The Birds -- Aru Yoru no Dekigoto（或る夜の出来事）

 

Futako-Tamagawa in western Tokyo is a place that I know quite well because I used to teach a couple of students in the surrounding neighbourhood. It is quite the suburban bedroom town with all of the modern commercial conveniences and restaurants amassing around tall condo towers. I don't think it was ever going to be a place that I could afford to live in on my salary, so being able to even make home visits for lessons was quite a feat.

I have no idea what Futako-Tamagawa looked like back in the late 1960s but according to what I see on that single cover for The Birds'（ザ・バーズ）November 1969 3rd single "Aru Yoru no Dekigoto", the neighbourhood back then seemed to have already been becoming an up-and-coming community. In fact, the first time that I saw it, I had assumed that the place was a major airport with twin singing sisters Junko and Reiko Toyoda（豊田順子・豊田礼子）dressed up like stewardesses. Actually, though, it's a huge sprawling Takashimaya department store on the cover and I guess the Toyodas weren't wearing flight attendant uniforms after all.

"Aru Yoru no Dekigoto" directly translates as "Something Happened One Night" but the official English translation is the more romantic and less dangerous "Lovely Nights With You". And as you might have guessed, the setting in the rumbling urban song is Futako-Tamagawa with a playboy and his red coupe enticing a young lady during that one evening. Akari Yamaguchi（山口あかり）and Shinichi Tanabe（田辺信一）were responsible for words and music respectively, and this single comes just before what is arguably their most famous entry, the theme song for the TBS drama "Attention Please"（アテンションプリーズ）in 1970.

The Birds -- Attention Please（アテンションプリーズ）

 

Although I've cherished visiting my old friends and students in Tokyo in the previous decade, flying isn't one of my favourite activities. I got airsick the very first time I flew on a Canadian Pacific flight to Japan which manifested itself belatedly in a taxi going away from Haneda Airport (late bloomer, I am), and then a particularly lousy flight through a typhoon many years later pretty much put the kibosh on any appreciation of Economy class. For me, flying is for the birds, and you can take that in any way you like.

Still, I gather that in decades past, there was a romance and luxury about flying the great blue skies, and the occupation of flight attendant was a much envied and desired one. That's the impression that I get from The Birds'（ザ・バーズ）singing of the theme song for the 1970 TBS early evening half-hour drama "Attention Please". With that sound of a jetliner taking off, everyone else is taking off for an optimistic and cheerful adventure against the backdrop of a happy kayo melody from that time period with the strings and horns.

Prolific lyricist Tokiko Iwatani（岩谷時子）and composer/arranger Go Misawa（三沢郷）were responsible for the theme song. As for The Birds, although the name sounds like it belongs to a Group Sounds band, it actually represents twin sisters, Junko and Reiko Toyoda（豊田順子・豊田礼子）from Saitama Prefecture who debuted in 1968 and released some singles up to the middle of 1971.

From what I've read of the synopsis for the show, it reminds me of how America's "The Love Boat" did their shows with various famous guest stars coming in each week. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any footage of the original show, but in 2006, there was a reboot of "Attention Please" starring Aya Ueto（上戸彩）under an hour-long format.