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.
Hello and nice to have you back on "Kayo Kyoku Plus". While folks in Japan are still enjoying their Holidays, over here in Toronto, it seems like everyone's back at work despite it being a Friday. Well, let's see if we can try to give some solace before the weekend.
For that matter, let's welcome you to the first Urban Contemporary Friday on KKP for 2026. And we start off with something very relaxing in the form of Yukari Ito's（伊東ゆかり）"Utsurigi na Hito"(Fickle Person). Written by Fumi or Hiroshi Fukunaga（福永史）and composed by Yasuhiro Kido（木戸やすひろ）, this comes from Ito's July 1979 album"Anaa shika Mienai"（あなたしか見えない...I Only See You）. It occupies the bossa nova corner of City Pop and a lot of it reminds me of the song stylings of Keiko Maruyama（丸山圭子）with her famous "Douzo Kono Mama"(どうぞこのまま）. And yet, when I think of the setting, my mind comes up with a slow cruise down the Riviera. Cocktails aren't mandatory but welcome.
Yep, the above is RCA's "50 Years of Hits in Stereo", a collection of 5 LPs that probably came with the new stereo when my parents bought it just before my birth. I used to see this and hear this all the time. I haven't seen it since I got back from Japan and asking my parents about its whereabouts just brings blank looks, so I'm ruefully assuming that they had thrown the entire set away when they got rid of the RCA Victor.
That would be too bad. There was a lot of music history in that set. And as much as I've said in the past that my music awakening began at the turn of the 70s into the 80s, music really had always been there with me in those first fifteen years of life. It wasn't just Yukio Hashi（橋幸夫）, Kyu Sakamoto（坂本九）and others on the Japanese side, there was also Henry Mancini, The Ames Brothers and The Boston Pops with Arthur Fiedler along with the many other singers and groups involved in "50 Years of Hits in Stereo".
As such, I've already referred to that huge tome of records a few times since The Ames Brothers have gotten their due on the blog with their remarkably bright and chipper version of "September Song" while Mancini was of course behind the cool "Peter Gunn" theme, both versions which are on "50". I distinctly remember my mother playing the former song when I came home after a rotten day at school and I cheered right up. What I would eventually learn is that a lot of those songs that I grew up with were indeed actually cover versions of the original song but given a jazzier, more swivel-happy, and loungier touch. "September Song" by The Ames Brothers definitely falls into that category.
"Sing, Sing, Sing" was once the go-to song for all trailers of Hollywood movies set in the Jazz Age. A bunch of us fellow moviegoers figured that Benny Goodman's iconic swing classic was contractually obligated to be on any and every such trailer. But the Mancini version which is far shorter than the original is the first version that I had ever heard, and it's even swingier, cooler and more dangerous in that 1960s way. It even seems to tell a story of a major heist that suddenly turns very dangerous for its perpetrators and the the police coming after them.
As with "Sing, Sing, Sing", Ann-Margret's take on "Moon River" was the first version I ever heard, not hearing the original by Audrey Hepburn from "Breakfast at Tiffany's" or the popularized version by Andy Williams for many years. Apparently, her version first showed up on RCA Records in 1962.
"Lover" was the Rodgers and Hart song from way back in 1932 when it was sung by Jeanette MacDonald in the movie "Love Me Tonight" when her character sung it to a horse. It's been popularized as this grand pop waltz, performed by many an orchestra such as The Boston Pops. However, it's not that version which was included in "50", but the one by Marty Gold & His Orchestra. And this one has got to be the jazziest and most percussive march I will ever hear.
As with Mancini's propulsive version of "Sing, Sing, Sing", Perez Prado and his Latin jazz ensemble made "Caravan", a jazz standard from 1936 by Duke Ellington and Juan Tizol, into this car-chase-through-the-city-streets thriller of a cover. There was another cover by Arthur Lyman, a vibraphone and marimba player from Hawaii, which was used in "Ocean's Eleven" (2001) for one scene where Ocean and Ryan are recruiting the Amazing Yen.
I finally caught most of the original 1956 movie "Around the World in 80 Days" with David Niven and Cantiflas with its royally sweeping theme song. The Boston Pops with Arthur Fiedler were back to give their take on the theme which also has its sweep but further seasoned with some Latin and enough excitement in the intro and outro to fuel a Saturn rocket launch. It does feel like a musical orbit around Earth.
From the Wikipedia article, I read that "Moonglow" is a jazz standard from 1933 by composers Will Hudson and Irving Mills with the words by Eddie DeLange. It's the one song in this sample tonight for which I have not heard any other version and that's fine with me although it's been covered by some of the greats including the aforementioned Duke Ellington. The Ames Brothers are more than satisfying with this smoky take that seems to be perfect for a performance in an equally smoky nightclub in Manhattan. I guess that the one I know from "50" had its intro truncated compared to the one above.
The above is merely and approximately 10% of the total output in the 5-LP set. I know that at least some of the other tracks among the records do exist on YouTube, so if there are any of you interested in the old-school pop, just cut-and-paste the artists and titles from that Discogs site that I linked you to at the top and try them out.
Let's see what some of the big hit singles in Japan that got released in 1965 were.
Well, it is Urban Contemporary Friday on KKP and I'm starting this week's batch in the evening after a late morning of walking around in the midst of the currently-running Toronto International Film Festival, so let's start with something especially light and mellow.
One example is Yukari Ito's（伊東ゆかり）"Mariko" which is a track on her 1982 "Misty Hour" album, her musical embracement of all things City Pop. Written by Machiko Ryu（竜真知子）and composed by Ken Sato（佐藤健）, I don't know who this Mariko that Yukari is referring to, but from the footloose and fancy-free arrangement, I take it that the lass is simply and happily drinking in life as it comes to her. The Fender Rhodes sounds especially sumptuous here. I will always be grateful to the singer for taking that brief side road into the groovy territory.
This is not the weekly scheduled Reminiscings of Youth article today but I still wanted to provide a tribute to singer Connie Francis who had passed away yesterday at the age of 87. In the late 1950s and into the following decade, her hits were popular enough that in 1960, she was considered to be the most successful female recording artist in many countries including Japan. She's had a great tie with this blog in that a number of female Japanese singers covered her tunes to success themselves, something that has been noted within the articles here.
Kyoko Koizumi, etc. -- Collar ni Kuchibeni（カラーに口紅）
The last pair with "Lipstick On Your Collar" is something that I hadn't covered but I have heard the Francis original before through the many commercials featuring her hit compilations on television when I was a kid. As with the other covers, 80s aidoru Kyoko Koizumi（小泉今日子）was among a number of other Japanese singers who have covered the song under the Japanese title of "Collar ni Kuchibeni". I had never heard of this one by Kyon-Kyon before because it was on a September 1983 album of hers called "Separation Kyoko" which was only available on audiotape although it has been available online since 2013.
There are probably at least a few more of Francis' songs that have been covered but in any case, I would like to offer my condolences to her family, friends and many fans out there.
There was a scene in "Superman" (2025) when Lois Lane was pouring a ton of sugar into her coffee which struck me as being a very Lois Lane thing to do. I've enjoyed my Tim Hortons double-double, but even I won't put that much sugar into coffee or tea. I did have a friend who was pushing Lane levels of sugar infiltration, though.
Anyways, my last Yukari Ito（伊東ゆかり）article was delving into her City Pop/J-AOR phase in the late 1970s/early 1980s but this time, I'm returning to her very early days as a teenybopper singer back in the early 1960s. To remind folks, Ito was one of a number of pop singers who put out as many Japanese covers of English-language hits as they did original kayo kyoku, and it turns out her 7th single from July 1961, "Pocket Transistor"（ポケット・トランジスター）had a B-side titled "Sixteen Cubes of Sugar". Written by Takashi Otowa（音羽たかし）, the pseudonym used by any employee at King Records to translate an English pop song into Japanese, and composed by Jack Keller with arrangement by Hiroshi Miyagawa（宮川泰）, Ito does her Connie Francis best on this spritely tune with the amassed energy of sixteen cubes of sugar.
Now as I said before, Ito's "Sixteen Cubes of Sugar" was a cover of an English-language pop song that had probably been released as recently as just a few months before the cover. I'd imagined that it was indeed the aforementioned Connie Francis who had recorded the song, considering the vocals and style. However, the original...with the same title...had been done by American pop singer Brian Hyland who had earlier come up with the more famous kitschy number "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini".
Man, do I remember these old Japanese phones of different colours and shapes when I first visited the nation in 1972. They all had their purposes but for the life of me, I can't remember what they were.
Yesterday I was talking about airports being a popular subject for kayo kyoku. Well, another object that's also been quite the target in the old Japanese songs has been the good ol' telephone whether it be for romantic continuation or dislocation, often the latter.
This time around, I have "Naga Denwa"(Long Phone Call) which was the final track on Yukari Ito's（伊東ゆかり）October 1981 album "Aisuru Uso wo Shittemasuka. Onna ni Kansuru 10-shou"（愛する嘘を知ってますか。女に関する10章...Know Any Loving Lies? Ten Chapters About Women）. And it was a good choice to finish things up on because it is a slow and lush 1970s-style ballad that seems to have been done with some inspiration from folks such as Barry Manilow, Boz Scaggs and Carly Simon. I would place it as an AOR tune but there is that middle part which dives right into classical, so I've also thrown in the Fashion Music tag, too.
Yoko Yamaguchi（山口洋子）was responsible for the lyrics while Daisuke Inoue（井上大輔）took care of the melody. The arrangement was handled by the City Pop duo DEW. Some years ago, I also wrote about another track on "Aisuru Uso wo Shittemasuka. Onna ni Kansuru 10-shou" titled "Gigolo", so give that one a try as well.
My friend and fellow contributor to KKP, Marcos V., and his own buddy were kind enough to allow me to use some of his photographs after visiting Rio in their native Brazil some days ago, so many thanks to them both. Regrettably, I've yet to travel anyplace south of the Equator but maybe someday, I'll be able to see places like Brazil or Australia or Singapore.
Although I haven't been to Brazil yet, I've been well acquainted with their samba and bossa nova for literally decades, and it seems as if folks in the Japanese music industry have also been very admiring of the genres for that long as well. In fact, I see that Yukari Ito（伊東ゆかり）provided some of her own songs infused with those particular two. I came across these jewels not too long ago and I couldn't decide which one to go with first, so I've opted to cover both of them together.
The first one is "Ai Suru Ashita"(Loving Tomorrow). A B-side to her 42nd single, the June 1969"Aishite, Aishite"（愛して愛して...Love Me, Love Me）, "Ai Suru Ashita" was apparently used as the theme song for a movie of the same name, and it certainly sounds quite majestically bossa nova. Written by Kazumi Yasui（安井かずみ）and composed by Osamu Shouji（東海林修）, the orchestra gives the song a sweepingly romantic heft and there's no doubt what the movie is about from the title and the arrangement of this song. In its own way, I kinda feel like it's the Japanese take on "Love is a Many-Splendored Thing".
The second song was recorded by Ito many years later in September 1984 for her album "Fado"（ふぁど）. "Aki no Jasmine Tea" (Autumn Jasmine Tea) is a more mid-tempo bossa song with a bit more of a City Pop feeling and fueled by the sweet and husky tones of the singer. Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）was the lyricist while Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）took care of the brisk melody. Enjoy the drink.☕
It was probably one of the few times that "Uta Con"（うたコン）showed an episode tonight which didn't have a particular theme for the first fifteen minutes or so. However, one highlight was seeing 60s aidoru Yukari Ito（伊東ゆかり）and Mie Nakao（中尾ミエ）appear. Those two and Mari Sono（園まり）had formed one of the earliest kayo kyoku Gosanke（御三家）,the Spark Sannin Musume（スパーク3人娘）, in that decade. And unfortunately, the reason that Sono herself didn't show up with her former comrades is that the singer had passed away on July 26th this year at the age of 80 from heart failure.
The Spark Sannin Musume were scheduled to do a medley of their hits. However, a clumsy scene cut and the one performance of "Aitakute, Aitakute"（逢いたくて逢いたくて）by the remaining members tonight and Sono herself via vintage footage made it pretty clear that Jme had to cut out the rest of the medley in the high likelihood that those songs were Japanese covers of American hit tunes (due to the usual copyright issues). A lot of pop singers back then were doing those as much as they were doing original Japanese kayo.
Well, for my own tribute to Sono, I've decided to feature her January 1964 single"Kiichatta! Utacchata! Naichatta!" (I Heard It! I Sang It! I Cried to It!). It's an original Japanese tune done in a doo-wop rock n' roll style with Hiroshi Miyagawa（宮川泰）handling the music while Kazumi Yasui（安井かずみ）took care of the lyrics. It's pretty darn slick enough so that perhaps even fans of the old American pop from the 50s and 60s might wonder if it had been a cover of something by Connie Francis.
Sono may have had the A-side but both Nakao and Ito also sang the song as B-sides to their own January 1964 singles, "Onna no Ko damon"（おんなのこだもん...Cause I'm a Girl） for Nakao (above) and "Uta wo Oshiete"（歌をおしえて...Teach Me a Song） for Ito (below), with fairly different arrangements.
My belated condolences to Sono's family, friends and fans...and also to her Gosanke mates, Ito and Nakao.
This could go down as one of the longer and more curved preamble rambles that I've ever written to lead up to the song of the article, but please bear with me.
In the last half-hour or so, I encountered the "List of longest-running television shows by category" on Wikipedia and apparently at the top of this list is the "Lord Mayor's Show" on BBC. I've seen my fair share of BBC shows in my life such as "Doctor Who" (which is also on the list), but I'd never heard of this televised special that's been going on for 80 years, and the spectacle that's shown on screens has been one that has existed since the 13th century.
Japan has its own entry in the list with NHK's "Nodo Jiman"（のど自慢）amateur song contest show existing for 68 years. Even my humble Canada has one which is "Hockey Night in Canada" which has been around for 70 years.
The Sanremo Music Festival is Italy's contribution to the list and it's an annual music spectacular that has been on television since 1951. Well, at the 15th edition at the end of January in 1965, there was a performance of a song, created by Vito Pallavicini and Gorni Kramer, titled "L'amore ha i tuoi occhi"(Love Has Your Eyes). Back then, according to the contest rules, each and every song had to be performed twice by two different singers or bands, and "L'amore ha i tuoi occhi" was performed by Bruno Filippini and young Japanese singer Yukari Ito（伊東ゆかり）.
It didn't take long for this Italian ballad to race across the continents to Japan since in March of that year, Ito had herself another new single which was a cover of the song she sang at Sanremo but given the Japanese title of "Koi suru Hitomi"(Eyes in Love) with Osamu Shouji（東海林修）handling the old-fashioned orchestral arrangement. The Japanese lyrics were provided by Hiroshi Arakaha（あらかはひろし）which was really a pen name for someone at the record company who had to come up with the words. Still, the song wasn't entirely in Japanese; Ito also sang the last half of "Koi suru Hitomi" in Italian.
All of the above was done simply because I knew that the Little Italy neighbourhood in Toronto was having its annual "A Taste of Little Italy" festival this weekend, and I was looking for a kayo kyoku as a tribute.
As a J-moppet in the mid-1960s, there were two images on television that terrified me back under sofa cushions and behind my parents. One was the first face of Balok from the original "Star Trek" episode, "The Corbomite Maneuver".
Of course, I hadn't been aware of the episode at the time but terrifying Balok was used as the final still photo for the ending credits during the second season of "Star Trek". Not sure why my parents, who were never sci-fi fans, just happened to have the show on at the time when those credits popped up. I can only gather that they were getting back at me for filling up my diapers a little too often.
The other image that probably was responsible for me filling up my diapers was good ol' Rover from "The Prisoner". How does a white bouncy balloon become something this scary? I don't know but the producers pulled it off. It especially frightened me when Rover caught an errant Villager and the camera just had to show the victim screaming through the balloon.
"The Prisoner" starring Patrick McGoohan (whose face frankly scared me too) was one of those one-of-a-kind programs that has become legend despite only having a one-season run between September 1967 and February 1968. There was no way at the time that I could have understood the overarching philosophical and political themes at play. It was always Rover and that pre-commercial shot of Number 6's head racing toward the camera before prison bars stopped it. In fact, it wasn't until some fifteen years later when reruns of "The Prisoner" began playing on the local "The All-Night Show" that I could begin to understand what was really going on between Number 6 and all those Number 2s. And at the same time, I could also finally hear the theme song.
I only learned about this in the last few days but the composer for "The Prisoner" theme song was Ron Grainer who is already on KKP's Reminiscings of Youth series because of his work on the theme for "Doctor Who" which he accomplished with Delia Derbyshire. The other big surprise was that the original version of "The Prisoner" theme was a far more sedate deal known as "The Age of Elegance", and yep, it definitely sounded elegant, but show producer McGoohan was having none of that and he kept pushing Grainer to speed it up (I guess "Faster...more intense" wasn't just George Lucas' mantra). It finally did speed up to become this boss and very 1960s brassy tour de force tune that was unlike anything for James Bond or Napoleon Solo. The British always did brass right back in the day. I guess in a way, the theme was reflective of Number 6 himself: elegant, fast, brash and cunning.
By the way, I've been hearing rumours that Christopher Nolan may be interested in doing a cinematic version of "The Prisoner". If there's any director who can pick up on the challenge, it would be Nolan although I wasn't quite as enthused about "Tenet". Anyways, who was picking up on the Japan Record Awards hardware in 1967?
Grand Prize: Jackey Yoshikawa and His Blue Comets -- Blue Chateau（ブルー・シャトウ）
Another admission from me in that I didn't do the most comprehensive article on Yukari Ito's（伊東ゆかり）contribution to City Pop via her 1982 album"Misty Hour", but at the time I wrote about it in 2018, there wasn't a whole lot of representation of the CD on YouTube a few years back. However, I was able to cover a couple of tracks at least and "Sayonara" is still up there in its own article. "Sayonara" was the reason that I pulled the trigger on purchasing "Misty Hour" in the first place.
Another track that is getting its individual due is "Saikai Restaurant"(Reunion Restaurant) which is the penultimate song on "Misty Hour". A sentimental ballad about a couple of former lovers meeting up at an old rendezvous and perhaps relighting the flame once more, there is something 70s (maybe that Carpenters-friendly oboe) and 80s (the keyboard work) City Pop at the same time with this one. Machiko Ryu（竜真知子）was behind the lyrics while it is indeed Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）who came up with the lovely music.
A reunion restaurant wouldn't be the one with the ex-girlfriend since if she's a wise person, she has forgotten about me completely. It would be the Indian place that my good friend took me out to back in 2017. That was some fine butter chicken they had there. Wouldn't mind an extra shot at that.
Last night on "Uta Con"（うたコン）, singer Yukari Ito（伊東ゆかり）appeared on the show. There was a brief montage of her career through old footage, and although her career began in 1958 when she was around eleven years old, there were even a couple of photos of her as a 6-year-old singing in front of a mix of civilians and American servicemen, so she's actually been behind a microphone for 70 years!
Now, her featured song on "Uta Con" was her trademark kayo "Koyubi no Omoide"（小指の思い出）from 1967, but during the montage, there was another song played that I had never heard before. Titled "Suteki na Cappuccina" (Splendid Cappuccina), at first thought, I'd assumed that it was one of Ito's cover tunes of an old American chestnut since her early discography consisted of two wings of cover tunes and actual kayo kyoku created by Japanese songwriters. Well, as it turns out, "Suteki na Cappuccina" is an example of the latter with the homegrown song being created by lyricist Kazumi Yasui（安井かずみ）and composer Hiroshi Miyagawa（宮川泰）.
With a gallant guitar twang, a high-toned backing chorus and a steady rhythmical gait, "Suteki na Cappuccina" sounds like an ideal American girl pop song of those 1960s, and well that is obvious, since it was indeed released as Ito's 30th single in December 1965. I was wondering about that last word, though. What is a cappucina? Well, in Italian, it refers to the capuchin monkey. I'd assumed that it was a variant of coffee but the way it's used in "Suteki na Cappuccina" and one other golden oldie, it's a lady of a goodly amount of popularity.
As for that other golden oldie, I'm talking about Nat King Cole's"Cappuccina" from 1961. It's a different song to be sure, but this particular song does remind me somewhat of "Mack the Knife".
The last time I referred to veteran singer Yukari Ito（伊東ゆかり）, it was through one of the Gosanke（御三家）series which dealt with the Spark Sannin Musume（スパーク3人娘）in the early 1960s when she starred alongside Mie Nakao（中尾ミエ）and Mari Sono（園まり）. Back then, she was merely in her mid-teens singing that combination of American pop hit covers and original kayo.
Well, by the late 1970s and early 1980s, she was getting into more mature fare which included City Pop. As such, I found this cool number, "Climax", which was the final track of her October 1978 album"Yukari ~ Anata no Tonari ni"（あなたの隣りに...By Your Side）. Regarding that album cover, her mother probably scolded her heavily for sitting on that side table and armchair in her high heels but it was all about showing off her sex appeal.
"Climax", which was written by Konosuke Fuji（藤公之介）and composed by Kentaro Haneda（羽田健太郎）, is a lovely slow disco jam with a bit of Mancini-esque flair that evokes images of that courtly tryst in big bad Tokyo beginning from a classy bar to a hotel room...with no questions asked. Ito's silken and sexy delivery is perfect here. I guess that it would be an ideal way to finish off an album. Good night now.😎
Strangely enough, this trio isn't listed at "idol.ne.jp" which has had that page with the long scroll of Gosanke（御三家...The Big Three） and Sannin Musume（三人娘...The Three Girls）. And yet, the Spark Sannin Musume (The 3 Spark Girls) kinda bridged the gap with 1960s female aidoru Yukari Ito（伊東ゆかり）, Mie Nakao（中尾ミエ）and Mari Sono（園まり）between the Ganso Sannin Musume（元祖三人娘）of the 1950s and the Shin Sannin Musume（新三人娘）of the 1970s. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that the newspapers and magazines didn't come up with the name but the show that starred the ladies.
For about 18 months between 1962 and 1963, Fuji-TV featured a Sunday afternoon music-variety show called "Morinaga Spark Show"（森永スパーク・ショー）with the Spark referring to the sponsor, confectionary company Morinaga & Company's own brand of cola. Initially, the star was rockabilly singer/actor Takashi Fujiki（藤木孝）but midway through the show's run, he left not only the program but singing altogether which meant that the spotlight was trained onto the other co-stars: Ito, Nakao and Sono who then became known as the Spark Sannin Musume.
I was talking with Scott of "Holly Jolly X'masu" recently and we happened to get onto a topic concerning one of my old personal signs that the summer holidays were about to end and school was once again going to cast a long ugly shadow on my life. Mind you, "The Jerry Lewis Labour Day Telethon" was always something that was fun to watch for me back in the 1970s, and as I would realize later on in life, the telethon was one of the very few opportunities that I got to see a lot of the Rat Pack in their heyday. Back then, it was fun to watch Jerry, Ed McMahon and Sammy Davis Jr. among other starsentertaining viewers for hours on end.
However, it was the tote board hourly showing how much money was being raised to battle muscular dystrophy that got my excitement. I guess that it was due to all of the pomp and circumstance leading up to the announcement and then Jerry and Ed doing all of those Hollywood yells ("HAOOOOOOH!") when the new total came out.
The other thing is the song that the telethon orchestra played each time the total came out and it just seemed to be the theme for the entire show. I would find out that it was "What the World Needs Now Is Love" and to echo my feelings on it, I remember seeing a commercial advertising the telethon one year in which animated caricatures of Jerry and a lot of the Hollywood hoi polloi sang the song.
When I looked up the song on Wikipedia, I was surprised by a couple of things. I'd assumed that the original song from April 1965 was recorded by someone like Dionne Warwick, but it was actually Jackie DeShannon. Crazily enough, DeShannon already has recognition on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" for being the first singer to record "Bette Davis Eyes", which would become popularized by becoming a New Wave anthem by Kim Carnes in 1981 (and another subject for a ROY article). The other surprise was that "What the World Needs Now Is Love" has been categorized as a folk rock tune as well as a jazz/soul number. Jazz and soul are in full supply here in what I've deemed to be an absolute wistful standard but I can't really hear the original as either folk or rock. What isn't a surprise is who was behind the song: the legendary duo Burt Bacharach and Hal David.
"What the World Needs Now Is Love" hit No. 1 on Canada's RPM singles chart while it became the 7th-ranked single on America's Billboard. Incidentally, according to the Wikipedia article on the song, Warwick had been offered first dibs to sing it but she turned it down for being too "country" (!), but I guess that she finally did acquiesce to the request since she did record it in 1966 for her "Here Where There Is Love" album.
Although I couldn't find out in which month the first two Japanese tunes had been released in 1965, the final one was indeed an April 1965 single, just like DeShannon's magnum opus.
As a PS, since we are still mourning the loss of musician and songwriter Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏）this month, here's his version of "What the World Needs Now Is Love" from his 1990 album"Broadcast from Heaven".
Personally speaking, I can't say that I am a particularly good traveler. I never developed the wanderlust or the smarts or the financial supply to head on out to a different country to explore, so I do have the admiration for those (and they include some of my friends) who have taken that jet, ship or car to take the risk to go around that unknown country, meet new people and learn new things.
Kayo kyoku has plenty of examples where such folks have gone onto new pastures within and outside of Japan, but usually not on a mission of learning but one of forgetting, namely that romance that has dried up like autumn leaves in late November. The one example that comes immediately to mind is enka veteran Sayuri Ishikawa's（石川さゆり）trademark "Tsugaru Kaikyo Fuyu Geshiki"（津軽海峡・冬景色）.
I found another example, and this time, it's a sad straight kayo titled "Sasurai" elegantly sung by Yukari Ito（伊東ゆかり）. According to Jisho.org, the term means "wandering alone in a strange country", and the lyrics by Ou Yoshida（吉田旺）clearly illustrates this as the protagonist walks around in a new town with no people she knows as she searches for someone to unload her story to. Perhaps that town might be located way out on the other side of Japan, but the melancholy melody by Shosuke Ichikawa（市川昭介）under his pseudonym of Akira Nishi（西あきら）indicates that the man or woman may have gone as far afield as France or Spain (mind you, the last minute of the song gets overlaid with some boppy 70s kayopercussion).
"Sasurai" was released as Ito's 21st single in October 1970...perfect timing in kayo terms since that is when the romance falls as much as those autumn leaves. In a way, although I think that Ito delivers this wonderfully, this is also a song that could fit the discographies of either Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）or Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）in her diva period.
Wow! Japan even does Kleenex commercials with style.
Although the above ad has nothing to do with this song, according to one commenter for "Oh!! Gentle Life", this apparently had been used as a jingle for a brand of tissue. To be honest, I can very easily imagine the catchphrase of such a tissue being the title of this duet number between Mitsuo Sagawa（佐川満男）and Yukari Ito（伊東ゆかり）.
What rather solidifies the possibility that the 1970-released "Oh!! Gentle Life" was used for that tissue commercial is that the song doesn't show up in either of the J-Wiki discographies for Sagawa and Ito, so perhaps it was one of those one-off projects that was popular enough to merit a single record being produced and sold. Another point to observe is that when I saw Sagawa's name, I remembered him as that fairly dour fellow in full beard and moustache who sang that sad 1968 ballad, "Ima wa Shiawase kai"（今は幸せかい）.
Well, that cover above shows him completely clean-shaven, happy and awfully close to Ms. Ito. Then I re-read my article for "Ima wa Shiawase kai" and re-discovered that he and Ito would get married the following year for five years before filing for divorce. But getting back to the oh-so-cute "Oh!! Gentle Life", the late legendary composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）was responsible for this melody punctuated by a clarinet that sounds so blandly pleasant and domesticated that I'd assumed that it was a theme song for some half-hour TV home comedy on Wednesday nights (I was close enough, though). Meanwhile, Haruo Hayashi's（林春生）lyrics pretty much describes some of that domestic bliss. To think that tissue may have been the tie that bound Sagawa and Ito, if temporarily.
Looking up at that cover of singer Yukari Ito（伊東ゆかり）in that feathery hairstyle, I have to guess 1980s. In a way, there is something rather Seiko-chan about it.
And yup, I was barely right since this is the cover for her February 1980 single"Mou Ichido" (One More Time). Rather reminiscent of Keiko Maruyama's（丸山圭子）hit "Douzo Komo Mama"（どうぞこのまま）, this Ito ditty is a classy bossa nova ballad that could be set in any of the Tokyo neighbourhoods populated by expensive nightclubs. Dang...hearing that trombone in the intro and then Ito's dulcet tones really set a mood.
Surprisingly, the people behind the song are folk singer Chiharu Matsuyama（松山千春）on words and music with bassist Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）handling overall arrangement. I don't usually associate Matsuyama or Goto with the romantic Latin balladry but they give Ito a very nice song to croon, although the lyrics by the former have Ito plead her case for a love affair not to end. However, knowing these songs, they don't usually end very happily. Pass out the bittersweet chocolates.
Matsuyama himself did a self-cover of "Mou Ichido" a few months later for his 5th studio album"Roman"（浪漫...Romance） in May 1980. The album hit No. 1 and it became the 7th-ranked release of the year.
Uh, no...I'm not talking about "You Know My Name" from the 2006 Bond film"Casino Royale" starring Daniel Craig in his first outing as 007. I've yet to see his final outing in "No Time To Die" but someday when I have time...
Actually, this ROY article will be referencing the 1967 "Casino Royale" starring the late Peter Sellers in his lone outing as 007. I've seen it once in its entirety and then in bits and pieces over the years, and I have to say that either way comes out the same: a rather trippy 60s hot mess. But for those who love 60s pop culture, this is quite the movie and I think that it had quite the influence on the "Austin Powers" franchise.
If I ever opt to watch this "Casino Royale" again, I will still have that sardonic and ironic look on my face but a couple of songs came out of this movie that have stood the test of time, one being "The Look of Love" by Burt Bacharach and Hal David and performed by Dusty Springfield, and it got its Oscar nomination for Best Song.
Bacharach also did the music for the entire film and so he was also responsible for the other neat song, namely the theme for "Casino Royale" as performed by Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass. The crazy thing is that my family actually has their album "Going Places" by the group.
The hit "Going Places" was released about a month before my birth, September 1965, and remembering what I've heard from this album, it's Alpert with his distinctively puffy sound on his trumpet and his guys just having a brassy fun time especially with "Tijuana Taxi". Not quite sure why my folks bought this one; perhaps it was in commemoration of my arrival on Earth...I was actually going places, albeit from the womb to the surgeon's hands.
But getting back to the Brass and "Casino Royale", when I was watching the flick for the first time on telly (missing the first several minutes), I kept hearing the theme popping up here and there all throughout the movie and I was wondering whether it was indeed Herb Alpert. Well, of course it was. I mean, that trumpet is unmistakable. The amazing thing is that even from listening to all that down-in-Mexico music by the Brass on "Going Places", their "Casino Royale" theme has been called the distillation of all that was swinging in 1960s London and I couldn't agree more. It's sexy, heroic, adventurous and fun with a wink of humour. I guess that it's Roger Moore.
According to Wikipedia, the theme song was Alpert's 2nd No. 1 hit on the Billboard Easy Listening chart in June 1967 where it stayed for a couple of weeks.
However, the movie itself first appeared in theatres on either side of the Atlantic in April of that year, so what was premiering in the Japanese record stores in that month according to Showa Pops (unfortunately that site no longer exists)?
Yukari Ito -- Koyubi no Omoide （小指の思い出）(although J-Wiki states that it came out in February)
Haruo Minami -- Sekai no Kuni Kara Konnichiwa (世界の国からこんにちは）(a lot of artists were releasing the same song that month)
Jackey Yoshikawa and His Blue Comets -- Blue Chateau（ブルー・シャトウ）(although J-Wiki states that it was released in March)
Last night, I wrote up an Off-Course（オフコース）article on an atypical song by them whose lyrics relate the story of a couple having a really good time one night. Well, the lusty number below takes things to an even larger level.
(30:58)
Yukari Ito（伊東ゆかり）started off as one of the cute 1960s teenage aidoru covering tunes such as Connie Francis'"Where The Boys Are", the ultimate in innocent pining songs. Well, twenty years later, Ito has definitely grown up if this song, "Gigolo", is of any indication. Incidentally, the kanji actually reads as "Joufu" which translates as "male lover".
That cover of the October 1981 album where "Gigolo" resides, "Aisuru Uso wo Shittemasuka. Onna ni Kansuru 10-shou"（愛する嘘を知ってますか。女に関する10章...Know Any Loving Lies? Ten Chapters About Women）(which is one progressive rock-level length of a title), seems to be the perfect backdrop for this song. There is a woozy intro with Ito's vocals to match as if one half of a couple is just rousing up from a deep satisfying sleep and admiring her partner still in slumberland. Of course, that part has got to end with a sexy saxophone before the melody suddenly rushes into a bass-driven City Pop beat, and then we return to bed...shampoo, rinse and repeat. Finally, Ito goes into some major moaning and groaning, and no, it isn't because she's fed up. Yoko Yamaguchi（山口洋子）was in charge of the lyrics while Nobuo Kurata（倉田信雄）provided the smoking hot melody.
If the rest of the album is anything like "Gigolo" and if you can get your hands on it, make sure they are wearing oven gloves.
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