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.
Back in June last year, I posted up an article for the song "Dr. Yellow"（Dr.イエロー）by MoJo on hearing the announcement that the famous and beloved specialized train for diagnostics on the Bullet Trains was going to be retired over the next few years. However, when I watched NHK news this morning, it looks like JR Central's Dr. Yellow had its final run today (the one belonging to JR West will be retired in 2027).
Not surprisingly, there were huge billowing masses of fans at the final stop and any place where photographers could get a glimpse and shot of the yellow Shinkansen to say goodbye. On the NHK report, there was even a focus on one photographer who had become friends of a family whose young son had been suffering from leukemia. The photographer was able to get one final shot of Dr. Yellow in tribute to the boy who had passed away a couple of years ago at the age of 11.
I was thinking of paying a further tribute to Dr. Yellow but outside of the MoJo song, there doesn't seem to be any other kayo devoted to the train. Therefore, I've decided to put up an Author's Pick on providing songs of gratitude as I'm sure that a lot of the fans have their feelings of thanks toward the train.
As has been the case for Friday nights on TV Japan for several months (although when I wrote the first KKP article regarding the show, it had been shown on Wednesdays), we've been tucking into our regular episodes of NHK's educational variety program "Chiko-chan ni Shikarareru!"（チコちゃんに叱られる!...Chiko-chan Will Scold You!）. Starring comedian and actor Takashi Okamura（岡村隆史）as the human side of the co-hosting equation, the other side is represented by the eternally 5-year-old CG figure of Chiko-chan who knows all and tells all, and usually chews out the celebrity guests for not knowing some form of arcane knowledge.
The thing is that there is a third corner to the hosting triangle although she usually doesn't show up until the last few minutes of the show. Kiyoe-chan（キョエちゃん）is the crow who loves to troll Okamura in her snappy yet growly voice, and I've still yet to know who she's voiced by.
Strangely enough, there are already two articles on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" with themes for "Chiko-chan", "Shikararetai!"（叱られたい！）and even Kiyoe-chan's ending theme for the show "Daisukitte Imi da yo"（大好きって意味だよ）. But beginning this year, a new second ending theme by the crow was created and it's called "Edogawa Bojou"(Longing for the Edo River). The bird might be snarky as all heck but she does have a soft spot for enka as she croons about her love for her home area around the major Tokyo river and perhaps for the megalopolis' eastern ward which has the same name.
Singer-songwriter and former leader for the rock band Unicorn, Tamio Okuda（奥田民生）, produced "Edogawa Bojou" with Mr. M behind the lyrics and Shitami（したみ）taking care of the music. If neither of those two songwriters don't ring a bell, don't worry. "Edogawa Bojou" was the final product of a contest for the musically inclined segment of viewers to come up with a song to match the title, so over the weeks, various citizens sent in videos of how the song could sound ranging in genre from folk to enka to pop, before this enka tune was finally selected. Since then, as Kiyoe-chan is singing "Edogawa Bojou", viewers' footage of doing their own version of this now official song has been appearing alongside the crow as part of the ending credits including the above performance.
Another year has gone by and Chiko-chan is still chewing out folks for their lack of knowledge. Yes, indeed, I am talking about the NHK educational variety show "Chiko-chan ni Shikarareru"（チコちゃんに叱られる!...Don't Sleep Through Life） that we can watch on TV Japan on Wednesday nights. Last year, I wrote about the theme songs for the show, especially about the main theme which has a rather interesting history.
Well, just in the last few weeks, it appears that Chiko-chan herself and her co-host, comedian and tarento Takashi Okamura（岡村隆史）, have decided to get into the singing act, and released a number of their own. Called "Shikararetai!" (I Want to be Scolded!), Chiko and Okamura and songwriter Tamio Okuda（奥田民生）get together under the name Chiko-mura Tamio to Edogawa All-Stars (チコ村民生と江戸川オールスターズ... Chiko Village Tamio and The Edogawa All-Stars) for a bit of soft-shoe and rockabilly fun. There's nothing listed on the J-Wiki article for the program so I don't quite know how it's been doing on the rankings. However, on the most recent episode, a whole bunch of videos have popped out showing the kids copying the choreography at home, so I'm sure that it's done its share of sales.
I can probably say that tarentoMami Yamase（山瀬まみ）may be the Queen of Variety Shows considering the lineup of programs that she's been on in Japanese TV. She used to be the regular panelist on the currently running NHK information variety program "Tameshite Gatten"（ためしてガッテン）, and at the time I wrote my first article on her, she had still been on the show but a couple of years ago, she decided to call it a day and "graduated". And unfortunately, none of the other programs that she appears on are provided by TV Japan, so she's been missing on my family's screen since 2017. Incidentally, she may still be the Icon of Insect Repellent since she's been the spokesperson for Kincho for the longest time as you can see above.
When I was still in my first stint at university in the 1980s, I had heard about Yamase as that squeaky-voiced aidoru but never heard her songs. However, when I was in Gunma at the turn of the decade, I was watching the late-night show "MTV Japan" early on Saturday morning and finally caught this bizarre video featuring her. At the time, I would have said that this belonged to any of those music channel programs which specialized in the weird and wonderful music videos.
This was indeed my first encounter with Yamase singing a song, and it happened to be "Go!", a tour-de-force tune that may have been inspired by a demented circus. I really couldn't say that it was an aidoru song...at least, not a run-of-the-mill one, anyways. Bringing in pop, rock and ska into a whirling dervish of an arrangement, I also had the opportunity to see the music video in my darkened room. Whatever you do, don't watch this in a darkened room.
Discovering her earliest tunes much later on, I realized that Yamase had a pretty nice and light voice, and I've realized that the squeaky delivery she's shown all these years whenever she's been on TV is a stage thing and not really how she sounds in "civilian" life. Therefore, I would say that "Go!" is more of her tarento voice gone haywire in a mad opera.
"Go!" was the first track on Yamase's 3rd album"Oyayubi Hime"（親指姫...Thumbelina） which was released back in November 1989. It was written by Kenzo Saeki（サエキけんぞう）or Yukinojo Mori（森雪之丞）depending on whether you look at J-Wiki or YouTube, but it was definitely composed by Tamio Okuda（奥田民生）of the band Unicorn. The album peaked at No. 39.
Speaking of "MTV Japan", seeing this video of Kenta Hagiwara and Dionne Mitsuoka simply brought back all those memories of watching late-night Japanese telly again. It was a rather odd experience in that I had known about MTV in America as the premier music video channel (yes, believe it or not, kids, it used to show only music videos), but in Japan, it was represented as an overnight show on TBS televised for a few hours going into the weekend.
Back in the 1980s, a lot of folks including me were just simultaneously charmed and mystified by this truly weird creation called Max Headroom that for a while became a video sensation as this smarmy virtual presence. He popped up in Coke commercials, had his own show on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, and even appeared in an Art of Noise music video. We were all going gaga over the possibility that a truly virtual celebrity had been born. He even sang standard-type show tunes.
However, as it turned out, the curtains were raised on the great Wizard of Oz, so to speak. It really wasn't the world's first A.I...more of a regular M.F...as in actor Matt Frewer under a ton of prosthetics with the character created by George Stone, Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton. That middle person is a film and TV director who came up with one of my favourite music videos, "Questionnaire" for her brother, Chaz Jankel, the fellow who co-created one of my favourite songs (period) "Ai no Corrida".
Whether or not good ol' Max was the seed behind all idols virtual, they did start popping up over the decades, leading to the cadre of Vocaloids including Miku Hatsune, Rin Kagamine, etc.
The Vocaloids have become so ubiquitous that I had completely forgotten about Kyoko Date（伊達杏子）over twenty years ago. I did recall reading a newspaper article about her, and maybe I even came across something about her in an issue of "TIME".
But then commenter Fireminer contacted me a couple of days ago asking me about this virtual idol under the name of Yui Haga（芳賀ゆい）. My first reaction was "Who?". Never heard of her. But I did a bit of digging and apparently she existed...in a way.
Yui Haga wasn't a virtual idol in that she wasn't created out of a million bits of data. She was simply a kakuu no aidoru（架空のアイドル）, or a fabricated idol. The whole idea behind her came from comedian and TV/radio personality Hikaru Ijuuin（伊集院光）which surprised me since this was a boisterous fellow who I'd seen for years and years on the telly in all sorts of situations whether it be as a host on a variety show, guest panelist on a quiz series or even portraying a stalker on one episode of Fuji-TV's"Odoru Dai Sosasen"（踊る大捜査線）cop program.
On an episode of his radio program "Ijuuin Hikaru no All-Night Nippon"（伊集院光のオールナイトニッポン）in 1989, the plan sprouted about creating this kakuu aidoru. Not sure how it all came about; I envisioned Ijuuin suddenly getting a light bulb over his head and throwing out his idea like Andy Hardy feeling like putting on a show in his family's barn.
And once that idea took root, Yui Haga did take on a life of her own over the next year. She gained a full profile including parents and siblings, birth date (April 15, 1974), birth place (the city of Kobe), body measurements and even a "real" name of Makiko Higuchi（樋口麻紀子）. Incidentally, Yui Haga was derived from the expression hagayui （歯痒い）which actually means "impatient" or "tantalized".
Yui-chan even released her one and only single"Hoshizora no Passport"(Starlight Passport), released in July 1990 and created by Unicorn member Tamio Okuda（奥田民生）and the unit Seifuku（生福）consisting of Noritaka Ubukata（生方則孝）and Yasuhiko Fukuda（福田裕彦）who developed software for the Yamaha digital synthesizer DX7. Nice and twinkly as an aidoru song would be, Yui-chan's voice had that high-toned and squeaky quality. "Hoshizora no Passport" managed to get as high as No. 51 on Oricon.
Wait, hold the Pepperidge Farm here! If Haga didn't really exist, then who possessed that voice? Interesting story, you bring up. From what I found on J-Wiki, there was a cast behind her that outpaces even the one for "Avengers: Endgame". For example, when Haga had to act as a radio personality, a professional seiyuu was hired but for her singing duties, a chorus of women in their twenties was utilized (which brings up the question...were their voices melded into one or was one just selected?). She even appeared "physically" at events and TV shows though with her eyes blacked out or her face obscured. In that situation, a total of 57 women were used to portray her including a porn actress according to a Mainichi Shimbun article in December 1990. She even had her own photo book titled ironically "U-SO-TSU-KI"（う・そ・つ・き...L-I-A-R）.
Yahoo.co.jp
www.pinterest.com
This whole thing rather reminds me of the character Captain Universe and its powers, if I may be allowed to make another Marvel reference. After all, this is the character that has been billed as the superhero who can be YOU! (And thanks for offering, Cap, but I've already had some pie.)
By the end of 1990, though, Ijuuin decided that enough was enough and pulled the plug on the whole project before things got out of hand. Apparently, a lot of fans thought that Haga was truly real, and maybe she indeed was after a fashion since I think an aidoru's success has much to do with how his/her fans perceive the target of their affection.
Wow! An oldie but a goodie that I just remembered from the oeuvre of PUFFY!
"Ai no Shirushi" (Sign of Love) was the 6th single by Ami and Yumi from March 1998. Like many of their other hits, it had a long rotation on the charts and I remember seeing it all the time on shows like "Countdown TV". I mean, it's not everyday that I hear a pop song ushered in with urgent timpani accompanied by a video featuring choreography that was seemingly inspired by a couple of canoe paddlers. It's still a typically fun PUFFY song that peaked at No. 3.
Tamio Okuda（奥田民生）was the arranger for "Ai no Shirushi" but this time, he didn't take care of the words and music directly. That honour belonged to Masamune Kusano（草野正宗）of the band Spitz which was also enjoying its heyday in the 1990s. What I hadn't known was that Spitz did its own cover of "Ai no Shirushi" on their March 1999 album"Kachou Fuugetsu"（花鳥風月...Beauties of Nature）. Usually I associate the band with these wholesome guitar pop ballads and mid-tempo numbers, but the song and the video show a happily goofier side. The album also went as high as No. 3 on the Oricon weeklies.
It's been a while since I've posted anything by Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra（東京スカパラダイスオーケストラ）so I've forgotten how much these guys can swing. Time to rectify that matter.
So I offer you "Utsukushiku Moeru Mori" (The Beautifully Flaming Woods) which is TSPO's 22nd single from February 2002. Written by saxophonist Atsushi Yanaka（谷中敦）and composed by bassist Tsuyoshi Kawakami（川上つよし）, I'm not sure what the title and the lyrics are quite talking about but I can't deny the kakkoii bounciness of the beat. Plus, they get some smoothly raspy (a weird description, I know) vocals from singer-songwriter Tamio Okuda（奥田民生）from Unicorn. The ska beat is indeed in there but there is also a good dollop of pop to keep things nice and mellow. I like the video as well...nothing too fancy; just all of the performers showing off what they do best.
"Utsukushiku Moeru Mori" went as high as No. 4 on Oricon and ended 2002 ranked at No. 60 going Gold. The single also made it onto the Orchestra's 9th album"Stompin' On DOWN BEAT ALLEY" from May 2002 which hit No. 1 and became the 42nd-ranked album of the year. Pretty nice way to finish a Saturday night.
Last night, I saw on my Twitter account that dandy duo Puffy with Ami Onuki and Yumi Yoshimura（大貫亜美・吉村由美）is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a new album. Good heavens! It's been 2 decades since the ELO-like "Asia no Junshin"（アジアの純真）.
Well, never let it be said that I'm going to miss out on an anniversary regarding Japanese pop music if I can help it. So, here is "Boogie-Woogie No. 5", Puffy's 12th single from September 2000. I think by the turn of the century, the Puffy phenomenon was kinda waning after their first big heyday in the mid-90s with all of those hits and their late-night variety show on TV Asahi, "PA PA PA PA PUFFY"（パパパパパフィー）. However, I do remember this particular song because of this mix of Big Band and rockabilly by creator Tamio Okuda（奥田民生）and for the music video showcasing the ladies in Bowling Night gear and a bunch of guys who looked like they were recruited just off Koen Dori in Shibuya. Of course, there are also lots of goofy choreography to enjoy.
Seeing the video, I hadn't realized that the entire horn section for Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra came on board to join in on the hilarity, and anytime those guys come for an assist, it's gonna be a fun time in a concert. "Boogie-Woogie No. 5" went as high as No. 22...perhaps not quite like the old days but it did have another interesting payoff. According to J-Wiki and Wikipedia, an executive on America's Cartoon Network saw the video for the song and then heard it on radio after which he just had to track Puffy down. Ami and Yumi ended up doing the theme song for superhero cartoon "Teen Titans" and even got their own animated adventures on the network. Although I don't think the one door was closed shut for the ladies, another door definitely opened up. The single was also a track on their 5th album, "SPIKE" from October 2000 which peaked at No. 10 on the Oricon album charts.
And to finish off, here is an episode from "PA PA PA PA PUFFY" .
A bit of a follow-up from an article I did on Puffy's debut single, "Asia no Junshin"（アジアの純真）all the way back in 2012. Ami and Yumi really pulled off quite a splash when they started their singing career with this zanily-worded travelogue that was reminiscent of good ol' Electric Light Orchestra.
Then I found out a couple of covers of the song on YouTube. The above was done by seiyuu Kana Hanazawa（花澤香菜）who's been all around the anime universe for the past several years, although for me, I know her best as the hyperactive Mei-Mei, the little sister of main character Panda from "Shirokuma Cafe"（しろくまカフェ）. She did her own version of "Asia no Junshin" back in 2010 for the anime "Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin"（世紀末オカルト学院...Occult Academy）, and I found out that it wasn't even made into either the opening or closing theme. It was actually used as the song backing the announcement for the next episode. Kinda too bad since Hanazawa does a pretty good job here. The arrangement is fairly close to the original Puffy version and I actually like it when Hanazawa breathes out some of the lyrics.
Earlier than that...much earlier...the songwriters for "Asia no Junshin" themselves, Yosui Inoue and Tamio Okuda（井上陽水・奥田民生）performed a cover of the song for the duo's first album together, "Shopping" which was released in March 1997. This album version has a slightly footloose-and-fancy free 70s vibe to it. I wonder if the two were imagining driving an old yellow Volkswagen van in the countryside while they were singing to it. The above video has more of a honky-tonk feel. "Shopping", by the way, peaked at No. 4 on the charts.
A cute strawberry milk at the maid café Maidreaming
Ahh...couldn't resist...have to put in that Mei-Mei.
Well, the above is quite a treat...not sure how long it will stay up, though. The show is "Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa-Puffy", Ami and Yumi's own late-night variety show on TV Asahi that lasted for about 2.5 years. I distinctly remember where the stuttery title came from. It just happened to be when Puffy appeared on the old Fuji-TV music program "Hey Hey Hey Music Champ", and co-host Hitoshi Matsumoto（松本人志）of comedic duo Downtown was doing his usual riff at the guests' (cordial) expense. At one point, in a stream-of-consciousness moment, he just blurted out "Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa-Puffy!" Not too long after, buoyed by Puffy's growing popularity, the quip became a title.
Oops...and I have digressed from the point of the first sentence, haven't I? Well, the guests on the show are none other than the current top guys on the Johnny's Entertainment mountaintop, Arashi（嵐）, just when they were starting out. Apparently, some hypnotist was playing around with them.
At around the same time, Puffy came out with their 5th single from December 1997, "MOTHER". Written and composed by their good friend, Tamio Okuda（奥田民生）, the song is a down-home relaxing guitar pop song about some buddies getting bored with life only to happily re-discover what it should be all about. I think the former lead singer of Unicorn probably cornered the market on making these happy-go-lucky guitar-driven tunes. Still not quite sure where the mother part comes in, though.
"MOTHER" peaked at No. 5 on Oricon. Although I heard it often on the music shows and commercials, there was also the fact that it was a theme song for a drama that I had tried to watch for a few episodes before giving up on it. It was titled "Eve -- Santa Claus Dreaming" starring then It Girl Riona Hazuki（葉月里緒奈）as a spoiled brat who starts growing up under an eccentric psychiatrist played by comely Toshiaki Karasawa（唐沢寿明）. Ironically, I think Hazuki made a bigger impression playing a wife/victim/host of life form in the sci-fi flick "Parasite Eve" which came out the same year.
The song was also part of Puffy's 2nd album, "Jet CD" which was released in April 1998 and hit No. 1 as a million-seller.
I haven't heard this one by Tamio Okuda （奥田民生）in a long time, and just tonight there was an NHK documentary on stargazing which had "Eajuu ★ Rider" as the ending theme.
Noticing that the Golden Week holidays are on the verge of happening in Japan, I thought this would be just the song. Unfortunately, my student in the tony Den'en-Chofu district of Tokyo told me last Saturday that the Week this year would be somewhat chintzy in length since due to timing, it's gonna be split in half. Still, a holiday is a holiday. And "Eajuu ★ Rider" has that thrilling on-the-road-again feeling to it.
Okuda was launching Ami and Yumi of PUFFY onto their long career when he released this, his 6th single as a solo artist in June 1996. He wrote and composed one of his most beloved songs as a rolling travelogue.... riding on that motorcycle over the hills of the countryside without a care in the world. As for the derivation of the title, it comes from the title of that famed counterculture movie with Jack Nicholson, "Easy Rider" and E10 (read in Japanese as "E-juu"), supposedly a jargon word meaning 30 (I'm assuming it's musical jargon) ...and the singer was indeed 30 years old when it was released.
The song peaked at No. 4 on Oricon and became the 48th-ranked entry on the annual charts. Not surprisingly, it was also used as the tie-up tune for a Nissan car commercial at the time. It does make one wanna hit the road just to put the song into the car stereo.
Puffy product placement and 'dorably dorky dancing! I give you my alliteration for the day. Along with the rolling fun of the song itself, the video for Puffy's"Circuit no Musume" (Wild Girls on Circuit) provides oodles of amusement, although having the heads of Ami and Yumi on race queen bodies was kinda borderline creepy.
"Circuit no Musume" is Puffy's 3rd single from March 1997. Written and composed by Tamio Okuda（奥田民男） of Unicorn fame, the song goes into the life of being a race queen, a figure that was (and may still be) part and parcel of the racing experience. Especially in the 90s, tall and long-legged and long-haired beauties in revealing fashion and heels while sporting parasols strode by the circuits and on variety shows. Methinks if Chisato Moritaka had been thinking of a different line of work...
The song was used as the commercial tune for Yamaha's Vino scooterline, and I think they were indeed used in the official music video....certainly Ami and Yumi were wearing the corporate T-shirts. I gather having "Circuit no Musume" sponsoring a line of putt-putty scooters must have further added to the daily recommended dose of irony. And according to the J-Wiki writeup, somewhere in the video, Yumi is rubbing her left leg as a bit of tribute to the fact that she had broken that leg some months before the release of the single when she fell off her bicycle; the appropriate lyrics are in there as well.
"Circuit no Musume" hit the top spot onOricon, and later became the 32nd-ranked song of the year, making over a million sales. Like a number of other Puffy singles, I recall that this was also a popular tune at the karaoke boxes. The single is also a track on the duo's 2nd album, "Jet CD" which came out in April 1998 and also hit the million barrier.
Happy Canadian Thanksgiving! A lot of turkeys heading out to the restaurants and houses....although in my family's case, it will be a Chinese restaurant (except for me, my family isn't exactly too impressed with the big bird).
Of course, when it comes to giving thanks and Japanese popular music, the one song that always pops up in my brain is "Arigato" by the duo of Yosui Inoue and Tamio Okuda（井上陽水・奥田民生）. I first heard it as the commercial song for Sapporo Beer, and I'd say it was a match made in heaven since the lyrics and music by the two would perfectly match a scene between two good buddies in an izakaya. The song is kinda like the musical equivalent of "I LOVE YOU, MAN!!" and "You's the MAN!" Bromantic, happy and jangly, indeed.
The first meeting between the two occurred thanks to Inoue's son, who had enjoyed listening to Okuda's old band, Unicorn, when they performed their Xmas song, "Yuki ga Furu Machi"（雪が降る町....The Town of Snow）. The son sent a fan letter over to Okuda which sparked the meeting. After that, their joint efforts produced songs such as the hit debut tune for Puffy, "Asia no Junshin"（アジアの純真）in 1996. Then in February 1997, out came the boisterous "Arigato", which peaked at No. 10 on Oricon. The single also came out on the duo's first collaborative album, "Shopping", released in March of that year, which managed to climb as high as No. 4 on the album charts.
As Inoue and Okuda trade platitudes of gratitude to each other, I've always thought that this would also make for the ideal tune to play or sing at the annual year-end parties or wedding receptions, and sure enough, I found one.
I think by this time around the turn of the century, Puffy's singing career was starting to become superseded by their one as television personalities, although they have continued to release singles as recently as last year. Still, I took notice of their April 1999 9th single, "Nichiyoubi no Musume"(Sunday Girls) because Tamio Okuda（奥田民生）, who wrote and composed the song, crafted something that sounded like a mix between a Shibuya-kei tune and the theme from the old 70s US sitcom "Three's Company". And of course, it's always fun seeing Ami and Yumi pull off their dance moves anywhere and anytime. The song had already been slated for a Yamaha moped (the Vino) commercial, so Okuda incorporated the name into the lyrics and I believe the ladies were riding them in the video.
Starting this profile with a mundane linguistic question: How do I translate the title...."Nagisa ni Matsuwaru Et Cetera"? The Et Cetera Related to The Beach? Just glad that the Wikipedia entry for the song got me out of the jam; apparently the 2002 US release has the alternative title of "Electric Beach Fever". Whew!
"Electric Beach Fever" sounds a bit disco, doesn't it? Well, not surprising....the song itself has that late 70s dance fever vibe to it. Written by Yosui Inoue（井上陽水） and composed by Tamio Okuda（奥田民生） (the same singer-songwriter pair who launched Puffy's career with the ELO-like "Asia no Junshin"[already profiled]), Ami and Yumi's 4th single of April 1997 was created with Hideki Saijo's（西城秀樹） cover of The Village People's"YMCA" in 1979 (also already profiled). In fact, according to J-Wiki, Puffy and Saijo actually did a duet with the song on one of the Fuji-TV summer marathons.
When it comes to remembering Puffy, this video will always be the first one that comes to mind. The ladies have always given off that "Summer Girls Always Want To Have Fun"aura, and so my biggest image of them is the video of them enjoying a day in Phuket, Thailand, doing oyaji dance moves and eating BBQ crab, and the lyrics consist of those images of having a grand day by the beach....as well as mentioning the BBC, BOAC and Harrison Ford. What's not to love?
Speaking of the once....and perhaps future..."Star Wars"star, "Nagisa ni Matsuwaru Et Cetera" is the second tune I've heard that has a reference to Ford (the first being Misato Watanabe's"Oh, Darling!"). And one of the strangest celeb interviews I have ever come across took place on Puffy's late-night variety show "Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa-Puffy" when Ami and Yumi actually got the chance to interview....or try to chat with....Harrison Ford for "Air Force One" while dressed in kimonos. Ford who, deservedly or undeservedly, has the reputation of being especially taciturn in interviews actually looked rather bewildered or bemused as he gave his terse answers while having a "What the heck did I get myself into?" expression throughout. I didn't keep the TV on the whole interview due to intense awkwardness (I'm not even sure if Puffy really wanted to be there either), but found out that Ami and Yumi even performed the verse of "Nagisa ni Matsuwaru Et Cetera"acapella containing the reference to their interviewee. I tried to look for a video of it on YouTube but no luck.
Being the big years for Puffy, "Nagisa ni Matsuwaru Et Cetera" hit the top spot on Oricon. According to J-Wiki, the song sold 1.1 million copies which probably would have put it at 12th place in the yearly rankings of 1997. However, according to the rankings at www.musictvprogram.com, it came out at 18th place with 880,000 copiessold. Whatever the ranking was, it was another big hit for the duo.
The adorable Puffy girls got their first No. 1 with this song, some 5 months after their debut, "Asia no Junshin"（アジアの純真....Purity of Asia）. It stayed for 16 weeks on the Oricon charts after its release in October 1996, hitting the top spot on October 21. During its time on the charts, it managed to sell almost 1.6 million copies, and remains their most successful hit. Although the debut song was handled by Yosui Inoue and Tamio Okuda（井上陽水・奥田民生）, this time it was Okuda handling both the writing and composing.
The song has that Beatles-esque influence, notably from "Day Tripper" if you listen carefully, although there is a chorus part that seems to reflect "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" at one point. Lyrically, "Kore ga Watashi no Ikiru Michi"(This is the Street Where We Live) talks about the fun and optimistic side of life as Ami and Yumi plainly show in the video while they cruise around California. As for the title, it refers to a line uttered by one of "The Crazy Cats", a comic Japanese band from the 1950s in which he said "Kore ga Otoko no Ikiru Michi"(This is the Street Where Boys Live). However, for the Puffy Amiyumi fans in the States, the song's English title is "That's the Way It Is".
The song is also on the duo's 2nd album, "JET CD".
The first time I heard of PUFFY was when I saw the official music video. At a time when the Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉） era of J-Pop was coming up with Shibuya-gal friendly artists, seeing these plain Janes dancing appealingly clumsily was a bit refreshing. Ami Ohnuki（大貫亜美） and Yumi Yoshimura（吉村由美） were lone singers lost in the giant SONY machine until Ohnuki asked former Unicorn frontman, Tamio Okuda（奥田民生）, to include her newfound friend as a duo.
Okuda composed and arranged "Asia no Junshin" (Purity of Asia) as a song that ELO would love, with Yosui Inoue（井上揚水） providing the zany lyrics (Berlin, Dublin, Liberia, balalaika, lasagna). Weird Al Yankovic would have swooned about this debut song.
This eclectic mix of singers, lyrics and melody had a Cinderella ending. Released in May 1996, it hit the No. 3 position on the Oricon weeklies and earned PUFFY the Newcomers' Prize at the Japan Record Awards. It also sold over 1 million copies and launched the duo onto a successful career which has extended beyond Japan.
