The Golden Cups -- I'm So Glad

 

I'm not sure whether this gimmick would raise the ratings for the annual Kohaku Utagassen (Edition No. 75 is due in a couple of weeks) any, but I've only just noticed that one genre that hasn't really been represented in the New Year's Eve special on NHK has been Group Sounds. Yes, perhaps the original fans for bands such as Ox and The Tigers are septuagenarians now but I know that surviving members of those groups have periodically shown up on music programs to perform their hits to good applause. Anyways, that's enough from me.

Something else that I don't see a whole lot of regarding Group Sounds is vintage footage of those bands back when they were young and long-haired. However, I did luck out with The Golden Cups（ザ・ゴールデン・カップス）, which I haven't written about in quite a while...at least not since 2016 when I posted an article about their June 1967 debut single "Itoshi no Jezebel" (いとしのジザベル).

I came across the above video for one of their cover songs, the fairly bristling "I'm So Glad". Apparently, according to one commenter for the video, the footage comes from the band documentary movie "The Golden Cups ~ One More Time"...complete with go-go dancers and in-and-out camera bobbing. The video is also cited as being from 1968 although the band website has listed a recording of "I'm So Glad" on their live album "Super Live Session" as a 1969 release. 

"I'm So Glad" was released by the British rock group Cream as a track on their September 1966 debut album "Fresh Cream". On the Wikipedia article for the song, it's been categorized as an electric blues rock tune. Meanwhile, even Cream's song is itself a cover of the original Delta blues tune by Skip James in 1931. 

Neal Hefti -- The Odd Couple

 

For this week's ROY article, we're going back into TV land once more although at first, I've got to reference a movie that was based on a Broadway play. Interestingly enough, this isn't the first Neal Hefti creation to make it onto "Kayo Kyoku Plus" since the late trumpeter, composer and arranger was also responsible for the Batusi-happy "Batman" theme for television back in 1966.

The May 1968 movie is actually "The Odd Couple" based on Neil Simon's play of the same name, and it starred Jack Lemmon as the frustratingly neurotic neat freak Felix Unger and Walter Matthau as crumply slob Oscar Madison, two gents who have to share an 8-room apartment in New York (8 rooms?!) without killing each other. I haven't seen the film in its entirety but I do remember the famous jazzy theme song created by Hefti which has more of that 60s rom-com sheen when compared to the version played for the television series beginning in 1970.

Yup, it was the ABC TV series that I first got to know as a kid with Tony Randall as Felix and Jack Klugman as Oscar. I always thought that Randall outdid even Lemmon with the hilarious neuroses that billowed out of the character and then Klugman could get even more enraged (humourously so) than the sullen Matthau.

The Hefti theme here had a slightly quicker tempo (only 30 minutes with commercials, y'know) and the percussion was more pronounced. But whichever version came out, I always treated it as the comical and slightly sad-sack but catchy theme song that is still well-remembered among the older generations.

There were different openings for the series during its 5-year run but for me, it was always the first season opening credits that were my favourite with Randall and Klugman in oddball circumstances against some glorious shots of The Big Apple. It would still be 23 years before I finally made it out to New York City, though.

One of the highlight scenes from the series was the one where Felix somehow became the lawyer in a court case. The joke has probably aged into a creaky rocking chair but it's the one where he explains about why people should never assume. Yet, I remember seeing the episode in its first run as a boy and the laughter that came out of the studio audience that night.

Since the play, the film and the TV series, there have been remakes of "The Odd Couple" through film sequels, other TV series and even one cartoon featuring a fastidious cat and a slovenly dog on Saturday mornings, but I don't think any of them really passed muster. It just goes to show how much chemistry was involved between the tandems of Lemmon/Matthau and Randall/Klugman. Still, I think that as long as film and television and stage remain, there will probably be another attempt to capture the glory of "The Odd Couple" and of course, the theme has to be kept as part of the package.

After writing my last paragraph, I went out to watch a couple of hours of variety television on TV Japan, and unconsciously hummed the theme song. In any case, what were coming out as singles in May 1968 in Japan (and by the way, "The Odd Couple" did show up on cable over there much to my surprise and delight)?

The Golden Cups -- Nagai Kami no Shojo （長い髪の少女）

Purple Shadows -- Chiisana Sunakku（小さなスナック）

Kyu Sakamoto -- Ue wo Muite Arukou (上を向いて歩こう) as a re-release

P.S. on Tokyo House Party: Group Sounds

 

I almost forgot that I had another topic within the "P.S. on Tokyo House Party" series that I had to get off my chest. A week ago, I did the rather shibui tribute to Mood Kayo which had its huge heyday in the 1950s and 1960s although the genre would continue forward well into the 1980s at least. 

Well, another genre that actually had a much shorter life span consisting of the latter half of the 1960s, but still left quite an impression is Group Sounds, so dubbed since the bands that resided within this type of music emulated some of the rock n' roll groups in the West such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Beau Brummels and Herman's Hermits. So we had a fair share of Japanese rock n' roll bands which likened themselves to members of the animal kingdom including The Tigers, The Spiders and Ox, although there were other bands with names such as The Blue Comets and The Golden Cups.

The GS bands also left a number of songs that still have nostalgic appeal today, and some of the members also found success years later after the boom died out in the early 1970s. Those would include singers such as Kenji Sawada（沢田研二）, Akira Terao（寺尾聰）and Hiroshi Kamayatsu（かまやつひろし）. So without further ado, here are just a few of those bands.

The Spiders（ザ・スパイダース） -- Yuuhi ga Naiteiru (夕陽が泣いている）and Bang Bang Bang （バン　バン　バン）

The Tigers -- Hana no Kubi Kazari (花の首飾り）and Seaside Bound （シーサイド・バウンド）

Amazon.jp

Ox -- Girl Friend（ガール・フレンド）

Amazon.jp

The Golden Cups -- Nagai Kami no Shojo （長い髪の少女）

The Golden Cups -- Itoshi no Jezebel (いとしのジザベル)

"Itoshi no Jezebel" (Jezebel, My Love) was The Golden Cups' (ザ・ゴールデン・カップス) debut single from June 1967. Starting slowly as if it were another Group Sounds ballad, the song actually picks up speed via a manic drum roll by Manu although the lyrics by Rei Nakanishi（なかにし礼）talk about beloved Jezebel who used to be a lover but has now disappeared into the wind.

Kunihiko Suzuki（鈴木邦彦）was responsible for the alternately languid and frenetic first release by The Golden Cups, a GS band that had some good English vocal backup via guitarist Kenneth Ito（ケネス伊東）who originally hailed from Hawaii. A strange observation by me, though. The way "Itoshi no Jezebel" sounds, there are parts which could actually be slightly arranged to come off as traditional nightclub-friendly Mood Kayo.

The Golden Cups -- Nagai Kami no Shojo （長い髪の少女）

It was a pretty darn good lineup on tonight's "Kayo Concert" on NHK. The theme was once again duets but this time, the producers decided to split up the lyrics for non-duet kayo and give them to the pairs. It worked the majority of the time although I wasn't quite sold on Rimi Natsukawa and Hiromi Go on that old Momoe Yamaguchi tune. Anyways, I have a feeling that for the remainder of this week, I'll be putting up a number of the songs that I heard for the first time from that episode including a couple of 2015 songs. This one, though, is definitely in the yesteryear column.

It's been a while since I put up a Group Sounds song but I heard this one on "Kayo Concert" by The Golden Cups, a band whose name I've heard over the years alongside other similar bands such as The Tigers and The Spiders but didn't know their discography. "Nagai Kami no Shojo" (The Long-Haired Girl) was the band's 3rd single from April 1968 and was created by Jun Hashimoto and Kunihiko Suzuki（橋本淳・鈴木邦彦）. Just hearing the original version right now, it's got that familiar twangy guitar sound and lead vocal here Mamoru Manu（マモル・マヌー）plaintively calls out to that supposedly lonely long-haired girl and offer solace after a breakup. It rose as high as No. 14 on Oricon.

The Golden Cups were formed in 1966 in Yokohama with the band forming around lead vocalist Dave Hirao（デイヴ平尾）. The rest of the band consisted of drummer Manu, guitarist Eddie Ban（エディ藩）, bassist Louise-Louis Kabe（ルイズルイス加部）, and guitarist Kenneth Ito（ケネス伊東）. There were also later members who have gone on to further success such as Mickey Yoshino（ミッキー吉野）of Godiego, Ai Takano（アイ高野）from fellow GS band The Carnabeats and bassist George Yanagi（柳ジョージ）.

I'd always wondered how Hirao and the guys ever came up with the name for their band. Apparently, the group was originally known as Group & I. And this is where the theory diverges. According to English Wikipedia's article on the band, the manager of the Golden Cup disco persuaded Group & I who were the house band there to change their name to The Golden Cups whereas on the J-Wiki article, the name change didn't occur until some time later when the director of a TBS music show on which the guys were appearing with their debut single, "Itoshi no Jizabel" (June 1967) did the persuading. In either case, I think it was a wise tactical maneuver.

After 10 singles and 9 albums during their original run, The Golden Cups broke up early in 1972. However, the band got together again from 2003 and have continued on, although Hirao passed away in 2008.