Jimmy Buffett -- Margaritaville

 

Saw it on the news crawl on CP24 this morning, but yep, unfortunately singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett passed away at the age of 76 yesterday due to lymphoma. The man was the paean to good old-fashioned tropical beachfront living and such was the fame and popularity of his magnum opus, "Margaritaville" that I think it did have at least some influence on the Resort Pop subset within the New Music, City Pop and AOR realm in Japan. The folk-turned-AOR duo Bread & Butter might be one example. In any case, I've mentioned his name and the song enough times over the years on KKP that I have to mention this today.

"Margaritaville" was released in February 1977, and I can imagine here in Canada at that time, listeners really got that desperate feeling about flying to Florida on hearing this song of tropical paradise. But strangely enough, what I only discovered just in the last hour or so is that "Margaritaville" is really about a hedonistic beach bum who has come to the gradual realization that he's lost the love of his life due to his own actions, especially after a few instances of bad luck. Margaritaville may really be now the bum's soft prison and his margaritas are the crutch to keep him going.

I used to hear "Margaritaville" all the time on radio as a kid and all this time, I'd just assumed that it was the song to advertise a potential retirement in perpetually summery ecstasy. It certainly sounds inviting enough. And I've drunk enough margaritas to get that nice comfortable buzz. 

The song hit No. 4 in Canada and No. 8 in the United States but it went all the way to the top of the Adult Contemporary charts in both nations. It was even inducted into the 2016 Grammy Hall of Fame and in the United States National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress this year. My condolences to Buffett's family, friends and fans through this special ROY article.

So, what were some of the Best New Artists at the Japan Record Awards that year?

Karyudo -- Azusa Ni-go （あずさ２号）

Ikue Sakakibara -- Al Pacino Tasu Alain Delon Yori Anata (アル・パシーノ＋アラン・ドロン＜あなた)

Yosuke Tagawa -- Lui-Lui

Yosuke Tagawa -- Moonlight Carnival（ムーンライト・カーニバル）

 

As an end credit sequence might go: Any similarities between this song and Glenn Miller's "Moonlight Serenade" is purely coincidental. 

Well, as Colonel Potter from "MASH" would say, that's a load of bull hockey. Yosuke Tagawa's（太川陽介）May 1979 10th single "Moonlight Carnival" is giving a clear tribute to one of Miller's trademark tunes from time to time in the arrangement and with half of the title. Being a fan of "Moonlight Serenade" especially because of the clarinets (which I used to play), I don't particularly mind the melodic shoutout per se.

Written by Yukinojo Mori（森雪之丞）and composed by Masaaki Hirao（平尾昌晃）, "Moonlight Carnival" partially answers the question of "How would 'Moonlight Serenade' sound as a disco tune?". It's not really a silly query since I knew that there were a lot of old songs that were getting the disco treatment (those strings, man) back then ranging from John Williams' "Star Wars" to the "I Love Lucy" theme. But as I said above, it's just a partial answer since Mori, Hirao and arranger Tachio Akano（あかのたちお）use the hints of "Moonlight Serenade" as bookends while whipping up a melody of romance among the stars and disco ball dance halls in Roppongi. It's all happy and gleaming Tokyo.

I did forget that "Moonlight Carnival" was the longest-lived theme song for NHK's legendary music program for the young, "Let's Go Young"（レッツゴーヤング）. The show lasted between 1974 and 1985 with "Moonlight Carnival" headlining each episode from 1979.

Yosuke Tagawa -- Yo-yo（ヨーヨー）

I first talked about 70s aidoru Yosuke Tagawa（太川陽介）over a couple of years ago when I wrote about his big hit, the dynamic "Lui-Lui" from 1977.

This time, the song is "Yo-Yo", Tagawa's 6th single which was released in April 1978. Written by Masami Sugiyama（杉山政美）and composed by Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）, there is something country and disco in this one, and I keep getting reminders of Boney M. As the protagonist describes his perhaps on-again/off-again girlfriend as a yo-yo, I wonder if the fellow might actually be one himself as well. No idea how well it did on the charts.

Apparently, according to J-Wiki, the actual toy yo-yo had their respective booms in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s after first coming over in the early 1930s.

Yosuke Tagawa -- Lui-Lui

Long ago in an inner city apartment far far away, I vaguely remember hearing "Louie Louie" by The Kingsmen probably through an episode of "American Bandstand" or as one of the sample songs played on those K-Tel record commercials.

Well, here is "Lui-Lui" by Yosuke Tagawa（太川陽介）, and yes, the only reason I referred to "Louie Louie" is simply because the titles looked similar. They're not even pronounced anywhere near the same. Anyways, I had never heard of this song and for that matter, I had never heard of Tagawa although my parents apparently recognized his older self on sight when they saw him on NHK's "Asaichi"（あさイチ）morning show yesterday. Although he is an actor and a tarento now, he did have a fairly long career as a singer ranging from 1976 to 1985 with the first number of years in aidoru mode.

Seeing old video of him performing this particular song had me interested in finding out more about him. It isn't everyday that I see a 70s male aidoru that wasn't part of the Shin-Gosanke（新御三家）triumvirate of Hiromi Go, Hideki Saijo and Goro Noguchi（郷ひろみ・西城秀樹・野口五郎）. "Lui-Lui" was Tagawa's 3rd single from July 1977 and it turned out to be his biggest hit, winning a Newcomer's Prize at the Japan Record Awards and getting nominated for a similar prize at the Japan Kayo Awards the same year, although the song didn't actually get all that far up the Oricon charts, placing at No. 38 on the weeklies and selling about 63,000 records.

Still, "Lui-Lui" has got plenty of sunny bounce in Shunichi Tokura's（都倉俊一）music (and Tokura helped create a lot of Pink Lady's hits in the same decade) and there's all that cute choreography which could have made the song a hit during the year-end parties if people could play the karaoke version on those 8-track tapes. Shinichi Ishihara（石原信一）came up with the lyrics, including the delivery of the title itself accompanied with that hand gesture resembling a capital L.