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.
That was a fine gooey chocolate cupcake in that café!
The last time I wrote about singer-songwriter Yuki Okazaki（岡崎友紀）was back in late 2021. Her "S-O-O-N" and "Sweet Joke" both come from her 1981 album "So Many Friends" and they follow the City Pop aesthetic. However with its track mate, "Café B.H", which was written by Okazaki herself and composed by Yutaka Hosoi（細井豊）, there is very much more of a a 70s soft rock vibe and a tribute riff to the Doobie Brothers in the chorus. Not sure what is up with the initials in the title but the café sounds appealing enough to merit a visit and the journey there can be accompanied by that cool rhythm in the arrangement.
Good to hear that she's still active. According to her J-Wiki article, Okazaki had a concert late last year in Tokyo to celebrate her 70th birthday.
It's been a while since I wrote up an article on Yuki Okazaki（岡崎友紀）, and to be honest, that cover of her 1981 album"So Many Friends" isn't too hard on the eyes either.
Back in 2020, I contributed an article on the second track of "So Many Friends", "Sweet Joke" which I also found on one of my "Light Mellow" compilations. The first track happens to be "S-O-O-N", a pretty jovial start to the album which kinda straddles the line between City Pop and regular pop or New Music. It's been described as having that West Coast sound but the lyrics by keyboardist Hiroyuki Sumino（住野裕之）has some shoutouts to the cities there such as Santa Monica and San Francisco.
The sunshine-y music and arrangement are provided by Kenji Iwakura（岩倉健二）, the guitarist for the band First Brand which includes the aforementioned Sumino. First Brand acted as the backing band for Okazaki and they even have their own entry on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" via "The Other Side of Life", a track on their one and only album"Lovers In Office" that was also released in 1981.
It's Friday and I tend to put up a few City Pop tunes on Fridays but I just wanted to start off today's batch with something more wistful and appropriately seasonal.
And for that matter, I'm starting today with a song from quite a ways back. This would be "Nagisa no Uwasa" which directly translated as "Beach Rumours" but the official English title is "The End of Summer", and it was first sung by Mieko Hirota（弘田三枝子）.
This was Hirota's 18th single from July 1967 and that English title fits things here as the singer relates the story of a woman walking alone on a beach while wondering whatever became of her perhaps all-too-brief romance with that special someone. Of course, when it comes to an end-of-summer kayo, it's often about the end of relationships. The woman asks around the area to see if anyone has heard of anything regarding her lost beau so it's really quite melancholy despite the fairly upbeat melody.
The partnership between lyricist Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）and composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）were behind the creation of "Nagisa no Uwasa", and according to J-Wiki, it turned out to be the composer's first big hit of his career as the song was able to sell around 300,000 records. It also got Hirota her 5th of eight appearances on the Kohaku Utagassen.
"Nagisa no Uwasa" was covered by other singers a number of times, including Yuki Okazaki（岡崎友紀）via her June 1972 album"Album 4". There isn't all that much different in the basic arrangement but there is a bit more wistfulness in Okazaki's version compared to some of the brio that Hirota injected in the original song. I think with both versions there is a slight sense of "Where the Boys Are" by Connie Francis with a bit less drama.
Earlier today, I put "Breeze", the very first CD that I ever purchased from the "Light Mellow" series onto the stereo, and re-acquainted myself with some of the pleasant sounds of the City Pop/AOR genres.
One of the sources of the pleasant sounds on "Breeze" is "Sweet Joke" by actress/singer Yuki Okazaki（岡崎友紀）. Her most famous tune is the swinging 1960s pop"Do You Remember Me?" from 1980 as she started to perform material that was far away from her aidoru beginnings in the 1970s.
Apparently, "So Many Friends" , her album from 1981 (with a darn sexy cover) was that nice veer from her teenybopper days as she tackled some of that urban contemporary stuff. "Sweet Joke" which was the second track on the album sounds like the equivalent of a mug of hot chocolate with a shot of Kahlua for good measure to me. The song has got that nice anchor of the piano with some synthesizer fluttering overhead, and of course, one can't forget the saxophone. Guitarist on the song, Kenji Iwakura（岩倉健二）was also responsible for the melody while Okazaki herself took care of the lyrics relating some possibly mock frustration at her friend for not making any moves on her. Actually, Okazaki would wed Iwakura some years later for her second marriage.
One of our days on that cruise last month included a several-hour stopover in Falmouth, Jamaica. Couldn't have asked for a better day to go ashore and enjoy a walk around. I wouldn't have minded buying some of that famous rum...especially after having a double-shot rum and coke on board. Definitely was feeling mellow that night.
I found this B-side by Yuki Okazaki（岡崎友紀）recently so wanted to give this a highlight. For me, Okazaki will always be the one behind "Do You Remember Me?" (1980), the somewhat Swinging 60s-ish pop tune (apparently, the composer was inspired by The Ronnettes). Well, on the flip side of that single, this is "Jamaican Affair", a much more mellow affair with that bit of soft reggae thrown in.
The same folks behind "Do You Remember Me?" were taking care of this one as well, lyricist Kazumi Yasui（安井かずみ）and composer Kazuhiko Kato（加藤和彦）. I probably couldn't say that this was real reggae, of course...more like reggae-tinged New Music or J-AOR. However, I'm glad that I could get a second article on Okazaki on board (I put the first one up all the way back in 2012), so perhaps I should start exploring some of her earlier material since "Do You Remember Me?"was actually near the tail end of her singing career.
To be honest, I don't remember much about Yuki Okazaki（岡崎友紀）herself, and she actually has had a much longer career as an actress, appearing in her first role in "Peter Pan" back in 1961 as an 8-year-old, and then continuing on the stage and then into television. She debuted as a singer in 1970 with "Shiawase no Namida" （しあわせの涙....Happy Tears) which peaked at a respectable No. 35 on the Oricon weeklies.
However, her biggest hit was a decade later when "Do You Remember Me?" was released in June 1980 as one of her last singles. I've heard the song off and on in compilations and on TV, and it rather reminds me of some of those old 1960s performances by female pop singers, and songs by British actress Tracey Ullman in the early 80s. The song, written by Kazumi Yasui（安井かずみ）and composed by Kazuhiko Kato（加藤和彦）, peaked at No. 18.
