Yu Hayami -- Answer Song wa Aishuu（アンサーソングは哀愁）

 

I can actually say this for the first time since I returned to Canada from Japan for good back in late 2011. Today is feeling like torrid Tokyo summer weather. It is majorly like swimming in atmosphere outside. All I can say is that I'll be glugging down a lot of water and other refreshments today and probably tomorrow, too.

Back in the day, popular music had hit songs which inspired other singers to come up with so-called answer songs to essentially rebut the original songs' message. For example, Shogo Hamada's（浜田省吾）1980 "Tokyo"（東京）can be seen to be the bleaker response to Kenji Sawadas's（沢田研二）all-is-wonderful "TOKIO" from the same year (you can listen to both songs on "Tokyo Songs").

One of the earliest Japanese pop songs that I ever heard since I realized that I was actually loving to hear them was Hiromi Go's（郷ひろみ）July 1982 "Aishuu no Casablanca"（哀愁のカサブランカ）which was the cover of Bertie Higgins' "Casablanca". I only found out recently that aidoru Yu Hayami（早見優）had released an answer song to that Go song as her 3rd single from October that year. Titled "Answer Song wa Aishuu" (The Answer Song is Filled with Sorrow), it was created by a different set of songwriters: famed lyricist Yu Aku（阿久悠）, composer Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）and arranger Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）. And yet, there is a similarity with this and "Aishuu no Casablanca" in terms of the overall melody and there isn't really any rebuttal at all within Hayami's song. It's actually more like commiseration on the loss of love. The two tunes can get together at a bar and drink down their sorrows like buddies. In any case, Hayami's third single reached No. 38 on Oricon and was a track on her sophomore album "Image" from November 1982 which hit No. 15 on the album charts.

The Puppies -- Suki na Hito（好きな人）

 

Hey, KKP fans! How about taking a look at these puppies? OK...maybe slightly inappropriate but honestly speaking, the good folks at The Pet Collective have amassed this footage of the cutest puppies on Earth. Please enjoy the little ones as I use them as a segue to this song.

Commenter YMOfan04 showed me a number of these videos highlighting Japanese acts from the 1960s that I had never heard about. It made me realize how big the musical pyramids were when it came to the numbers of aidoru or Group Sounds or regular pop singers went in and out the revolving door of the music industry with 90% of them probably staying unknown or barely known while perhaps the top 1% at the peak became the iconic superstars.

One of these acts were called, strangely enough, The Puppies（ザ・パピーズ）. They don't have a J-Wiki entry so I had to do a bit of digging, and at one site, I found out that the duo was a sister act consisting of Nana（吉川ナナ）and Mimi Yoshikawa（吉川ミミ）. Maybe the powers-that-be were going for a similar Peanuts（ザ・ピーナッツ）vibe. Information is still hard to come by but at another site run by Chinpei, I also discovered that in 1968, The Puppies were latched onto a Group Sounds quartet called The Moondogs（ザ・ムーンドッグス）to release one single titled "Ai ga Subete"（愛がすべて...Love is Everything）. Chinpei wondered whether this had been a bit of a desperation move to get their joint careers on the move.

Well, most likely it didn't take since the following year in 1969, The Puppies were back on their own when they released what has been called their second debut single "Aishite Horo Horo"（愛してほろほろ...So In Love）. But I'm focusing today on the B-side of this single "Suki na Hito" (The Man I Love). It is a sweet kayo kyoku ballad with the popular harmonica, jangling guitar and backing orchestra supporting the lovely voices of the Yoshikawa sisters. One notable thing is that this rather short song was created by some big wigs: lyricist Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composer Takashi Miki（三木たかし）. However, Chinpei notes that soon after this release, The Puppies faded from view.

Hiromi Iwasaki -- Fantasy（ファンタジー）

Y'know...I assumed for all these years that I'd already posted about Hiromi Iwasaki's（岩崎宏美）4th single "Fantasy" since it was one of her earliest tunes and I'd been pretty dedicated about writing about those, such as her sophomore release "Romance"（ロマンス）. However, going up and down her discography on KKP a few times when I was writing up a recent ROY article, I realized much to my chagrin that it was simply not the case.

Well, one Gibbs slap later, I've gotten to work. "Fantasy" was Iwasaki's January 1976 single created by lyricist Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）. As with her earliest works by this duo, "Fantasy" has that rather urgent string-driven arrangement with the slight disco touch. From what I can glean from Aku's lyrics, there is a countdown going from two months down to half a day before as a woman recounts the adventure of a man she fancies and is then betrayed by. It makes me wonder whether the lady's dreams of romantic bliss were nothing but cruel fantasy or whether the woman made this whole thing up. It's quite the mature topic for teenaged Hiromi to sing about.

"Fantasy" peaked at No. 2 on Oricon and eventually became the 20th-ranked single of 1976. Iwasaki also got onto that year's edition of the Kohaku Utagassen for the second time to sing this one.

You Ishihara -- Yaburekabure（破れかぶれ）

 

It was on New Year's Eve last year that I introduced the mysterious You Ishihara（石原祐）, a singer that I couldn't really find a lot of information about, although commenter Brian Mitchell sent me some of what he had gleaned.

Well, the article that I posted was on her 1978 single "Hakka Tabako"（薄荷煙草）. Today, it's time for the B-side, "Yaburekabure" which has quite the amusing pronunciation...something akin to "topsy-turvy" or "abracadabra". However, its meaning is "desperation" although the melody by Katsuo Ono（大野克夫）sounds anything but. I'd say that for a desperate individual, "Yaburekabure" is surprisingly quite upbeat and happy-go-lucky especially with those silky strings coming in. Legendary lyricist Yu Aku（阿久悠）was the one behind the words. 

Uta Con: February 24th 2026 -- Tribute to Yu Aku（阿久悠）

 

First off, thanks go to The history man on YouTube for providing this video on the life and career of kayo kyoku songwriting legend Yu Aku (1937-2007) who apparently remains the 2nd-most prolific lyricist in Japan following Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）. Yesterday, the return of NHK's "Uta Con"（うたコン）after the Olympic break was a big one for all of the kayo fans since a good chunk of the program was a tribute to the works of Aku who would have been 89 back on February 7th..

This isn't an Author's Picks because I wasn't the one who came up with these songs for performance on the show last night. Of course, it was the NHK producers who did that but I still wanted to acknowledge the Aku songs that had been sung on the Shibuya stage since they have remained part of the bread and butter that make up a lot of this blog. You can also take a look at a Creator article that I wrote up back in 2015 regarding Aku and his constitution on writing those lyrics.

(1974) Isao Sasaki -- The Theme from Space Cruiser Yamato (宇宙戦艦ヤマト）

(1977) Sayuri Ishikawa -- Tsugaru Kaikyo Fuyu Geshiki （津軽海峡・冬景色）

(1977) Hiromi Iwasaki -- Shishuuki （思秋期）

(1984) Shinichi Mori -- Kita no Hotaru （北の螢）

(1982) Hiroshi Itsuki and Nana Kinomi -- Izakaya （居酒屋）

(1977) Kenji Sawada -- Katte ni Shiyagare （勝手にしやがれ）

(1973) Finger Five -- Kojin Jugyō（個人授業）

(1974) Finger Five -- Gakuen Tengoku (学園天国）

Midori Hara -- KO・KO・RO・NOTE (Part 2)

From Discogs

Last Friday, I provided an article featuring Side A of Midori Hara's（原みどり）sophomore album from March 1988, "KO・KO・RO・NOTE" (Heart Note) . It's been a production that's surprised me with the singer tackling some of the more urban contemporary genres such as City Pop. Today, I'm finishing up with the Side B tracks. Unless noted, everything here is by Hara.

This starts with "too young" which was written by Yu Aku（阿久悠）with Hara providing the melody which Masahiro Ikumi（幾見雅博）arranged (and in fact, he arranged all of the tracks). It starts off feeling as if David Foster got his hands on the song and it then continues onto a West Coast AOR vein. If you ever wondered what such a song would sound like if YUKI from Judy & Mary or NOKKO from Rebecca had gotten behind the mike, then today is your lucky day (though it's ironic then that today is Friday the 13th).

"Iro no Nai Movie"（色のない Movie...Colourless Movie） is a wholly Hara creation whose verses are underlaid with a bit of reggae before going into a city strut chorus. The singer herself takes on a slightly more plaintive and sultrier direction with her vocals. There's also some really nice guitar work here in the intro and instrumental bridge.

The penultimate track has a pretty existential title. "Yojigen Kuukan Ryokou"（四次元空間旅行...Trip Through Four-Dimensional Space） has that feeling of a relaxing jazz standard with a wood bass figuring prominently in the arrangement, although the presence of the Fender Rhodes or electric piano keeps things in the contemporary. So, would the title be referring to a regular trip through time and space?

For the final track of "KO・KO・RO・NOTE", "Tsuyoku Dakishimeteite mo Sayonara"（強く抱きしめていてもSa・Yo・Na・Ra...Holding You Tight Even If It's Goodbye）, the poignancy is in the piano as Hara delivers a heartfelt ballad about saying goodbye although the feelings for each other are still there. Just like the final track on Side A, "Itami"（痛み...Pain）,  I can get that hint of gospel blues which makes me wonder what would it have been like if an actual organ had been used instead of the piano.

As I've mentioned, "KO・KO・RO・NOTE" is quite the delightful surprise from thirty-eight years ago by Hara. For those who like their 80s City Pop and some more genres, you can give this one the good ol' college try.

You Ishihara -- Hakka Tabako（薄荷煙草）

 

Happy New Year's Eve! Perhaps some of you are getting ready for the biggest party of the year at homes or hotels. Hopefully, you'll have a find time tonight as the countdown progresses towards the end of 2025.

I have a bit of a mystery here. There's barely anything on this singer named You Ishihara（石原祐）who has been referred to as the "Female Julie"; basically she was seen as the woman version of Kenji "Julie" Sawada（沢田研二）, the flamboyant artist who was once the lead singer for the Group Sounds band The Tigers. And that's basically the only thing I could glean from a brief blurb on the Takechas website.

The only other thing there was that the famed songwriters, lyricist Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composer Katsuo Ono（大野克夫）who had also created magic for the real Julie, including "Casablanca Dandy"（カサブランカ・ダンディ）, was also the duo behind Ishihara's possibly one-and-only 1978 single "Hakka Tabako" (Hakka Cigarettes). Quite the downtown kayo kyoku with the spirited strings and guitar in addition to the nice and sharp horns, although Ishihara doesn't look anything like Sawada (she kinda looks as if she had graduated from the Takarazuka Academy), the comparison is probably more with the plaintive balladeer-like vocal style that Sawada possesses. To be honest, I can also compare her to similarly husky-voiced Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）. Not sure whatever became of her.

Shigeru Matsuzaki -- Yuuhi no Uta（夕陽の歌）/Hassen-Nana-Hyaku-Roku-Jukkai no I Love You（8760回のアイ・ラブ・ユー）

 

We're starting off this business week on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" with a twofer. As a lot of the kayo kyoku vets know, Shigeru Matsuzaki（松崎しげる）is most famous for his "Ai no Memory"（愛のメモリー）, a single released in August 1977 which became a huge hit. 

Until then though, he'd had some very lean years with him and his manager getting doors slammed on them. But on hearing the May 1977 single immediately before the successful "Ai no Memory", I'm hoping that folks have had a change of heart in his earlier works. "Yuuhi no Uta" (Song of the Setting Sun), which was his 13th single, is a lovely little ballad if perhaps a bit on the Kleenex-friendly sentimental side given further heft by Matsuzaki's tender vocals. Along with Shunichi Tokura's（都倉俊一） old-fashioned folksy melody and arrangement are Makoto Kitajo's（喜多条忠）lyrics. It sounds like something that I would have heard on a K-Tel compilation of American pop balladry. I have to say that the young Matsuzaki on the single cover looks like the world's most casually-dressed Secret Service agent.

And speaking of him on the cover, Matsuzaki looks like a veritable kid posing for his high school photo on his very first single as a solo artist. Yes, just to take a little tangent here, back in his days at the Nihon University College of Art, he'd been with Tomiaki "Tommy" Hidaka（日高富明）and Mamoru "Mark" Horiuchi（堀内護）in a short-lived band called Milk or Hot Milk (Tommy and Milk would end up with the band GARO in the 1970s). Famous singer-songwriter Ryudo Uzaki（宇崎竜童）had been a manager at Ohashi Productions who would scout young Matsuzaki during his time with Milk.

Getting back on track, that very first single was "Hassen-Nana-Hyaku-Roku-Jukkai no I Love You" (I Love You 8,760 Times) released in October 1970. Written by Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composed by Kunihiko Suzuki（鈴木邦彦）, it stands out for being a regular kayo kyoku compared to his later stuff which sounds more in the New Music vein of things, and of course, his vocals don't sound like the familiar resonant and slightly raspy tones that we've become accustomed to. As for the rather convoluted number in the title, it stands for the number of hours in a year. Mind you, after having "I Love You" said to that special someone once an hour every hour for an entire year, I'm not sure if that someone will want to reciprocate anymore.

Harumi Miyako -- Mukashi（ムカシ）

 

My mother has often asked the question, "Where is Harumi Miyako（都はるみ）? I haven't seen her in ages." Well, looking the legendary enka singer up on J-Wiki, I found out that she basically stopped any public appearances in the mid-2010s, and as of 2021, she's been living with a former actor in an old countryside inn somewhere in the Tohoku region. So, let us just assume that she has finally retired without any great bombast.

Some weeks ago, when I was watching the kayo program "Shin BS Nippon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）on NHK, I noticed one of the guests singing a Miyako song that I had never heard of before. It started out as one of the more traditional enka but then the carpet was pulled out from beneath us listeners, and it became an old-fashioned rock n' roll tune, reminiscent of the Group Sounds days of the 1960s. 

This would be "Mukashi" which literally translates as "Long Ago". However, considering the lyrics by Yu Aku（阿久悠）, perhaps a better and more pragmatic translation would be "Yesterday's Man". This was Miyako's 119th single from New Year's Day 2003 and looking at that cover of a triumphant-looking singer with the big hair and her smiling visage emblazoned all over her kimono, this isn't an ordinary Miyako single...especially with Ryudo Uzaki（宇崎竜童）handling the composition, him being the grizzled rock master.

Along with the GS sound, Miyako is more than happy to be singing about washing that man right out of her hair...just to reference another old American song from way back when. She's free, I tell you, free of the shackles of the old relationship and ready to tackle new adventures, but not without some gleeful verbal stomping of the former pathetic paramour.

Four Leaves -- Odoriko（踊り子）

 

Through some of the Author's Picks lists that have been posted up recently, I've come to realize that kayo kyoku songwriters enjoyed certain common words in their titles. Another one is "odoriko" or "dancing girl" (but also "dancing boy" although the former seems to be more common) for some reason. I don't have enough songs in my knowledge to put up another Author's Picks under that theme quite yet, but I can mention that I remember Kozo Murashita's（村下孝蔵）wistful "Odoriko" and Momoe Yamaguchi's（山口百恵）swift and stately "Izu no Odoriko"（伊豆の踊子）.

Well, here's another "Odoriko"...this time, the 31st single by the Johnny's aidoru group Four Leaves（フォーリーブス）released in June 1976. Written by Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composed by Daisuke Inoue（井上大輔）when he was still writing as Tadao Inoue（井上忠夫）, formerly of the Group Sounds band Jackey Yoshikawa and His Blue Comets（ジャッキー吉川とブルー・コメッツ）, this is quite the brassy tune with a touch of that GS despite it having gone the way of the dodo in the very early 1970s. Compared to the other two songs that I cited in the previous paragraph, the whole thing about Four Leaves' "Odoriko" is a fair bit more sad and salacious as a dancer-for-money slips off the nice-person act and the latest conquest like lint off a sleeve.

For listeners who've picked up on the observation that there seems to be another earlier and more well-known song lurking in the background of "Odoriko", well, I searched that out and I discovered that it takes the riff and chorus from "Let's Live For Today", the 1967 hit by rock band The Grass Roots. "Odoriko" itself scored a No. 41 ranking on Oricon and proved to be the ticket for Four Leaves' 7th and final appearance on NHK's Kohaku Utagassen in their first run between 1968 and 1978.

Naomi Chiaki -- Waltz（円舞曲）

 

Heard this one last night on NHK's "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）. Of course, my mother was asking about whatever happened to Naomi Chiaki（ちあきなおみ）. Well, she called it a day to her long career in 1992 shortly after the passing of her husband, Eiji Gō（郷鍈治）.

Chiaki's 17th single from March 1974, "Waltz", fits the template for her songs...a mix of melancholy and cheerful with those velvety vocals, just like her most famous hit "Kassai"（喝采）a couple of  years previously.

I've placed "Waltz" as a kayo kyoku although Makoto Kawaguchi's（川口真）melody and arrangement has also included some of that enka and country. The legendary Yu Aku（阿久悠）provided the lyrics about a woman who is thinking of other couples dancing a loving waltz while she no longer has a dance partner as she is sitting all by her lonesome in a seaside hotel. "Waltz" reached No. 29 on Oricon and was included as the title track of a May 1974 album.

Nice touch of adding that furigana of "Waltz" overlaying the kanji since the original pronunciation is the more unwieldy enbukyoku. Apparently, the title was inspired by a 1949 Kousaburo Yoshimura（吉村公三郎）film titled "Manatsu no Waltz"（真夏の円舞曲...Midsummer Waltz） which did the same thing with its kanji.

Char -- Kizetsu Suru Hodo Nayamashii（気絶するほど悩ましい）

 

When a song ends with the lyrics "Any love that's going well isn't love", I can assume that this isn't a light and breezy ditty of romance. But such is the case with Char's 2nd single from June 1977, "Kizetsu Suru Hodo Nayamashii" (You're So Annoying I Can Faint), and yep, maybe I can say the same thing about the title.

Written by Yu Aku（阿久悠）, composed by Tatsushi Umegaki（梅垣達志） and arranged by Jun Sato（佐藤準）, I can opine that "Kizetsu Suru Hodo Nayamashii" goes along the line of "can't live with each other, can't live without each other", as a man and a woman snipe against each other internally and yet won't commit to a breakup. Melodically, what's striking is how smooth and pop this Char song is...usually I think rock or City Pop with the Tokyo-born singer-songwriter (although he wasn't involved in the songwriting process here as noted above) , but this time, there is something almost approaching Gilbert O'Sullivan or Al Stewart with the rhythm, strings and guitar. Mind you, there is also a feeling that Umegaki and/or Sato had perhaps wanted to incorporate a bit of Jigsaw's "Sky High" at around the chorus part.

"Kizetsu Suru Hodo Nayamashii" reached No. 12 and ended up as the 98th-ranked single for 1977, selling around 300,000 records. A stripped-down version of the song made it onto Char's sophomore album "Char II have a wine" which was released later that year in November.

Shinichi Mori -- Fuyu no Tabi（冬の旅）

 

Yesterday's article on the rock band One Ok Rock fronted by Takahiro Moriuchi（森内貴寛）was partially sparked by the revelation through a commenter that his father was none other than enka singer Shinichi Mori（森進一）. He's someone I've known for decades because of his raspy voice and the fact that he kinda looked like a Japanese Ensign Chekov when he was much younger. 

Well, out of coincidence, when I was searching for some enka YouTube to show my enka-loving father, I just happened to come across a Mori tribute video, and though KKP has its fair share of his music, I hadn't known about his 28th single from October 1973, "Fuyu no Tabi" (A Winter Journey).

Filled with emotion as any enka tune should have, Mori was definitely the right singer for this one as he can be very heart wrenching with his vocals. This song created by lyricist Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composer Kosho Inomata（猪俣公章）is as bitter as can be, as a brokenhearted lover seethes angst, frustration and anger about the end of the two-year relationship and hopes that the former partner is as trapped in the existential trek in the cold as he is (freezing gusts of wind and a forlorn chorus start the ballad off). Yeah, no sweetness to this bitterness at all. "Fuyu no Tabi" reached No. 3 on the Oricon weeklies and ended up as the 23rd-ranked single by the end of 1974.

Pink Lady -- Kanpai! Ojou-san（乾杯!お嬢さん）

 

As is the case in English, the Japanese language is chock-filled with portmanteaus. There is kopipe（コピペ）for "copy-and-paste" and the now-extinct pokeberu（ポケベル）which used to represent the pre-cellphone technology of a pocket bell or as it was properly called, the pager. This morning, I learned a new Japanese portmanteau via NHK: supepa（スぺパ）which stands for space performance...along the same lines as cost performance. Basically, it's the economization and more efficient use of limited space in the big cities of Japan due to the lack of it in houses and apartments. The above video by the YouTube channel "Never Too Small" gives a fine example.

The video is actually a couple of years old and I don't think the concept of supepa is a new one since cities like Tokyo have always had a battle within for space for domiciles. Plus, a few years ago, I used to subscribe to a Japanese YouTube channel which focused on the more unusual residences for rent within the nation, so I used to see my fair share of supepa places. By the way, supepa can also extend to the furnishings and appliances that could go into such a residence. I used to have a rather cute and petite fridge for my own Ichikawa 2K apartment although in comparison to some of these supepa apartments, my abode was absolutely massive.

Anyways, being a perverted fan of the terrible pun in both English and Japanese, I would have taken this opportunity to segue masterfully to the Pink Lady hit "Pepper Keibu" (ペッパー・警部) by referring to a supepa advisor as a "supepa keibu", but I will save you from that monstrosity because I had already written about "Pepper Keibu" all the way back in May 2012. In fact, it was the second Pink Lady KKP article that I posted.

However, I can go on ahead with the B-side to this No. 4-ranking success for Mie and Kei, "Kanpai! Ojou-san" (Here's To You, My Lady!). Created by the same duo behind "Pepper Keibu", lyricist Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composer Shunichi Tokura（都倉俊一）, the melody and arrangement have that very familiar Pink Lady disco aidoru sheen but Aku's lyrics are notable in that they actually treat the autumn as the perfect opportunity for love to bloom and continue forth. Usually in the kayo kyoku realm, the fall is the time for love to fall and break into a thousand pieces, but apparently such isn't the case in the Pink Lady universe. Good for them!

Hiromi Iwasaki -- Oreta Rouge（折れた口紅）

 

Earlier on Facebook, singer Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）reported that her first grandchild became all of one year old today. Many congratulations to her!🎆 I was only going to do my usual two articles but considering the good news from one of the first Japanese pop singers that I got to know, I've decided to add in one more for the day.

Initially, I'd thought about doing a list of my favourite Hiromi songs but I found out that I had already beaten myself to the punch by providing such a list almost ten years ago. What is a Hiromi fan to do? Well, as my own catchphrase goes, never forget those B-sides!

My choice was to make a beeline to one of Iwasaki's most representative songs, her hit "Shishuuki"（思秋期）from September 1977 which has been lauded as a truly beautifully delivered ballad with a melancholy theme of aging and loneliness although the singer herself was really put through the wringer trying to convey the message at the age of 18. With something like "Shishuuki", I figured that the B-side had to be something lighter and peppier. Perhaps a hip-swinging disco delight?

Not quite. "Oreta Rouge" (Broken Lipstick) is more of a mid-tempo pop song with that touch of class in the arrangement that would hint at her future releases in the 1980s. Created by the same team behind "Shishuuki", lyricist Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composer/arranger Takashi Miki（三木たかし）, "Oreta Rouge" also has autumn as a seasonal setting (always symbolic of loss of love) but unlike the A-side, there's more of a hopeful que sera que sera emotion surrounding Iwasaki in her white coat walking among the fallen leaves on the university grounds. The hint is that she's recovering from a broken romance and that she's all the more mature from the experience although she's wondering about the broken lipstick in her purse and whether it's a symbol of something.

Miki's made an interesting arrangement with a softer pop intro involving the flute and then come the shimmering rising strings and a sharp horn section adding a hint of City Pop fragrance. There's also the suddenly jaunty pre-chorus section; perhaps the entire song reflects the lass' walking pace through the university. Overall, I think it does fit as a B-side but "Oreta Rouge" is still a worthy and pleasant song in the Hiromi oeuvre. Anyways, once again, many congratulations to Hiromi on completing her first year as a grandmother.

Mako Ishino -- Nichiyoubi wa Stranger（日曜日はストレンジャー）

 

It's been a quiet Sunday today although there is a major golf tournament in Pebble Beach right now. However, we've got the Super Bowl next Sunday between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles which should have the American football fandom going wild as usual. I remember hearing a lot of American ex-pats in Tokyo trying to get Monday morning off to catch the game at a sports pub.

Perhaps 1970s aidoru Mako Ishino（石野真子）was thinking of stirring up her Sunday with her 4th single "Nichiyoubi wa Stranger" (Sunday is a Stranger) from January 1979. Written by Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composed by Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）, it's quite the jaunty tune about a couple having the time of their lives on what is supposedly the day of rest. Nice to see Mako again, by the way, since the last time she appeared on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" was back in the summer of 2021.

One interesting piece of trivia I picked up on the J-Wiki article for "Nichiyoubi wa Stranger" was the intro riff. And yep, there was something quite familiar about it. Well, it turns out that R&B-loving Tsutsumi opted to adapt a musical phrase that had been used in at least a couple of American songs: "It's The Same Old Song" by The Four Tops and "Time" by gospel group the Mighty Clouds of Joy. Ishino's single peaked at No. 19 on Oricon.

Miyako Chaki -- Anata wa Nani wo（あなたは何を）

 

There are a couple of reasons that I'm putting up this song by singer-songwriter Miyako Chaki（茶木みやこ）. One is that the last time I posted about her was back in October 2020 for her atmospheric "Maboroshi no Hito"（幻の人）. The other is that just a few days ago, underneath the article for that song, I had a nice conversation via the comments with a filmmaker and actor by the name of Tony Savo who had just completed a short sci-fi film titled "Shape of Things to Come". He actually used "Maboroshi no Hito" as the ending theme since the song rather fit nicely into what the story was all about. But if you're interested in taking a look, you can just go over to the article via the link and scroll down to the comments for his link to the movie.

Meanwhile, let's take a look at Chaki's "Anata wa Nani wo" (What Are You Doing?) which was the B-side to her March 1978 single "Azami no Gotoku Toge Areba"（あざみの如く棘あれば）. Written by Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composed by the singer, it's a bit of a potpourri of relaxing pop reminiscent of Gilbert O'Sullivan, some Asian influence and a bluesy saxophone. Compared with "Maboroshi no Hito", "Anata wa Nani wo" does feel lighter and more optimistic.

Mayuko Miyahara/Kaoru Sugita -- Tori no Uta（鳥の詩）/Dancing dancing

 

A couple of years ago, I posted an article regarding the first of two singles that the obscure Mayuko Miyahara（宮原巻由子）had recorded in February 1983, "Hana Akari"（花明り）. It was a very pleasant number and down below, there was a comment by someone regarding their enjoyment of Miyahara's second and remaining single. My apologies for not responding but sometimes comments tend to fly under the radar with me not noticing.

That second single is "Tori no Uta" (Bird Song) which was released in August 1983. Sounding either like a heartwarming enka or a children's folk song from the 1970s, there is even a kids' chorus backing her up in the latter half. Written by Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composed by Koichi Sakata（坂田晃一）, I even get some shades of early Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）; the ocarina definitely helps.

The thing is, though, Miyahara was actually covering "Tori no Uta". The original version can be claimed by actress/singer Kaoru Sugita（杉田かおる）. I had thought that I already posted something by Sugita, who I only knew as one of the more tart-tongued tarento on Japanese television, but as it is, this is her first entry on "Kayo Kyoku Plus". Welcome aboard, Ms. Sugita...please don't kill me. The original doesn't sound particularly different from the Miyahara cover, but it was released as her 10th single in June 1981 and was even utilized as an insert song in the second season of an NTV drama "Ikenaka Genta Hachi-juu Kilo"（池中玄太80キロ...Eighty Kilograms of Genta Ikenaka） which included Sugita as the stepdaughter of the late Toshiyuki Nishida（西田敏行）who was playing avian photographer Genta Ikenaka. Sugita's version reached No. 10 on Oricon and ended up as the 56th-ranked single for 1981.

(I'm sorry but the video has been taken down.)

But returning to the Miyahara single, I also wanted to bring you folks to the B-side of her "Tori no Uta". "Dancing dancing" is a much more different animal, sounding more like a West Coast AOR including a wailing electric guitar. Nothing wistful here...just images of running happily along the beach. Kaoru Ito（伊藤薫）was responsible for both words and music.

Akiko Matsumoto -- Tasogare My Love (たそがれマイ・ラブ）

 

This is something that I've been planning for since earlier this year, but it's been almost a year since the Japanese music world had lost singer Junko Ohashi（大橋純子）on November 9th 2023 at the age of 73. I will be tackling her "DEF" album from the late 1980s tomorrow on the anniversary of her passing but since today is the day for the Urban Contemporary on KKP, I decided that I would also write about a couple of cover versions of her famous hits that I found in the past few months as a tribute.

The first one comes from an unlikely source. Although Akiko Matsumoto（松本明子）started out as one of the cheekier aidoru in the 1980s, I and probably most people have seen her more as a monomane artist and all-rounder tarento on television. But here she is, singing Ohashi's 1978 "Tasogare My Love" (Sunset My Love) on her one and only album "Kutouten"（くとうてん...Punctuation Marks） from 2013 to celebrate at that time her 30th anniversary in show business..

For a lady who's known for her vocal and physical wackiness on the tube (although I got to see a much more down-to-earth side to her when I met Ms. Matsumoto in person years ago), her take on "Tasogare My Love" was surprisingly heartfelt and assured. The original song has been given a bit more of a bossa nova ballad arrangement here and Matsumoto's delivery is suitably relaxed. Overall, though, I shouldn't be too surprised at a comedian covering one of the old kayo kyoku since last year, I covered another comedian doing the same with a City Pop tune. As was the case with the original, Yu Aku and Kyohei Tsutsumi（阿久悠・筒美京平）were responsible for words and music respectively.

As an aside, "Telephone Number" by Ohashi was covered by Junk Fujiyama earlier this year in his album "Shoukei Toshi ~ City Pop Covers"（憧憬都市）, so take a listen to that one, too.

Kenji Sawada -- Nikumi Kirenai Rokudenashi（憎みきれないろくでなし）

From imdb

Admittedly, this is a bizarre reference to start things off for this song by Kenji Sawada（沢田研二）, but I remember watching the anime "Seton Academy" in which Neku the giraffe acts like the arrogant cad and suddenly drops his romantic mate like a overly heavy sack of potatoes; sorry, once is enough for him...time to move onto fresher adventures. Of course, his now erstwhile partner doesn't take it too well.

From what I've heard of Yu Aku's（阿久悠）lyrics on Julie's September 1977 21st single, "Nikumi Kirenai Rokudenashi" (A Bastard's That's Hard to Hate), that's what happening here as well. Sawada is singing about a cad who goes through his women like he probably goes through his cigarettes. But according to the title, he's got enough charm to keep them coming back. Motoki Funayama's（船山基紀）arrangement of Katsuo Ono's（大野克夫）melody, which includes a clever background chorus that sounds like train whistles off in the distance, is something that I swear that I've heard before on one of the music shows or retrospectives. Considering how proud it sounds, the rokudenashi is thoroughly enjoying his love 'em-and-leave' em lifestyle.

"Nikumi Kirenai Rokudenashi" made it to No. 3 on Oricon and not only became the 24th-ranked single for 1977, but it also hung around for another year to become the 63rd-ranked single for 1978 as well. It can also be found on Sawada's November 1977 10th album "Omoikiri Kiza na Jinsei"（思いきり気障な人生...A Completely Disturbing Life） which hit No. 1 and ended up as the No. 5 album of the year.

One reason that I put up the song is that this had been the No. 3 single on the September 19th 1977 Oricon chart which was referenced in the previous ROY article, but didn't include because I hadn't written about it yet. Just didn't want the opportunity to pass. As well, the song was released several months after Sawada's big hit "Katte ni Shiyagare" （勝手にしやがれ）which had been created by the same trio of songwriters.