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 Yasuharu Konishi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Yasuharu Konishi. Show all posts
Welcome to June! Perhaps though I should sarcastically say something like "Welcome to November!" because the temperatures don't really reflect late spring or early summer. Yup, it's chilly out there.
A few years ago, I put up this article for the Les 5-4-3-2-1 cover of the immortal "Bond Street", originally created by Burt Bacharach in 1967, and it was a track on the 1996 compilation "Sushi 3003 - A Spectacular Collection Of Japanese Clubpop". I don't know much about what Japanese club pop is, but hey, Shibuya-kei is something I know a little about.
Regardless, the final track on "Sushi 3003" is a pretty hip-swiveling number called "Kiss" by now-retired actress/singer Chiharu Iwamoto（岩本千春）who was active in the geinokai between 1986 and 2015. In 1990, she released her one-and-only album "Kagami"（かがみ...Mirrors） and that's where "Kiss" originated. Written and composed by Pizzicato Five's Yasuharu Konishi（小西康陽）, "Kiss" is a martini-friendly lounge number with a nice dollop of Latin here and a spritzer of jazz trumpet there. Plus, Iwamoto provides the nearly de rigueur kittenish voice popular in Shibuya-kei. Also, what about those irresistible bongo drums at one point? It's almost enough to get me up to cut a rug.
Personally, my favourite cocktail has been the Brown Cow: Kahlua and milk. Yes, I know...I'm sorry, but I simply prefer the simple and sweet stuff. So, I also like my Bailey's. One that I haven't tried yet is the Grasshopper which consists of crème de menthe, crème de cacao, cream, and ice thrown into a shaker.
When a group of students from one of the major Japanese oil companies and our teachers went out for a graduation dinner in Ginza, we stopped by one bar for a drink, and one of the students ordered a Grasshopper. He was mightily flying higher than an actual grasshopper for the rest of the evening. I guess something that sweet can be subversively powerful...just like a Long Island Iced Tea.
Anyways, before I retire for the evening, I'd like to put up a Kahimi Karie（カヒミ・カリィ）song that's a little out of the ordinary for her. I mean, "Alcohol" has still got that Shibuya-kei quality and of course, Karie's kittenish vocals but it's also quite danceable...especially after all those Grasshoppers. Maybe a Grasshopper dance never existed in the 1960s but I can imagine it being accompanied by young folk doing something like the Swim. It's got quite the hip-swiveling quality thanks to Pizzicato Five's Yasuharu Konishi（小西康陽）who wrote and composed the funky soulful song. "Alcohol" was the first track on Karie's 1st studio album from March 1997, "Larme De Crocodile".
A few days ago, I caught the teaser for "TRON: Ares" and was intrigued enough by it that I actually and finally watched a copy of the original 1982 film "TRON".
Yep, that's right. I never saw "TRON" in its entirety although of course, the scenes of the light cycles are absolutely iconic. Having lived through that time, I can understand how mind-blowing the concept of a movie that has a good chunk of its running time take place within a computer program was back then, but I was still surprised at how much of the real world was still shown before Flynn got sucked into Digital Wonderland.
Back in late 2010, when I made what would be my final Xmas trip back to Toronto before returning for good, I caught "TRON: Legacy" at the theatre during its first run. To be honest, a combination of confusion since I hadn't seen the first movie and major jet lag had me sleeping for a lot of the movie. I felt a bit less guilty when some of my other friends told me that they hadn't been too impressed by "Legacy". But now here comes "Ares", so let's see how this one turns out. The amazing thing is that Jeff Bridges is back once more in a sequel whose original movie he had starred in 43 years ago.
Well, why don't we start this new business week with something appropriately blippity-bloppity technoppy? I found just the tune. I posted about techno aidoru Emiri Kanou（加納エミリ）for the first time last week via her debut single "Gomen ne"（ごめんね）.
A few years later in 2023, Kanou collaborated with DJ and self-professed New Wave dandy Makoto Francis Ori（小里誠）to release a scintillating single called "Sabakaru Emiri" which could mean "Emiri Under Judgement". Well, I've made my judgement...I like it. I like it for its old-style technopop feeling which had me reminiscing ofKyary Pamyu Pamyu（きゃりーぱみゅぱみゅ）and the collaborations between Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）and Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）in the early 1980s. While Francis took care of the music and arrangement, Yasuharu Konishi（小西泰治）came up with the lyrics.
Not sure what Emiri is under judgment for, but she looks to be battle ready...like a Kanou of Arc!😤
A few days ago, I posted the Duke Aces' 2017 take on a Pizzicato Five song "Atarashii Uta"（新しい歌）with all of its Shibuya-kei goodness.
Well, I had been thinking of including the coupling song to that single but with all of the history behind "Atarashii Uta", I decided that I would give "Atarashii Uta" all the breathing room in its article while I provide that coupling song its own space and time. And as it turns out, the venerable vocal group devotes their cords and chords to the classic anime theme to "Tetsuwan Atomu"（鉄腕アトム...Astro Boy） from 1963.
Yasuharu Konishi（小西 康陽）from P5 is behind the arrangement here, too, but this time, instead of the Shibuya-kei, he gives this version of "Tetsuwan Atomu" some seemingly acid jazz oomph with some added soul and funk. The song is less than 2 1/2 minutes long but it feels quite happy and filling (especially thanks to the trumpet) due to all that upbeat vibe.
I had been around for only a few years when these dances of the 1960s were popular so alas I missed out on trying these moves out. Not that I would have dared to show them in public if I'd been old enough to give them a go. My Mashed Potato would have been runny spuds.
So, dances such as the Twist and the Swim came to mind as I was listening to this snappy number by the late Mieko Hirota（弘田三枝子）. "Tokyo Ni-juu-shichi-ji"(3:00 am Tokyo) is the title track from Hirota's May 1999 mini-album, a project that had Fantastic Plastic Machine and Pizzicato Five'sYasuharu Konishi（小西康陽）helping out, so I could imagine that there was going to be plenty of Shibuya-kei and tributes to the swinging pop music of the 1960s. And yep, I got plenty of that dance music along with what seems to be a shoutout to The 5th Dimension's"Up, Up and Away" in Konishi's melody and arrangement. Shimmy away, folks!
Also, have a look at Toni Basil'svideo of those 60s dances. Quite a few celebs knew how to move!
It was exactly a month ago that we launched the 2023 Xmas season at "Kayo Kyoku Plus" and the first official song was EPO's "Shiroi Machi Aoi Kage"（白い街 青い影）, so I think it would be appropriate if we ended the season with another EPO Xmas song.
First off, let me give some quick background information such as the above video by Karafuto Channel（樺太チャンネル）on YouTube. It shows the department store Le Trois（ル・トロワ）which is a local establishment in Sapporo, Hokkaido.
Well, Le Trois used to be the MALSA Department Store back in the 1980s and as a commercial jingle of the season for it, EPO wrote and composed a special song, "Twinkle Christmas". I found out about it for the first time on Scott's "Holly Jolly X'masu" podcast for the MIDI album compilation "Winter Tales 2" from 1992. On the podcast, it begins at 27:49 and Scott gives an interesting story about "Twinkle Christmas" since it was never officially a part of EPO's discography, and in fact, until "Winter Tales 2" was released, the only way that any EPO fan could get a copy of it was through somehow tracking down a promotional copy of the song that had never been meant for release in the stores.
With EPO handling the songwriting duties, the arrangement was left to Sapporo native Yasuharu Konishi（小西康陽）who had just begun Pizzicato Five, a group that was still some years away from becoming the Shibuya-kei darlings of the world. "Twinkle Christmas" has got quite the bouncy beat that had me thinking of ol' show-timey performances on television. The melody is upbeat but Scott mentions that the lyrics aren't all that happy since a woman is waiting for a Prince Charming with all of the Xmas frills in her apartment but in reality, everything is all in vain. So, basically skip happily to the traditional supermarket floor of MALSA and then end up picking up a Cup O' Noodle for one over there.
In any case, let's not all fret about that. Personally, I've got a turkey breast roasting in the oven right now with family coming over in a couple of hours. And I'm certainly hoping that all of you will continue to enjoy your Christmas as well. We'll see what happens next Xmas season with a potential new batch of J-Xmas tunes.
Ah, as a PS, this is the 1080th article for "Kayo Kyoku Plus" this year so we've just broken another record set last year with the largest number of articles in any one year. Perhaps we can go for the big 1100 by the end of 2023!
As anyone who has spent a Christmas or two in Japan will know, the Yuletide over there is often observed as a second Valentine's Day. Hotels and restaurants are usually booked solid for romantic rendezvous, and anyone who finds themselves alone on the 24th or 25th will be hitting the Cup O' Noodles hard.
"Lover's Holiday" strikes the note perfectly on that aspect of a Japanese Christmas. A cool and soulful duet consisting of Hideyuki Yonekawa and Keiko Utsumi（米川英之＆宇津美慶子）, the song was composed and arranged by Yonekawa and written by Yasuharu Konishi（小西康陽）. I first heard about it from Scott's "Holly Jolly X'masu" podcast last year centering on his review of "White Album '90" which was released in November 1990, and "Lover's Holiday" was the contribution from the pair for the album. The lyrics by Konishi have their references to Christmas but otherwise the arrangement eschews the typical jingliness of the season and goes for something more contemporary R&B.
Yonekawa began his solo career in 1990 following several years in his stint as the guitarist for the band C-C-B in the 1980s. According to his J-Wiki file, he's been strongly attracted to rock and AOR since he was a junior high school student.
Let's see...the YouTube video has the title as "Novembre" while Ameblo has it listed as "November" and the JASRAC database even has it down by its Japanese translation of "Juu-ichi Gatsu"（十一月）. Well, shall we split the difference and go with "November"?
Regardless, "November" is a track on Satoshi Ikeda's（池田聡）October 1992 album, "Shijou no Ai"（至上の愛...A Love Supreme）. I've already covered one other track there, "Itsuka"（いつか）which is an interesting mix of City Pop and Shibuya-kei. But with this duet between Ikeda and another City Pop singer Keiko Kimura（木村恵子）of "Denwa Shinai de"（電話しないで）fame, despite Yasuharu Konishi's（小西康晴）presence on lyrics, I think that "November" is fully into jazz of the 1950s instead of the Shibuya-kei scene (well, there is that electric piano/organ near the end) of which Konishi is an architect. Hiroshi "Monsieur" Kamayatsu（かまやつひろし）was the composer here, and the whole effect is of a tenderly delivered song in an intimate setting such as the old Dug jazz club in East Shinjuku (yup, brick wall interior and all).
I was actually doing maintenance on the 1992 file when I saw that the video for "Itsuka" had been taken down for the usual reasons, so as I found a replacement on Nicovideo, I stumbled upon "November" to my delight. By the way, I do like that cover for "Shijou no Ai" with that silhouetted Chet Baker-like figure with trumpet standing in front of those West Shinjuku skyscrapers. Very cool.
Ah, Yuko Ogura（小倉優子）. Marcos V. once wrote an article about one of her songs, "Koi no Jumon wa Papapipupa" (恋の呪文はパパピプパ) which was a surprise for me since I had no idea that she actually sang anything. And yet, I should have known that since back in the day, any young up-and-comer in the geinokai would eventually get wrangled into doing some work in the recording booth, no matter the level of talent.
In all actuality, my knowledge of tarento and former pinup idol Ogura was through her commercials and appearances on variety programs during my time in Japan in which she took on this fairly high and babyish voice which has lowered in recent years from helium levels. However, I did find the above video (which is also posted on the article for "The Yoru mo Hippare") that shows a raw teenage Ogura with a completely rapid-fire and down-to-earth voice.
During my trip to Tokyo in 2014, I was exploring one of my favourite haunts, Tower Records at JR Shinjuku Station. When I got to the 7th floor where the first floor for the CD shop was located, I discovered a whole ton of people...mostly guys...amassed like rush-hour commuters at one end. Apparently, Ogura was making an appearance there to promote something and when I saw her, she looked absolutely porcelain...maybe to an alarming degree, although she was rattling off at warp speed so I gathered that she was in good health (but in severe need of Vitamin D).
Anyways, I did want to showcase her 3rd single"Onna no Ko, Otoko no Ko" (Girls & Boys) which has the aforementioned "Koi no Jumon wa Papapipupa" as the coupling song. Released in November 2004, if that melody hits you as being somewhat Shibuya-kei, then congratulations! It is indeed Pizzicato Five's（ピチカート・ファイヴ）Yasuharu Konishi（小西康陽）behind words and music for this breezy and happy-go-lucky tune that scored a No. 20 ranking on Oricon. Her voice fits the music quite nicely.
As for the setting for the music video, I think that I may have visited that Tokyo shopping mall once and it's by a JR train station but for the life of me, I can't remember the name of the place. By the way, the song title shouldn't be confused with Hiromi Go's（郷ひろみ）debut hit"Otoko no Ko , Onna no Ko"(男の子女の子）since the nouns are reversed.
"Onna no Ko, Otoko no Ko" was also the ending theme for the anime adaptation of the manga "School Rumble" which had its run through a couple of seasons and OVAs from 2004 to 2008. With a title like that, I'd assumed that it was all about a bunch of high school toughs fighting each other but actually it's a school-based romantic comedy.
To continue on from where I left off with Disc 1 of this special 2-CD compilation album based on Yokohama-themed songs, I'm covering Disc 2 of "Yokohama Fantasy". This time around, it was a little more difficult to track down some of the songs since once again I've covered a few of them already and others don't exist on YouTube. Also, I'd still like to write about at least one of the tracks through its own article. Well, without further ado then:
1. Bay Bridge Serenade -- Shogo Hamada (ベイ・ブリッジ・セレナーデ）
Shogo Hamada's（浜田省吾）"Bay Bridge Serenade" is an acapella ballad with him and the rest of the guys about a fellow taking that long lonely drive in the middle of the night and then stopping on Yokohama Bay Bridge to look at the bright lights and big city. Hamada's lyrics (he also composed the music) give the impression that the poor guy is about to give up on that lady love of his and move on with the rest of his life. But dang, if he's not going to make that final night one big beautiful doo-wop of a song.
"Bay Bridge Serenade" was a track on his September 1993 album"Sono Eien no Ichi Byo ni"（その永遠の一秒に 〜The Moment Of The Moment〜）which hit No. 1 on Oricon and quickly ended up as the 13th-ranked release of the year. By 1996, it had racked up a little over 895,000 copies in sale.
Then we have singer-songwriter Makoto Saito's（斎藤誠）"Yokohama" from his February 2002 album"Careless Memories" which is a very pretty love song. It's solidly in the pop vein and with the strings and Saito's guitar both in the arrangement, "Yokohama" can both take place in a rooftop restaurant or in front of a beach campfire although the instrumental bridge kicks things up a notch into the stratosphere.
One other track that I'll be profiling here is one that I'd already noted back in the article for Disc 1. This is singer-songwriter Tomoko Tane's（種ともこ）own version of the classic kayo "Blue Light Yokohama"as originally done by Ayumi Ishida（いしだあゆみ）back in 1968. I'd already provided another article on a cover of the song recently through former Speed member Takako Uehara（上原多香子）in 2004.
According to the J-Wiki article on "Yokohama Fantasy", Tane had released a couple of her takes on "Blue Light Yokohama" in 1991 with the first being a single version that I don't think I can find on YouTube. Perhaps that was the more straight-ahead version since the one that is included in the 2004 compilation and Tane's September 1991 album"Kiss of Life" is known as the Ambient version. And indeed, it is a pretty chill-out take with its own rearrangement by Yasuharu Konishi（小西康陽）. In fact, next to Konishi's contribution, his other partner from Pizzicato Five, the divine Ms. Maki Nomiya（野宮真貴）, gives an introductory narration of the eventual end of a romance in the port city.
To be honest, when I first heard this version, I did go "Huh?!" but that was more me initially getting all old-fogey about it, but now that I've heard Tane's cover a few times, it's settling in much more nicely now. In any case, if you do get a chance, be a little more ambitious as a tourist and cover even more of Yokohama than I have.
And here I thought that Shibuya-kei was more of a late 80s going into the 90s genre. I've actually found this song performed by the vocal group Smooth Ace as their sixth and final single to date released in June 2004. "Kore kara Ai ni Iku yo."(I'll Come and See You) definitely has that familiar Shibuya-kei sheen with that swinging Bacharach melody, and not surprisingly, words and music were provided by Yasuharu Konishi（小西康陽）who was part of the legendary band of the genre, Pizzicato Five. Along with the sunny melody of yesteryear, the lyrics talk of a fellow suddenly calling up an old flame out of the blue and declaring his still-retained feelings for the lady with the promise of meeting up for old...and perhaps new...times.
From what I've gotten from their J-Wiki profile, Smooth Ace started life in 1991 as Street Corner Symphony, an acapella music club at Waseda University whose quintet lineup had once included Tetsuya Murakami（村上てつや）who would leave the following year to become involved with the acapella group Gospellers (and become its leader). The group not only went through lineup changes but also name changes with monikers like Gandhi and Momocrobic（モモクロビック）before finally settling upon Smooth Ace in 1998. As of 2005, the group has been a duo consisting of Hiroko Shigezumi（重住ひろこ）and Makoto Okamura（岡村玄）but when "Kore kara Ai ni Iku yo." was released some months earlier, they also had Maki Lee（李眞姫）and Shinya Taira（平慎也）.
Smooth Ace was still active up to 2017 at least with an enhanced version of their 2014 album"Sing Like Children". "Kore kara Ai ni Iku yo." was also included in a compilation album of Shibuya-kei tunes, "Bossa Nova 1991: Shibuya Scene Retrospective", released in August 2007.
Well, perhaps this is a first! Usually when it comes to commemorating anniversaries for certain lauded kayo here, I've found myself a few days to a few weeks late. For example, I was almost three weeks late to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Yellow Magic Orchestra's amazing "Rydeen" earlier this year.
This time around, I'm unfashionably early for YMO's "Technopolis" which was actually the band's debut single released on October 25th 1979. That's right...it's going to be 41 years old in 16 days. Feel free to get those famous words out of your system:
T-E-C-H-N-O-P-O-L-I-S...TOKIO, TOKIO!
Now, I already gave some description about "Technopolis" back in 2012 when I wrote about the album that it was placed on, "Solid State Survivor", which became the No. 2 album for 1979. However, I never gave my full feelings on the melodic love letter to Japan's capital by YMO member Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）. I realize that "Rydeen" will probably be the YMO song that fans will gravitate to first (and I'm a huge fan of it as well), but "Technopolis" is also one of the trio's trademark tunes. After Sakamoto through his vocoder intones his first pair of "TOKIO", the synth melody flows in with an air of mystery and deep wonder as images of gleaming towers rise up and as we the listeners/tourists go further into the titular technopolis, all sorts of incredible architecture suddenly surround us like a 2xth-century utopia. There's also that high-pitched oscillating synth which sounds like a police warning and a welcoming herald into Tokyo.
Some of the interesting trivia that I gleaned from the J-Wiki article for "Technopolis" is that in creating this song, he researched and analyzed a number of Pink Lady songs (!) and reconstructed them to see if he could come up with something that would sell as a "Tokyo kayo".YMO bandmate Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏）commented in an issue of "SWITCH" magazine via the J-Wiki article stated that The Professor constructed "Technopolis" under the assumption of prolific composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）being asked to create a YMO song...and that's why it became a hit.
During that turning point in my life which was represented by my 1981 summer trip to Japan, I didn't hear "Technopolis" or "Rydeen". However, on listening to "Firecracker" back in Toronto and then a cool technopop version of Vivaldi's "Spring" at the Toshiba Science Centre, I knew that I had to get a YMO audiotape, and I did end up purchasing their first album in Osaka (which didn't have either "Technopolis" or "Rydeen" to my disappointment, but how was I to know?). Still, I could only imagine how much more excited about technopop I would have gotten if Sakamoto's creation had entered my ears during my first five days in the capital.
Another reason that I'm writing this article tonight is that, like "Rydeen", a number of other technopop groups over the decades have provided their own take on "Technopolis". During my time in Japan, for instance, I bought "YMO REMIXES TECHNOPOLIS 2000-01" which came out in November 1999 and consists of remix versions of the Orchestra's songs by those groups. One is "Technopolis (The Readymade - Darlin' of Discotheque Track)" provided by Yasuharu Konishi（小西康晴）of Pizzicato Five fame. It took me a while to figure out his angle, but then I figured out that it was a particularly intense surf rock layer over the original Sakamoto melody. Frankie and Annette and all of their beach blanket bingo buddies would be doing The Swim together at a rave to this one. It goes to show that you can't stop at one peanut since a sequel album was released, "YMO REMIXES TECHNOPOLIS 2000-00" the following year. This time, it's Denki Groove's（電気グルーヴ）"Technopolis (Denki's Techtropolis-RMX)". To be honest, I wasn't initially a fan of this version since it consists of certain phrases from the song being repeated over and over but then over time, it's gotten to grow on me. Basically, I would be doing the full dance to Konishi's remix (don't imagine that please) but nodding my head or shifting my shoulders most intensely to Denki Groove's take.
Ah, by the way, the bad news is that I believe that both albums have the dreaded haiban status but perhaps you may be able to find copies through auction.
Several years ago, I discovered this video on YouTube by Orengedenki, aka Hiroshi Oikawa. He has been specializing in covers of YMO songs and although I don't think that he has ever released anything on CD or streaming, he has put out a lot of content through his YouTube channel. Also known as Orange Magnetic Orchestra (OMO), his version of "Technopolis" has some more bongo-esque percussion, a bit more spaciness in parts and some rearrangement here and there. I also have to give my compliments to the video which was released in 2010...nothing like West Shinjuku including Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building to show off a modern megalopolis.
Since I'm subscribed to his channel, I've also got to show Chick Norman's"The Dark Prison Mix" of "Technopolis". Y'know, if there were ever a Hollywood thriller movie set in Tokyo, this would be the version that I would love to have rolling during the snazzy end credits sequence.
In finishing, I've been reading the comments underneath the videos about how either "Technopolis" or "Rydeen" ought to be performed at the Tokyo Olympics' Opening Ceremonies, provided that they will indeed take place in 2021. I'm good with either one if Yellow Magic Orchestra is invited to come up on stage at the Olympic Stadium. But I also have to admit that I would love to see Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）come back to perform "TOWN" as well.
Another one of my purchases in the last few weeks from CD Japan has been Masayuki Suzuki's（鈴木雅之）triple-CD package commemorating his 40th anniversary in the music business, "ALL TIME ROCK 'N' ROLL". Released earlier in April, I wanted to get this primarily because of his more recent material all put onto CD 3, but unlike "Martini" and "Martini II", his earliest BEST albums as a solo artist, the first two discs are a celebration of his doo-wop days as the lead vocalist of Chanels （シャネルズ）later to be known as Rats and Star.
Now I mention that I got the 3-disc album. The first-issue version of "ALL TIME ROCK 'N' ROLL" has an extra 4th CD which has mostly karaoke versions of those Chanels hits but also a few live recordings that hadn't been released. I think that special first-release package is still available but I didn't bother paying the extra cash for that since I have never and never will perform karaoke at home.
Irasshaimase, baby!
Usually for a BEST article, I would put down the list of the tracks but considering the overwhelming amount of tracks for this one, I've decided to put up the link to a website that has them written down in romaji.
Disc 1
Disc 1, titled "Mr. Black 2nd" consists of new re-recordings of some of those Chanels/Rats And Star hits along with some of the songs that probably inspired young Martin. First off, the CD starts with "Ultra Chu Chu Medley", Suzuki's 41st single which was released in July 2020 and includes "Hurricane", "Machikado Twilight", "Akogare no Slender Girl"（憧れのスレンダー・ガール）and "Shuumatsu Dynamite"（週末ダイナマイト）. Given an added dance beat by Pizzicato Five's Yasuharu Konishi（小西康陽）, it's an invitation by Suzuki saying "Hey, this is where I came from!".
When I first looked down on the playlist for "ALL TIME ROCK 'N' ROLL", I noticed "Tears On My Pillow". The 1958 classic by Little Anthony and the Imperials was a song that I used to hear all the time on those K-Tel compilation LP commercials back in the 1970s; probably at the time, there was some of that returning love for the oldies thanks to George Lucas' "American Graffiti" and then TV's "Happy Days". I don't think even Suzuki can eclipse The Imperials but dang, he's pretty close with this one which is the coupling song to "Ultra Chu Chu Medley".
Another one that caught my eyes and ears was Suzuki's cover of "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" originally by Queen. When I was first discovering the band, this was one of the songs that helped me in their introduction to my memories and senses. It's not just the doo-wop for this version but an extra dollop of rockabilly jazz with added thanks from rock n' roll band The Shaolin Brothers（少林兄弟）and Chanels member Yoshio Sato（佐藤善雄）. Lots of fun to be had here.
There was a cool new song that I hadn't heard before titled "Tamashii no Brother"（魂のブラザー...Soul Brother） but I will cover that on its own sometime next month since there is the new version in "ALL TIME ROCK 'N' ROLL" and then the original version during the Chanels' days.
Disc 2
Disc 2 is "the year of RATS best" and is for all of those die-hard Chanels/Rats And Star fans out there. The longest of the 3 discs by far at around 74 minutes, it has a lot of the band's original material. To be honest, I realized that I'm probably going to be more of the Masayuki Suzuki fan than a fan of Chanels unless the disc's contents grow on me some more since I think having over an hour of doo-wop going through my head is a tad much.
However, having said that, listening to the tracks on Disc 2 piecemeal has been more enjoyable. For example, there is "Akogare no Slender Girl"（憧れのスレンダー・ガール...Slender Girl of My Dreams）, Chanels' 6th single from March 1982. Written by Chanels' member Masashi Tashiro（田代マサシ）and composed by Martin with arrangement by the band and Kunio Muramatsu（村松邦夫）, "Akogare no Slender Girl" stands out for some of those horns which sound like the Tijuana Brass with Herb Alpert. The original single peaked at No. 13 on Oricon.
Yes, I now have to insist that it's good for me to appreciate the Chanels discography on a slowly, slowly basis since I really like their 5th single"Namida no Sweet Cherry"（涙のスウィート・チェリー...Sweet Cherry of Tears） from September 1981 on its own instead of being sandwiched between tracks like sweet cherry jam between Wonder bread. It's so doo-wop 50s that names like Richie and Mary Beth and things like jukeboxes, bobby socks and slow dances came immediately to mind (though I wouldn't be born for another decade after that era). This actually hit No. 12. Lyricist Reiko Yukawa（湯川れい子）and composer/arranger Daisuke Inoue（井上大輔）were responsible for this ballad for all you lovers out there.
The last one I'm gonna cover from Disc 2 is "Madonna wa Omae dake"（マドンナはお前だけ...You're The Only Madonna For Me）, Rats And Star's penultimate 16th single (including the Chanels' singles) from their original run together released in April 1985. It's still got that band swagger with a bit of Latin incorporated into the doo-wop. Yukawa was once again behind words while this time Tsunehiro Izumi（和泉常寛）provided the music. The song was perfectly fine for Rats And Star fans but I think from the No. 57 ranking, music tastes were moving on from the doo-wop craze at the turn of the decade. Of course, the disc also includes hits like "Runaway" and "Me Gumi no Hito"（め組のひと）.
Disc 3
"Perfect Vision" is the title given to the third disc which is half-filled with Martin's 5 new releases and half-filled with the karaoke versions. Of course, "DADDY! DADDY! DO!", "Motivation" and "Tatoe Sekai ga Soppo Muite mo"（たとえ世界がそっぽ向いても）are included. The first track, though, is "Iki mo Dekinai Gurai"（息もできないくらい...Can't Even Breathe）, a swing stomp perpetrated by the singer and rock band Kishidan's（氣志團）Sho Ayanokoji（綾小路翔）. As someone mentioned in the comments for the above video, this would probably have been ideal as an opening theme for another fun anime although I don't think it quite fits the "Kaguya-sama" franchise. Ayanokoji and Takeshi Kiuchi（木内健）came up with the song.
The final sung track is "Polaris"（ポラリス）, a bluesy ballad with a touch of gospel written, composed and co-sung by Angela Aki（アンジェラ・アキ）. It was used as the theme song for the 2019 NHK drama"Banjou no Himawari"（盤上の向日葵...Sunflower on the Board）. After all of the action within this CD alone, it's nice to finish off with something relatively quiet.
"ALL TIME ROCK 'N' ROLL", I'm happy to say, broke into the Top 10 and hit its high of No. 4. My congratulations to Martin and the production staff for another wonderful BEST album. Also I missed his big day by a few days, but Happy Birthday to him on his 64th which he celebrated on September 22nd. The Kohaku Utagassen won't be the same this year but I do hope that he will get selected, if only to perform "DADDY! DADDY! DO!".
Continuing the wonders of J Utah's videos from my last article, I was watching his Hong Kong drive as I listened to "Light Mellow ~ City", and there were quite a few interesting nuggets in there, too.
Singer-songwriter Satoshi Ikeda's（池田聡）"Itsuka"(Someday) has nothing to do with Tatsuro Yamashita's（山下達郎）"Itsuka", by the way. It's indeed an Ikeda creation that was originally a track on his October1992 8th album"Shijou no Ai"（至上の愛...A Love Supreme）, and listening to it, I'm glad that City Pop was still on its merry way going into the final decade of the century.
I heard some fascinating elements in "Itsuka", the first of which was that although I have deemed it a City Pop song, there was something rather Shibuya-kei about it; maybe it was that certain get-together of guitar and synths. Sure enough, when I checked out the liner notes in "Light Mellow ~ City", it turned out that all of the songs on "Shijou no Ai" were produced by Yasuharu Konishi（小西康陽）, one-half of Pizzicato Five. Meanwhile, the background vocals were provided by the other half, vocalist Maki Nomiya（野宮真貴）.
There were also that drum riff in the intro and the resulting groove afterwards that reminded me of one of my favourite songs from the old days, Boz Scaggs' incredible "Lowdown"(1976). That was also borne out in the liner notes. I wouldn't mind having "Itsuka" in the car stereo at any time of the day or night in any major city.
Man, has it been that long?! I remember when this song and the singer behind it were all over the airwaves.
Japan is the one country I know whose pop culture is whimsical enough that one word or phrase can catch so much of the popular imagination that the Top 10 Catchphrases of the Year has been a mainstay year-end event since 1984. And for one year, it helped spawn a hit song that just managed to miss getting into the Top 10 for 2000.
My daily schedule back in Japan was such that I often didn't need to leave the apartment for work until some hours later in the day. So I often lounged around past breakfast doing some channel surfing, and aside from the morning news shows, there were quite a few kids' programs around including one on TV Tokyo called "Oha Suta"（おはスタ...Mornin' Studio） in which one of the ways of greeting was "Ohhaa~".
Well, the goofy member of SMAP, Shingo Katori（香取慎吾）, had a comical character which originated on one of the many SMAP shows scattered all over Japanese TV "Sata Smap"（サタ☆スマ...Saturday SMAP） who looked like a hybrid of June Cleaver and an ostrich by the name of Shingo Mama（慎吾ママ）. Somehow he and the "Ohhaa~" expression got together and a phenomenon was born. I can no longer see Shingo Mama without hearing "her" cheerful "Ohhaa~"....not that I've seen Katori's alter ego in the past decade or so.
Then Mama and "Ohhaa~" got a further bump up by getting their own song. Given the drawn-out title of "Shingo Mama no Oha Rock", the single was released in August 2000 and was written, composed and produced by Yasuharu Konishi（小西康陽）from Pizzicato Five. And as would be expected with such a combination of folks and contagious pop gimmick here, it sounded like a kids' tune on a couple of cans of Red Bull. Thanks to Konishi, it's pretty darn catchy and Shingo Mama doesn't sound too bad.
The video for "Shingo Mama no Oha Rock" further amped things up with not only a cast of dozens doing the goofball choreography (that probably had the kids of the nation dancing in the living room) but a fistful of cameos by actors, comedians and tarento (plus Shingo's bandmates) chanting out the mot d'annee on a scale similar to the "Ghostbusters" music video. The one jaw-dropper is seeing a certain American music legend even getting in on the act near the end.
Shingo Mama hit No. 1 on Oricon and quickly became the 12th-ranked song of the year. It was also the first hit single by a solo SMAP member to reach the top spot, selling around 1.3 million copies.
NOTE: This is a stock article I wrote in the first days of 2015.
Yuko Ogura (小倉優子)
was probably the first aidoru I “met” in 2015. As far as I
know, she was a famous gravure aidoru with legendary status in the
00s that also ventured into singing at some point, with varied success.
The
first song I heard from her is also the one I present here, a guilty pleasure called “Koi no Jumon wa Papapipupa”, which was
the coupling song for the ending theme for the anime“School Rumble” (スクールランブル) in 2004.
A
simple, yet effective, cute pop song, “Koi no Jumon ha Papapipupa” is a catchy tune that never overstays its
presence with three minutes and around fifteen seconds of duration. Also, even while
I was listening to Yuko’s “not so big discography”, I quickly learned that her
songs were a mixture of cute aidoru pop with Shibuya-kei influences, which is something quite clear in “Koi no
Jumon wa Papapipupa” thanks to Yasuharu
Konishi (小西康陽), one of the founding members of Pizzicato Five.
As
for Yuko Ogura, well..., she was a gravure aidoru,
so we must not expect great things from her singing. The girl was cute, though.
“Koi no Jumon wa
Papapipupa” was the b-side of Yuko’s “Onna
no ko Otoko no ko” (オンナのコ♥オトコのコ) single, which was
released in November 2004. This was her highest charting single, reaching #20 on the Oricon charts. Lyrics, music
and arrangement were all done by Yasuharu Konishi.
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