The Works of Katsuhisa Hattori （服部克久）

Some sad news from the world of Japanese music in that composer/arranger Katsuhisa Hattori passed away today at the age of 83. His name is one that has been familiar to me through television since he not only provided theme songs for a number of shows of different genres but he sometimes appeared on them as well. Hattori also belongs to a large family of music makers including his father, composer/arranger Ryoichi Hattori（服部良一）, his son, composer/arranger Takayuki Hattori（服部隆之）, and granddaughter, violinist Mone Hattori（服部百音）.

One thing that I hadn't known not being a gamer was that Katsuhisa and Ryoichi co-arranged the first music CD for the composer Nobuo Uematsu（植松伸夫）for "Final Fantasy" in 1989. In terms of Katsuhisa's touchstones for me, I remember him for contributing his services for Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）when the latter released his Xmas album in 1993.

In a way, Hattori was a regular presence in terms of his music since I had been a regular viewer of Fuji-TV's long-running music show "Music Fair". He was the original arranger of the classy theme song created by Kougo Hotomi（保富康午）and Naozumi Yamamoto（山本直純）.

Moreover, he was also behind the exciting and sweeping opening theme for TBS' "The Best 10". Hattori provided a lot of theme songs for other television shows such as this detective show called "Kyodai Keiji"（兄弟刑事）for which I've already provided an article.

Hattori also provided a number of themes for anime such as "Tom Sawyer no Bouken"（トム・ソーヤーの冒険...The Adventures of Tom Sawyer）. The opening theme for this 1980 series was "Dare yori mo Tooku e"（誰よりも遠くへ...Farther Than Anyone） as sung by Maron Kusaka（日下まろん）with lyrics by Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）.

His list of kayo that he composed for specific singers is quite short, though. One example is Tessei Miyoshi's（三好鉄生）"Sugoi Otoko no Uta"（すごい男の唄）, and there is this one for enka singer Aki Yashiro（八代亜紀）, the sunny "Hanataba ~ Bouquet"（花束）released in 1990 for which the late Yu Aku（阿久悠）provided the lyrics.

Organizations and events also benefited from Hattori's work. To celebrate the 120th anniversary of the Keikyu railway corporation, he composed a song titled "Ningen ga Suki Dakara"（人間が好きだから...Because We Love Humanity）which was written by Kyoko Tanaka（田中京子）and Toyohisa Araki（荒木とよひさ）with the vocal group Circus（サーカス）performing it. Since, according to the Wikipedia article on the company, Keikyu goes all the way back to 1898, I'm assuming that the song was created around 2018.

Although Hattori didn't provide many direct compositions for singers, he did arrange a lot of them that had been created by other songwriters. One that has already been talked about on the blog is his more regal version of the classic "Sotsugyo Shashin" （卒業写真）as performed by Hi-Fi Set（ハイ・ファイ・セット）in 1975 with Yumi Arai（荒井由実）as the original lyricist and composer. He also handled strings arrangements for many other artists such as the aforementioned Tatsuro Yamashita, Masashi Sada（さだまさし）and Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）.

The one big surprise that I've had in Katsuhisa Hattori's file thus far was in his 1985 "Juicy and Crispy" album for his long-running "Ongaku Batake"（音楽畑）series. The second track is "Secrets", one lovely AOR piece that was written by Linda Hennrick; I'd never imagined that Hattori would come up with something in the light and mellow genre but out of all the songs featured in his long discography, "Secrets" has been the one tune by him that I would make a beeline for if I were having a bad day.

Discovered another couple of great tunes from Side B of "Juicy and Crispy". At about 21:00 is "Japonica" which seems to be Hattori's attempt at T-Square sports-loving goodness, and then at about 26:40 is "Costa Del Sol", a wonderful tropical cocktail of fusion. Really would love to get my hands on this album although my first attempt at it a few years ago sadly ended in failure.

From video games to classical music, Hattori has left a lot of fans with a wide variety of music that we will probably need years to discover and re-discover. He took up the baton for songwriting passed on by his father and now he has given it over to his son and potentially future generations.

Tessei Miyoshi -- Sugoi Otoko no Uta （すごい男の唄）

If there is one thing that I've learned about Japan, it's that beer is considered to be an all-year drink (just like in Canada). Those thirsty folks in the commercials may bellow out that "AHHHHHHHH!" after swallowing a big gulp of suds during those hot summers, but the golden brew is still much appreciated in the winter months as well.

See?

Of course, there had to be a kayo which involved the joys of drinking beer. And I found it as Tessei Miyoshi's（三好鉄生）"Sugoi Otoko no Uta" (The Song of an Amazing Man), his 7th single from July 1987. Strangely enough, it is a song that I did hear often at my old karaoke haunt of Kuri since I distinctly remember that chorus of "Don, don!" whenever some fellow decided to give it a shot.

Written by copyrighter Takashi Nakahata（仲畑貴志）and composed by Katsuhisa Hattori（服部克久）, Miyoshi has come up with another manly and genki singalong ditty to join his other famous tune, "Namida wo Fuite"（涙をふいて）from 1982. But "Sugoi Otoko no Uta" is not only a melodic excuse to drink beer but also the equivalent of the exaggerated fish tales that the fishermen loved to troll each other with around the campfire. As quickly as anyone says "I caught a fish that was THIS BIG!", Miyoshi happily trills about a man who is so amazing that bears flee from him and alligators beg to become his servants.

Of course, all this is happening while one of Miyoshi's hands is firmly gripping the handle of his dai jokkii of beer while the other is beckoning the server to come over to take another order for a round of brewskis. All those suds are needed to further fuel further rounds of bulls**t, after all. Plus although I cannot remember it exactly, I'm fairly sure that there were indeed more demands for the good stuff once the song was over.

In the same year, the late guitarist George Yanagi（柳ジョージ）also gave his gruffer version of "Sugoi Otoko no Uta" as the commercial jingle for Suntory Draft Beer (which probably explains a copyrighter coming up with the lyrics for the song). Yanagi frankly sounds like that bear who fled from that amazing man.

Tessei Miyoshi -- Namida wo Fuite （涙をふいて）

Tessei Miyoshi's（三好鉄生）"Namida wo Fuite" (Wipe Your Tears Away) is a song that I used to hear at Kuri, the old karaoke haunt in Yorkville during my university days. I hadn't known who originally sang it or when it was actually released. It was always recognized by me as that slow-strutting bluesy number which seemed to usually get the customers inside the bar singing in unison.

And why not? Written by Chinfa Kan (康珍化...who wrote all those songs for Anri and Omega Tribe) and composed by Kisaburo Suzuki (鈴木キサブロー...who I usually equated with sweeping string flourishes in his music), "Namida wo Fuite" is about a good ol' boy reassuring his girlfriend that better times are ahead so wipe that lacrymal fluid away, honey. And singer-actor Miyoshi does a great job with it due to his vocals which evoke that image of a lone wolf character driving that rig across America.

Miyoshi was born in 1951 and hails from Hokkaido. He debuted in March 1982 with his own self-made song "I Love You Kono Machi"（アイ・ラヴ・ユーこの街...I Love This Town）before his 2nd single "Namida wo Fuite" in August of the same year hit paydirt. It didn't hurt that the song was also used as the campaign tune for Shin-Guromont Vitamin Drink...gotta get that manly stamina in there.

If I'm not mistaken, the above is the karaoke video I used to see on the monitor at Kuri. I have no idea why it alternately featured the skyscrapers of West Shinjuku with some wild animals, but I guess that is how I will always remember "Namida wo Fuite".

West Shinjuku