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.
Showing posts with label Toshihiko Tahara. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Toshihiko Tahara. Show all posts
It's been a rather sad week for music fans overall. Last week, I posted a ZZ Top song for Reminiscings of Youth due to the passing of band drummer Frank Beard. And now in the last 48 hours, we've lost superstar Dolly Parton and the great Tim Curry, both at the age of 80. I'll be posting about both people today for a special double ROY.
I have mentioned this in past KKP articles but our family used to watch a fair bit of country music television decades ago including "Hee Haw" in America and "The Tommy Hunter Show" up here in Canada. And a number of times, we got to see the force of nature that was Dolly Parton in the 1970s. Yes, she jumped out on the stage like a particularly buxom Annie Oakley with the big hair and long nails, and even more than her music, she was able to win people over with that friendly charm that practically invited everyone over to her place for dinner and dancing.
And then at the turn of the decade, the 1980 movie "9 to 5" was released which starred Parton, Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda as three harassed employees of a scummy boss played by Dabney Coleman. Sadly, I don't remember much from the film aside from Coleman getting his comeuppance and Tomlin's dream sequence which featured her as Snow White. However, what has remained with me up to now is the upbeat and surprisingly short theme song by Parton herself. "9 to 5" hit the record store shelves in November 1980 and I remember it for the singer's happy-go-lucky vocals, the intrepid pounding piano and Parton's nails clacking away like a typewriter.
"9 to 5" hit the top of the charts in both Canada and the United States. It was nominated for Best Original Song at the Oscars and three other awards at the Grammys. I also saw that even Buckingham Palace paid tribute to Parton with the King's Guard providing their own version of the song. I offer my condolences to Parton's family, friends and fans.
The song was released on November 3rd 1980 so what was hitting the top of the Oricon chart on that day?
Geez...looking at the Toshihiko Tahara（田原俊彦）file, the lad's been showing up on a lot of ROY articles over the past year or so but his last bona fide article was back in February 2025 for his "Shower na Kibun"（シャワーな気分）.
Well, Toshi-chan's back on board today. Here he is with his January 1982 8th single "Kimi ni Barabara...to Iu Kanji" which is another one of those punny titles which can mean "It's Like...a Ton of Roses for You" or "I'm Falling to Pieces Over You". Yep, it's pretty far-reaching.
As soon as I heard this one, I felt like this was kinda special in the arrangement, and sure enough, it was arranged by Motoki Funayama（船山基紀）with Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）responsible for the original melody. In fact, this was Tsutsumi's first Toshi-chan assignment, and the master composer came up with this strut-worthy and snazzy tune for walking on the concrete as Toshi thinks about what to do with this girl he's gone gaga over. "Kimi ni Barabara...to Iu Kanji" reached No. 3 on Oricon and finished the year as the 27th-ranked single. Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）was the lyricist here.
It's hard to believe that it's been ten years since music icon David Bowie left this mortal coil. Perhaps it's a mere guess from me, but I think fans and people who are just discovering Bowie are probably going through his discography and perhaps even his filmography right now to view his creations.
As I mentioned in my first ROY article on Bowie, "Ashes to Ashes" was the first time I'd seen him in a music video, following my first ever sighting and listening to him on the Martin Sheen-hosted "Saturday Night Live" episode. Bowie Boy, did he make an impression! Music videos were just at the beginning of their lifetime as a pop culture force and this one for "Ashes to Ashes" was kinda like one of my dreams if I had a little too much spicy food the night before.
I will leave the interpretation of the song to better people at Genius and Wikipedia, but suffice it to say, it was something that left me somewhat shaken considering that I'd seen it on some video show late at night and it was something that I'd never seen before with all of those special effects and Bowie taking on multiple characters. I also read that "Ashes to Ashes" has been lauded for its distinct structure and I could attest to that with the melodic shifts in direction knocking me around for an absolute loop. Art pop and art rock were the right labels for this one, along with New Wave. At the time, I was ready to use avant-garde.
"Ashes to Ashes" was released on August 1st 1980. It did OK in Canada by scoring a No. 35 ranking on RPM and in the United States, it actually hit No. 21 on the Billboard Disco chart, but it reached No. 1 in the UK and France. Let's see what was up at the top of the Oricon charts a few days later on August 4th.
I just wanted to leave things off with Jason Shulman's wonderful paean through his video for Bowie's 1972"Starman". The song wouldn't fit for ROY because I frankly didn't hear it for the first time until much later into my adulthood but this video probably has had fans weeping for joy.
Welcome to another regularly scheduled Reminiscings of Youth outing for this Thursday and today we are more than happy to bring Melissa Manchester. I used to know her primarily for her ballad "Don't Cry Out Loud" from 1978 but then in the early 1980s, she started making waves for this upbeat synthpop song that I used to hear not only on the radio but also on those K-Tel LP compilations on the ol' telly.
From what I've read about "You Should Hear How She Talks About You" from May 1982, she was very reluctant about the song before and after recording. However, she was still professional about it through her performances on stage and it looks like in the years and decades afterwards, she's gotten to like her hit which reached No. 5 in Canada and No. 5 in the United States as well, becoming her most successful song on the charts. I wasn't quite too sure about it initially also when I heard the chorus briefly on the commercials but hearing the whole thing on radio changed my mind in a good way. Love that 80s pop!
May 1982 is about as specific as Wikipedia has gotten about the release date so why don't we go with May 17th 1982 for what was up on the Oricon charts in Japan? I have No. 1, 2 and 8.
Welcome to another Reminiscings of Youth where I go for some of the songs from my adolescence. The Go-Gos were just one of the many acts that awakened my interest in pop music. As I mentioned in the ROY for their "Vacation", I was awfully tempted to get their 1981 album "Beauty and the Beat" when it was playing over the speakers at the record corner of the local Hudson's Bay department store back in my high school days. Strangely enough, I was passing by the now-closed down Bay store earlier today as it was being prepared as a liquidation base for another store. I could see the old LP corner off in the back.
Along with "Our Lips Are Sealed", "We Got the Beat" was another Go-Gos hit that hit hard with Gina Schock's drumming rolling in like a Mac truck at full speed. Until Belinda Carlisle and company suddenly showed up on television screens everywhere, I hadn't known any girl bands before armed with full instruments, so listening to these two songs were a revelation as they rocked it out. And apparently, they partied as hard as they worked. I saw one YouTube comment stating that even Ozzy Osbourne had dropped his jaw at how the Go-Gos went medieval on his tour bus (not sure how they would have met, but the band was punk back in those days).
Speaking of punk, I didn't know until yesterday that there had been an original version of "We Got the Beat" that came out as a single in May 1980. From the few times I've listened to this one, the rock and punk roots show more prominently here. The 1982 single version hit No. 2 on US Billboard for three weeks while in Canada, it peaked at No. 3.
Well, for some reason, I ended up putting up the Top 10 Oricon singles chart for September 8th 1980 instead of the one for May 9th and I've already gone to the trouble of getting the relevant Top 3 postings for the comparative Japanese singles. Ah, heck...too tired to change back.
Welcome again to the regular weekly Reminiscings of Youth episode. The last time I wrote about Hall & Oates was almost a couple of years ago when I took care of their soulful ballad "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)" from 1981. A friend of mine was driving me home a couple of weeks ago and we wondered whether Daryl and John had patched things up.
Here then is another ballad from the guys, "One on One" which was released as a single in January 1983. If anything, it's even dreamier-sounding than "No Can Do" and I think it would be another welcome entry on that fantasy all-night radio show that I'd waxed about several weeks ago. As Wikipedia put it, it does occupy that space between soul and AOR, and I have to say that it's quite the laidback midnight sort of ballad considering that there are a lot of sports expressions in there including the title. I doubt that it would ever be put on the speakers during a game at an arena, though. But that's OK. It sounds perfectly appropriate for those fans to chill out to while in bed, especially when that sax solo purrs in.
"One on One" reached No. 6 on Canada's RPM and No. 7 on US Billboard. There was no exact date on the release of the single during that January, so why don't we go with which three songs were up on the Oricon chart on January 10th 1983?
Welcome to Labour Day and September 2025! Hopefully, things are swell wherever you are. Haven't really complained with the weather here in Toronto; it's been brilliantly sunny and not too warm or cool. To start off this day's round of articles on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", we have the usual holiday edition of Reminiscings of Youth.
I've read that Soft Cell's"Tainted Love" is one of the iconic songs of the 1980s. I would not disagree. That rhythm track and the sultry vocals fairly scream New Wave and synthpop extraordinaire. Used to hear this all the time on radio and occasionally I got to see one of the music videos for it including the one above. "Tainted Love" was released in July 1981 and became a huge hit all around the planet including Canada which had a No. 1 ranking for it as was also the case in Australia, South Africa and Soft Cell's native UK. In the United States, it peaked at No. 8 on Billboard.
Reading up on the story of "Tainted Love", I found out a couple of things which surprised me. One is that this was released in July 1981 (as mentioned above); I'd assumed that this was a 1982 hit but I guess with all of the chaos surrounding my trip to Japan as a high school student in that very month, it was probably easy to suffer mental time shifts. The other thing is that once again as was the case with Kim Carnes' "Bette Davis Eyes" and Joan Jett's "I Love Rock 'n' Roll", Soft Cell's biggest hit wasn't an original by the synthpop duo but a cover version of a song done many years previously. In fact, "Tainted Love" was originally recorded by Gloria Jones in 1965 as a soul B-side for a single that didn't become particularly successful. Remakes were made between then and 1981, but it was Soft Cell's synthy version that put it over the top.
So, what songs were at the top of Oricon in July 1981?
Welcome to another Thursday edition of Reminiscings of Youth. What I remember from the music video for Blondie's October 1980 hit"The Tide is High" are two things. First, there was the close-up of Debbie Harry's pretty face singing the song in a lower register compared to the high and floaty vocals she demonstrated with the band's first big breakthrough "Heart of Glass" in 1979. Second, I recall seeing a rocket ship on the pad ready for launch. Looking over the video again for the first time in a long time, I was reminded of what I'd thought was the Dark Lord of the Sith admiring the singer through some video effects.
"The Tide is High" is quite the different animal from "Heart of Glass". Both have been categorized as New Wave but with the former, there are a few more genres that have been thrown at it: reggae, calypso, rocksteady and pop. And as for me, contrasting with those reggae and calypso labels, I couldn't help getting some of those mariachi vibes from Mexico because of the horns and strings.
"I'm going to be your No. 1"? Wow, no better prediction could have been made. Blondie's take on "The Tide is High" actually got to be No. 1 in Canada, America, New Zealand and the UK. The song is also available on the band's 2nd album from November 1980, "Autoamerican".
As with many 1980s hits, "The Tide is High" by Blondie is actually a cover of the original 1967 song by the Jamaican group The Paragons and is known as a rocksteady song. According to the Wikipedia article regarding the genre, rocksteady seems to have been a transitional type of music between its precursor ska and then its successor reggae.
So what also got to be our No. 1...No. 2 and No. 3 on Oricon just a few days before Blondie's "The Tide is High" was released on Halloween 1980? Let's take a look.
Considering its release date of September 1981, Tom Tom Club's"Genius of Love" came to my attention at about the same time that I had really gotten into music in general. Its New Wave nature with some slow funk and those hushed vocals have left an impression that has stayed with me all these decades, as well as its music video that will remain one of the trippiest that I've ever seen, especially with that hyper pup. If I'm not mistaken, I first caught it on an episode of CITY-TV's "The New Music", the local music show that often presented some of the more cutting-edge videos of the day.
I would later find out that Tom Tom Club was a side project of Talking Heads with guitarist and singer Tina Weymouth and her husband, fellow Talking Head Chris Frantz, at the front. "Genius of Love" was the second single from their debut album"Tom Tom Club". Although I did catch some of the names dropped in the song such as James Brown, I also later realized that the song was a love letter of sorts to other Black artists including Smokey Robinson and Hamilton Bohannon. I don't think I ever heard "Genius of Love" on the radio but much later on, part of the song was used for Mariah Carey's hit "Fantasy". On US Billboard's Top 100, the original single peaked at No. 31.
What was being released in Japan in September 1981?
Toshi-chan! You rascal, you! Gotta be more demure about affairs of the heart.
Mind you, by the time Toshihiko Tahara's（田原俊彦）14th single was released in May 1983, he was in his early 20s (although still an aidoru), so if he wanted to get all hot and bothered in the recording room, that's his business. I am talking about his "Shower na Kibun" (Feel Like a Shower) in which the fellow doesn't hesitate to express the fact that he has fallen in lust for a young lady...right up to the point where he's more than ready to invite her to take a shower with him. Perhaps I could have posted this one up yesterday on Valentine's Day but maybe it was simply too lusty for a special time when a lighter form of romanticism was de rigueur.
Written by Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）, composed by Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）and arranged by Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）, there was also a battery of other fine professionals backing Toshi-chan up. Masaki Matsubara（松原正樹）was on electric guitar, YMO member Hideki Matsutake（松武秀樹） was programming the synths, Shin Kazuhara（数原晋）and Jake H. Concepcion were on the horns and EVE was the backing chorus. It hit No. 1 on Oricon and ended up as the 43rd-ranking single for 1983.
I'm not quite sure how the audiences took to "Shower na Kibun". Maybe certain members were more than happy to oblige, especially when all the grunting arrived. Anyways, although the above footage on "Let's Go Young" has Toshi showing off his usual footwork, there had been something special planned for his "Shower na Kibun" performance on TBS'"The Best 10" where a real shower was supposed to fall upon him and his dancers, according to the J-Wiki article on the song. The rehearsals beforehand hadn't been going well but Toshi-chan, being the master of showmanship felt that the show had to go on, and went through with the gimmick, making that spin, throwing off his soaked jacket, and then grabbing that microphone that he'd tossed into the air, all in one move. It became watercooler talk the day after!
Marie-Sophie Mejan via Wikimedia Commons Harajuku in the old days
Late last night, I received an email from my friend of some 30 years' standing that he and his wife were able to make it to Japan for their vacation. Having to go through an elongated immigration process at Haneda due to some malfunctioning fingerprint scanners wasn't great but at least, they got through it and they're now enjoying themselves in Tokyo. His wife decided to torture me by sending a photo of a sumptuous tonkatsu dinner they had up in the restaurant floors of electronics emporium Yodobashi Akiba.😱
Not sure whether my friends will be visiting Harajuku during their time there. As late as my last few years living in Japan in the late 2000s, I still saw a few remnants of folks twisting the day away by Yoyogi Park. However, I think the heyday for the Takenozoku（竹の子族）dancers was back in the 1980s when they would take over the space lining the park on Sunday afternoons.
Music wasn't one to let go of any opportunities in other aspects of the pop culture zeitgeist. In fact, Toshihiko Tahara（田原俊彦）released his 9th single"Harajuku Kiss" back in May 1982 to capture the feeling of the Takenozoku back then. The melody and arrangement by Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）and Motoki Funayama（船山基紀）respectively are familiar to me since I used to hear those horns over and over on repeats of "The Best 10" and other music shows or retrospectives. Tomo Miyashita（宮下智）was responsible for the lyrics.
"Harajuku Kiss" was a huge hit for Toshi-chan as it stayed at No. 1 for three weeks straight, and it would become the 23rd-ranked single for 1982. Its first placement onto an album was later in September when it became a track on "Best of Tahara Toshihiko"（ベストオブ田原俊彦）. It was also a No. 1 hit.
Welcome to another weekly edition of Reminiscings of Youth where I show off another non-Japanese song that I remember and reminisce fondly about from my far younger years. Today, I'm writing about Olivia Newton-John's big hit "Physical" from September 1981. According to the Wikipedia article for the song, "Physical" was seen as the song that marked the new persona of OJN as a sexy beast, although personally, I think she had already gone in that direction a few years earlier with that final scene from "Grease" and then her role in "Xanadu".
I remember one of my friends coming over to my place with his copy of the album "Physical" with the title track and playing the album over and over again to annoying levels. I mean, "Physical" and the other tracks were fine but repeated listenings weren't and aren't really my thing. Having said that, I also remember the music video, probably one of the first ones in history to get heavy rotation air play, and it may have helped in starting up the whole aerobics craze of the 1980s. Getting overweight people to the gym? Not too sure about that one, though. Strangely enough as we all look at it now, the video and the song stirred up quite a bit of controversy with even the line "Let me hear your body talk" getting the latter banned from some radio stations.
"Physical" hit No. 1 in Canada and the United States and a few more countries including Australia. Billboard has even placed it at No. 6 on its All-Time 100 list.
So, what were the Top 3 hits onOricon in September 1981?
As much as I was getting dazzled by Japanese pop music since the early 1980s, I was also in thrall to the songs coming in from America, Canada and the United Kingdom, especially the UK's brand of synthpop and New Wave.
The local music TV show "The New Music" on CITY-TV was one of my wonderful guides to what was happening in the music department at the time so I was privy to the electronic wonders of Depeche Mode, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and even Canada's Spoons. Plus, there were also the incredible and daring Eurythmics with "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" and the famous video.
I have often wondered why whenever I think of Eurythmics and "Sweet Dreams", the other British band Tears for Fears and "Change"come to mind. Well, as it turned out, both songs got their single release in January 1983. And I'm finally happy to get Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith onto KKP since much of their discography also formed my love for 80s music. As it turned out, "Change" was not the first single by Tears for Fears; they'd been releasing music since 1981 and a couple of their preceding songs arguably have more of a legacy as have a lot of their singles since "Change". Let's say that the Tears for Fears file on this blog will be a fairly long one in the Reminiscings of Youth part.
Still, why not "Change"? It's the first song and video that I've experience by Tears for Fears and despite Orzabal not being all that enthused about his creation, it's still a memorable tune with that percussive synth that starts it off and Smith's high-toned vocals. As well, that music video has the guys looking like an invasive New Romantic cult...with choreography. Up to that point, I hadn't seen a Noh mask used in anything outside of Noh plays, and I very rarely saw any of those. Seeing the video again some 41 years following its release, I felt like saying to the guys in there "Ah, you got the site wrong, guys. The 'Dune' set is over there!".
In Canada, "Change" hit No. 23 on the RPM chart while in the United States, it did a more modest No. 73 on Billboard. It did hit No. 4 in the UK. Bigger and better were coming for Tears for Fears though so no tears or fears here.
Now, I was going to put up the Top 3 on Oricon for January 1983 when "Change" came out, but I realized that I already had done so for Randy Newman's "I Love L.A." (which is also why I had to pivot when I did the ROY article for "Sweet Dreams"). Therefore, I offer No. 5, 6 and 7 from that Oricon list this time.
"General Hospital" is a daytime soap opera that I've known about since I actually got out of hospital after my birth. Even as a toddler, I'd been aware of characters such as nurse Jessie Brewer, Dr. Steve Hardy and lawyer Lee Baldwin. However going into the 1980s, I and a lot of North America suddenly realized that one of television's longest-running programs spiked in popularity, intrigue and sex appeal because of the Luke & Laura story line. I didn't actually get sucked into that plot but then afterwards, I started watching in 1982 when Luke Spencer had supposedly died and then come back from the dead to get into some more mystery which involved spies like Robert Scorpio of the WSB and the enigma that was Holly Sutton.
Unfortunately, the above video has Luke and Holly meeting up but it doesn't have the scene where the latter first appeared. It was accompanied by a sultry R&B number that I would later find out was titled "Baby, Come to Me" although the Wikipedia article identified the song as a love theme for Luke. It was around the same time that a young Demi Moore would make her presence felt as crusading reporter Jackie Templeton.
At the time, I was still getting my feet wet in terms of my newfound appreciation for pop music and since "Baby, Come to Me" was something that was being played in the background while the actors were saying their lines, I didn't quite fall for it back then. However, as sung by Patti Austin and the late James Ingram who contributed mightily to Quincy Jones' "The Dude" in 1981, I've come to discover that the love ballad is one of the very best of Quiet Storm, a genre that I often associate with one Anita Baker.
"Baby, Come to Me" was released in April 1982 but it had first become known as a track on Austin's September 1981 album "Every Home Should Have One". I hadn't known that and what I also didn't know that the album version had a slightly longer intro. But once it was put out as a single in the spring of 1982, it did OK by peaking at No. 73 on Billboard but with the boost in popularity thanks to its use in "General Hospital", it was given a second release later in October and finally hit No. 1 in early 1983.
May I say that this ballad really brings back the nostalgia and the wonders of late 70s and early 80s R&B. Plus, Michael McDonald is once again providing wonderful backing chorus. Rod Temperton created the song while the aforementioned Jones produced the whole ball of wax. The recording musicians were no slouches either: David Foster, Temperton, Greg Phillinganes and Steve Lukather among others.
To specify, the album "Every Home Should Have One" was released on September 28th 1981. Well, I was able to track down the list of the top songs in Japan on that very day. The top three are as follows:
It says something about how iconic MTV was when Pat Benatar's"You Better Run" has been noted on Wikipedia as the second video ever presented on the channel (above at 5:40) right after The Buggles'"Video Killed The Radio Star".
Here's a slightly sharper form of the music video for "You Better Run" which came out as a single in July 1980 and was my introduction to the snarly and sexy Benatar, although I've enjoyed "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" even more. As such, it was the first Benatar song to be placed as a ROY article on KKP. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see it on that legendary first broadcast of MTV since we couldn't get it on our cable. Actually, I saw it on some local late-night music video show probably while my parents were out socializing one Saturday night. Listening to "You Better Run" and watching the singer strut around, I could imagine myself fleeing from the lady whenever she yelled out the title. Not someone to cross. Although "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" was a Top 10 single, "You Better Run" did more modestly by ranking in at No. 42 on America's Billboard.
I keep getting educated as I do these ROY articles about how many of these 80s classics are actually covers of earlier originals. As has been the case with "Bette Davis Eyes" and "They Don't Know", I've found out that "You Better Run" was originally recorded by the rock band The (Young) Rascals back in 1966, as something that may have preceded the whole punk craze a decade later. The original rose to No. 20 on Billboard.
One thing about veteran entertainer and former Tanokin Trio member Toshihiko Tahara（田原俊彦）is that he really likes to hoof it up on the floor, even at the age of 62 but then so do Hiromi Go（郷ひろみ） and Toshi-chan's other Tanokin brother, Masahiko Kondo（近藤真彦）. I have to admit though that I've never really gotten into the lad's voice; it's been kinda take-it-or-leave-it depending on the song...it's always retained that hiccupy breathlessness.
However, I am glad that his latest 74th single from May 2023, "Dandylion" (and yep, that's the way it's spelled on Tahara's YouTube channel and the shortened music video below) has got the type of arrangement that I've enjoyed in a song. KTR's melody has got some swing and soul and maybe even a bit of 60s snazziness, the type of music that has had me swooning over the caviar-and-champagne sophisticated pop section of City Pop in the late 1980s, although I can't really say that "Dandylion" is a Neo-City Pop tune. Toshi-chan seems to be continuing the song stylings that I witnessed last year with his single "Romanticist de Ii janai"（ロマンティストでいいじゃない）.
Ryo Mama（真間稜）is the lyricist behind Toshi-chan's telling of the story of two hot-to-trot and dressed-to-the-nines beautiful people potentially causing their own form of nuclear fusion in Roppongi or Akasaka (if in Tokyo). They are dandies and they are lion and lioness who can most likely clear the dance floor when they step onto it. "Dandylion" reached No. 13 on Oricon.
Earth Wind & Fire have had a lot of different amazing songs but for me, I will always have my triumvirate in the form of "September" (1978), "Boogie Wonderland"(1979) and "Let's Groove" (1981). In fact, I've put the three so tightly together that I am mildly surprised that "Let's Groove" came out more than two years following "Boogie Wonderland".
Coming out in September 1981, apparently it was quite a brave move for EW&F to release "Let's Groove" despite the fact that it was categorized as a post-disco and funk song in the "Disco Sucks" era along with the rise in New Wave. But hey, it was still EW&F! No flies on them...ever!😎
I am still shimmying and shammying in my seat, some 42 years after its release. Moreover, it's been reassuring and thrilling to see a new generation discovering and appreciating Maurice White and the gang. The reaction videos have been fun to watch such as the one by Rob Squad Reactions. All those voices and instruments coming together (including the Hey Horns)! And despite the anti-disco movement at the time, "Let's Groove" still hit No. 3 on US Billboard and No. 7 on Canada's RPM.
I think Japan also adores Earth Wind & Fire in the same way that they've embraced the Carpenters and the Beatles. In fact, there was even an anime-based parody on the song. But anyways, what else was being released in September 1981?
The above poster was something that I saw splattered all over the place in Tokyo and Osaka when I was on that graduation trip in the summer of 1981, the summer when I got into Japanese popular music in earnest. It was for the movie "Blue Jeans Memory"（ブルージンズメモリー）starring the male teen aidoru in the form of Masahiko "Matchy" Kondo（近藤真彦）, Toshihiko Tahara（田原俊彦）and Yoshio Nomura（野村義男）. At the time, it was going up against "Superman II" in the theatres, but I have a feeling that Matchy, Toshi-chan and Yotchan actually won over the Man of Steel (don't cry, Clark...I saw the movie five times!). In any case, I kinda thought those three looked a little young to be cops.
Of course, the theme song for "Blue Jeans Memory" as performed by Kondo was a huge hit and in terms of the our humble blog, it was the first song connected to the Tanokin Trio（たのきんトリオ）that I wrote about and back in March 2012, I did give a description of what was up with that group name which I'll repeat here:
This was the Tanokin Trio（たのきんトリオ）, the name being derived from the first characters of the boys' last names: Toshihiko Tahara（田原俊彦）, Yoshio Nomura（野村義男） and Masahiko Kondo（近藤雅彦）...the first character in Kondo's name can also be read as "Kin". All three of them came from the huge talent agency Johnny & Associates（ジャニーズ事務所）, who represent the current (not-so-)boy bands SMAP and Arashi. The Trio was never the official name since they didn't so much perform together musically but first appeared together in the high school drama "San-nen B-Gumi Kinpachi Sensei"(３年B組金八先生....Mr. Kinpachi of 3B）and then just stuck together in a few more projects before "Blue Jeans" came along. According to J-Wiki, the boys' image was meant to evoke memories of the previous generation of Johnny's boy idols: Hiromi Go（郷ひろみ）, Hideki Saijo（西城秀樹） and Goro Noguchi（野口五郎）who were known collectively as the Shin Gosanke (新御三家...The New Big Three).
From a September 2019 feature on the Japanese news site "News Post Seven"（NEWSポストセブン）via the J-Wiki article on the Tanokin Trio, I've also found out that it was indeed the founder of Johnny's himself, Johnny Kitagawa, who had come up with the name for the boys back in 1980 (apparently it was based on the abbreviated form of the name of the kayo group Tonosama Kings or Tonokin), although at the time, the teen girl fashion magazine, "Seventeen", noted that there already had been a fair number of nicknames for them such as Warugaki Trio（悪ガキトリオ...The Bad Boy Trio）, Shin Shin Gosanke（新々御三家...The New New Big Three） and Kinpachi Trio（金八トリオ）. Apparently, the name Tanokin Trio didn't initially go all that well with the fans since many of them called it lame, and even the reporters were exclaiming "This gotta be a joke, right? Who thought up this one?". Even the mighty Johnny wouldn't fess up as the originator by simply saying "Yeah, I wonder who came up with the name...". He probably whistled suspiciously, too.
But obviously the name eventually stuck although Matchy, Toshi-chan and Yotchan for the most part didn't perform together and had their own music careers (with Yotchan helping form up the 80s band THE GOOD-BYE and coming up with his first solo single, "TOKYO", in 1993). However, there were their roles together in the aforementioned "San-nen B-Gumi Kinpachi Sensei", and then "Blue Jeans Memory" along with at least one big concert together as you can see above. There were also a handful of songs that the three recorded together.
Instead of putting up the usual videos of the three individual efforts that I've done for the previous Gosanke representatives, I will include one of those joint efforts by the Tanokin Trio. In fact, this is supposedly their first one together in the recording booth, the B-side to Tahara's 1980 debut single"Aishuu Date"（哀愁でいと）, "Kimi ni Okuru Kotoba ~ After School"(Words I Give to You).
Written by Kazuko Kobayashi（小林和子）and composed by Tomo Miyashita（宮下智）, it's the aidoru rock n' roll that I've often associated Matchy and Toshi-chan with since their early years, and it shares space with intervals of all of the guys spouting their cool phrases to wow the girls. To be honest, listening to it now, it sounds somewhat cringeworthy and I've got a feeling that if this were to be played at an retrospective interview with the now middle-aged Trio, they may beg it to be stopped. I also think that the title itself was a riff off of Kaientai's（海援隊）"Okuru Kotoba"（贈る言葉）, the theme song for "San-nen B-Gumi Kinpachi Sensei".
Well, I guess it wasn't just Shingo Katori（香取慎吾）, formerly of SMAP, who wanted to embrace his inner jazz in 2022.
Some months ago, I saw 80s high-kicking aidoru Toshihiko Tahara（田原俊彦）put on the dapper suit and hat to do his own swing number on the NHK stage on "Uta Con"（うたコン）. This was his 73rd single"Romanticist de Ii janai" (It's OK To Be A Romantic) released in June 2022.
Y'know...it's been some decades since Toshi-chan was entertaining fans with his teenage song and dance, but the lad at 61 (62 at the end of February) can still hoof it up a notch and his vocals haven't really changed since the 1980s (I'm guessing that he's not a smoker). But it's him taking on jazz now and watching him go at it on the floor with his older visage and clothing has made me believe that he's an old kayo kyoku guy from that venerable NHK comedy-variety program "Yume de Aimashou"（夢で逢いましょう...Let's Meet in Our Dreams） somehow brought through the time stream to show how it was all done old-school.
Composed by Hiroki Aoba（青葉紘季）, who has usually provided melodies for the alphabet aidoru groups such as AKB48, and Seifuku Ohyama（大山聖福）with arrangement by Motoki Funayama（船山基紀）, the lyrics were written up by veteran Goro Matsui（松井五郎）. They read like a dandy date in a Golden Age Hollywood musical-comedy with tony Toshi tripping the light fantastic with the love of his life on a makeshift New York street. Perhaps movie studios ought to have come up with a movie to surround this song as in the old days which managed to peak at No. 20 on Oricon.
On this week's Reminiscings of Youth entry, I believe it's about time to bring in the wonderful Whitney Houston. Yup, my days at University of Toronto were filled on the radio with her music and that amazing voice of hers. I heard her first single "You Give Good Love" back in 1985, but it didn't particularly hit me all that hard.
But then a few months later, I saw the above music video for her August single "Saving All My Love for You", and I was absolutely smitten. I was surprised to find out that the Michael Masser and Gerry Goffin creation had actually been recorded by Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. for their 1978 album"Marilyn and Billy", so Houston's rendition was actually a cover but I'm pretty certain that her version is the definitive one. Although at the time, I had never heard of the genre term Quiet Storm, it has become one of my favourite genres in music and "Saving All My Love for You" is one of my favourites within this genre. Houston's voice along with all of those perfectly fit instruments made the song her first No. 1 hit. It also broke the Top 10 in Canada by landing at No. 8.
As I've mentioned many times before on the blog, it was all about the melody over the lyrics for me, so I completely missed out on the theme of adultery that was taking place in the song and in the video. It's not the happiest ending for Whitney's character in the video, but I'll always be in love with the arrangement. By the way, the above video is for the McCoo original which is also great, but as I've just intimated, I'll always prefer the Houston version. Hard to believe that it's been over a decade since we lost her.
In Japan, "Saving All My Love for You" was released under the title "Subete wo Anata ni"（すべてをあなたに...All for You）. In a way, the ballad was perfect for Japanese ears since adultery and affairs had been part and parcel of lyrical themes in kayo kyoku for years.
So, what was in the Top 10 on Oricon in August 1985? Today I'll go with Nos. 6, 7 and 8.
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