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 Tsugutoshi Goto. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tsugutoshi Goto. Show all posts
Apparently, there have been a few songs known as "Minna Ii Ko". One is the Japanese title for rockabilly singer Carl Perkins' "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" from 1956, and the other is the Beatles' cover of said tune.
Well, this "Minna Ii Ko" isn't that "Minna Ii Ko". For one thing, it's a perfectly homegrown song with lyricist Shigesato Itoi（糸井重里）and composer Kunihiko Kase（加瀬邦彦）having created it for Kenji Sawada's（沢田研二）14th originalalbum "BAD TUNING" released in July 1980. Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）took care of its arrangement as a somewhat New Wave piece. Not sure if the original Perkins' song title would apply for this "Minna Ii Ko". Perhaps we can go with "Everyone's A Good Girl" since although I couldn't track down any lyrics online, I get the impression that this one lass out of the usual flock that the song's protagonist runs around with is not only the one who doesn't fall for his charms, but she's the one that he's most interested in. Such is life and love. Maybe I ought to extend my translation to "Everyone's A Good Girl (Except You)".
Well, going into the first full week of February 2026, we're not that far away from the next big celebration on the calendar which is Valentine's Day at the end of next week.
It's been over three years since putting up my most recent article regarding singer and future AMAZONS member Yuko Ohtaki（大滝裕子）. In the time that I've known about this lady from Yamanashi Prefecture during her relatively brief solo career in the 1980s, she's delved into a few genres such as country and City Pop.
Ohtaki's fifth and final single to date, "Isei" (The Opposite Sex), was released in March 1981, and it's a song that heartily bounces about with a feeling similar to The Beatles' "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da", although I don't consider "Isei" a ska tune the way The Beatles' classic has been classified. Created by some big guns in the Japanese songwriting industry: lyricist Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）, composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）and arranger Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）, it's also one of those happy tunes that basically maintains a pop line although at certain points, I did wonder whether it was trying to poke a little bit into country and City Pop.
Lyrically, it deals with a teenage girl dealing with her feelings for a guy and secretly relishing the fact that one rival for his affections has lost the chase. As I said, Valentine's Day is around the corner, and the lass is on the verge of making those homemade chocolates for the fellow.
Early last month, I introduced 1980s rock-n-rollin' singer Sayaka Ito（伊藤さやか）to the blog with her "GO! GO! POP-TOWN" from 1982. Wasn't sure whether the song was just that one foray into the 1950s and 1960s that a lot of those Harajuku dancers were into at around the same time.
Well, it looks like the old-fashioned rock-n-roll music life was just the thing for her. In June 1983, Ito released her 5th single, "Broken Generation", and this time, compared to "GO! GO! POP-TOWN", she's eschewed the New Wave aspect and went for the basic old school. In fact, I'd say that the melody by Ginji Ito（伊藤銀次）and arrangement by Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）was more reminiscent of the stuff that Motoharu Sano（佐野元春）would make up. I get images of a 1950s motorcycle gang living the free and untamed life and roaming the byways and highways of the city and life in general. Heck, even the singer herself in the thumbnail above looks like she could have been the gang leader's girlfriend (get a load of that hair!). Hitoshi Shinohara (篠原仁志...aka Heart Box) was the lyricist here.
Back in 2022 and 2023, I wrote up a couple of articles on the singer Yuriko Ohmori's（大森有里子）1981 single"Rai Rai Mirai"（来・来・未来）along with its B-side "Fuyu no Hito"（冬の人）. I could quickly realize that Ohmori was trying for something different with her two songs that skirted with Fashion Music and exotic kayo territory.
Well, the former NHK announcer only released two singles with the second and final one being "Mahou" (Magic) in 1982. For it and its B-side "Night Train", Ohmori was responsible for composition, while Masako Arikawa（有川正沙子）took care of the lyrics and Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）arranged everything. By the way, just from what I've heard in the lyrics, it sounds like "Night Train" starts off the YouTube video with "Mahou" starting up at 3:18.
"Night Train" is a bit of old-fashioned sophisticated Latin-tinged pop mixing in some New Wave. Think of a tropical nightclub on an island that was partially designed by Syd Mead...anyways, that's what I envisage here. As for "Mahou", there is some tango in the urgent arrangement with some of those sound effects thrown in.
One more PS...I mentioned about the website idol.ne.jp in the article for "Fuyu no Hito". I'd been using that as a reference for some of the more obscure aidoru and other female singers over the years. However, it seems as if it's been taken down for some reason.
The phrase "Think Pink!" may have popped up in some advertising campaign in America somewhere sometime but the only thing I remember is that it was used as the title for another "Pink Panther" animated series back in the 1970s. At the time, I had only known the Pink Panther as the suave and bumbling cartoon feline on Saturday mornings and weekday afternoons with the cool jazz theme before discovering the original Blake Edwards movie in the 1960s.
Well, at around the same time of that particular cartoon series in the United States, singer Ann Lewis（アン・ルイス） released her 5th studio album with the same title, "Think! Pink!", in September 1978 with that extra exclamation mark attached. Now, before I go any further, I've always believed that Ms. Lewis has been a vivacious and pretty woman, but seeing that cover of her in very glamourous garb with that heavily made-up face made me think that she was trying to become a Monty Python cartoon by Terry Gilliam. I was half-expecting to see her eyes shift from side to side and her mouth clack away in a deranged British accent.
Anyways, allow me to lead you to one of the tracks on "Think! Pink!", "Please Tell Me" which was written and composed by Tommy Snyder who was the drummer for the band Godiego（ゴダイゴ）at the time. Bassist Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）arranged "Please Tell Me" into a pretty groovy West Coast AOR tune with Lewis in character as that mink-wearing glamour queen delivering those sultry English lyrics. Once again, gotta love the sax! Jake H. Concepcion?
Yup, my friend and I got to watch "Fantastic Four: First Steps" after our tonkatsu lunch. Having a tonkatsu lunch with all that protein and carb (rice) can get a guy at my age pretty sleepy within an hour so it was saying something that my eyes were absolutely glued to the screen as Reed, Sue, Johnny, Ben, Herbie and Franklin were saving the day out there. No rapid metabolization of all that food at all which means that I did enjoy the movie and strangely enough, it's the first MCEU movie since "Avengers: Endgame" in 2019 that I would be willing to see again.
So I thought perhaps an aidoru song titled "Makenaide, Yuuki" (Don't Give Up, Courage) would be an ideal one to talk about after catching the FF on screen. And that song belongs to Shinobu Nakayama（中山忍）who's coming onto KKP for the very first time. She is the younger sister to the late Miho Nakayama（中山美穂）so we've got another sister tandem next to the Iwasakis, Hiromi（岩崎宏美）and Yoshimi（岩崎良美）.
I knew about Shinobu for quite a while after Miporin's hits had been hitting the airwaves so I was surprised to find out that the former had only released eight singles and three albums as an aidoru between 1988 and 1990, although she would eventually lead a very long life in the acting industry thereafter. Her third single was indeed the aforementioned "Makenaide, Yuuki" which was released in May 1989.
Miporin may have gotten the royal jelly treatment from producers such as Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）to come up with some of those dance-friendly hits, but Shinobu, at least from what I can hear from "Makenaide, Yuuki", was pretty much kept to the conventional aidoru track. However, the song doesn't sound too bad here from Ryo Yonemitsu's（米光亮）arrangement of Tsugutoshi Goto's（後藤次利）melody especially with those swift violins in there. Yukinojo Mori（森雪之丞）was the lyricist for this one which peaked at No. 18.
Yes, it is indeed a bit unusual for me to put up a Christmas song only a few days into June but I've been known to leave a J-Xmas tune during the summer months before so that we can be reminded that the Yuletide is only half a year away.
Anyways, this year's candidate for the Christmas song in June/July is Riho Makise's（牧瀬里穂）"Osoi Santa Claus"(Late Santa Claus). Her penultimate single from November 1993, it's a kid-friendly number due to that children's group helping her out, the adorable synths and the cute bouncy chorus; it was written by Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）with the melody and arrangement provided by Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）. In it, Makise sings about some kid getting rather impatient for Kris Kringle to arrive because he wants his presents yesterday. Apparently, "Osoi Santa Claus" was used as a commercial jingle for Japan Postal Savings.
At this writing, I think there are only two or so of these YouTube videos showing "OIOI TOKYO TASTE ROOMS", so they are quite precious. Now, I've mentioned this show a couple of times in the past, going all the way back to 2013, and I have to make some clarifications here since I was rather loose with my details. For one thing, I referred to the show as just "Rooms"; well, the full name is now above us. For the second thing, I'd assumed that the show ran on for a few years when in fact, it was just for a year on late-night Fuji-TV between 1994 and 1995.
But I guess such was the impressive style and panache that the producers behind "OIOI TOKYO TASTE ROOMS" placed onto this mere 10-minute vignette that it was like getting that video version of a great midnight snack. And indeed, the program ran at around the 12:30 am time period as it focused on the more interesting apartment layouts of urbanites ranging from their late teens to thirties. Having a passing interest in architecture and interior décor, I have to admit that it was some late-night catnip to me as I watched from the comfort of my futon.
Of course, being sponsored by the department store Marui, having the show get into viewers' eyes and minds probably had them snoozing and perhaps dreaming of furniture and other interior goods that they could get from stylish Marui itself. If I'm not mistaken, there was also a rather bizarre segment of about a minute in length in which a famous actress or female Fuji-TV announcer in character or even a viewer would leave a phone message on some existential matter.
However, it was the ending theme that did catch my ear, and in the past, I have posted about a couple of those themes: Kenjiro Sakiya's（崎谷健次郎）"ROOMS" and Kaya Saeki's（佐伯伽耶）"Perfume wo Nokosenai" （パフュームを残せない）. Today's theme is "Dry Flower" which was singer/actress Miwako Fujitani's（藤谷美和子）July 1994 2nd single following her hit duet with the late Yoshiaki Ohuchi（大内義昭）, "Ai ga Umareta Hi"（愛が生まれた日）which had been released earlier in February. Written by Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）and composed by Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）, although I have put on the City Pop label for it because of its overall urbaneness, it doesn't have that usual groove but it does have some of that sophisticated pop and dramatic balladry. I'd say that it fit the "OIOI ROOMS" ethos quite well with the resident of that refined apartment or condo sighing about love and all that jazz. Still, after waking up the following morning, I didn't get that urge to buy a tapestry or a OIOI bookshelf.
I hadn't been aware that an angel required a bodyguard. From what I've been hearing of angels recently, it's more that we mortals need bodyguards against angels. But perhaps things were very different in the late 1980s.
Anyways, here is this single by Yuyu（ゆうゆ）with Onyanko Club（おニャン子クラブ）...Yuyu being aidoru Yukiko Iwai（岩井由紀子）as a member of that super-huge aidoru group..."Tenshi no Bodyguard"(Angel's Bodyguard) from March 1987. This twinkly and oh-so-sweet teenybopper tune with a hint of 1950s girl pop was written by Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）with melody by bassist Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）and arrangement by Jun Sato（佐藤準）, and though I couldn't find the lyrics, I can imagine that some young high school girl is being gallantly protected by her good buddy and potential beau against all suitors. It all reminds me of some of the stuff that I witnessed in elementary and junior high school. Wasn't quite as sweet. Regardless, it scored a No. 2 ranking on Oricon. Also for your information, the Onyanko Club girls backing Yuyu up are Ruriko Nagata（永田ルリ子）, Mutsumi Yokota（横田睦美）and Tomoko Fukawa（布川智子）.
Welcome to the final week of November 2024. Hope you are doing well wherever you are. It's cool and cloudy out there and it looks like we may be getting the first signs of flurries for this season, as terrifying as that may sound to a lot of my fellow Torontonians. Anyways, as a minor-key segue to this first song of this business week on KKP, I do have to say that writer and director J. J. Abrams really had a fetish for his lens flares and one of the more egregious examples was with his take on "Star Trek" in 2009. I got the feeling that the special effects budget was higher than it should have been because of them.
Now, with "Sayonara Mr. J. J.", which is a track on Yumi Takigawa's（多岐川裕美）"Sayo"（小夜） from 1979, this obviously has nothing to do with the lens flare-happy Abrams who was all of thirteen probably when the album was released. Nope, this Mr. J.J. is merely a love 'em-and-leave 'em cad whose latest victim and lover has quietly, firmly and even playfully shut the door on any more shenanigans with the guy.
Written by Machiko Ryu（竜真知子）and composed by bassist Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）, "Sayonara Mr. J.J." is more into the straight pop rather than the City Pop of "Gozen Rei-ji no Koibito"（午前０時の恋人） which was not only the last Takigawa song that I posted but the track mate for "Sayonara Mr. J.J.". Still, the arrangement is pretty refined although I think the beat is a little too fast for it to be considered Fashion Music and the overall upbeat feeling is that the lady involved is more in "no harm, no foul" mode rather than being crushed and heartbroken.
I gather that along with the airport, the restaurant or café has been another setting for a kayo kyoku's romantic drama or aftermath. Well, when I mean aftermath, it usually involves a now-partnerless individual sitting at a table where there was once a happy couple.
That is the melancholy situation with "Sorezore no Table"(Separate Tables), the title track from Naomi Chiaki's（ちあきなおみ）October 1981 album. Written by Jean Claude Jouhaud and Arlette Tabart and composed by Alice Donadel, I couldn't help but place this in the Fashion Music genre (along with pop) because of the absolute elegance of that piano and Chiaki's smoky vocals. The Japanese lyrics were provided by Miki Masaki（真咲美岐）with arrangement by Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）, which is a surprise since I've been accustomed to the bassist's funky City Pop approaches. But "Sorezore no Table", a ballad of remembrance as a woman sees her old flame with a young new lady in his life come into their old place and presumably sit at a distant table, is about as far away from an urban contemporary romp as one can get.
"Sorezore no Table" is a cover of the original 1977 song "Tables séparées" by French singer and actress Dalida from her album "Femme est la nuit". For both versions, I can hear a bit of that "My Way" in there.
One of the people I follow on Twitter put this 1986 song up a few weeks ago and wondered why it didn't get much more in the way of respect or rankings. To be honest, after listening to it myself, I'm also left in askance. Unfortunately, I've forgotten which person it was who made the initial call so let me know so I can give credit where credit is due.
I am talking about actress Miki Yamazaki's（山崎美貴）"Namida no Ato ni Kuchizuke wo" (Kiss After the Tears), and I note that the above profession is the only one listed for Yamazaki right off the bat and that her career origin year has been put down as 1988. However, looking further into J-Wiki, I found out that the Yokohama native who had won the White Cinderella contest while in high school in the early 1980s and then scouted in Harajuku got into show business as a magazine model. Then, she joined the late-night TV show "All-Night Fuji"（オールナイトフジ）and ended up joining two other girls to form the short-lived aidoru trio Okawari Sisters（おかわりシスターズ）in 1984 with four singles and one studio album going up to early 1985.
Yamazaki had an even shorter career as a solo singer with two singles and one album under her belt beginning in 1985. Her second single was the aforementioned "Namida no Ato ni Kuchizuke wo" which was released in March 1986. To me, it's the quintessential aidoru tune of the latter half of the 1980s with the singer surrounded by a creamy yet bopping keyboard arrangement thanks to composer Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）that has always been catnip for my Japanese pop-loving ears. Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）was the lyricist, and with those two behind its creation, I can say that it was most likely put in as aidoru material.
The song did moderately OK by scoring a No. 56 ranking on Oricon and that was the end of her singing career apparently, although I think her vocals were quite pleasant and pure. But perhaps with so many aidoru songs taking on that certain arrangement, the competition was probably a little too crowded and fierce for Yamazaki the singer to make much headway, so into acting she went a few years later.
Arrangers: Tsugutoshi Goto, Yukihiro Takahashi and Mitsuo Hagita
From Rajie's 1977 album: "Heart to Heart"
The original version of "THE TOKYO TASTE" had been a track on Sadistics' debut album. This version was recorded only some months after, but with an emphasis on a tight groove, it has an even more pronounced City Pop flavour. In addition to the speed of its evolution, I see the passion and fullness of the Tokyo pop scene of that time. The combination of Rajie's（ラジー）translucent vocals paired with Yoshitaka Minami's（南佳孝）quirky voice indeed makes for an exquisite and feel-good experience.
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised"(2020).
I can eat them but I'm not the biggest fan of escargots. My grandmother used to make the Japanese version of them from what she caught on the Wakayama coast and simmered the shellfish in a broth of soy sauce, mirin, sugar and other ingredients. The time that I actually had the French variety was at a place called the Keg Mansion in downtown Toronto, actually not too far from where I had lived the first decade of my life. As an aside, the Keg Mansion has had a long reputation of being haunted with apparently a 19th-century maid by the name of Lillian Massey skittering in the halls...among other spooky phenomena. Anyways, before we get too distracted, the above is the recipe for Escargots in Garlic Butter as created by Stephane at the French Cooking Academy YouTube channel. I've been subscribed to him for a few years now.
Well, I posted up an article a little over a month ago regarding comedy duo Tunnels'（とんねるず）"Arashi no Macho Man"（嵐のマッチョマン）, a song that finally bubbled up in my mind after many years down deep in my memories of 80s Japanese pop culture. At about the same time, another song by the zany Takaaki Ishibashi（石橋貴明）and Noritake Kinashi（木梨憲武）popped up as well that I used to see quite a lot performed on the music ranking shows.
"Honoo no Escargots"(Escargots Flambé) has nothing to do with French cuisine, has very little to do with Mexican culture outside of the lady Senorita Escargots and the boys dressed up on the single's cover like a pair of day-glo mariachi performers, and seems to be mostly a synthpop Brazilian samba about loving the titular Escargots with Ishibashi doing his usual "sales patter". Released in February 1988 as the boys' 14th single, this was another collaboration between lyricist Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）and composer Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）just like with "Arashi no Macho Man".
For a live performance, I could only find this video up on YouTube. As fun as it is watching Tunnels dancing around at Tokyo Dome, I was hoping to find them creating their usual brand of chaos on "The Best 10" or "The Top 10". As it is, "Honoo no Escargots" hit No. 7 on Oricon. As for why I decided to translate the title into "Escargots Flambe", I wanted to be a bit cute and make it sound like a new dish instead of the more conventional "Escargots of Passion".
As a friend once said in his own amazing way: This cooks! But then again, we are talking about wunderkind aidoru-turned-chanteuse Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）. From her August 1980 album"Wish", I give you "Kiss Again", which is I guess one of her more City Pop-oriented releases, not surprising considering the times back then.
"Kiss Again" was written by Chinfa Kan（康珍化）, composed by Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）and arranged by Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）. Iwasaki really had a time in her City Pop period going from the late 1970s into the 1980s before she opted to become a dramatic balladeer for the next several years for the most part, but before I digress too far off the main road, let me say that this song is quite the hidden City Pop gem as she sings about a date that one woman insists not end. As she lightly purrs, "Kiss again, kiss again, hold me tight". I wonder what they will have for breakfast?😎
It's quite the funky piece with the romantic disco strings as Iwasaki sings some very seductive vocals. Some interesting chord changes in the underlying melody too near the end. "Kiss Again" was never a single or even a B-side...just a track on "Wish" so I probably wouldn't have ever seen it performed on one of the television music shows, but I am left wondering whether Iwasaki would have been allowed to perform something this sultry on air (I haven't come across any such footage on YouTube; maybe OK at concerts?). Yeah, I know...it's far from an X-rated song but the singer was on the borderline between teenager and adult at the time, and knowing a bit about the conservatism of prime-time TV in Japan (late-night TV was a whole different ball of wax), maybe it would have too much for a young lady to sing about dragging a guy to bed with her.
Well, a couple of days after the Kanto got dumped by several centimetres of snow including eight centimetres in Tokyo, it appears that it's all pretty disappeared in the megalopolis at least. If anything, snow in Tokyo is polite...never overstays its welcome. It doesn't linger like in Toronto where the snow gradually devolves into a black mass of something by late March.
I was watching an excerpt from "Yuyake Nyan Nyan"（夕やけニャンニャン）, the flagship show for the massive aidoru group Onyanko Club（おニャン子クラブ）in the 1980s when I caught one of the club, Minayo Watanabe（渡辺美奈代）, Member No. 29, singing her second single"Yuki no Kaerimichi"(Snowy Way Home). Watanabe's first appearance on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" was for her bubbly April 1987 4th single"PINK no CHAO" which I posted all the way back in September 2015.
Well, I figure that I was going to have to add to the Minayo file, thus comes "Yuki no Kaerimichi" which first hit the music store shelves in October 1986. The J-Wiki article on the song seemed to be a bit critical by saying something along the lines of "In stark contrast to her previous work (her first single), which had a fresh, debut-like feel to it, the second release is a melancholy minor-toned song with a shuffle beat". That might be the case but I have had no problems with "Yuki no Kaerimichi", as written by Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康） and composed by Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）, because it has that certain old jazzy feel that I've enjoyed in any kind of music, even including a clarinet solo. But I'd like to check out that first single of hers as well now. The lyrics are definitely a downer as a woman finds out abruptly that her boyfriend hasn't been faithful to her and she takes that very lonely walk home in the wintry weather.
"Yuki no Kaerimichi" hit No. 1 on the charts and it finished the year as the 70th-ranked single for 1986. The single was also included on Watanabe's debut album"Alfalfa"（アルファルファ）which was released in November of that year. The LP reached No. 2 on the album charts and ended 1987 as the 31st-ranked album.
Ah, yes. Where would Japanese television be without those agents of chaos, Takaaki Ishibashi（石橋貴明）and Noritake Kinashi（木梨憲武）, aka the comedic duo Tunnels（とんねるず）? For an industry that plans their programs down to the second and hates surprises, Taka and Nori were the enfant terrible of comedy in the 1980s with one legendary example involving an expensive television camera while they were performing their 1984 "Ikki!"（一気!）. You can read about the incident in the article for that song, but up above you can witness it with your own eyes.
Recently, there was a tweet by a friend relating a supposed incident (also mentioned in the relevant J-Wiki article) involving the Tunnels and their February 1987 10th single "Arashi no Macho Man"(Macho Men of the Storm). During recording of the song, at least one of the chorus singers tearfully threatened to leave the recording studio because she or they found what they had to sing so stupid or maybe they just got frustrated about having to do take after take of singing the lyrics which largely consisted of the titles and lyrics of famous disco tunes of the past such as Van McCoy's"The Hustle" and Dschinghis Khan's (ジンギスカン)title song. The chorus does pop up prominently throughout "Arashi no Macho Man". Frankly speaking, consternation surrounding the Tunnels especially Taka-chan doesn't surprise me.
"Arashi no Macho Man" is fully invested into the disco. Taka-chan even acts as the cordial host of the festivities within the song, encouraging the attendees to help themselves to the free food and drink. Sounds a bit like my old disco, The Copa, in downtown Toronto. Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）wasn't only slapping that bass but he was also responsible for the hard-driving melody while Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）took care of the lyrics. Apparently, there was an 80s disco boom at the time in Shinjuku which inspired the creation of the song which hit No. 2 on Oricon and ended up as the 67th-ranked single of 1987.
For the record, the video below with Tunnels performing "Arashi no Macho Man" onsite somewhere has them parodying Hideki Saijo（西城秀樹）and actor/singer-songwriter Asei Kobayashi（小林亜星）. The woman who is making a cameo dance appearance in the first several seconds is singer-actress Naoko Ken（研ナオコ）.
My previous article regarding the band The Alpha had me sheepishly noting that it had been three years between postings of that group. I have to do the same thing here regarding 80s aidoru Rina Takahashi（高橋利奈）. Back in the autumn of 2020, I said in the article for her "Juu-roku Sai no Gishiki"（16歳の儀式）that I would have to talk about her later tandem situation as one-half of the vocal duo Masarina soon.
Well, I guess soon means three years later. I was never exactly perfect on these promises. Anyways to make up for lost time, let me introduce Masarina which had Takahashi and Checkers' keyboardist and backup vocal Masaharu Tsuruku（鶴久政治）join forces for about a year in 1991 and 1992. The pair released a couple of singles and one album of which I have here their 2nd single"Sekai de Ichiban Chikaku ni Ite"(Be the Closest to Me in the World) which was released in February 1992.
Yep, it's a cornball title and from the arrangement of a bit of old Checkers' rock n' roll with a big dollop of Latin along with the delivery of Masarina, there's a certain tongue-in-cheek approach to the song. This was written by Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）and composed by Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）, the same duo who was helping out in Ushirogami Hikaretai's（うしろ髪ひかれ隊）1988"BAB" album which I posted about yesterday. I'd say that the song was designed just so for the karaoke lovers if a good duet was in order during the two hours at the bar.
Good heavens! They even had choreography! Anyways, "Sekai de Ichiban Chikau ni Ite" was also included on that Masarina album, "Masarina" from April 1992. Actually, the song was used as the ending theme for the late 1991 talk show including romance vignettes called "Kamakura Renai Iinkai"（鎌倉恋愛委員会...Kamakura Love Committee） hosted by Checkers' leader Fumiya Fujii（藤井郁弥）and Shibugaki-tai's（シブがき隊）Masahiro Motoki（本木雅弘）.
We're on the verge of completing our first weekend of 2024 and the coming week ought to be giving us the financial version of a hangover following the usual Holiday spending spree: the bill for the credit card. Let's all prepare some aspirin in advance here. At the same time, though, let's also savor the presents that we have gotten (unless you've already exchanged them). In my case, I did the usual beneficial exchange between myself and KKP old hand JTM with me sending over a City Pop compilation CD and a book while I got some albums from him including this one that you see above.
Yasushi Akimoto's（秋元康）first gigantic aidoru group a couple of decades before AKB48 was Onyanko Club（おニャン子クラブ）, whose file is also fairly big here on KKP. Along with postings of songs by the main group including for the surprising album "KICK OFF", there are articles for the individual singers and two of the subgroups. My initial assumption had been that Ushiroyubi Sasaregumi（うしろゆびさされ組）and Ushirogami Hikaretai（うしろ髪ひかれ隊）were twin groups in existence at the same time, but actually with one of the members of the former team graduating from Onyanko Club, Ushirogami Hikaretai was formed in 1987 in response with Shizuka Kudo（工藤静香）, Akiko Ikuina (生稲晃子) and Makiko Saito (斉藤満喜子). Marcos V. in fact provided an article on their 2nd single"Anata wo Shiritai"(あなたを知りたい) almost a decade ago (man, time flies).
Anyways, I wanted to take this time and space then to post about some of the songs on Ushirogami Hikaretai's 2nd album"BAB" which was released in March 1988. Now my theory on how that name came about had been that when "BAB" is said in katakana, it sounds like what a cute Japanese baby might say or what an adult might say to that baby to amuse him/her. However, according to J-Wiki, the letters stand for the members' blood types: Kudo=Type B, Saito=Type A, Ikuina=Type B.
The first track is "Honey", a pretty muscular aidoru tune written by the late Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）and composed/arranged by Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）, and yep that bass of his is powering it. The rest of those instruments are also conspiring to weave a tale of intrigue, desire and confrontation on a dance party night.
"Hora ne, Haru ga Kita"（ほらね、春が来た...You See, Spring is Here） which is Track 2 on "BAB" is also the trio's 4th single from February 1988. All of those synthy sounds have had me placing this as a techno aidoru tune by lyricist Akimoto and composer Goto. It really is quite catchy with the warp speed tempo and there are riffs galore with the keyboards and percussion racing for the border. All that excitement for the arrival of spring. Then again, Torontonians ache with that feeling every year. The single peaked at No. 6 and it also became the 90th-ranked single for 1988. It also was used as the second opening theme for the anime "Tsuide ni Tonchinkan"（ついでにとんちんかん...Miraculous Tonchinkan） that had its run from 1987 to 1988. There are also a couple of other themes for this anime included in the album.
There's a bit of 1960s "Georgy Girl" pop in the arrangement of "Bab Call" by lyricist Kenzo Saeki（サエキけんぞう）and composer Yuuji Okiyama（沖山優司）. Reading the lyrics, apparently the BAB girls are inviting the listener for a bit of an innocent bath together. Innocent....right.😨
Kudo was already carving out her path to superstardom in her solo career at the time of "BAB", and here she is with her own solo song on "BAB", "Hikishio"（引き潮...Ebb Tide）. Goto was behind the mellow travel-friendly melody while Masako Arikawa（有川正沙子）provided the lyrics of a woman walking alongside the beach while on a trip reminiscing or trying to forget a just-ended romance. I think it just about enters Resort Pop range with its languid pace in demand of a cocktail.
My final contribution here is the final track which is a dance remix version of "Hora ne, Haru ga Kita" known as "The Turntable Mix", and you know back in the 1980s, it was basically de rigueur for a whole bunch of songs to have adaptations ready for the dance floor. Mind you, it's hard to imagine a Ushirogami Hikaretai song up with "Boom Boom" and "Bizarre Love Triangle" in the disco, but you never know...maybe at a ComiCon perhaps.
Anyways, "BAB" peaked at No. 6 on Oricon. I'll have to cover the remaining tracks in a separate article or even cover a few of them on their own.
Well, yes, I am well aware that staying on tune was more of a helpful guideline rather than a hard and fast rule for an aidoru back in the 1980s, but I have to admit that whenever I hear the chorus part of Yoshie Kashiwabara's（柏原芳恵）4th single"Otome Gokoro Nani Iro?" (What Colour is the Heart of a Maiden?), I can't help but cringe. I'm not sure whether these are simply my ears registering the off-tune situation but it's the one way that I recognize the song.
Regardless, "Otome Gokoro Nani Iro?" was released in February 1981 and it's a young lady's oh-so-giddily happy treatise on spring as the season of budding love. She would know that for sure since she's head-over-heels herself. According to her, the colour of a maiden's heart changes seasonally and in spring, the magic hue is rose. Arranged by Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）, words and music were supplied by Haruo Chikada（近田春夫）which I was a bit surprised about since I'd always associated him more with New Wave, synthpop and rock n' roll."Otome Gokoro Nani Iro?" is actually quite breezy and very aidoru-like.
The song peaked at No. 55 on the Oricon weeklies, selling about 40,000 records. It first appeared on an album in October 1981, her first BEST compilation "Kashiwabara Yoshie BEST"（柏原よしえベスト）. Interestingly enough, her stage performances of the single were more on tune.
.JPG)
