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 the 1980s, Japan and Coca-Cola pretty much equaled good times in the big city as you can see above. All the more reason to grab the fizzy stuff. Ironically, I don't drink it nearly as much as I used to since the rest of my family prefers the clear stuff: Canada Dry, 7-Up, Sprite, etc.
As I mentioned in my last article regarding singer-songwriter Kaoru Nakahara（中原薫）, she'd been given the rather appropriate if somewhat cringey stage name of Cola Hazuki（葉月コーラ）earlier in her career because she'd become known at the turn of the decade from the 1980s into the 1990s as someone who sang a lot of cola jingles. Hey, if the gigs pay the rent...
In June 1991, Cola Hazuki and comedian Kanpei Hazama（間寛平）put out a single titled "Anata dake wo"（あなただけを...Only You） as the ending theme song for one of Hazama's variety shows. However for this article, I wanted to focus on the coupling song which Hazuki handles on her own called "Day In Vacation". If the song sounds familiar, then you must have heard the original version by the summery supergroup Nagisa no All-Stars（渚のオールスターズ）when they recorded it back in 1989.
Nagisa no All-Stars included the band TUBE and at least a couple of their beloved songwriters, Tomoko Aran（亜蘭知子）and Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎）, and not surprisingly, those two were the ones behind the creation of "Day In Vacation". Hazuki gives the song her summery best as well and perhaps I'm imagining things here, but it even sounds a bit ZARD-ish. Furthermore, my timing isn't too bad either because next week will introduce the annual Golden Week holidays in Japan. Enjoy guzzling down that Coke!
In the relevant J-Wiki article for this particular song by chanteuse Yuiko Tsubokura（坪倉唯子）, she sang this on TV Asahi's "Music Station" while still in her wild costume as the squeaky-voiced singer for B.B. Queens. Maybe they were reprising their hit song "Odoru Ponpokorin"（おどるポンポコリン）. Anyways, I would have loved to have seen the expressions on everyone's faces while she was creamily singing it. Well, we can all check the video below out.
No squeaky voice here for her 4th solo single"Je t'aime" which came out in January 1993 and definitely no hint of "Odoru Ponpokorin". This is a classy urban ballad that sounds as if it should have been the ending theme for a drama. Guess what? It was...it finished each episode of the NTV drama "Jealousy"（ジェラシー）. Written by Akira Ohtsu（大津あきら）and composed by Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎）, this sophisticated pop song was Tsubokura's highest-ranking single when it hit No. 25 on Oricon.
Well, things have begun to slightly cool down here in my part of Canada after one of the warmer summers in recent memory (nothing to compare with Japan's summer, though). Still, it's still very nice out there and we're several days away from the official beginning of autumn.
That means that there is plenty of time for those last barbeque outings and beach trips to enjoy that last bit of sun and surf. Maybe then, we can do some vicarious summer partying with the trio Mi-Ke singing their New Year's Eve 1992 10th and penultimate single to date, "Namida no Vacation" (Vacation of Tears).
Reminiscent of Group Sounds and 1960s girl pop, there's even a loving tribute to Connie Francis'"Vacation" right at the beginning. Mi-Ke was entering their heyday just when I was leaving my stint on the JET Programme but I was still getting shipments of Japanese TV programs so I was totally in on their success as interpreters of one segment of kayo kyoku during those early 1990s. Despite the melancholy title, "Namida no Vacation" sounds like a pretty happy-go-lucky tune of the times with Daiko Nagato（長戸大幸）on lyrics and Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎）on the music. It reached No. 19 on Oricon. The song also gave Mi-Ke their 2nd and final invitation to the Kohaku Utagassen following their appearance in 1991 for "Omoide no Kujukuri Hama"（思い出の九十九里浜）.
"Slam Dunk" was never a manga or anime that I got into because I'm not a basketball fan, but I've had a lot of students sing the praises of the franchise in either form. I've seen excerpts from the anime in which the individual players have their own crazy ways of offense and defense including one fellow who can apparently throw up a wall of arms.
Another thing that I didn't know about "Slam Dunk" the anime was that the song "Sekai ga Owaru made wa..." (Until the World Ends...) by the rock band WANDS had been used as its second ending theme. I've heard the song before elsewhere, perhaps on a commercial or on some celebrity karaoke show but didn't know about its connection with "Slam Dunk".
When it comes to WANDS, I'm always reminded of "Sekaijuu no Dare yori Kitto"（世界中の誰よりきっと）, their 1992 hit collaboration with singer-actress Miho Nakayama（中山美穂）. Perhaps I ought to include "Sekai ga Owaru made wa..." in my memories since it's also been one of their most famous entries in their discography. It was released as their 8th single in June 1994 after which it hit No. 1 for two straight weeks, ending up as the 10th-ranked single of the year. Other accolades that it earned was becoming a million-seller and the Artist Song Award (1989-1999) at the Heisei Anison Awards. As well, "Sekai ga Owaru made wa..." was also a part of that Sunakku Songs（スナックソング）list that I wrote about just a few minutes ago.
The music video for the song was filmed at a hangar at Haneda Airport. The lyrics were by WANDS vocalist Show Wesugi（上杉昇） while the melody was provided by Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎）with arrangement by Takeshi Hayama（葉山たけし）. "Sekai ga Owaru made wa..." can also be found on the band's 4th album"Piece of My Soul" from April 1995 which also hit No. 1 for two weeks in a row and eventually became the 16th-ranked album of the year.
Found this one only some minutes ago but the back story behind this band was fascinating enough that I've decided to start today's round of KKP with them. Never heard of Spinach Power (and yep, Popeye was an inspiration) which lasted between 1978 and 1981 and according to their J-Wiki profile, they never came up with the hits which would explain their brevity of existence. Part of the fascination lies in the series of main vocalists they had. The first one was Tetsuo Nishihama（西濱哲男）who had been the lead vocalist for the band Tranzam（トランザム）. Then came famed singer-songwriter Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎）who naturally handled the song creation. And the third and final vocalist was a fellow named Shuuichi Teranishi（寺西修一）who would later become Kyosuke Himuro（氷室京介）, the singer for the band BOOWY in the late 1980s and a soloist with the hit "KISS ME" in 1992. There was never any mention of this in Himuro's own article in either J-Wiki or Wikipedia.
Also, according to the profile, Spinach Power released seven singles and three albums with the magazines identifying the band as a disco group, although it was seen that only half of their discography was really in that genre. Certainly, the song "Style" in their third and final album"In and Out"from September 1980 doesn't come across as a disco song at all. And despite the cover of the album showing the members looking all New Wave (well, aside from the 70s rock hairdos on most of them...it's more the outfits), "Style" sounds more like a congenial guitar pop tune with some rock at the end. The other part of the fascination is that "Style" was written by Tomoko Aran（亜蘭知子）and composed by the aforementioned Oda; those two would later work together to create songs for the summertime band TUBE.
If, by chance, anyone else has any other information on Spinach Power, let me know. As well, one more bit of trivia I can leave with you is that the band's drummer Mamoru Kimura（木村マモル）would become the first drummer for BOOWY.
Hello there. J-Canuck here and welcome to Easter Monday and April Fool's Day at the same time. No fooling around here, though, as frequent commenter and occasional contributor Fireminer will be providing the first two articles on KKP for April 2024! Take it away, Fireminer!
“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” as it is often said. It is doubly true when applied to the late great Akira Toriyama. There is an industry in Japan for artists who can imitate Toriyama’s style. Fans of franchises like Dragon Ball and Dragon Quest can be assured that the Toriyama-ness of their favorite series are now safe in the hands of artists like Toyotarou who cut their teeth drawing Dragon Ball doujinshi.
But what happens when an artist imitates himself? Or rather, return to the root of the thing that gave him success? Dragon Ball GT is what happens. It will take far too long to explain what Dragon Ball GT is, its spirit, and its importance within the Dragon Ball mythos as well as to the fandom. What I will say that it is a lot more enjoyable than what Western fans give it credit. That and the opening song absolutely slaps.
J-Canuck has already made a good write-up (https://kayokyokuplus.blogspot.com/2019/11/field-of-view-totsuzen.html) on the band FIELD OF VIEW, so I will only focus on their hit DAN DAN Kokoro Hikareteku (DAN DAN 心魅かれてく, Step by Step, You're Charming My Heart). Written by KKP’s regulars Izumi Sakai and Tetsuro Oda, who also wrote a few other hits for the band, Dan Dan Kokoro Hikareteku is a tour-de-force of a summer song. You simply can’t listen to it and then resist the urge of jumping right on a car and drive along the coast, feeling the sun and the wind rolling on your skin. That is the very vibe of Dragon Ball GT, an attempt to return to the innocence and whimsical adventures of the original Dragon Ball as opposed to Dragon Ball Z’s hot-blooded, roar-till-your-throat-raw spirit.
Dan Dan Kokoro Hikareteku was released by FIELD OF VIEW as their fourth single on March 11, 1996. It was an instant hit, no doubt buoyed by Oda’s breezy composition and Izumi’s lovely lyrics. It peaked at #4 on Oricon and charted for 11 weeks. The song was used as Dragon Ball GT’s opening song and then as the ending theme for Dragon Ball: The Path to Power, a movie that was actually a retelling of the original Dragon Ball storyline. Dan Dan Kokoro Hikareteku was the perfect song to both the show and the movie. I suppose it was also the perfect song for the Dragon Ball fans in the late 90s. Those who were brought up with Dragon Ball in the 90s now reached an age where they felt the first pang of nostalgia. Dan Dan Kokoro Hikareteku is the call to adventure for the restless soul who felt regret for not having made the best of his youth, but also having too much energy and time to just bottle it up. The song asks them to put aside their worries and fatigue for a moment, and just follow what their restlest spirit tells them to./.
This morning, I saw an NHK weekly news summary series on TV Japan, and one of the features was rather interesting to an ol' pop culture wonk like myself. Apparently, along with the Showa Retro（昭和レトロ）boom, there's been an accompanying Heisei Retro（平成レトロ）boom to represent nostalgic interest in the various fads and fashion that got devoured by Japanese youth during the Heisei era, notably from the inaugural year of 1989 into the mid-1990s at least. So, some of the young folks right now have possibly been inheriting the bits and bites of Heisei culture from their parents including loose socks, platform boots, and midriff-bearing shirts.
And who can forget the ancient Tamagotchi?! I was already there in Tokyo when the digital game/nursery went absolutely bonkers with the Japanese public. As can be seen in the above video, there were hours-long lineups to get that tiny little trinket. I remember walking by Tokyu Hands in Shibuya and witnessing this snake of humanity curling around the corner so that they could get their hands on a Tamagotchi.
My word. It says something when nostalgia and active pursuit for an era which I had entered in my mid-twenties are rising like a wave once more. That spoon stirring my glass of Metamucil is tinkling ever more loudly. 😵
Speaking of NHK, a couple of days ago, I watched a new series called "Heroine Tanjou! Asadora no Dramatic no Onna-tachi"（ヒロイン誕生!朝ドラな女たち...Birth of a Heroine! Morning Drama Women）. If I got the premise right, it's supposed to focus on the lives of certain real people of the past via acting performances. The "asadora" part threw me for a loop initially until I read the J-Wiki article and discovered that the producers behind "Heroine Tanjou!" had gone for a "What If?" approach for their subject and assumed that if a morning serial drama (which is a virtual 15-minute institution on the national network between 8 am and 8:15) could be done for that person, this is what it could look like. But most of the 30-minute program is devoted to the actress asking friends and acquaintances of the subject about her and how she would prepare for the 5-minute vignette that appears at the end.
Usually, such a program wouldn't be my cup of tea, but Episode No. 1 was focused on singer-songwriter Izumi Sakai（坂井泉水）, aka ZARD, whose untimely death had occurred just over 15 years ago in 2007. Hana Kawamura（河村花）portrayed the late Sakai, who had been born Sachiko Kamachi（蒲池幸子）in Kanagawa Prefecture. Well, considering that ZARD had kept her media appearances to a bare minimum throughout her singing career, I was curious.
My impression of Sakai was that compared to some of the over-the-top celebrities that constantly showed up on programs such as "Music Station", the singer was very much down-to-earth and somewhat shy. The footage of her that was aired on "Heroine Tanjou!" along with Kawamura's portrayal rather confirmed that.
Not surprisingly, because it was ZARD as the subject of the program, the producers focused on a particular song of hers which was the title track of her March 1995 album, "Forever You". KKP friend and co-administrator Larry Chan has already devoted an article to the song in which he stated "Forever You" had been meant as a paean to Sakai's former phase of her celebrity career when, under her real name of Sachiko Kamachi, she paid her dues as a pinup model and race queen.
In the dramatized scene at the end of "Heroine Tanjou!", there was a newspaper article which pronounced loud and clear about Sakai's "sordid" past for which producer Daito Nagato（長戸大幸）assured the singer that he would try to suppress any more rumours about her. But Sakai countered by stating that there was no need to do that since she was neither afraid nor ashamed of that part of her life because it was due to her work then and the struggles to get through with it that brought her to the successful stage in life that she was now enjoying as a recording artist. Supposedly from that meeting came "Forever You" through her lyrics and Tetsuro Oda's（織田哲郎）melody. It's not a happy rah-rah song by any means, but a musical moment of quiet pride which seems to match Sakai's own personality.
The album "Forever You" itself would hit No. 1 for two straight weeks and end up as the 4th-ranked album of the year. It also broke the 2-million mark in sales.
When it comes to regular anime starring naughty-but-ultimately-decent children (I hope), it's been "Chibi Maruko-chan"（ちびまる子ちゃん）due to TV Japan's weekly broadcasts, although I used to watch "Sazae-san"（サザエさん）when I was living in Ichikawa. However, I did see glimpses of the infamous "Crayon Shin-chan"（クレヨンしんちゃん）featuring bratty Shinnosuke Nohara who not only can act up like any demanding five-year-old but is more than ready to show off his butt and other body parts. I remember one episode where he had a major crush on real-life 90s sexy girl group C.C. Girls.
I gather then that it's not too much of a surprise that the pop group B.B. Queens（B.B.クィーンズ）, which had come up with the enduring theme song for the aforementioned "Chibi Maruko-chan", "Odoru Ponpokorin"（おどるポンポコリン）in 1990, was also responsible for the second opening theme for "Crayon Shin-chan", "Yume no End wa Itsumo Mezamashi!" (I Always Wake Up At the End of a Dream!). Nifty opening credits, by the way.
Having known B.B. Queens for basically "Odoru Ponpokorin" and "Gingira Paradise"（ギンギラパラダイス）which was used for a ski equipment commercial, it's nice to encounter a new song by the guys. Written by Daiko Nagato（長戸大幸）, composed by Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎）and arranged by Takeshi Hayama（葉山たけし）, "Yume no End wa Itsumo Mezamashi!" retains that B.B. Queens zaniness but also has some 1960s pop flavour. Another observation is that the basic melody has a slight resemblance to the one for "Yume Ippai"（ゆめいっぱい）, the very first opening theme for "Chibi Maruko-chan", and that song was also composed by Oda.
The song was released as B.B. Queens' 6th single in November 1992, and it peaked at No. 64 on Oricon.
Today, July 13, 2022, is Akina's (中森明菜) 57th birthday. Happy Birthday, Akina-san!!!
This year also marks Akina's 40th anniversary since her debut in 1982. It's been very quiet though. According to Wikipedia, earlier in April, NHK BS Premium aired a special called "Legendary Concert~Nakamori Akina" (伝説のコンサート〜中森明菜), which was a remastered version of her Akina East Live Index XXIII live concert recording. That concert was an outdoor concert held in Yomiuri Land East, an amusement park in Tokyo, on April 29-30, 1989 to celebrate Akina's upcoming 8th anniversary. That was also less than 3 months before her attempted suicide in July. After the broadcast, NHK got overwhelming feedbacks from the public that it decided to air it again on June 19 (I was quite surprised that there're still so many Akina fans in Japan). Unfortunately, due to an earthquake around Noto Peninsula (能登半島), it was rescheduled for July 9. I was pleasantly surprised to find the entire concert (maybe not the entire one but whatever was recorded at that time and whatever the copyright owner chooses to release) on Warner Music Japan's official YouTube channel.
Also worth mentioning is that, from 4/9/2022 through 4/16/2022, Japanese company ITmedia did a poll asking people to rank their beloved Akina single songs (B side included). They published the results today to commemorate Akina's birthday (a total of 4389 people participated). Here, I'm listing the top 10 songs. People who are interested can click here for the article in Japanese (just scroll down a bit for the entire ranking).
1 Southern Wind (サザン．ウインド)
2 North Wing (北ウイング)
3 Slow Motion (スローモーション)
4 Meu amor e (ミ．アモーレ)
5 Second Love (セカンド．ラブ)
6 Nanpasen (難破船)
7 Desire~Jounetsu~ (Desire〜情熱〜)
8 Juukai (十戒)
9 Sand Beige-Sabaku e- (San Beige-砂漠へ-)
10 Liar
Tango Noir is in the 11th place whereas Tattoo is in the 12th, tying with Aibu (愛撫). Kazari Janai no yo Namida wa (飾りじゃないのよ涙は) is in the 14th. Shoujo A (少女A) ranks 21st. Days, which I'm going to talk about later, ranks 35th. The only B side song I immediately recognized was Refrain (リ．フ．レ．イ．ン), which was coupled with North Wing. I'm a bit surprised that "Kazari Janai no yo Namida wa" did not make top 10. In my humble opinion, San Beige doesn't deserve to be in the top 10 and I wish I could replace it with "Kazari Janai no yo Namida wa".
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Enough for the latest news. Today, as an Akina birthday special, I would like to talk about my all-time favorite Akina album, "I hope so".
I discovered the song "Days" first on YouTube before I found the album itself. If my memory serves me right, I think this was the first album I bought from Amazon Japan.
Overall Impression
"I hope so" was released in 2003. It was Akina's 21st album. It reached number 15 on Oricon's weekly chart. The last song in the album, "Days", was also released as a single earlier that year.
The album included 10 ballads or soft rocks, although "I hope so" is probably closer to rock and "Kaze no Hate" (風の果て) is probably closer to country in terms of genre. There're 4 pieces of instrumental music, 1-2 minutes each, that interleave between the 10 songs. Here, I think the producer put a lot of effort. The transition between songs and instrumental music is so smooth that the whole album feels like one single concert performance.
Most of the songs were written by 3 song writers: Takebe Satoshi (武部聡志), Oda Tetsurou (織田哲郎), and Kawae Minako (川江美奈子). As for lyrics, they're mostly written by Kawae Minako, Matsui Gorou (松井五郎) and Nakamori Akina herself. Yes, Akina herself wrote the lyrics of 4 songs in this album, including "I hope so" and "Days", my favorite song in this album. I also want to mention that the first song of the album, "Rain", was written by female singer songwriter Okamoto Mayo (岡本真夜). She would later self-covered it as well. All music except the song "Shoukei (憧憬)" was arranged by Takebe Satoshi, who was also the producer of this album.
Honestly, there's not a single song in this album that I don't like. Even though rock music is not my cup of tea in general, I actually like "I hope so". Akina's mature, sexy, and husky voice also plays a role here, I think. I especially like the interleaving instrumental music. They provide breaks throughout the album, give more musical variety so that it doesn't feel like you're bombarded by one ballad after another.
As I mentioned earlier, when I listen to the whole album, there's a sense of coherence and the whole album feels like one single giant performance. I would encourage you to listen from start to finish and appreciate the whole production. This is an album of ballads. I love ballads but I also understand that it's not everyone's favorite. But for me, this is the perfect Akina album.
Wikipedia mentions a tiny episode regarding the album title "I hope so". As expected, it was chosen by Akina herself. Akina was once studying in the US for around a month while staying with a host family. When she talked to her host family with her broken English, they responded with "I understand what you're saying. No problem. I hope so." Akina resonated most with the phrase "I hope so" because that's when she felt she was able to connect emotionally. I wonder what Akina said to get the "I hope so" response 🤣. Also, I wondered if she had misunderstood what her host family was trying to say after all. A person who says "I hope so" may not always inspire confidence 😂. For example,
Hiker A: Would this lead us out of the woods?
Hiker B: I hope so.
My Favorite Song - Days
When I first watched this YouTube MV, it was "love at first sight". I immediately fell in love with this song. Akina's voice has changed so much that it now has character! It has become extremely sexy and attractive to me. I later found out that it was recorded in "I hope so" and that's how I got to know the album.
By the way, the scenes in the MV seem to be taken from a TV drama, or some 2-hour TV special of some sort. If anyone knows what it is, please let me know by commenting below.
I would like to translate 2 quotes from Wikipedia regarding what some music critics were saying about the song.
"Akina was able to express the intense emotions of the song through her calm and restraining voice. It was a superb piece of work." - CD Journal
"Her calm voice, yet full of deep emotions, was the best part of the vocal." - Oono Takashi 大野貴史 "WHAT's IN?" magazine
I think the above best summarizes how I feel as well. Honestly, I couldn't have said it better. Although Akina's singing in her idol days was not bad at all, when I listen to "Days" I think Akina has truly graduated from an idol. Her singing is now at a totally different level.
Oda Tetsurou wrote the music and Akina wrote the lyrics herself.
The song is a prayer as well as a vow towards the singer's lover, that no matter how painful the future will be, she'll always be with him. If anyone is interested in knowing the lyrics, I have an English translation here in my own blog. Enjoy!
Other Recommendations
Honestly, I would recommend ALL the songs in this album! As I said before, there's not a single song that I don't like. If I had to limit myself to 2 songs, the following would be my choices.
Utsutsu no Hana うつつの花
I guess throughout my life, I have always liked music that are a little bit dark. For instance, I love Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20 as well as his Symphony No. 25, both of which were described as having a lingering dark mood. In general, I have a natural affinity towards minor keys. "Utsutsu no Hana" carries such a dark undertone that feels particularly attractive to me. The arrangement also adds to its darkness. In fact, this is my 2nd most favorite song after "Days" in this album.
Music was written by Mashiko Tatsurou (マシコタツロウ) and lyrics was written by Matsui Gorou.
The song describes a woman who was in a dead-end relationship but couldn’t let go. "Like feeling lonely and ripping a half-dried wound open, it's bleeding red once again," wrote Matsui Gorou for the opening lyrics of the song.
It's probably ironic for me to say, but Akina's voice becomes especially attractive when she sings sad love songs. Perhaps, Nanpasen (難破船) is the most representative of all. It may be due to her circumstances with Kondo Masahiko (近藤真彦). When it comes to sad love songs, there's something in her voice that is unique, that other female singers just can't reproduce. I found it especially true after year 2000.
Yuuyami wo Matte 夕闇を待って
Kawae Minako wrote both the music and its lyrics.
The song feels very light, casual, and a little jazzy. Just like in her early days going from Shoujo A (少女A) to Second Love (セカンド．ラブ), Akina sang with a completely different voice than say, "Days" or "Utsutsu no Hana".
I think the lyrics was beautifully written and from my limited understanding of Japanese culture, it conveys a very unique Japanese emotion. The song writes about a woman who was by the ocean watching sunset. It was so lovely that she wished her lover were here. She recalled the good times they had together and how he had set her free. She didn't feel sad anymore though, as she recalled various things that her lover had taught her. Darkness descended and the stars started glistering in the sky. Everything in this world is fleeting. That the stars are shining upon her is the only thing that's certain at the moment.
Final Words
According to Wikipedia, it's already been 4 years since we've heard any news from Akina. It has been widely reported that Akina doesn't have a cell phone. Her relationship with her father is so bad that they haven't talked to each other for more than 20 years. She doesn't keep contact with her siblings either. Shopping was deferred to her manager and she doesn't go out much, according to various Japanese media outlets (for details, here's the article, though it's in Japanese). In other words, she has become what the Japanese would call a Hikikomori (引きこもり), someone who has withdrawn from society.
As a fan, I certainly hope that she's living happily and healthily regardless of what life style she has chosen.
The other day, I was having dinner with J-Canuck in an Izakaya in Toronto. We're talking about music that feels timeless and I gave "Kazari Janai no yo Namida wa" 飾りじゃないのよ涙は as an example. Even now, when I listen to it, it still feels so fresh that it's hard to imagine it's from the 80s. In my opinion, even if Akina had immediately retired after "Kazari Janai no yo Namida wa", she would still have been remembered as one of the most successful singers in the 80s, along with Matsuda Seiko (松田聖子). For Akina, there's nothing to prove anymore. Her place in Japanese pop music was already secured long time ago. So, wherever you are, be happy, Akina-san!
I've decided to go with a couple of Yumi Murata's（村田有美）songs today to start off the usual J-urban contemporary Friday since they are both worthy of mention now.
(37:12)
Murata's debut single was "Mr. Romance" in 1979, something that I made mention of when I wrote up her first article on KKP over two years ago, "Krishna"（クリシュナ）. It's quite the fascinating and creamy City Pop tune since it's one of those songs that acts like a good scotch.
"Mr. Romance" has feelings of both Junko Yagami（八神純子）and Junko Ohashi（大橋純子）and perhaps even some Miki Matsubara（松原みき）and Machiko Watanabe（渡辺真知子）not just in their respective vocals but also through the arrangements which include the de rigueur Fender Rhodes and a lonely trumpet that seems to reflect the sad shuffle that the protagonist is doing on the concrete of those Tokyo streets at night, although there is also some of that dreaminess in there. It's got quite the pedigree in the songwriting as well with lyricist Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composer Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎）providing some classy City Pop from the turn of the decade. I'm assuming that "Mr. Romance" also got its appearance on Murata's debut album"1st".
Speaking of "Krishna" which was the title track from her August 1980 2nd album, the track that starts that particular album off is "Let It Blow". And yep, Murata really does let it blow here beginning with some dramatic and suspenseful strings for a good 30 seconds before this incredible Steely Dan/Bobby Caldwell-like melody comes pouring in along with the singer's voice thrown to 11 on the dial. A couple of her collaborators in the recording booth contributed to the creation of "Let It Blow": Satoshi Murakawa（村川聡）was the lyricist who was also helping out on background vocals for the album while saxophonist Yasuaki Shimizu（清水靖晃）composed the song. There's a form of tug-of-war among the downtown funk, another round of sky-high dreaminess, and plain ol' action drama with guitarist Takayuki Hijikata（土方隆行）emphasizing some of that. Not sure how the rest of the album goes outside of the title track but "Let It Blow" strikes down a loud first step.
Well, although I already have a Tomoko Aran（亜蘭知子）BEST album from many years ago, when I saw this new BEST album pop up at CD Japan last month, it didn't take me long to plunk down my yen. For one thing, this compilation of her hits is narrower in focus on her first years in the business as a singer-songwriter between 1981-1987. In other words, "Tomoko Aran ~ Warner Years '81-'87" covers her first seven albums with Warner Music which includes her City Pop material.
It looks like I already have the middle of the order sewn up on the blog, thanks to getting two of the three albums involved for those particular songs, "Fuyuu Kuukan"（浮遊空間）and "More Relax". As such, I was keenly interested in finding out especially what happened in Aran's beginning years in 1981 and 1982 with the albums "Shinkei Suijaku"（神経衰弱...Nervous Breakdown） and "Shikisai Kankaku"（色彩感覚...A Sense of Colour）.
My first ever article on Aran was a songwriting one for her, "Season In The Sun" by TUBE all the way back in the spring of 2012, and my first ever article on Aran as a singer was "Slow Nights" as already linked above. It was quite the interesting contrast between the two songs. I'd imagined from "Season In The Sun" that Aran herself was as much about the summery 50s-style good-time rock n' roll as her clients in TUBE. But then, I was then caught off-guard when I first heard "Slow Nights" which is as City Pop as all heck. Truly, I was starting to think that this lady from Aomori Prefecture up in the north was a bit of a chameleon, thus my curiosity about the rest of her discography as a singer.
Well, first off on the BEST list here is "Kanzen Hanzai" (Absolute Crimes) from "Shinkei Suijaku", and yep, true to form, this particular track is quite different but then again, I heard some pretty avant-garde stuff on "Fuyu Kuukan" already. "Kanzen Hanzai" is a nostalgic dive into that old-timey New Wave thanks to those keyboards that I'd like to classify as Hall & Oates piano, and another notable thing is how much higher Aran's voice is here. It's almost kinda like the singer was aiming for a bit of Blondie as she sings cheerfully about a woman who thinks she's being played by her boyfriend in the tactical game known as love. Aran handled lyrics while saxophonist Yasuaki Shimizu（清水靖晃）took care of the music and arrangement.
Now, compare "Kanzen Hanzai" with "Monochrome" from her 2nd album"Shikisai Kankaku". I'd like my cocktail now, please! 🍸It's got that Latin-tinged City Pop feeling and there are those smoky and sultry vocals (and lyrics) by Aran that I've gotten familiar with over the years. Plus, we've got Shimizu on the sax solo and composer/arranger Masanori Sasaji（笹路正徳）on the piano. Very classy and on my first listening to the album, "Monochrome" was the first to stand out for me.
"Blue Note" is also from "Shikisai Kankaku" and was tackled by the same duo of Aran and Sasaji. It's got more of the soulful side of the genre with the gentle horns and bass. The lyrics may have to do with the time after a breakup when those familiar sounds at the apartment no longer echo now that the residency has been halved. Yumi Murata（村田有美）and Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎）provided the background vocals according to the liner notes.
"Kanashimi no Sing" (Singing Sadly), another lovelorn ballad, hails from Aran's 5th album"Imitation Lonely" which was released in April 1985 and is a fellow track with "Busy City". This time, it's Akira Jimbo（神保彰）from Casiopea helping out with the melody and from the liner notes, it looks like Jimbo's band is contributing once more as they did on all of "More Relax", and indeed, Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）is on guitar.
Some bouncy pop here with "Chinatown Girl" that comes from Aran's 6th album"Last Good-bye"(April 1986). In fact, I would say that this is closer to what I've heard from another 80s pop singer, EPO. It's not quite a duet but the extra voice here is supplied by William C. Lee. I wouldn't have been surprised if it had been used in a commercial, and guitarist Hideo Saito（斉藤英夫）really enjoyed himself here. Once again, it's Aran on lyrics but we've got a mystery person behind the music. In the liner notes, he's pegged as (I think) Yasumaro Ota（太田泰磨呂）but at JASRAC, he's listed as Tohru Pekin（北京トオル）. On Aran's blog, she was asked by one fellow if the two names were for one person and he took a guess that it was actually Saito under a couple of pseudonyms. Although Aran did provide a response, she didn't particularly resolve the matter.
My final song for tonight is "Doll", a track from Aran's 7th album, "Mind Games", which was released in March 1987. All of the tracks were produced and composed by Tetsuro Oda who was also a frequent contributor to TUBE's songs. A driving pop/rock tune given further wings by saxophonist Toshihiko Furumura（古村敏比古）, Aran's lyrics here talk of a woman who refuses to be shackled anymore. Furumura's beefy saxophone helps to illustrate a storm blowing around the protagonist but this time to help release her instead of scaring her in.
Aran's latest BEST album does what I was hoping that any BEST album for any singer would do for anyone listening to him/her for the first time. I get to savor a good sampling of a variety of her music within a certain period of time so that I have now become really interested in tracking down the original albums.
Up until last week, the ending theme for "Chibi Maruko-chan"（ちびまる子ちゃん）that we've been seeing in the end credits has been Keisuke Kuwata's（桑田佳祐）summery "Hyaku-man Nen no Shiawase!!"（100万年の幸せ!!）. I wondered then how far back we were in the episodes for the long-running anime as they were run on TV Japan. Well, I found out that "Hyaku-man Nen no Shiawase!!" was played between April 2012 and October 2017.
(Sorry but the video has been taken down)
I guess we here in Toronto are three years behind since tonight a few hours ago, we got a look-see at the next ending credit sequence following Kuwata, and this time around it's good ol' PUFFY. It's been two years since I've had Ami and Yumi back aboard "Kayo Kyoku Plus", so welcome them back.
Instead of the O-hanami picnic setting with the Southern all Stars leader, the ending credits have gone for the happily wacky adventure involving Maruko and her best buddy Tamae with PUFFY popping up here and there. The ending theme is "Susume Nonsense" which could mean either "Recommended Nonsense" or "Go Ahead, Nonsense". In any case, it seems like the perfect combination of happy PUFFY pop-rock and Chibi Maruko-chan music with words by the late Momoko Sakura（さくらももこ）, the creator of the original "Chibi Maruko-chan" manga, and music by Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎）.
"Susume Nonsense" started its run on "Chibi Maruko-chan" from October 2017 but it didn't get its digital download single release until December 2018, and as of this date, it's their most recent single. To further show how far behind we viewers in Canada are, another ending theme, and I assume, ending credits sequence have already popped up from last October. Still, it's refreshing to get a new song and sequence after five years with Kuwata.
I was always rather curious after putting up "The Top 10 Singles in Oricon History" about how the company that has been compiling all of those statistics and rankings in music treated songwriters. Well, I was able to track down the Top 5 Japanese composers of all time so far and will eventually come up with the lists for lyricists and arrangers. The J-Wiki article for Kyohei Tsutsumi provided the information which had originally been published at "Buzzfeed News" in January 2018.
As for the numbers, the Wikipedia article for Tsutsumi stated in its first paragraph that he was responsible for "...selling over 76 million units on the country's single chart from 1968 onwards.". I'm not certain whether those singles include the B-sides that he (and the rest of those composers) may have also composed. Plus from that quote, it's possible that non-single tracks from albums may have been excluded, so the list may really not be a wholly complete one. It's also been more than 2 1/2 years since it has been compiled so there's a chance that there may have been some shifting.
1. Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平） 75.6 million units 2. Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉） 71.8 million 3. Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎） 41.8 million 4. Keisuke Kuwata（桑田佳祐） 38.9 million 5. Tak Matsumoto （松本孝弘） 38.1 million
Furthermore, the J-Wiki list was generous enough to also include each composer's most successful single. Unfortunately, I have yet to write up an article for Matsumoto's (B'z) song but I will try to rectify that in the coming days (and I did).
When I was listening to Come Along Radio's"City Pop Summer Mix #3" the other night, I encountered a song that I had never heard before but identified it unmistakably as a TUBE tune. My assumption was that it was one of their later singles going into the 1990s.
Once again, I was wrong. In fact, "Sailing Love" was the first track on the band's first album"Heart of Summer" released all the way back in July 1985. Furthermore, TUBE wasn't TUBE at the time. Nobuteru Maeda（前田亘輝）and the guys were known as The TUBE...I gather that in the name of Japanese formality, they wanted that definite article.😏
Written and composed by longtime TUBE associate Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎）with Shuusuke Nagato（長戸秀介）also working on the lyrics, "Sailing Love" was a pleasant "How do you do?" to the listeners of this new band bringing that sunny summer beach time fun that would characterize the TUBE sound for years to come. "Heart of Summer" peaked at a respectable No. 29 on Oricon and it would include their debut single "Best Seller Summer" which had been released in June 1985 with a No. 13 ranking.
It wouldn't be a "Kayo Kyoku Plus" summer without a TUBE song. Hope the boys are still cheering up the fans in Japan and elsewhere somehow during this pandemic.
Nope, this particular song isn't from Tomoko Aran's（亜蘭知子）"More Relax" album.
Actually, "Ushirometai Yoru"(Guilty Night) is from Aran's debut album"Shikisai Kankaku"（色彩感覚...Sense of Colour）which came out in July 1982. Not really sure if this is more of a pop song than a City Pop number but I think that there is enough of a bass-heavy groove in there and considering Aran has been so associated with the genre, I think it deserves at least honorary status.
Written by the singer and composed by Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎）, the points that stand out for me is some of that spacy synthesizer floating over the melody, and also the fact that part of it reminds me of Olivia Newton-John's1981 hit song "Physical". Had a friend of mine from high school who was absolutely enamored with Olivia that he brought over the LP and played it over and over again on our family RCA Victor. I like her songs and all, but past the second time, it was starting to get on my nerves. I do have to admit that the video is so 80s!
In any case, any guilty night for me will involve one too many trips to the Pringles canister.
Went out early this morning to grab as many groceries for the week that I could. About a hundred bucks later, I dragged the entire load back home, and perhaps my arms got a fine workout, to boot. Not a big fan of those automated cashiers, though.
In any case, it's looking really nice out there with the sun and cool temperatures. But of course, we all gotta stay home. I (and my friends) are hoping that maybe some good news will come in about a month or so.
So, in the interim, how about some nice 90s J-Pop with a rock edge by one of the more famous and popular artists of that decade, ZARD? To be honest, I don't ever recall hearing this 18th single, "Kokoro wo Hiraite"(Open Your Heart) and though it's still a typically upbeat ZARD song, it also sounds a bit gentler, as if she's taking a bit of a break between the really soar-in-the-sky numbers. According to the J-Wiki article on "Kokoro wo Hiraite", that music video was apparently filmed in Sydney, Australia and Monaco (dang, what kind of budget did the production have?); nice break, indeed.
Written by ZARD, aka Izumi Sakai（坂井泉水）, and composed by Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎）, the single was released in May 1996 and was also a track on her 7th original album"Today Is Another Day" from July of that year. "Kokoro wo Hiraite" ended up becoming ZARD's 9th most successful single, selling close to 750,000 copies and hitting No. 1 in its first week. It ended up as the 32nd-ranked single of the year. As for "Today Is Another Day", it also hit the top spot on Oricon and became the 12th-ranked album for 1996.
True to its summery nature, "Kokoro wo Hiraite" was also used as a commercial tune for Pocari Sweat.
Welcome to November 2019! Yup, once again time seems to have snuck up behind us and surprised all of us with the penultimate month of the year. The snow didn't come at us as Halloween trick-or-treaters had feared but according to one of my friends on Facebook, some of the white stuff did hit his neighbourhood briefly this morning, although I doubt that there was any accumulation.
As much as I poke a little fun at the contemporary aidoru groups such as AKB 48, SKE 48 and NGT 48 by calling them the alphabet idols, I also fondly remember a lot of the bands from the early 1990s as the Scrabble or Scramble groups since they had names that looked like they had been formed by randomly selecting alphabet tiles from a pouch. I'm thinking of B'z, ZARD, ZYYG and REV.
But there was one band from that time which had a unique name to be sure but at least it did come out as a coherent phrase, FIELD OF VIEW. Starting as view in 1992 under the Being label, the quartet of vocalist Yuuya Asaoka（浅岡雄也）, drummer Takuto Kohashi（小橋琢人）, guitarist Takashi Oda（小田孝）and keyboardist Jun Abe（安部潤）put out their first 2 singles which didn't exactly light any fires. However with a style change of doffing their casual wear for some smart suits, and picking up two more words to their name, FIELD OF VIEW made a re-debut in 1995.
Their 4th single, "Totsuzen"(Sudden) was released in July 1995 and became their best hit chart-wise when it peaked at No. 2 on Oricon. It's a song that brought instant recognition to me after so long, mostly through its use as a commercial tune for the drink Pocari Sweat. With lyrics by Izumi ZARD Sakai（坂井泉水）and music by Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎）, a couple of song-smiths that were prolific during the 1990s, "Totsuzen" relates the story of a guy who may have been given a second chance at a relationship due to a sudden letter from his old flame. I also noticed a certain musical riff in there which reminded me of part of the melody in the SMAP super hit, "Sekai ni Hitotsu dake no Hana"（世界に一つだけの花）.
Selling 1.2 million copies (and perhaps truckloads of Pocari Sweat), "Totsuzen" managed to finish the year as the 22nd-ranked single for 1995. It also made it onto FIELD OF VIEW's debut album"FIELD OF VIEW I" released in October of that year and hit the top spot on the album charts and even became the 43rd-ranked album within those last three months.
Keyboardist Abe left the band following their 5th single to be replaced by bassist Kenji Niitsu（新津健二）. FIELD OF VIEW would release 22 singles and 5 original albums. Their last three singles up to mid-2002 would have the band picking up a definite article so they were known as the FIELD OF VIEW before finally calling it quits.
The trio Mi-Ke was a pretty interesting group which had its heyday in the early 1990s. I was just in my final months on the JET Programme when Keiko Utoku（宇徳敬子）, Haruka Murakami（村上遙）and Mami Watanabe（渡辺真美）brought in their contemporary take on Group Sounds-sounding material and Ventures vibes. Considering the pop sounds of the time and the gradually waning wave of aidoru from the 1980s and 1990s, Mi-Ke stood out.
I've already written about a number of articles on Mi-Ke including for their big hit "Omoide no Kujukuri Hama"（思い出の九十九里浜）, but I surprised myself that I hadn't written about "Blue Light Yokosuka" since it's a title that I've heard many times.
For those who know their kayo, "Blue Light Yokosuka" is a play on the 1968 classic "Blue Light Yokohama"（ブルーライト・ヨコハマ）, and according to J-Wiki, "Yokosuka" has been treated by some as the answer song to "Yokohama", although the sounds of the two tunes are completely different. "Yokohama" is more of a Mood Kayo while "Yokosuka" fits the Group Sounds template.
Still, there is plenty of contemporary instrumentation such as the synths in "Yokosuka" joining the beach-worthy rhythms of the song. Not quite sure about the choreography surrounding the live performances but "Yokosuka" itself is nostalgic enough not just for the 1960s beat but also for its 1990s existence. This was Mi-Ke's 3rd single from June 1991 with Daiko Nagato（長戸大幸）and Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎）behind its creation, and it managed to get as high as No. 13 on Oricon.
Good heavens! It's been a while, Matchy...welcome back.
Some pretty bombastic good ol' rock-n-roll by Masahiko Kondo（近藤真彦）through his 22nd single"Baby Rose" released in September 1986. I think having Matchy show up on the cover in a black leather jacket with a pompadour hairstyle would have been more appropriate. Still, the song written and composed by Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎）has a really boss sound as the singer exhorts and begs his Baby Rose to come back to him after a fight.
According to the J-Wiki article for "Baby Rose", Oda himself had recorded the song in his own 1985 album"Night Waves", after which Kondo requested that he would love to perform this particular song in concert. The songwriter had no problems with that, and "Baby Rose" became an official Matchy single.
"Baby Rose" rose to No. 6 on Oricon and later became the 51st-ranked single for 1986. It first got onto an album, "Kondo Masahiko THE BEST" which was released in June 1987.
Commenter Chasing Showa keyed me in on the ending theme for the 1983 "Sōkō Kihei VOTOMS"（装甲騎兵ボトムズ...Armored Trooper VOTOMS）since I had written about the cool opening theme for the anime a little over two weeks ago.
"Itsumo Anata ga" (You Are Always) was created by the same folks who took care of the opening theme "Honoo no Sadame"（炎のさだめ）. It was Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎）under his nom de guerre at the time, TETSU, who performed it with Ryosuke Takahashi（高橋良輔）and Hiroki Inui（乾裕樹）writing and composing the song respectively.
As I mentioned to Chasing Showa, this is a surprisingly urban contemporary tune for a mecha anime. I remarked that I would imagine some bartender getting his/her ear bent by a melancholy VOTOM at a Shinjuku bar while nursing a tumbler of machine oil on the rocks. Despite the obvious nightmare of fitting such a huge mecha into a drinking establishment, it would still look very cool having it carrying on a conversation within the bright lights of Tokyo flashing on and off. "Itsumo Anata ga" is very much an introspective ballad about cherishing that loved one, and the saxophone seals the deal for that City Pop tag.
