Teruhiko Aoi/Miyoko Yoshimoto -- Sentimental Carnival（センチメンタル・カーニバル）

 

Another blistering day out there. As such, this has been the earliest that our family has pulled out the air conditioner and activated it. Mind you, from tomorrow, the high temperatures will plummet like rocks for the rest of the week, but that's OK. We'll be happy to have the AC on standby for the eventual summer that does arrive.

A couple of days ago, I was watching "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本のうた）and encountered a new song that I hadn't heard before titled "Sentimental Carnival" by Teruhiko Aoi（あおい輝彦）. Listening to it on the show and then hearing it on YouTube, I had assumed that it was a Group Sounds/pop creation from the 1960s, only to realize that Aoi had released it as his 14th single in June 1977. Yes, the very first "Star Wars" movie is older than this song. 

But as written and composed by Toshiro Abe（阿部敏郎）, it's still quite the jangly and twist-happy tune. Yesterday, I wrote about The Tube's "Midnight Beach" and how the seashore at night can make for a romantic setting. Well, I gather that the same can be had for the annual carnival although folks will be a lot busier on the rides or just strolling hand-in-hand through the various games and concession stands. With the snappy arrangement by Shunichi Makaino（馬飼野俊一）, "Sentimental Carnival" was Aoi's final Top 10 hit, peaking at No. 8 and eventually becoming the 53rd-ranked single of 1977.

Eleven years later, "Sentimental Carnival" was covered by aidoru Miyoko Yoshimoto（芳本美代子）as her own 14th single in June 1988. As arranged by Shiro Sagisu（鷺巣詩郎）, it was given some snazzy contemporizing with synths, syn-drums and sharp horns, and it earned the snaggle-toothed lass a No. 20 ranking on Oricon. Maybe it's just me, but I think Yoshimoto's voice seems a fair bit more mature here.

The Muppets -- The Muppet Show Theme

 

It's safe to say that generations of people have grown up with "Sesame Street" including yours truly. Since 1969, I got to know about the safest and friendliest inner city neighbourhood in existence and its mix of human and Muppet residents ranging from Gordon and Susan to Ernie and Bert. But arguably, it can be said that one of those characters made it big outside of the area and that would be Kermit the Frog.

In fact, I think Kermit was able to inherit a huge if somewhat dilapidated playhouse and a new cast of characters (Miss Piggy, Gonzo, Bunsen Honeydew, Beaker, Fozzie, etc.) along with some famous human guests to create "The Muppet Show" in 1976. Of the many guests that appeared on the show, I remember Roger Moore, Elton John and Mark Hamill. I can't quite remember when on the weekly TV slate it appeared on CBC but it was must-see TV for me for a good long while during those five years.

Strangely enough, this is where I first got to know Gilda Radner. Gilda WHO was what I'd thought when I saw her in the above sketch. I hadn't started watching "Saturday Night Live" back then since I simply wasn't allowed to stay up past 10 back then so it would be a few years before realizing that she'd been part of the Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time Players. Also one other interesting observation is that I think this sketch with the snobby carrot was perhaps the only time that I'd ever seen Gilda sing.

Of course, there were the regular segments on the show such as "At the Dance" where the participants got to crack wise while tripping the light fantastic on the ballroom floor. I think it may have been inspired by a similar segment from the American comedy-variety show "Laugh-In". 

But one thing that was the constant (although it also evolved throughout the years) was the theme song. Matching its Vaudevillian setting, the "Muppet Show" theme by Jim Henson and Sam Pottle was good ol' smacking jazz. It just welcomed all of us in like the friendliest usher in the house and I'm sure the kids loved to hum and sing to it. I have to admit hearing and seeing the intro again in that recent "Muppet Show" redux special brought some thrills back to me.

I kinda wonder what it must have been like to work with Peter Sellers. Anyways, the show premiered on September 5th 1976, so what was at the top of the Oricon chart on the 6th? We have the Top 3.

1. Teruhiko Aoi -- Anata dake wo (あなただけを)

2. Momoe Yamaguchi -- Yokosuka Story （横須賀ストーリー）

3. Kozue Saito -- Yamaguchi Sanchi no Tsutomu-kun（山口さんちのツトム君）

Chicago -- If You Leave Me Now

 

Welcome to the regular weekly Reminiscings of Youth. Back in May, I wrote one ROY on Seals and Crofts' "Summer Breeze", an early 1970s soft rock hit that was suddenly used in a drink commercial earlier this year. And of course, me being all about the nostalgic music, I was quite happy that an oldie could be dusted off to a new generation even if for a TV ad. 

Cue ahead a few months, and lightning has struck twice. Recently, the household goods store in my nation, Canadian Tire, has dusted off its own oldie-but-goodie that I used to hear on AM radio all the time, Chicago's "If You Leave Me Now" from July 1976. The ad has a good dollop of bittersweet humour as Canadian Tire staff wipe a tear but smile in happiness as their favourite products get bought up and taken to their forever home while songwriter Peter Cetera croons away.

When I was hearing this on radio as a kid, I first noticed the French horns and strings, and I categorized it with my limited musical knowledge of the time as "fancy music". There were quite a few of these French horn-laden songs popping up in the 1970s. Nowadays, something like "If You Leave Me Now" would be considered to be 70s soft rock. Ironically, considering how beloved it seems to be now because of the Canadian Tire commercial, I remember the intro for this song popping up on a hard rock radio station ad and being treated as something like the Antichrist.

"If You Leave Me Now" didn't leave the radio-listening public for quite a while as it hit No. 1 in both the United States and Canada along with nations including Australia. It also won a couple of Grammys and by the middle of 1978, it had sold 1.4 million copies just in America alone. This might be Chicago's first ROY article but the band has popped up before on KKP due to "Street Player", the band's disco dance tune.

Well, couldn't find enough kayo kyoku from July 1976 so let's go with June 1976 in terms of what was being released at around the time of "Ai aru Wakare"（愛ある別れ）which is the Japanese translation for "If You Leave Me Now" when the single was being released over there.

Momoe Yamaguchi -- Yokosuka Story （横須賀ストーリー）

Seiko Miki -- Machibuse （まちぶせ）

Teruhiko Aoi -- Anata dake wo (あなただけを)

Teruhiko Aoi -- Boku no Himitsu（僕の秘密）

 

Well, for a guy who really wanted to keep things a secret, he's pretty open about it with how much he loves that girl.

I'm talking about Teruhiko Aoi's（あおい輝彦）debut single as a solo artist, "Boku no Himitsu" (My Hidden Secret). Once a member of Johnny & Associates' first group Johnnys in the 1960s, Aoi even took four and a half months during his stint with the group to head over to America to study singing, dancing and English. Of course, he would have his biggest hit nearly a decade later with "Anata dake wo" (あなただけを). 

But it all began with "Boku no Himitsu" which was released in August 1968 not long after Johnnys broke up in the previous year. Written and composed by Aoi himself (something that he did on occasion) with arrangement by Kunihiko Suzuki（鈴木邦彦）,  he created the song as this one-man Group Sounds tune which probably had the teens shimmying on the tables, although I don't know how well it did on the charts. The sultry way he keeps saying "I love you" and "I wanna tell you my hidden secret", it's pretty obvious that he was studying his English. 

Mitsuko Baisho/Teruhiko Aoi (Johnnys)-- Tokei wo Tomete（時計をとめて）

 

Chieko and Mitsuko Baisho（倍賞千恵子・倍賞美津子）are sisters who have been veterans in the acting and music industries for decades. The former is someone that I've known better primarily because she was acting as Sakura, the kind and dutiful sister to the legendary comical traveling salesman Torajiro Kuruma（車寅次郎）in the very long-running movie series "Otoko wa Tsurai yo" (It's Tough Being a Man) that my family used to watch for years. However, the younger Mitsuko Baisho is someone that I've also gotten to know through television dramas and commercials, and she has quite a different air about her. She has had more of the sexier and more voluptuous side.

(I'm sorry but the video has been taken down.)

But what I hadn't known about her until recently is that like her elder sister Chieko, Mitsuko Baisho has also had her time behind the recording microphone. In fact, she has released 23 singles and 2 albums up to 1985. Her 10th single was "Tokei wo Tomete" (Stop the Clock) which came out in 1967. The title might sound like the name of an American game show but Rei Nakanishi's（なかにし礼）lyrics put that rumour to rest by describing a lady's ardent request for time to be stopped so that she can spend as much remaining time as possible with the love of her life. Mitsuko seems to have her sister's singing ability with an operatic voice.

Now, actually "Tokei wo Tomete" is a cover of a bolero song titled "El reloj" which was created by Mexican singer-songwriter Roberto Cantoral when he was a member of the music trio Los Tres Caballeros and released as a single in 1957. According to Wikipedia, Cantoral had a tryst with one of the women participating in a tour by the trio through America and was inspired to write the song based on the brevity of time Cantoral had with the lass before they had to part in their different directions.

Along with Baisho's version, there were other covers of "El reloj" (The Clock) including an even earlier one by Teruhiko Aoi（青井輝彦）as a solo when he was still a member of the very first Johnny's Entertainment aidoru group, Johnnys（ジャニーズ）. Released in 1966, the Japanese lyrics were handled by another person, Masaru Kamo（かもまさる）. His rendition has a less strident feeling and more of a lullaby approach to the song, partly thanks to Aoi's creamy vocals. I can imagine the lad's fans simply fainting in the aisles now.

Boz Scaggs -- Lowdown

 

Ahhh...1976! The year of the Montreal Olympics, one of the very few things that I remember fondly from that year (school was definitely not one of those things).

Boz Scaggs and his "Lowdown" were one singer and one song that I had heard before in the ancient past but neither of them were entities that I had associated with 1976, and yet the latter by the former was released for the first time in June of that year. For me back then, as a whelp large enough to generate my own source of gravity, Scaggs was this fellow with this unique voice who came up with these soul songs such as "We're All Alone" and "JoJo". Little did I know that he was also the voice behind "Lowdown", and the one thing that I remembered from that single was the horns blasting in twice in the song in places where I had assumed that the singer would be crooning out the main refrain. I knew about genres like pop and disco when I was in elementary school but I didn't appreciate them, and wouldn't for several more years.

For the past number of years now, though, Boz Scaggs' "Lowdown" is one of my prized aural jewels in the crown, and not just for the horns. It starts off with the coolest intro riff comprised of bass, percussion, keyboards and flute all coming together to express something like downtown's baddest dude doing his usual weekend cruise in the convertible. Then comes Scaggs' buttery vocals which actually tell a guy the gosh-darn lowdown about how horribly the lady that he adores is treating him. Seems like the idea for a rom-com is right here.

However, it's that music that gets me every time. It feels like that convertible coming in from out of the suburbs, slowing cruising through the city limits until those horns explode right when it hits the gleaming skyscrapers of downtown, whether it be New York or Los Angeles. There are good times coming tonight. 

According to the Wikipedia article on "Lowdown", Scaggs and keyboardist David Paich created the song, and session musicians including bassist David Hungate and drummer Jeff Porcaro were in the recording booth. Paich, Hungate and Porcaro would all collaborate with others to form the band TOTO in 1977, and the latter two would also help out on Mariya Takeuchi's（竹内まりや）"Miss M" LP, her most City Pop release, in 1980.

Not sure how "Lowdown" or the album which includes the single, "Silk Degrees" did in Japan, but the single did very well in the United States and Canada. It hit No. 3 on US Billboard while getting up to No. 2 on the RPM charts in my country.

Being a June 1976 release, what were three of the kayo that got released as well in that month?

1. Hiromi Ohta -- Akai High Heel（赤いハイヒール）[June 1]

2. Momoe Yamaguchi -- Yokosuka Story （横須賀ストーリー）[June 21]

3. Teruhiko Aoi -- Anata dake wo (あなただけを) [June 25]

Thanks very kindly to Amigo Lovepop for the stats. Also, I should also confess that due to my dotty memory, I had already written up "Lowdown" less than a year previously as a ROY article but just plain forgot. Still, I had three different kayo kyoku up there due to different criteria.

Teruhiko Aoi -- Futari no Sekai （二人の世界）

I was browsing through YouTube to track down that Yujiro Ishihara（石原裕次郎）ballad "Futari no Sekai", and discovered that there was at least one other song with the same title. So, I decided to kill two birds with one stone and take care of this one by Teruhiko Aoi（あおい輝彦）.

My knowledge of Johnny's groups and singers had extended as far back as the early 1980s with the Tanokin Trio. However, since starting up "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I have discovered that Johnny Kitagawa and his empire went back even further as far back as the 1960s with the band Johnnys. One of the members of the group was indeed Teruhiko Aoi.

Not long after Johnnys broke up in 1967, Aoi went ahead with a solo singing and acting career. He released his debut single, "Boku no Himitsu"（僕の秘密...My Secret）in 1968 but it would be a few years before his second single would come out. That was his "Futari no Sekai" (Our World) which was released in February 1971.

Used as the theme song for a Fuji-TV drama also titled "Futari no Sekai" which came out in December 1970, Aoi also had a supporting role in the show which depicted a young couple created from a chance meeting at a concert and then getting married a mere 3 months later. The theme song has Aoi singing from the guy's point of view as he pours out his love and devotion to the lady of his life.

I couldn't help but compare Ishihara's "Futari no Sekai" with Aoi's version. Whereas the former has that setting of a Ginza nightclub with two seasoned lovers with yen to burn, the latter has more innocent and naive partners making their new middle-class life.

As someone who used to watch a lot of "Tora-san" movies and other similar comedy-drama flicks with their soundtracks at the Japanese-Canadian Cultural Centre here in Toronto as a kid, and then hear some of the kayo on the stereo, I like the melody led by the strings and the other instruments that was created by Chuji Kinoshita（木下忠司）. That's the nostalgia coming out once again.As for the heartfelt lyrics, they were written by Taichi Yamada（山田太一）who also came up with the screenplay for the drama itself. Finally, I gotta say that Aoi has got quite the nice voice.

On the Oricon charts, this was Aoi's first Top 10 hit as a solo singer as "Futari no Sekai" peaked at No. 3. Although it didn't make the Top 10 for 1971, it came close as it positioned at No. 13.

Teruhiko Aoi -- Anata dake wo (あなただけを)

A commenter sent a message back on New Year's Eve about a suggestion for a song that had yet to be talked about on "Kayo Kyoku Plus". Titled "Anata dake wo" (Only You), as has been the case with many songs that we've covered over the years, the title didn't ring a bell but the melody itself certainly did, so I'm quite glad that he brought it to my attention.

Teruhiko Aoi（あおい輝彦）is a name that I've heard on TV shows and he's even been shown in the annals of this blog as one of the members of the very first Johnny's Entertainment group, Johnnys (ジャニーズ), back in the 1960s. Born in January 1948 in Tokyo's Suginami Ward, he has not only been a singer but also an actor and a seiyuu. In fact, fans of classic anime will know him as the original voice behind boxer Joe Yabuki from "Ashita no Joe" (あしたのジョー). Plus, he was the 3rd actor to take on the role of Suke-san, one of the two loyal samurai traveling with the vice-shogun-turned-roving man of justice Mitsukuni Tokugawa on the long-running "Mito Komon"（水戸黄門） (1988-2000).

Aoi's first solo single was "Boku no Himitsu"（僕の秘密...My Hidden Secret） released in August 1968, but it was with his June 1976 release of "Anata dake wo" that he made his big mark in music. Written by Masumi Ono（大野真澄）, the vocalist of folk group Garo（ガロ）, and composed by Nobuo Tsunetomi（常富喜雄）, this is a fairly swinging and breezy kayo about wanting to be with that special girl. I figure considering the date of release, this would be a nice walk-on-the-shore sort of tune.

The song also hit a chord with the nation's listeners as it not only hit No. 1 but stayed at the top spot for 6 straight weeks from late August to late September 1976. It eventually became the 7th-ranked song for that year, and so of course, NHK knocked on Aoi's door to have him over for the Kohaku Utagassen. This would be his only appearance on the show.