Yoko Ishino -- Teddy Boy Blues（テディーボーイ・ブルース）

 

As I've mentioned from time to time in the articles, I've been a reader of the website "TV Tropes" and a few days ago, I saw a topic called "One-Hit Wonders" and as I was scrolling down the page, I was surprised to see the following paragraph:

80s J-Pop idol Yohko Ishino had a brief music career and acquired much more success as a film and TV actress. She is only remembered today for the song "Teddy Boy Blues", and even then just because an 8-bit rendition of it was used as the soundtrack for the 1985 SEGA video game of the same name. The game was an early example of cross-medial promotion, though it was just vaguely related to Yohko herself.

I introduced Yoko Ishino（石野陽子）a few years ago through a 1989 Eurobeat song that she had released and I knew that she did have her music side to her career as an entertainer. Anyone who was on a clear rise up the ladder in the geinokai at that time was pretty much obligated to cut a record, no matter the quality of their vocal cords. But as I also stated for her "Kiss made Matenai ~ My World ~"（KISSまで待てない ）, I first got to know about Ishino as a regular cast member in the late comedian Ken Shimura's（志村けん）Fuji-TV show "Shimura Ken-san no Daijoubuda"（志村けんのだいじょうぶだぁ...Ken Shimura's Everything's All Right）.

Until I saw that entry in "TV Tropes", I hadn't known about her involvement with the SEGA game "Teddy Boy Blues" for which you can see an example of it being played up at the top. Her rendition of the theme song for the game was actually her debut single as an aidoru when it was released in April 1985. 

The original song was written by Masao Urino（売野雅勇）and composed by Hiroaki Serizawa（芹澤廣明）and "Teddy Boy Blues" has that 50s rock-n'-roll feeling, something that both Urino and Serizawa have given to the songs by Checkers（チェッカーズ）who were known for that nostalgic beat in tunes like "Namida no Request"（涙のリクエスト）. "Teddy Boy Blues" managed to peak at No. 41 on Oricon and it's also included in Ishino's lone album "Boys & Girls" from June 1985.

Yoko Ishino -- Kiss made Matenai ~ My World ~（KISSまで待てない ）

 

Earlier this year, people in Japan and from what I've heard from my anime buddy, people in Taiwan were also stunned and saddened to hear of the untimely death of longtime comedian Ken Shimura（志村けん）due to COVID-19. I was also absolutely shocked to find out because he as both a solo entertainer and as a member of the comedy troupe The Drifters had been a regular presence via TV and our VCR literally for decades. 

One of the many variety shows that he had appeared on was "Shimura Ken-san no Daijoubuda"（志村けんのだいじょうぶだぁ...Ken Shimura's Everything's All Right）, a Monday night program on Fuji-TV which ran from 1987 to 1993 at 8 pm, about a year before the music program "HEY! HEY! HEY! MUSIC CHAMP" with Osaka comedy duo Downtown began its long run. I had the opportunity to catch it when I was living in Gunma Prefecture, and there were a number of comedic segments interspersed with musical numbers often featuring new and veteran aidoru. One of those segments involved Shimura as a grumpy and harried husband of a very fluttery wife played by actress/comedienne Yoko Ishino（いしのようこ）, the younger sister of 1970s aidoru Mako Ishino（石野真子）. Basically, it seemed to come off like a Japanese version of a Burns and Allen skit.

Ishino was one of the regular members on "Daijoubuda" and the chemistry between her and Shimura seemed so good that fans were wondering whether they were really indeed an item. According to J-Wiki, they even shared the same birthday of February 20th. It was a riddle that even I had thought about but apparently not, since after "Daijoubuda" ended its run in 1993, that was it in terms of their time together. In fact, according to a Japanese sports newspaper, Ishino got married a little over a year ago.

Ishino also followed in her sister Mako's footsteps and started her show business career as an aidoru in the mid-1980s, premiering with singers such as Minako Honda（本田美奈子）, Miyuki Imori（井森美幸）, Yuki Saito（斉藤由貴）and Miho Nakayama（中山美穂）. She debuted with "Teddy Boy Blues"（テディーボーイ・ブルース）in 1985 and her 7th and final single was released in June 1989, "Kiss made Matenai ~ My World ~" (Can't Wait for the Kiss).

Now, the reason that I did the search for Ishino's material was that I'd realized that it was a very long time that I covered a Eurobeat tune, and when I looked up a list of J-Eurobeat tunes, I saw Yukari Morikawa's（森川由加里）"SHOW ME" of course, but then I additionally found "Kiss made Matenai" by Ishino.

To be honest, her comedic chops were probably better honed than her singing ones, but the song surrounding her isn't too bad since it is actually a cover of a single by Italian Eurobeat singer Elena Ferretti, better known as Sophie (among many, many aliases) also released in 1989 as "My World". The Japanese version of the song was translated by Keiko Aso（麻生圭子）while the original melody was provided by Stefano Comazzi, Giuliano Crivellente and Federico Di Bonaventura.