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.
It is (or was in Japan) July 7th 2025 which means another day to celebrate Tanabata, commemorating the star-crossed lovers Orihime and Hikoboshi. This year, though, is particularly auspicious because July 7th is falling in the 7th year of Reiwa (another way of saying 2025 in Japan) and so people noticing that it is the 7th day of the 7th month in the 7th year, much hay has been made out of it. For example, couples have been flooding their local city halls to register their marriages today and in a lot of supermarkets, some products have been priced at 777 yen.
Now, I've done my commemorating of the holiday sometimes on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" for specific songs in the past, but this time, I've decided to become a little more ambitious by applying a few gimmicks to this Author's Pick.
First off, let's provide three songs that have something to do with the number 7.
(1967) The Echoes and The Misuzu Children's Choral Group -- Theme from Ultra Seven （ウルトラセブンの歌）
A few days ago, when I was typing up another entry for "Kayo Kyoku Plus", the foot under my desk kept leaning against something (my laptop is basically in a walk-in closet that used to be my old bedroom...such is life). Since it was restricting things a bit, I found out it was an old Canada Dry plastic bag containing a lot of old 45" singles of kayo kyoku that my parents had brought over from the old country. But one record in there was a special one for me....back in 1972, when I made my first trip to Japan ever with my brother and mother, my mother bought us a record that contained the theme songs for four of the big superheroes at the time: Kamen Rider, Mirror Man, Silver Kamen and Ultra Seven.
Now, during that hot summer in Osaka and Wakayama Prefecture, my brother and I did our share of butterfly chasing with nets and trying to avoid the huge snakes around the rice paddies of my grandpa's farm (although a scarab beetle managed to sneak into my underwear for several minutes...but that's another story). However, our big television memories there were watching the anime and the big superhero vs. monster shows, otherwise known as tokusatsu（特撮...literally, special filming). As kids growing up in Toronto, we used to watch "Monster Week" on the Buffalo NBC affiliate WGRZ (WGR back then) during their afternoon movies at 4 p.m., so Godzilla, Rodan and Mothra were big names at our place, and so the huge Japanese monster obsession we had was transferred with us to Japan. Now, at the time, the Ultraman series had long been in production before we got there ("Ultra Q" premiered in 1966), so the current Ultramen in 1972 were Ultraman Ace on its first run and his predecessor, Ultraman Jack, in the afternoons. We had a ball watching the good guys using their punches, kicks and laser beams on the monsters.
But the theme song we loved was for "Ultra Seven", the second of the Ultramen to grace Japanese small screens. And so, when we got back to Toronto, this song, plus the "Kamen Rider" theme song got heavy rotation on the RCA Victor. And apparently, it's THE theme song for the entire Ultraman franchise that everyone remembers to this day (although Mom also got the "Ultraman Ace" single for us....but as much as I like that one, too, it just doesn't quite have the presence).
"SEVEN.....SEVEN.....SEVEN!"
The original theme for "Ultraman" had that Group Sounds good times guitar vibe with its chorus, but the theme for "Ultra Seven" just screamed "Hero coming through!!!" There was the anthemic brass intro, followed by the three members of chorus group The Echoes sliding in "Seven" before they and the entire Misuzu Children's Chorus Group blasted "Seven" again in staccato notes before the burst of French horn, and then the triumphant lyrics written by Kyoichi Azuma（東京一） with Toru Fuyuki（冬木透） behind the notes. It's a theme that just stands up and out for an Ultraman that also stood out in his appearance and his battle tactics; I think his Ice Slugger is the coolest weapon that any of the warriors have had (yeah, I know I'm going a bit fanboy here). My brother and I were doing a fair bit of kicking and spinning around in the living room when that song was on, although we had never seen one episode of "Ultra Seven" in our time in Japan.
The above video doesn't have a great recording of the theme but it does show Ultra Seven doing what he does best.
And here is the live version of the theme being performed by a Tokyo orchestra with J-R&B singer Keizo Nakanishi（中西圭三） providing lead vocals, and the original composer, Fuyuki, as the conductor. Of course, Ultra Seven himself just had to be there. One interesting piece of trivia I got from YouTube and J-Wiki is one of the members of The Echoes happened to be Kiyohiko Ozaki（尾崎紀世彦） (he's the 3rd voice sliding in the "Seven") who would later find even bigger fame as the big-voiced singer behind the evergreen "Mata Au Hi Made".
Just for comparison, here is the original "Ultraman" theme.
Yup....the record...41 years old this summer.
Not too worse for wear.
