, what was on top of the Oricon charts for December 1987?

1. Hikaru Genji -- Glass no Juu-dai （ガラスの十代）

2. Yukari Morikawa -- SHOW ME

4. Shizuka Kudo -- Again

Swingout Sister -- Breakout

 

Here I was, prepping to put up my latest Reminiscings of Youth article for one of my favourite songs from the 1980s, and I just remembered that I had previously gushed all about Swingout Sister's "Breakout" way back in the autumn of 2015. Yup, Corinne Drewry and her group already has representation on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" because they had a song that became a theme song for a moody J-Drama on TBS back in 1996. "You Are Not Here" was a lovely ballad to fit the mood but any road leading to that song blog-wise had to go through the even more marvelous "Breakout".

Well, there's no need for me to write about how I first encountered "Breakout", one of the prime examples of that classy and cool genre known as sophisti-pop, since that's already out on my article for "You Are Not Here", but what I didn't mention there was that I've got the remix version LP. However, I don't know where it disappeared to.😨 Thank the heavens for YouTube to provide me with the memories, though (I'll still be searching).

The new angle that I can provide here in this ROY article is that with Swingout Sister's big popularity in Japan (heck, Softbank made a really spiffy ad with a silent Cameron Diaz to "Breakout" as you can see at the top), I think it also had some effect on the urban contemporary music scene in the nation back in those Bubble 80s. Last week, if you remember, I came up with the previous ROY about Steely Dan's "Peg" (1977) and how Fagen & Becker managed to influence so many of those Japanese songwriters with their groovy City Pop creations going into the 1980s.

Well, I think Swingout Sister and some other sophisti-pop acts helped out in carving their own territory in that huge magical cloud of Japanese City Pop in the latter half of that decade. Perhaps the early City Pop influenced by Steely Dan, the Doobie Brothers and Airplay had that general feeling of absorbing that fine urban atmosphere (being aware of the smog, though) while strolling the concrete sidewalks, but songs like "Breakout" may have inspired some of those same artists (singers and songwriters alike) to go for a jazzier and brassier City Pop with what I've called the champagne-and-caviar synths while still retaining the soulfulness. This was about being more active in the city: painting the town red including some fine dining in Akasaka and all that dancing in Roppongi. A couple of songs that have immediately come to mind are Junko Ohashi's（大橋純子）"Nemurenai Diamond"（眠れないダイアモンド）and Masayuki Suzuki's（鈴木雅之）"Wakare no Machi"（別れの街）from those late 80s.

I really ought to make up a Venn diagram for City Pop someday. It would be the first time since junior high school that I've made one; I guess those things actually have some applied use after all. Regardless, although "Breakout" was released in 1986, I couldn't track down in which month it came out but I did find out that the Swingout Sister hit reached No. 1 on US Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart in November 1987, according to its webpage, so I will go with that to provide the Top 3 Oricon singles for that period.

1. Yukari Morikawa -- SHOW ME

2. Seiko Matsuda -- Pearl-White Eve

3. Akina Nakamori -- Nanpasen （難破船）

Swingout Sister -- Now You're Not Here

From Discogs

The first time I heard Swingout Sister's "Breakout" on the radio back in my university days, I fell in love with it...and the band...immediately. I've always had a thing for the somewhat hard-to-pin-down genre known as sophisti-pop; there may be a horn section but it's not strictly jazz and there might be some groove as well but I can't really say it's R&B. However, it is fun, classy and urbane...just like a night out on the town in some of the very nice areas. The Manhattan Transfer has that feeling and so does Swingout Sister.

And like The Transfer, Swingout Sister has that rabid following in Japan. I can probably say that it is up there with The Beatles and The Carpenters as acts that might have even more popularity in my nation of heritage than it does in America or the UK (oh, and I forgot Bobby Caldwell). Several years ago, I think one of the phone companies had a popular commercial on TV starring Cameron Diaz tripping the light fantastic while "Breakout" was playing. Not bad. And it was definitely nice to hear Corinne Drewery's voice again.

I'd bought a few of the remix LPs for Swingout Sister while I was an undergraduate at U of T, but it would be about another decade before I started re-enlisting my interest for the band with purchases of some of their original albums on CD. And I ended up picking up their first BEST album in 1996. All of those purchases were made since I was attracted to one of their new singles at the time, "Now You're Not Here". It had that Swingout Sister soulful style but all put into a wistful ballad of regret and remembrance of happier times.

"Now You're Not Here" was released as a single only in Japan although I'm sure it is a track on their albums released worldwide. I couldn't find out how it did on Oricon but it apparently sold in excess of 300,000 copies. Part of the reason was that it was used as the theme song for a 1996 TBS J-Drama "Mahiru no Tsuki"（真昼の月...Midday Moon） which starred Yuji Oda and Takako Tokiwa (or perhaps the drama became popular partially because of the theme song).

Ah, I did find that Cameron Diaz commercial.