Tadao Takashima & Yukiji Asaoka -- Banana no Uta（バナナの唄）

Yesterday, I found out that veteran actor, emcee and tarento Tadao Takashima（高島忠夫）had passed away in the last few days at the age of 88. He was a very familiar face on Japanese TV, and my first experience of seeing him was as the congenial host of Fuji-TV's "Golden Youga Gekijo"（ゴールデン洋画劇場...Golden Western Movie Theatre）, one of the regular movie programs of the week showing off Hollywood flicks.

I also got to know him as the host of a few quiz programs such as the above "Quiz Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Don!"（クイズ・ドレミファドン!）on the same network.

Basically, his whole family was on television, it seems. For nearly 30 years, Takashima and his wife, actress Hanayo Sumi（寿美花代）, hosted a cooking show on NTV called "Gochisousama"（ごちそうさま...Thank You for the Meal）. Also, their two sons, Masanobu and Masahiro（高嶋政伸・高嶋政宏）, have also become very famous actors.

As I've mentioned in past articles, it used to be the usual thing for anyone who entered the big time in the geinokai, no matter which particular area, to get some songs recorded. Takashima released quite a plethora of them between 1954 and 1960 with his final one in that period being "Banana no Uta" (The Banana Song) released in May 1960.

This was a duet with fellow actress Yukiji Asaoka（朝丘雪路）that became the theme song for the movie "Banana"（バナナ）for which I'm assuming that both appeared in. Written by Shuntaro Tanikawa（谷川俊太郎）and composed by Toshiro Mayuzumi（黛敏郎）, it's a cute little Latin piece which has me wondering if there were some inspiration from songs by folks such as Perry Como and Harry Belafonte. Mind you, near the end, the back-and-forth male and female choruses sounded somewhat kabuki-ish.

In any case, another television legend has left the spotlight. All my condolences to the Takashima family.

Yukiji Asaoka -- Ame ga Yandara（雨がやんだら）

It's been a rather sad time for the geinokai this month. Along with the passing of 70s aidoru Hideki Saijo（西城秀樹）and singer-songwriter-musician Takayuki Inoue（井上堯之）, I received news this morning online that actress-singer Yukiji Asaoka（朝丘雪路）had passed away at the age of 82 last month on April 27th.

As I mentioned for the first article about her, "Furimuite mo Kurenai"（ふり向いてもくれない）, she was a familiar presence on Japanese television for decades who came up through the Takarazuka Troupe. As such, I knew her mostly for those appearances on everything from dramas to quiz shows to online shopping programs, but she did release a number of singles, and she appeared on NHK's Kohaku Utagassen 10 times.

That final time on the Kohaku was at the end of 1971 after an absence from the special for 5 years. And it was for her 4th single "Ame ga Yandara" (When The Rain Stops) which was released in October 1970. This is about as Mood Kayo as one can get with all of that bluesy saxophone and those lyrics by Rei Nakanishi（なかにし礼）about the end of a passionate tryst or one-night stand. The music was provided by veteran composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）, who I now believe could whip up any sort of music for anybody...outside of heavy metal. In fact, "Ame ga Yandara" earned Tsutsumi the Best Composer Prize at the Japan Record Awards. The song peaked at No. 5 on the weekly charts and became the 23rd-ranked single for 1971.

Yukiji Asaoka -- Furimuite mo Kurenai (ふり向いてもくれない)

Yukiji Asaoka（朝丘雪路）was a face that I'd seen from time to time on the telly back in my Japan days. I didn't know her by name but she was always a presence on some talk show or variety program although she is also listed as an actress and a singer. She also happens to be the wife of a respected veteran actor Masahiko Tsugawa（津川雅彦）.

Born in 1935 in Tokyo as Yukie Kato（加藤雪会）, she went through the education of becoming a member of the Takarazuka Revue in the Moon Troupe before serving in the actual revue for 3 years and then retiring in 1955. Following that, she entered the world of TV and movie acting plus some duties appearing on various shows such as "Yoru no Hit Studio"（夜のヒットスタジオ）for about a year from 1974 and "11PM" for 16 years (1966-1982).

As a singer, Asaoka released 9 singles between 1964 and 1975 including this one, her 2nd, from 1965. "Furimuite mo Kurenai" (He Won't Even Turn Around), a typically bluesy Mood Kayo about a woman pining for a man who can't or won't notice her. I can easily smell the alcohol, cigarette smoke and sadness wafting in from the bar. What sells the song to me is Asaoka's silky vocals that cleanly cut through all that atmosphere without sounding as if she knocked back a couple of bottles of Suntory a night. Strangely enough, the lyricist for "Furimuite mo Kurenai" is the late Yukio Aoshima（青島幸男）, the comedian and future governor of Tokyo. Jinzo Kosugi（小杉仁三）took care of the music.

J-Wiki listed this song as one of the hits for 1965 in the pre-Oricon age so I'm not sure how it did in terms of sales. And there are a couple of other singles which seem to have gotten more of a reputation since they have their own entries, but as an introduction to Asaoka's singing career, "Furimuite mo Kurenai" meets the bar (no pun intended) nicely. I'll have to take a look at those other songs since Asaoka had also had a long stint (10 appearances from 1957 to 1971) on the Kohaku Utagassen including one appearance singing this particular song on the 1966 show.