Betsy & Chris/W -- Shiroi Iro wa Koibito no Iro （白い色は恋人の色）

Into November we are. A good chunk of those maple leaves have fallen as well as the temperatures although we are quite a bit above seasonal with a high of 17 degrees C today. Considering that things are feeling nicely autumnal, perhaps something mellow would be nice to start the November 2016 edition of "Kayo Kyoku Plus".

Some late 60s/70s folk sounds about right. So, here are Betsy & Chris (ベッツィ&クリス) with their debut single "Shiroi Iro wa Koibito no Iro" (White is the Colour of Lovers). As much as the fact that American-born singers like Hikaru Utada（宇多田ひかる）and Jero (ジェロ) have made their mark in Japan applies, they aren't the first folks from the USA to do so. I don't know who the first American was to have a hit original song in Japan but in 1969, a couple of members from the Sounds of Young Hawaii were scouted out when they came to the country on tour and were given the opportunity to release a song as a duo.

Betsy & Chris are Elizabeth Virginia Wagner from Hawaii and Christine Anne Rolseth from Idaho who were born within a few months of each other in 1952. Their "Shiroi Iro wa Koibito no Iro" was written and composed by two members of The Folk Crusaders, Kazuhiko Kato and Osamu Kitayama（加藤和彦・北山修）as this calming folk song with a lovely harmony between the two singers.

Released in October 1969, the song hit No. 2 on Oricon and became the 11th-ranked single for 1970. Although Betsy & Chris broke up in 1973 after 13 singles and several albums, their first single was their biggest hit which has been covered by a number of singers over the decades.

One such unit was W with Ai Kago and Nozomi Tsuji（加護亜依・辻希美）from Morning Musume（モーニング娘。）. Their version came out in 2004 as a part of their album "Duo U&U"（デュオU&U）.

While Chris later became a music teacher in Hawaii, Betsy returned to her singing career after many years also in the Aloha State. In fact, about a decade ago, she and her daughter Emma joined up to sing the song again on the 2006 edition of NHK's summer "Omoide no Melody"（思い出のメロディー）.

Pink Lady/W -- Nagisa no Sinbad （渚のシンドバッド）

I gotta say....the energy that Pink Lady put into their choreography....Mie and Kei probably had to ingest food and drink on the order of several trips to the buffet table. Perhaps folks like Twyla Tharp may sniff at it, but my respect for the ladies is paramount. Y'know, I had once thought that "UFO" was the one that put the duo over the top, but they were actually getting the limelight sometime before that.

"Nagisa no Sinbad"(Sinbad of the Beach) was Pink Lady's 4th single and the first song that got them to break the million-seller barrier after its release in June 1977. Written by Yu Aku（阿久悠） and composed by Shunichi Tokura（都倉俊一）, the song resonates in my memory for the dance of course (the Swim and the Horse in rapid succession?!), the beginning "Ah, a-Ah, Ahn!", the refrain and the one line "Anata wa SEXY!"(You are sexy!). I wouldn't be surprised if young folk even today would still dig this song out of the karaoke menu.

The song may have been the first million-seller for the duo, but it was their 3rd straight No. 1. However, more importantly, it was the No. 1 song for 1977. In fact, Pink Lady had four songs in the Top 10, a feat that they repeated in that same list for the following year....not sure if any group has ever done that since.

The legend of Pink Lady continued onwards thanks to covers of their songs by a lot of other artists. "Nagisa no Sinbad" was no exception, and in 2004, the cutest duo in the Hello Project conglomerate, W, gave their own tribute to it via their album of duo covers, "Duo U&U". The album peaked at No. 4.

A small piece of trivia that I think has already been mentioned in one of the articles for Southern All Stars. On an episode of the TBS comedy-variety show "Hachiji Da Yo! Zen'in Shuugo!"（８時だよ！全員集合！...It's 8 O'Clock! Get Together Everyone!), the nuttiest member of The Drifters, Ken Shimura（志村ケン）, came up with this new title combining the title from "Nagisa no Sinbad" and that from Kenji Sawada's（沢田研二） "Katte ni Shiyagare"（勝手にしやがれ） to create the moniker, "Katte ni Sinbad"（勝手にシンドバッド）. Keisuke Kuwata（桑田佳祐） and company were more than happy to adopt it for their debut single.

Pink Lady/W -- Southpaw （サウスポー）

After the monster hit that was "UFO", the Pink Lady juggernaut came out with their 7th single a few months later, "Southpaw". Inspired by Japanese baseball legend Sadaharu Oh (王貞治....who was indeed a southpaw), Mie and Kei brought their usual energetic dance moves, this time stylized around a baseball theme. Dressed in cute shiny disco baseball uniforms, I can imagine that their garb was probably responsible for the wear that every aidoru or cute female tarento has sported if selected to throw the ceremonial first pitch at a Japanese baseball game....at least, that's my theory.

Of course, with a Pink Lady profile, I have to provide a video of the duo performing on stage. I think this was from "Best 10", rather than the Kohaku Utagassen (ahh...no, it ain't). "Southpaw" was released in March 1978, and according to one YouTube source, this was the biggest-grossing song in Pink Lady's career with 1.8 million records sold (the statistic given by Victor). However, according to Oricon, the total number sold was 1.46 million which would put it just below "UFO", the popularly-recognized No. 1 with 1.55 million. Still, the ladies and the creators needn't have worried. They were on a roll.

As with "UFO", lyricist Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composer Shunichi Tokura（都倉俊一）were behind "Southpaw". Considering the high-tempo final version of the song, it was interesting to read about this bit of trivia on J-Wiki. Apparently. Aku and Tokura had created a far more slower and more mature song which was indeed given a first recording. However, the director behind it, Hisahiko Iida（飯田久彦）, shook his head in disapproval stating that this original version lacked any passion or fun. Fearing that if this version were released, the air from Pink Lady's soaring balloon would rush out like a gale, a re-boot was demanded and the song was indeed re-tooled to become the classic that it has become, staying at the No. 1 spot on Oricon for 9 straight weeks. It became the 2nd-ranked song of 1978....just behind "UFO".

In 2004, Nono and Aibon of W came up with their own version of the song. Their"Southpaw" was never released as a single but was a track on their very first album, "Duo U&U", released in June of that year. It peaked at No. 4. Although it didn't merit its own single, it still got its own video as you can see here.

The Peanuts/W/Yuki Koyanagi -- Koi no Fuuga (恋のフーガ）

Fugue: ".....a compositional technique (in classical music) in two or more voices, built on a subject (theme) that is introduced in the beginning in imitation (repetition at different pitches) and recurs frequently in the course of the composition." (Wikipedia)

Decided to give you a bit of a heads-up on the title of this song. "Koi no Fuuga"(Fugue of Love) was released in August 1967 by The Peanuts, and it's a 60s Quincy Jones-worthy tune written by Rei Nakanishi（なかにし礼）and composed by Koichi Sugiyama（すぎやまこういち）. I don't usually mention the arranger in my entries, but Hiroshi Miyagawa（宮川泰） was the one behind this, and he was also the scorer behind "Uchuusenkan Yamato"（宇宙戦艦ヤマト...Space Battleship Yamato）; one of the battle themes from that anime starts off just like this song. (things that make you go hmmmm.....). Speaking of Miyagawa, according to J-Wiki, he tried to arrange the song so that it followed a fugue pattern, but he got somewhat stuck so he ended up making a "slightly scary"arrangement, in his words.

It certainly starts off with a bang. With timpani at the beginning and some foghorn trombone near the end, Austin Powers and just about every other spy he was spoofing would've been quite impressed with this one. The Oricon charts would still be a few months away from starting up, but when they did, "Koi no Fuuga" apparently got as high up as No. 20. And the ladies did get onto the Kohaku Utagassen for that year as you can see below...complete with loud kettledrums (sorry but the video has been taken down).

Covers of the song would pop up over the decades. J-R&B singer Yuki Koyanagi（小柳ゆき） gave her own version in August 2003, as a track on her album, "Koyanagi The Covers Product 2". No twin sister for her but she improvised in the video. This version got as high as No. 36 on Oricon.

Then, there was the version given by the Hello Project duo, W, in February 2005 which went as far up as No. 12. Ai Kago and Nozomi Tsuji（加護亜衣・辻希美） debuted as the duo with another Peanuts tune, "Koi no Vacances"（恋のバカンス）the year before (already profiled....look for "Hello Project"or "2004"). The song also appears on their 2nd album, "2nd W", which was released in March of the same year.

In any case, the song is short but dynamic (kinda like Rita Moreno).

The Peanuts/W -- Koi no Vacance (恋のバカンス）

Only found out this morning that Emi Ito（伊藤エミ） of The Peanuts had passed away on June 15 at the age of 71. The duo had stopped being a performing act for almost 40 years but a number of their songs are still being covered by numerous artists, including the United States Air Force Band (you can look for them on YouTube). "Koi no Vacance"(Vacance de L'Amour) is one of The Peanuts' lasting songs.

As originally sung by Emi and Yumi, it has this infectiously rollicking beat emanating from a big band heart. Written by Tokiko Iwatani（岩谷時子） and composed & arranged by Hiroshi Miyagawa（宮川泰）, the song got The Peanuts onto the 1963 Kohaku Utagassen, and won Miyagawa a Japan Record Award for arrangement. The word "vacance"itself became one of the big catchphrases of the year because of the tune.

As I've said, a number of singers have covered "Koi no Vacance"over the years, one of them being another duo, W. W consisted of two petite members of Morning Musume（モーニング娘。）, Nozomi Tsuji（辻希美） and Ai Kago（加護亜衣）. Their cover of the song was their first single as this unit and was released in May 2004 as a surf rock version.

One small piece of trivia concerning Emi Ito; she was the first wife of Kenji Sawada（沢田研二）, vocalist of the Group Sounds band, The Tigers.