Teppei Shibuya -- Deep

Glad I found the above video since it has the opening credits to my old favourite Thursday night variety program on Fuji-TV, "Tunnels no Minasan no Okage Desu"（とんねるずのみなさんのおかげです...Tunnel's Thanks to Everyone）back in the late 80s. And it also has a long-running gag that was part and parcel of the show from time to time. I didn't understand the bit at all when I first used to see it, but as anyone who has seen the show, Japanese pop cultural references flew quick and thick there. The Tunnels and the guest of the week would be in the middle of one of their zany and often bawdy sketches when suddenly some youngish guy and backing dancers would pop in and perform a fast nutty number called "Deep" and just as rapidly run out of camera view. I'd thought it was just something Taka and Nori whipped up during the course of the show.

Nope, I was wrong. But I didn't come to that realization until I wrote the article about Pink Lady's cover of The Village People's "In The Navy" last month, and gradually discovered that there was this fellow by the name of Teppei Shibuya (渋谷哲平...the youngish guy) who had not only done his own version of "In The Navy" but also earlier released this song "Deep" as his 3rd single all the way back in July 1978 as a 17-year-old.

Teppei Shibuya, whose real name is Shigenori Shibuya（澁谷 恵紀）, hails from Yokohama and debuted as a male aidoru with "Asahi ni Mukatte"（朝日に向かって...Turn to The Morning Sun）in February 1978. But it was "Deep" that became his biggest and only hit with Takashi Matsumoto and Shunichi Tokura （松本隆・都倉俊一）behind its creation. However, I don't think it was that song on vinyl that delivered the goods. There was also that insanely goofy yet bonenkai-friendly dancing that helped pushed the song ahead, and it was probably that choreography that got Shibuya as the running gag on the Tunnels' show. "Deep" managed to get as high as No. 52 on the weekly charts (sold 40,000 records) and earned the singer The Best Newcomer's Prize on the annual Japan Record Awards.

Although Shibuya's singing career only lasted as long as September 1982 with 18 singles and 10 albums (including a BEST album in 2010), he has had a much longer lasting stint as an actor from 1981 up to last year so far.

Pink Lady/Teppei Shibuya -- Pink Typhoon （ピンク・タイフーン）

And here I thought it was just Hideki Saijo （西城秀樹）and The Pet Shop Boys who've done their tribute to The Village People. In the same year that aidoru heartthrob Saijo came up with one of his most beloved hits, "Young Man", the Japanese version for "Y.M.C.A", Pink Lady would see that bet and counter with another Village People song, "In The Navy" a few months later.

I hadn't heard this tune in the mighty Pink Lady discography before and I was interested in the duo after their peak, so I found "Pink Typhoon" as their 12th single from May 1979. Why they didn't just stick with "In The Navy" instead of going with that awkward title had me scratching my head although I know that there was a similar title alteration for Saijo's cover of "Y.M.C.A." In any case, according to J-Wiki, one of the triggers for bringing the song into being for Pink Lady was that someone in Japan (presumably the music industry) had heard the words "...pink lady..." in the original version's chorus instead of "...in the navy..." I knew something sounded a bit odd when I was listening to the version above.

Perhaps it's because it needs a chance to grow on me, but the Pink Lady version of "In The Navy" doesn't have quite the oomph of Hideki Saijo's "Y.M.C.A.". Despite its status as a cover, Saijo was able to make the Village People song his own, something that didn't quite happen with "Pink Typhoon". Maybe I've been so accustomed to hearing the usual go-to songwriters of Yu Aku and Shunichi Tokura （阿久悠・都倉俊一）get represented through Pink Lady that hearing Mie and Kei through a different musical lens was a bit odd to me. Even the choreography was a bit subdued compared to the dynamic moves from their biggest hits. The Japanese lyrics, by the way, were provided by Fumiko Okada（岡田冨美子）, a lyricist who later provided the words to Asami Kado's （門あさ美）"Fascination" and Ruiko Kurahashi's （倉橋ルイ子）"Glass no Yesterday".

"Pink Typhoon" cracked the Top 10 and peaked at No. 6, and ended the year as the 44th-ranked song for 1979. 

Strangely enough, in the same month and year that "Pink Typhoon" was released, singer Teppei Shibuya（渋谷哲平） had yet another version of "In The Navy", this time titled "Young Sailor Man". No idea how that one did.

And for those who are into Flashback Fridays, try the original version!