Akiko Nakamura -- Niji Iro no Mizuumi（虹色の湖）

 

The last time that I wrote about singer Akiko Nakamura（中村晃子）, it was for her 6th single "Taiyo ni Koi wo Shite"（太陽に恋をして）from May 1967, so this time, I'd like to introduce her 7th 45" release which came out later in October that year, "Niji Iro no Mizuumi" (Rainbow Lake).

With a cool intro consisting of snappy percussion and a bass, Nakamura sings about neglecting someone dear in her old hometown when she flew off to the big city, only to find out that he himself has gone elsewhere much to her eternal sadness. Created by the same tandem behind "Taiyo ni Koi wo Shite", lyricist Hiroshi Yokoi（横井弘）and composer Hirooki Ogawa（小川寛興）, the setting of the romantic hard lesson learned may have been out in the regional areas, but the sound feels very urban. In fact, "Niji Iro no Mizuumi" has been considered to be a solo Group Sounds effort.

Reaching No. 3 on the very young Oricon charts, the single would eventually become the 23rd-ranked single for 1968, selling around 800,000 records. Nakamura not only got invited to perform on NHK's annual New Year's Eve special Kohaku Utagassen for 1968 but she was also able to sing it in a movie that was released earlier in March of that year titled "Susume! Jaguars Kizen Jouriku"（進め!ジャガーズ 敵前上陸...Go Jaguars! Landing in the Face of the Enemy）. The flick actually starred Group Sounds band The Jaguars（ザ・ジャガーズ）but I gather that the producers wanted to kill two birds with one stone so they also put Nakamura in a major role, being able to put some more exposure on what was her first big hit in music with backup by the GS band themselves. The arrangement is indeed a bit more Watusi-able.

The Jaguars -- Kimi ni Aitai（君に会いたい）

Well, in the Group Sounds age, we've had The Spiders, The Tigers and even a band called Ox, so why not a GS sextet called The Jaguars（ザ・ジャガーズ）?

The Jaguars had their genesis from a proto-band created within a teenager entertainment collective called the Roppongi Yajuu Kai（六本木野獣会...Roppongi Beast Association）in 1963, known as the Yajuu Kai All-Stars. Then, the following year, the band became Yukio Miya and The Play Five（宮ユキオとザ・プレイ・ファイブ）with Miya as the drummer and leader. But with their debut at Philips Records in 1967, the group was finally established as The Jaguars with Miya, lead vocalist Shin Okamoto（岡本信）, bassist Mikio Morita（森田巳木夫）, guitarists Koichi Miyazaki（宮崎こういち）& Hisayuki Okitsu（沖津ひさゆき）, and organist Yasuharu Sato（佐藤安治）. The lineup would change a few times over the next few years.

Their debut single was "Kimi ni Aitai" from June 1967. Although I can translate that as "I Want To See You", the official English-language title was apparently "Want You See Again" after the one main line in the lyrics by Masakazu/Shoichi Kiyokawa（清川正一）, who was also responsible for the music.

The subtitles for this later performance of "Kimi ni Aitai" has that main line being transcribed as "Won't You See Again", but I guess I'll stick with the original although seeing that somewhat mangled English title gives me a bit of the crawlies. No problems with the music, though. Although I was not out of diapers at the time of the song, there is still plenty of nostalgic goodness to be had here.

During the original Group Sounds era up to 1971, The Jaguars put out 8 singles and 3 albums with their reign officially from 1964 to 1971. Another single came out in 1982 when the group decided to get back together, and then this period lasted all the way to 2009 when unfortunately vocalist Okamoto passed away that year at the age of 59 on the eve of his birthday.