Devo -- Whip It

 

There have been a few times in the past when a bunch of us have gone out to dinner. Certain couples were with us and one time, at one restaurant where some hit music was playing over the speakers, the male half of the happy duo stated that the next song to play will be their song. Well, much to everyone's hilarity, it turned out to be Depeche Mode's "Master and Servant". I'm sure that their relationship took a turn there, and once again, the safety word was indeed APPLES.

I never experienced that situation ever again and probably never will (things on that level of funny are truly one-of-a-kind events). Still, I think this week's entry on Reminiscings of Youth could be another song that no couple would want as their go-to song, but man, it's still fun. 

Several years ago, I posted Devo's "Jocko Homo" which was the first song by the band to get up onto the blog but actually, the first ever song that I'd ever heard by The New Wave Boys of Akron, Ohio was "Whip It" that was their August 1980 single. And as I explained on "Jocko Homo", I first came across the catchy and absolutely weird and kinky "Whip It" through a K-Tel compilation record commercial which showed a part of that (in)famous music video including a bunch of dude ranch tourists, a motherly type whipping up some cream, a couple of other ladies in various stages of undress (well, one only lost her shoes), and the band itself festooned in red flower pots and sleeveless turtlenecks. Man, those were wild and woolly days in music video production!

Not only was it the first time I got to know a little about sadomasochism (so, whips can be fun😈) but I also got informed on what New Wave was all about. The strange lyrics which could be taken as motivational encouragement against any and all challenges or a first-round exercise in S&M paired with the herky-jerky delivery of the vocals and those synths definitely made "Whip It" one of the most famous songs of the 1980s. In a way, the Devo song seared the image of New Wave bands as stoic and robotic performers at their keyboards.

"Whip It" just missed the Top 10 by that much on either side of the world's longest unmilitarized border with it coming in at No. 11 on Canada's RPM and No. 14 on America's Billboard. Of course, a lot of folks liked to do their covers of "Whip It", including the late great Catherine O'Hara as Brooke Shields (2:10 of the video below)..

Remember...when in doubt: WHIP IT GOOD!😁

Now, what was hitting the record store shelves of Japan when "Whip It" came out in August 1980? We have a few here.

Hiromi Iwasaki -- Ginga Densetsu（銀河伝説）

Mayumi Itsuwa -- Koibito yo （恋人よ）

Yoshimi Iwasaki -- Anata Iro no Manon （あなた色のマノン）

Yoshimi Iwasaki -- Margarita Girl（マルガリータ・ガール）

 

Another one of those songs that I couldn't classify at first, "Margarita Girl" by Yoshimi Iwasaki（岩崎良美）is still a pretty refreshing cocktail of a tune. I gather that along with 1976, 1982 was a darn fine year for music since it's currently the year in Labels with the second-largest number of articles.

"Margarita Girl" was Iwasaki's 10th single from July 1982. One of three musical creations that year that had been made for the 80s aidoru by the husband-and-wife team of lyricist Kazumi Yasui（安井かずみ）and composer Kazuhiko Kato（加藤和彦）, it starts off sounding a bit City Pop but then it transitions into a more old-fashioned pop standard direction with strings (maybe even a bit Fashion Music?). Moreover, some Latin feeling also infuses itself by the chorus. I guess it wasn't just the girl that was getting margarita-ized. You can ask arranger Nobuyuki Shimizu（清水信之）.

The single managed to peak at No. 41 on Oricon. One of those other Yasui/Kato collaborations for Yoshimi was "Aishite Mon Amour"（愛してモナムール）.

Martha and The Muffins -- Echo Beach

Daeva Trac via Wikimedia Commons

 

Welcome to another Reminiscings of Youth for this Thursday. There were times when I was frankly in a dead-end job and often reminisced during the drudgery about an old place where I used to know friends and had fun. For me, that hallowed place was the International Student Centre in Cumberland House at the University of Toronto. It's apparently now known as the Centre for International Experience. Having worked there as well as played there, a lot of the university clubs reserved rooms for activities and for a long while, the Japanese-Canadian Students' Association had an office on the third floor. 

For songwriter and member of the Toronto New Wave band Martha and The Muffins, Mark Gane when he endured his own job from Hell, his hallowed place was Sunnyside Beach along Lake Ontario in our common hometown. And from that came the idea for "Echo Beach" which was released in February 1980. I didn't know about the significance of the lyrics back then but I remember the song as one of the first ones made in Canada that I actually got hooked on when I finally discovered the joys of pop music. The source album "Metro Music" which was also released in February that year has a map of lakeside Toronto with Sunnyside Beach in there somewhere.

I'm not sure anymore but I had assumed that there were two music videos for "Echo Beach", one was of Martha and The Muffins playing on stage (which is above) and a conceptual one where the band members were strangely doing calisthenics in a park late at night somewhere (Sunnyside Beach, perhaps?). Perhaps I'm hallucinating, though. Regardless, although the band enjoyed success in Canada with a lot of their other singles, "Echo Beach" was probably the only single that had any significant fame outside of the country. It scored No. 5 on Canada's RPM and No. 37 on Billboard's Hot Disco (!) singles chart in the USA. It also went Gold in the Great White North and won a Juno for Single of the Year. Martha and The Muffins is also represented through another ROY article on "Black Stations/White Stations".

So, what was also coming out in February 1980 in the record stores in Japan?

Yoshimi Iwasaki -- Aka to Kuro（赤と黒）

Masashi Sada -- Doukeshi no Sonnet（道化師のソネット）

The Chanels -- Runaway

Yoshimi Iwasaki -- Habit Rouge no Ikizukai de（アビ・ルージュの息づかいで）

 

I have about as much association with high-class colognes as I do with nuclear reactors. In my bathroom, there is a tiny vial of something by Calvin Klein (maybe it's called "Something"?) but that's been on the shelf for years and years. Certainly, I had never heard of this cologne by Guerlain called Habit Rouge. When I first saw it written in katakana, I thought it had something to do with Abbey Road of Beatles' fame.

Well, as it turns out, Habit Rouge is part of a title of a Yoshimi Iwasaki（岩崎良美）song, "Habit Rouge no Ikizukai de" (A Hint of Habit Rouge) which was in fact the final track of her July 1981 album "Weather Report". I think Chanel has been used in at least one example of kayo kyoku but this is the first time for me to hear about Habit Rouge. 

Written by Miwako Yoshimura（吉村美知子）and composed/arranged by Jun Sato（佐藤準）, the song straddles the line between AOR and pop, and as for the former genre, I put it there because the intro has a passing resemblance with the start of Dionne Warwick's "Heartbreaker" as created by the Bee Gees. So, I naturally thought Sato did a bit of borrowing of the hook, but strangely enough, "Heartbreaker" didn't come out until September 1982. Well, what do I know? In any case, "Habit Rouge" starts off sounding rather AOR as Iwasaki sultrily describes a lady presenting her boyfriend with a gift with a whiff of that Habit Rouge (or maybe the guy is already wearing it). The AOR parts seem to be the intro and anything with the wailing electric guitar but much of it is nicely pop with some pleasant background chorus harmonizing at the end.

Quite a few of Japan's best studio musicians were in on this final track of the album. Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂）and Tsuyoshi Kon（今剛）were on electric guitar, Tatsuo Hayashi（林立夫）was on drums while Sato himself was on keyboards.

Joan Jett & the Blackhearts -- I Love Rock 'n' Roll

 

Happy Monday! Today is a statutory holiday here in Canada known as National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, and as is KKP custom, we have a special Monday edition of Reminiscings of Youth.

When I first saw the music video for Joan Jett & the Blackhearts' iconic "I Love Rock 'n' Roll", it was probably through Casey Kasem's "American Top 40" show which I often saw on the weekends. And I got to see it a lot because it was such a hit; the US Billboard chart had it at the top spot (just like in Canada) for seven weeks in a row after its release in January 1982. What stood out for me was that Jett was a lady who looked like she could not only rock hard but could literally rock an opponent hard with her fists and/or her guitar, so I put her alongside the intimidating Pat Benatar. As well, "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" was pure unadulterated hard guitar rock with no jazz or pop mixed in, which was during a time filled with plenty of synthesizers. "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" ended up as the No. 3 song of the year in America and certified Platinum.

As with a number of songs that I've covered in ROY articles over the past few years, I...along with a number of other commenters...am once again surprised to hear that Jett's hit is actually a cover version of an original "I Love Rock 'n' Roll". The British rock band The Arrows released this song back in July 1975 and there really isn't much of a difference in the arrangement. It was also a hard and pulsing rock tune back then as well.

Interestingly enough, the following three Japanese singles were released on the same day: January 21st 1982.

Yoshimi Iwasaki -- Aishite Mon Amour（愛してモナムール）

Southern All Stars -- Chako no Kaigan Monogatari （チャコの海岸物語）

Seiko Matsuda -- Akai Sweet Pea (赤いスイートピー）

Yoshimi Iwasaki -- City Polka（CITYポルカ）

 

John McGraw is someone that I've met a couple of times at lunch, thanks to an introduction via our mutual J-E translator friend. I guess that you can say that we're ramen buddies. But in any case, he began a YouTube channel called Hiyaku Coaching and a podcast titled "Intercultural Insiders" more than a year ago which in his oft-repeated words "...helps expats feel more confident in their new country in less time and pain than they would on their own". Whether it be in Canada or another nation, I'm sure that lot of us including myself have gone through the euphoria and despair of culture shock in the early years of residency in a new country. Well, McGraw and his coaching are the shock absorber.

Obviously I'm living in my home nation again, but I've been listening to John's podcasts for a couple of reasons: 1) I'm an introvert and I can use some of what he's spoken about and 2) he's got a very soothing voice.

But the reason that I'm starting off this edition of KKP on the first Saturday of March 2024 with some intercultural therapy is because of what this particular song is saying. It's been a while since I've posted anything by aidoru Yoshimi Iwasaki（岩崎良美）but I was able to find this track "City Polka" which is a track on her 3rd original album "Weather Report" from July 1981.

I know that Iwasaki actually began her career as a singer with some City Pop under her belt, but I have to admit that I've never heard of "City Polka" before. As created by lyricist Etsuko Kisugi（来生えつこ）and composed by her brother Takao Kisugi（来生たかお）with arrangement by Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）, "City Polka" isn't a polka at all even in its jauntiest moments. In fact, I'd say that it's a very congenial aidoru tune with a hint of 1950s girl pop and country. Lyrically though, the song is about a woman coming to grips with a new life in the big city, presumably Tokyo. Yes, she can feel very lonely in a megalopolis with a daytime population of 14-16 million souls. Overall, I can add that the song is a very pleasant underrated track that is very Kisugi indeed.

Fujimal Yoshino -- 50/50 Fifty-Fifty

 

Decided to dust off the very 80s-ish self-made logo that I usually hide away. 

But one guy who hasn't needed to be dusted off or hidden away is singer-songwriter-musician Fujimal Yoshino（芳野藤丸）. Rocket Brown let me know yesterday that Yoshino had celebrated his half-century of music last year with a commemorative album called "50/50" which I believe was released in September 2022.

Within the album is the title track "50/50 Fifty-Fifty" which is this quietly celebratory song created by Yoshino and lyricist Yoshihiko Ando（安藤芳彦）. It's an eight-minute bluesy pop ballad with a barrel full of guest vocalists: Hiro Tsunoda（つのだひろ）, Junko Ohashi（大橋純子）, Kiyotaka Sugiyama（杉山清貴）and Yoshimi Iwasaki（岩崎良美）. Just some good friends paying tribute who all probably headed for the local pub after recording following the comfortable vibes generated during recording.

Rod Stewart & Jeff Beck -- People Get Ready

 

When it comes to instrumentalist masters on this side of the Pacific Ocean, I've usually stayed within the jazz realm with folks such as Bill Evans, John Coltrane and Miles Davis. On the far side of the ocean, it's been with the fusion bands including Casiopea and T-Square. My anime buddy, who's also been an avid guitar fan (so not surprising that he's been very high on "Bocchi the Rock"), has often told me about his odyssey with the instrument through things such as the humbucker, amps and even the types of guitars such as the many Yamahas and Gibsons.

However, despite all that, I'm certainly not a guitar enthusiast and my knowledge of the famous rock guitarists is still considerably limited to the very famous: Eddie Van Halen, Yngwie Malmsteen, Stevie Ray Vaughn.

Another guitarist that I know about is Jeff Beck, who unfortunately passed away a couple of days ago at the age of 78. That age may sound rather advanced but I still think that he left us way too soon. And it's all because of the reason that I first got to know about Beck, it was his collaboration with Rod Stewart in 1985 for their cover of The Impressions' "People Get Ready" from 1965. Once again, I'm no expert on guitars or guitarists, but there was something about Beck's work on "People Get Ready" that said that this was a true masterpiece performance on an original. I don't know of many guitars that not only sound as if they're crying but are also in rapture. In fact, I could posit that the singer and guitarist have both stamped an indelible mark with their version as the song to accompany folks taking that train to a far far better place.

The music video (which I first saw back on one of the local music shows in my university days) with the sepia tone and its conclusion of Stewart and Beck finally greeting each other warmly at the dusty train station takes on a lot more poignancy now that the latter has left this mortal coil. I can only imagine now that it is Stewart along with Beck's admirers standing at the station now as Beck leaves on the train to that place, contentedly playing away on his Fender Stratocaster. My condolences to Beck's family, friends and fans.

For comparison, here is The Impressions' original as created by Curtis Mayfield.

For this Reminiscings of Youth, I've decided to go with three of the Gold Prize winners at the Japan Record Awards in 1985.

Hiroshi Itsuki -- Soshite....Meguri Ai （そして。。。めぐり逢い）

Yoshimi Iwasaki -- Touch （タッチ）

Yu Hayami -- Passion

Yoshimi Iwasaki -- Kuchibiru kara Suspense（くちびるからサスペンス）

 

It was literally amateur night with my old Casio camera when I took this shot of the Yokohama skyline. Well, it was either that or I just had a little too much to drink at that Chinese buffet place.

Therefore, let us go to something more refined. Perhaps Yoshimi Iwasaki（岩崎良美）was still considered an aidoru when this 18th single of hers, "Kuchibiru kara Suspense" (Suspense from My Lips) came out in July 1984, but still, this song is fairly dramatic and sophisticated in its arrangement. For one thing, there was that common partnership during the 1980s with lyricist Chinfa Kan（康珍化）and composer Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）as the former's words talk of a possible sin playing out with a lady secretly coveting her best friend's boyfriend. With those keyboards, boppy bass and horns, Iwasaki can easily join the City Pop aidoru pedestal along with Momoko Kikuchi（菊池桃子）.

When I watch her performance in the video below, her voice and that certain tilt of her head remind me so much of her older sister Hiromi（岩崎宏美）.

Yoshimi Iwasaki -- What's Love?

 

Got another in the string of Tetsuji Hayashi-penned（林哲司）City Pop numbers tonight. This time, it's Yoshimi Iwasaki's（岩崎良美）"What's Love?".

A track from Iwasaki's 8th album "Wardrobe" from September 1984, Hayashi's songwriter partner here was Chinfa Kan（康珍化）, and I recall that this duo was providing a lot of genre-similar numbers for other artists including Omega Tribe（オメガトライブ）and Momoko Kikuchi（菊池桃子）, I believe. Hayashi also handled the arrangement which is quintessentially City Pop from the beefy bass to the mellow keyboards involved. And from Kan, the lyrics involve a woman asking the titular question as she's falling deeply for that special someone. It's somewhat metaphysical transitioning into physical.

Listening to the younger Iwasaki here, I can still hear some of that resemblance to big sis Hiromi's（岩崎宏美）own great vocals, and I wonder if...really...whether by this point, Iwasaki should have even be categorized as an aidoru. Even with that first single back in 1980, "Aka to Kuro"（赤と黒）, that was also a City Pop tune as well and so I gather that the singer was already tackling some very cool, rather than cutesy, tunes.

Yoshimi Iwasaki -- Snow Lie

 

I finally got to have my first breakfast in a diner in about 20 months. It wasn't the highest quality of food there but heck I was just happy to have sausages again. Bacon is fine but I do have it every Sunday, so I appreciate another form of pork now and then.

Anyways, it's been a couple of years since I put up a Yoshimi Iwasaki（岩崎良美）song so here is "Snow Lie" from her November 1986 mini-album "Blizzard". I do like the song especially with the groove established right from the get-go but then as the melody progressed, I was wondering whether this was truly a City Pop tune. But on hearing the genres flit about flirtatiously all throughout "Snow Lie", I just said the "heck with it" and have placed it as a City Pop and a Pop number. 

Lyrics are by Keiko Aso（麻生圭子）and the music/arrangement are by Satoshi Takebe（武部聡志）. I couldn't quite get what "Snow Lie" is all about, but I can take it as some sort of romantic betrayal on the ski slopes. I did catch that "living together" lyric so perhaps the couple in question was already "living in sin" by the time the fall came.

Ambrosia -- Biggest Part of Me

 

I'm really going to have to invest in an Eizin Suzuki calendar next year.

Anyways, I realize that I have already put up a ROY article for this week but at the same time, I'm going to exercise Administrator's privilege and write up a second one. The reason is that I haven't contributed a ROY article on an AOR tune in a long while...the one that I remember off the top of my head is Pages' "Who's Right, Who's Wrong" from last September. That is almost a year and considering that I do love my soft rock, before I'm forced to hand in my Perrier bottle in shame, it's time to get another light and mellow tune from my musical memories up here in Reminiscings of Youth.

My choice tonight is Ambrosia's "Biggest Part of Me" from March 1980. I used to hear this song by this soft rock/jazz fusion band all the time on the radio (and in doctors' offices), and at that time when I was a kid, I thought it was a pleasant enough ditty. But decades later, while I was in Japan and folks there (including myself) were getting into the American AOR boom through remastered CDs, hearing "Biggest Part of Me" again just launched the effervescent bubbles of Perrier percolating in my head. Translation: I appreciated it a whole lot more. And apparently, so did the charts way back when. In Canada, the song went as high as No. 18 on RPM and on the Adult Contemporary chart in the United States, it hit No. 3.

What can I say? David Pack was the man who created the song and sang it, and during the 2000s to hear this song once more among the other formerly forgotten delights on those AOR compilation discs that I'd bought at Tower Records and Yamano Music was quite the aural manna from Heaven. All of "Biggest Part of Me" is great but there's that Ernie Watts' sax solo in the middle which still sends shivers up and down my spine. Yup, I'm an AOR otaku!😛

So, what was coming out into the record stores in Japan while "Biggest Part of Me" was coming out in the record stores in Canada and the United States (and perhaps Japan, too)? Well, according to Showa Pops, these three were.

Mariya Takeuchi -- Fushigi na Peach Pie （不思議なピーチ・パイ）

Toshi Ito and Happy & Blue -- Gaman Dekinai wa（我慢できないわ）

Yoshimi Iwasaki -- Aka to Kuro（赤と黒）

Yoshimi Iwasaki -- Congratulation

Discovered this one on a City Pop compilation in the last hour or so, and then was lucky enough to find a lone video for this very song.

Rocket Brown from Come Along Radio and I have already spoken on the one trope of not basing one's love for a singer on a single amazing hit (namely Mariya's "Plastic Love"), and I think that it sorta fits here as well. All these years, I've only known Yoshimi Iwasaki（岩崎良美）for that big 1980s hit "Touch"（タッチ）, and it's only been within the last several years, namely the years that I've been doing the blog, that I've realized that Hiromi's（岩崎宏美）younger sister wasn't just stuck on 50s-ish pop tunes but had been recording mellow City Pop/J-AOR songs nearly right from her debut.

Case in point: "Congratulation" from her September 1984 album "Wardrobe". Slight typo aside, this is one very desirable track thanks to that fine pairing of lyricist Chinfa Kan（康珍化）and composer Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）who know more than a thing or two about the urban contemporary. Kan weaves a story about a woman at a friend's wedding party where she sees someone she's had feelings for but hasn't seen since their college days. What could happen? Dunno...but apparently she's waiting poolside to get him alone.

Yoshimi Iwasaki -- Aishite Mon Amour（愛してモナムール）

It's been a while since I covered a Yoshimi Iwasaki（岩崎良美）song so I'm happy to select a track from her June 1982 5th album "Cecile".

The catchphrase for the album was "Here's the fragrance of Europe just for you!", and judging from Track 2 "Aishite Mon Amour" (Love Me, Mon Amour), it looks like there was some truth-in-advertising here. The song was also Yoshimi's 8th single released in January 1982.

Written and composed by the husband-and-wife team of Kazumi Yasui and Kazuhiko Kato（安井かずみ・加藤和彦）, "Aishite Mon Amour" sounds like a very early Anri（杏里）song, and sure enough, there is also that feeling of European elegance as advertised imbued into the melody arranged by Nobuyuki Shimizu（清水信之）. The album has been categorized as both aidoru and New Music (even going into the 1980s), and from both this song and another single that was put onto "Cecile", "Vacance", although there is that happy boppiness of aidoru, Shimizu's arrangement seems to kick things up a notch from the usual teenybopper tunes, thanks to that elegance I just mentioned.  Moreover, it's also nice to hear EPO with her backing chorus.

Yoshimi Iwasaki -- Anata Iro no Manon （あなた色のマノン）

I had been thinking about doing Yoshimi Iwasaki's（岩崎良美）"Koi Hodo Suteki na Show wa Nai"（恋ほど素敵なショーはない）, forgetting that nikala had beaten me to the punch a couple of years ago, and her description pretty much nailed my impressions of the song. Plus, I gave my response to it underneath. It's a wonderful, short and sweet tune that had me thinking Carpenters and was quite the revelation considering that my entire world view of Hiromi's（岩崎宏美）younger sister was tied with her most recognized song "Touch"（タッチ）. Therefore up until I started the blog, I only knew Yoshimi for a 1950s rock n' roll sound.

Gonna have to listen more to that lone Yoshimi BEST compilation that I got last Xmas. To paraphrase from my own article on her debut single "Aka to Kuro"（赤と黒）, I think she covered a larger area musically than earlier thought. There was that 1970s West Coast breeziness of "Koi Hodo Suteki na Show wa Nai", and then I believe I had read earlier through another one of nikala's other articles on Yoshimi that despite her status as an aidoru, she had actually ventured more into City Pop and J-AOR in her early years.

Despite that rock-like blast to introduce "Aka to Kuro" and intermittent interjections of brass, her debut quickly ventured into some of the usual sweeping aidoru tunes of that age. For tonight, I want to show her 3rd single "Anata Iro no Manon" (Manon of Your Colour) which embraces even more of the City Pop aesthetic while still hewing to those aidoru roots. Released in August 1980 and created by the same duo behind "Aka to Kuro", Rei Nakanishi and Fujimal Yoshino（なかにし礼・芳野藤丸）, the arrangement brings nothing less than life in the big city, thanks to that brass and bass plus the relentless guitar.

The one thing that had me scratching my head initially was the title. Was this about a French artist? For years, artists' names ranging from Chopin to C. Claudel have been used in kayo titles. However in this case, the title of this aidoru tune refers to the title of an early 18th-century novel by Abbe Prevost titled "Manon Lescaut". I'm just going by the Wikipedia article here but apparently the novel was about the title character, a young woman with a taste for the high life who forces her lover to scrounge about for the money and luxury to keep her happy.

In Yoshimi's song, the protagonist declares boldly "I am Manon Lescaut" although there is not much of a hint that she's stringing her boyfriend along aside from pretending to have sprained her ankle so that he would carry her home on his back. Mind you, I think most fans were just wondering at the time about who the heck Manon Lescaut was.

Still, it was pretty interesting to hear this mesh of French literature (very loosely, I know) and Japanese City Pop sung by an aidoru. Furthermore, I think I have mentioned it before but Yoshimi tried to follow in her older sister's larynx with that delicate yet fairly rich delivery in her early years. And to add more to my knowledge, the younger Iwasaki actually made it onto the Kohaku Utagassen for the first and only time to perform "Anata Iro no Manon" at the end of 1980 with the elder Iwasaki lending moral support, of course. There were three ladies in slinky green dresses behind her also providing backup chorus: singers Sayuri Ishikawa（石川さゆり）, Ikue Sakakibara（榊原郁恵）and Mako Ishino（石野真子）.

"Anata Iro no Manon" reached as high as No. 22 on Oricon and won Iwasaki a Newcomer's Prize at the Japan Record Awards that year.

Yoshimi Iwasaki -- Rain （レイン）

We finally got our true first taste of winter weather last night due to a storm of precipitation which slammed into the GTA. And unfortunately it wasn't a particularly clean blanket of snow, either. What was left on our roads and sidewalks has been a sludgy mess of snow, freezing rain and just plain rain. It wasn't exactly pleasant walking over to the nearby shopping centre, let's say.

In any case, what was far more pleasant to the ear was Yoshimi Iwasaki's（岩崎良美）"Rain", one of the tracks on her 7th album from November 1983, "Save Me". Written by Masao Urino（売野雅勇）and composed by Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）, the song may have been a creation from the early 1980s but the nice techno kayo arrangement had me thinking late 80s aidoru. I have often thought that Yoshimi may have been singing in the large shadow of her elder sister, Hiromi, but it's her songs like these that have also made me think that she was able to carve a solid niche in the hearts of even casual fans like myself.

Yoshimi Iwasaki -- Koi Hodo Suteki na Show wa Nai (恋ほど素敵なショーはない)

Through the comments for J-Canuck’s post about Yoshimi Iwasaki’s (岩崎良美) debut single “Aka to Kuro”, we agreed that most of her songs are not the type that hook you right away. Some might be unimpressive; others just take a while to warm up to. Nevertheless, there are some truly enjoyable songs scattered within her catalogue, which I assembled into a playlist when I started listening to her, and that playlist has grown since then. There’s one particular tune that I find especially lovely and that’s “Koi Hodo Suteki na Show wa Nai” (恋ほど素敵なショーはない…There’s No Show Business Like Love), her 12th single from January 1983. This beautiful song just oozes with all the delicate feelings that accompany springtime romance. The melody is so positive that I haven't paid attention to the lyrics until recently. Turns out the poor gal in there has no luck with love and wishes it was as magical as it appears in musicals. Before she blinks, their movie is over. Well, the English part in the refrain sort of gave the ending away, but the tune is so sweet like the sight of cherry blossoms that I was hoping it would be a happy one.

Masao Urino (売野雅勇) was responsible for writing the song and based its title off Walter Lang’s 1954 musical film “There’s No Business Like Show Business”, known as “Show Hodo Suteki na Shobai wa Nai” in Japan (ショウほど素敵な商売はない). There’s also Irving Berlin’s song, which was used in that film among others. Tatsushi Umegaki (梅垣達志) , whom I read a little bit about through this blog, composed the mellow sweet melody and I think it fits Yoshimi’s light delivery perfectly. The breezy country-pop touch makes me time-travel to those charming days of the early 80’s aidoru, though Yoshimi’s natural tone (not the actual voice) aligns more with the classic 70’s idols like Hiromi Ohta as opposed to the new generation with the bouncy curls and girly voices ala Seiko Matsuda. Makes me think that Yoshimi has looked up to her older sister a bit in terms of generational tendencies.

“Koi Hodo Suteki na Show wa Nai” was the seasonal CM campaign song for Nisshin OilliO (日清製油). The single peaked at No.22 on Oricon weeklies and sold about 72,000 copies, according to this page. It's also a track on her 6th studio album "Kuchibiru ni Yume no Ato" (唇に夢の跡).

Source: blogs.yahoo.co.jp/garage_miho

Yoshimi Iwasaki -- Aka to Kuro（赤と黒）

As you have most likely gleaned, I am a huge fan of chanteuse Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）, but when it comes to her younger sister, Yoshimi, I really only know her trademark tune "Touch", the classic 1985 anison with that old-style rock n' roll touch. Then, nikala added the second article on the singer for the song "Vacance" which was the B-side to an earlier 1982 single, "Margarita Girl". I mentioned it on the "Touch" article, but I had read somewhere that despite the aidoru tag, the junior Iwasaki's material seems to have tended toward the more mature side of adult contemporary, something that has intrigued me especially since her trademark song sounded anything but.

I finally pulled the trigger and decided to purchase my first anything on Yoshimi Iwasaki（岩崎良美）. So I purchased a remastered edition of her 3rd album from July 1981, "Weather Report". Along with the original 10 tracks for that album, the disc contains several of her singles, including her debut release of "Aka to Kuro" (Red and Black) which came out in February 1980.

Written by prolific lyricist Rei Nakanishi（なかにし礼）and composed by guitarist/singer Fujimal Yoshino（芳野藤丸）from the band SHOGUN, "Aka to Kuro" starts off with a raunchy guitar-and-horn blast as if it was starting off some 70s cop show, but then it quickly settles down into a sweeping yet dreamy account of some fellow pulling off a Romeo gambit by secretly approaching the window of his beloved for a bit of communication while Juliet is slightly fretting over whether this is the right thing to do.

All I could say was "Wow!" Quite a few impressions pierced my fragile little mind such as the fact that Yoshimi did sound quite a bit like her older sister in this one. And the arrangement of the song had hints of Hiromi's 70s heyday. The guitar and horns popped in and out just to keep that bite in "Aka to Kuro" but there was also some Latin along the lines of Junko Yagami's（八神純子）early work and even a bit of City Pop sound although the lyrics don't have anything to do with the big city.

Yoshimi's 1st single managed to peak at No. 19 on Oricon. After listening to the whole of "Weather Report" and those singles (which also included the aforementioned "Vacance" but not "Touch"), the songs haven't made that much of an impression as of yet, although there were a few pleasant tracks. But that doesn't faze me since I've had not-so-amazing first impressions gradually turn into much greater respect for a number of albums I've bought over the years. So chin up, Yoshimi! I'm still rooting in there.

Yoshimi Iwasaki -- Vacance

Forgive the bad timing of this entry. I'm actually returning to school for my final year of post-secondary studies tomorrow, and I'm sure many students around the world aren't that thrilled about this time of the year, but it never hurts to dream about summer vacation. Hope you had a fun one. Here's a gift for you all: a sunny tune by Hiromi's younger sister Yoshimi Iwasaki (岩崎良美). I've listened to a number of her works over the past couple of months, and "Vacance" stands out thanks to those chirpy techno synths, the interludes with galloping drums, and the celebratory vocals in the chorus. The line where Yoshimi sings "Nami ni naritai" ("Kaze ni naritai" in the second verse) is wonderful. The whole melody is an aural equivalent of a freeway drive by a Mediterranean coast. Would like to visit that part of the world someday.

"Vacance" originally appeared on  her fifth studio album, "Cécile", released in June 1982. A month later, it took on a single status as a second half of her double A-side single "Margarita Girl/Vacance" (マルガリータガール/Vacance). The lyrics were written by Yuko Kanai (金井夕子) under her pen-name Mei Aoki (青木茗), but the composer was surprising: the radical rocker Panta (パンタ). Listening to the song carefully, I can sense a subtle rock edge underneath the windy poppiness of it all. The arrangement was handled by Nobuyuki Shimizu (清水信之). I don't have the Oricon data for the album, but according to this page, the single peaked at No.41 spot on the charts and sold 36,000 copies.

Here's Yoshimi performing the song with a glowing smile on (what looks like) "Yoru no Hit Studio". (Sorry that particular video got taken down.)

Source: hitchartmania blog

Yoshimi Iwasaki -- Touch （タッチ）

One of the most beloved anime songs from the 1980s, Yoshimi Iwasaki（岩崎良美）will forever be connected with "Touch". The younger sister of Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美), Yoshimi started out as an aidoru in 1980, some 5 years after her sister's debut. Although labeled as an aidoru, her music tended more towards the adult contemporary side of things into genres such as AOR or City Pop, thanks to some of the songwriters who had been sought out such as the Kisugi siblings. But her 20th single, "Touch" had that 50s rock sound imbued into it. "Touch", by the way, was the anime adapted from the original manga by Mitsuru Adachi（あだち充), who had also written "Miyuki"（みゆき） which has its own memorable theme songs by H2O (already profiled). The plot involved the Uesugi brothers and their love for baseball...and also for their friend from childhood, Minami Asakura.

This is a performance by Yoshimi Iwasaki herself. I've always found her delivery to be a bit lighter and more nimble than that of Hiromi, so I think she and "Touch" made a perfect fit. Adachi was also known to have been a big Yoshimi fan as well so I can imagine how he felt when his idol was given the mike to sing the theme song.

Written by Chinfa Kan（康珍化）and composed by Hiroaki Serizawa（芹沢廣明）, "Touch", after its release in March 1985, reached as high as No. 12 on Oricon and was the 39th-ranked song of the year.