Taeko Shibata (Taeko Rei) -- Introduction

 

Hello and welcome to the usual Urban Contemporary Friday on "Kayo Kyoku Plus". What I had failed to do in my previous Taeko Rei（令多映子）article for her "Gas Tou"（ガス燈）last month is mention that from at least her 1988 album "Dear Yesterday", the Osaka-born singer went back to her real name of Taeko Shibata（柴田妙子）, although I have now placed her old stage name in brackets alongside her birth one.

Anyways, I have another song from "Dear Yesterday", and perhaps I can assume that it is the first track since it is titled "Introduction". As with "Gas Tou", there is something in the intro rhythm that is reminiscent of a more famous Western pop hit from years earlier. Yup, I caught some of Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" in there, but the rest of the song is modeled after the dance-pop of the West Coast from that time.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find out the songwriters behind the snappy "Introduction".

Taeko Shibata (Taeko Rei) -- Gas Tou（ガス燈）

 

When I think of "Gas Tou" (Gaslight) as a Japanese song, my memories will always go to Ruiko Kurahashi's（倉橋ルイ子）"Gas Tou" from her 1986 "Main Course" album. Riffing off of "I'm A Fool To Love You", it's a jazz torch song that fits the atmosphere of a gas light-lit street of romance on a foggy or rainy evening. 

I was surprised to find out that there were a lot of other songs titled "Gas Tou" in the JASRAC database when I was looking up information on the identically-titled song for this article including Kurahashi's classic. However, one song that I haven't been able to find out on the database definitively is indeed this article's "Gas Tou" by urban contemporary songbird Taeko Rei（令多映子）. I could imagine a jazzy ballad with this title but I never thought there could be a funky City Pop tune having to do with fuzzy gaslights.

Unfortunately, I couldn't track down the songwriters behind Rei's "Gas Tou" but the song is on her 1988 album "Dear Yesterday", so anyone who has the album can discover the mystery creators. As I said, it is quite funky but as was the case in the Kurahashi "Gas Tou" and "I'm A Fool To Love You" comparison, Rei's "Gas Tou" also reminds me rhythmically of The Fixx's "Saved by Zero".

Taeko Rei -- Koi Se yo Otome（恋せよ乙女）

 

It's been a while for a Taeko Rei（令多映子）article. I'm still getting to know this singer although I've appreciated her City Pop stylings so far.

The latest Rei song I've found is an interesting one. "Koi Se yo Otome" (Get In Love, Young Lady!) is a track from her September 1985 album "After Five", and it seems to have that blend of City Pop and the speedy dance-pop of the West Coast of that decade. It almost comes across as a march exhorting that young lady to grab that guy off the dance floor, and there's a recurring verse that sounds just like something that I would hear in an upbeat anison. Yumi Morita（森田由美）was the lyricist and Michiko Yoshida（吉田美智子）was the composer here.

Taeko Rei -- P.S. Darling （P S ダーリン）

Couldn't have asked for something nicer to start off City Pop Friday. So far, the Taeko Rei（令多映子）file on KKP has consisted of tracks from her 1984 album "Taeko", and I've been able to find this gem from there as well.

"P.S. Darling" is somewhat like biting into a special Smartie and realizing that the originating company Nestlé put in some extra-special tasty chocolate within the candy coating. It begins with some bittersweet jazz piano as if it were meant to illustrate a person's feelings after having his/her romantic heart torn out but then after a minute, the person has moved onto bigger and better things. And those bigger and better things include plenty of boppy bass, really sharp horns and that lush piano in a much happier place within a lovely mélange of City Pop, AOR and Latin to surround Rei's warm and chocolatey vocals. Some really nice West Coast feeling in there, too.

Arisu Sato and Akiko Kosaka（佐藤ありす・小坂明子）were on words and music respectively for this feel-good song by Rei. I've already made the decision to try and get "Taeko" in my bid to get back into the album-purchasing saddle again.

Taeko Rei -- Heat Lady

This song was in the backlog for a while so I decided to activate it since being Friday, I thought it would be a City Pop tune, much like "Furimukeba In The Rain"（ふりむけば In The Rain）. However, in actual fact, Taeko Rei's（令多映子）"Heat Lady" is more of a cross between New Wave and an early Madonna number. Strangely enough, Rei's shouting of the title in the song reminded me of Madge's "Gambler".

Written by Goro Matsui（松井五郎）and composed by Ichiro Nitta（新田一郎）from the band Spectrum, "Heat Lady" reminds me once again of all of those Los Angeles-based TV shows and movies in the 1980s with some sort of power pop being played in an aerobics gym set. Like "Furimukeba In the Rain", "Heat Lady" was also on Rei's 2nd album "Taeko" from 1984.

Taeko Rei -- Anata Nanka Hoshikunai（あなたなんて欲しくない）

Returned from a meeting of the condo owners tonight which, as usual, ended up in name-calling acrimony. Didn't stay for Round 2. At least, the coffee and cookies were good.

Anyways, let's put up another round of 80s pop here by Taeko Rei（令多映子）. This time, the song is called "Anata Nanka Hoshikunai" (Don't Want The Likes of You), and it's from her 2nd album "Taeko" from 1984. My inaugural entry for Rei was also from this album so now I'm wondering about being able to get it somehow.

Written by Goro Matsui（松井五郎）and composed by Kan Ogasawara（小笠原寛）, unlike "Furimukeba In The Rain" which was a City Pop number, "Anata Nanka Hoshikunai" has more of that American dance-pop beat from that part of the decade, and perhaps even with a hint of REBECCA injected in there. I think for that reason, it has also hit a happy nerve. As for my images when I hear this one, considering the title, I just imagine some very angry disco dancer shoving her now-erstwhile boyfriend while she storms off the flashing dance floor.

I also compared Rei in that first article with fellow City Popper Yurie Kokubu（国分友里恵）. That vocal resemblance is there, too, but I also get hints of Tomoko Aran（亜蘭知子）. Some pretty nice singing company there.

Taeko Rei -- Furimukeba In The Rain（ふりむけば In The Rain）

Over the years, some readers of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" have thanked me for introducing a number of the songs to them for which I'm very grateful. By the same token, I've also been very grateful to YouTuber Van Paugam for going a bit further and putting up his own City Pop radio channel (that has since been taken down).

That would be especially true tonight since I was listening to his City Pop Radio (and watching the traffic on the Tokyo highway) and came across this singer whom I had never heard before by the name of Taeko Rei（令多映子）. The song performed was "Furimukeba In The Rain" (Turning Around In The Rain) which came from her 2nd album "Taeko" from 1984. Listening to it, I got all sorts of thoughts coming into mind such as the fact that her vocals reminded me of those of fellow City Pop chanteuse Yurie Kokubu（国分友里恵）while the tight horn arrangement had me thinking of what Kahoru Kohiruimaki（小比類巻かほる）would later put together with her songs in the late 1980s going into the early 1990s. The music also had me thinking about the bright synths found in the similar music sung by female singers at the end of that particular decade...that of champagne and painting the town red. In any case, "Furimukeba In The Rain" is a choice find.

From what little I could find about Rei, and her J-Wiki article is apparently quite incomplete, I discovered that she was born Taeko Shibata（柴田妙子）in 1959 and made her debut in 1983. The early part of her career seemed to have stayed within the confines of urban contemporary music before she settled down and retired. However, the marriage didn't quite take and so she returned to the music industry after which she became known as a gospel singer.