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.
The above is a shot of the Hotel Monterey Osaka. I've never heard of it let alone been there but it's quite close to JR Osaka Station. The website certainly depicts it as one of the more luxurious accommodations in Osaka.
It was just last week when I posted my Author's Pick on hotel-titled kayo, and perhaps if I had remembered that this song was in the backlog, I would have included it in the list. But as it is, this is Chie Kobayashi's（小林千絵）7th single "Hotel Osaka" from May 1985. Last week's list showed that a number of genres can be used to reflect those hotel tunes but this time, "Hotel Osaka" has more of a bouncy folksy nature in its pop...not really Mood Kayo or City Pop at all. Written by Toshihiro Ito（伊藤敏博）, composed by Yukio Sasaki（佐々木幸男）and arranged by Tatsushi Umegaki（梅垣達志）, the hotel in question (and this isn't to say that the Monterey was the site of trysting here) is in all likelihood the final stop in a relationship that has to come to its end much to the lady's chagrin.
With the common first name of Chie and common family name of Kobayashi in there, I'd assumed that Chie Kobayashi was a regular part of KKP. However as it turns out, this is the first time for this singer, actress and TV personality to appear on the blog. Many welcomes to her then! Hailing from Osaka itself, the celebrity's path to an entertainment career apparently began when she won a championship on a TV show specializing in celebrity impressions; her winning stint was one of doing a Junko Sakurada（桜田淳子）song. According to her J-Wiki profile, the singing part of her geinokai career was the one that got things started for her professionally when she debuted in 1983 with the single "Itsumo Kataomoi"（いつも片想い...Always One-Sided Love）.
It's time for a special Wednesday edition of Reminiscings of Youth, although we'll have the regular Thursday ROY tomorrow since the singer there is about to be inducted into the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame.
Well, May the 4th and all that! Of course, this has been the day to celebrate all things "Star Wars", although the original 1977 film that launched everything off was released on May 25th. I was reminded of the auspiciousness of today because our local Blue Jays are having their May the 4th festivities tonight for their rubber match against the Yankees.
Now, to be honest with you, I'm no longer a fan of the franchise since out of the many related movies that have come out over the past 45 years, I only really like "A New Hope", "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Rogue One". But before I end up getting my gears ground over the decreasing satisfaction levels of the other releases, let me get into the fact that I'm happy to finally welcome the legendary composer and musician, John Williams to "Kayo Kyoku Plus". Yep, his scores for the franchise have acted as much of a beloved character as R2-D2, C-3PO, Luke Skywalker and all of the rest.
Of course, there is the main title that has thrilled everyone and has become one of the most recognizable, if not the most recognizable film theme in Hollywood history. I used to listen to that heroic brassy overture over and over again at my friend's house when he was able to buy the soundtrack and then when I got my copy, I was happy to wear out the needle on the family stereo for the main title as well as the other tracks including "Princess Leia's Theme" and "TIE Fighter Attack". The climactic Death Star battle wouldn't have been as epic, thrilling or joyful-to-the-point-of-tears without Williams' accompanying music.
Who would have thought up of music that would have normally belonged to the soundtrack of a swashbuckling adventure for a sci-fi film that usually got some electronic music instead? It obviously worked; the album sold like hotcakes, and I'm happy to say that it's still on my shelf after all these years. Williams had already been around for a lot of other projects such as the horror-thriller "Jaws" from a couple of years earlier and additional movies and television shows, but "Star Wars" was the first time that I got to know him.
And boy, was I in for a surprise to find out that he, under the name Johnny Williams, had provided incidental music for at least the first season of a beloved sitcom "Gilligan's Island" in the 1960s. I was watching that since I was still in diapers!
In addition, Williams had already been getting his feet wet in scoring for sci-fi projects since he came up with the theme and score for the show "Land of the Giants" back in 1968. I used to watch this on WUTV Buffalo on the weekends. Now that I think of it, the theme does sound very Williams.
Finally, I mentioned this on the ROY article for "Peter Gunn", but he was the guy on the piano pounding away at the keys for what is still one of the coolest detective theme songs ever created, with the composer being another legend, Henry Mancini.
The main title for "Star Wars" won't be the only John Williams article since there are quite a few other amazing themes that I've enjoyed listening to over the decades. But the strange thing is that before I began the ROY series, I'd actually written an initial 2015 article on that main title because of a Japanese singer's attempt at it, Masato Shimon（子門真人）.
Actually, the following two songs were released back in June 1977 but they're close enough.
I just kinda thought, "What the heck!". Let's get some September songs up here. For some reason, September-themed kayoseems to be the most frequent of all of the months, although I think May and August are up there as well. I'm also going to throw in a couple of my favourite American September tunes as well since the 21st is coming soon. Most of them have already been written about on the blog so I'm only going to provide commentary for just one song here.
The Ames Brothers -- September Song (1960s)
And this is the song..."September Song" which was originally a song introduced in 1938 in the Broadway musical "Knickerbocker Holiday", and from what I've heard of the various versions, it's usually arranged in a very soft and wistful style. However, the first version that I had heard was the one by The Ames Brothers via that LP collection of standards that my father got with his RCA Victor stereo back in the 1960s. The reason that I remember it so well is that this version is so jazzy and upbeat that it can only be made for cutting a rug in front of the jukebox. If anyone can inform me when exactly this version was recorded, I will be grateful.
Singer-songwriter Yukio Sasaki（佐々木幸男）is someone that I discovered thanks to "Kayo Kyoku Plus" and I was surprised to realize that I first wrote about him very early on in the history of our blog...back in September 2012, in fact. That was the article for "September Valentine", a well-covered classic created by lyricist Atsuko Saito（斉藤敦子）and composer Yasuhiro Abe（安部恭弘）, but Sasaki was the original singer although I believe that the definitive version is the one given by Tohoko Shinkansen（東北新幹線）in 1982.
Sasaki is known as a folk/pop singer but in his debut album"Bo~ Bo~"（ほーぼー）from August 1977, he sings an easy-on-the-ears and adorable tune titled "Koko de Natsu wo Miokuru" (Seeing Off Summer Here). One of his own creations, it's an even mellower trip to Margaritaville as the story has a guy getting his girlfriend to join him on a nice little trip down to the harbour to enjoy the hot season.
Along with the Orange Mimosa and beach umbrella-friendly arrangement, I also enjoy Sasaki's high-toned vocals especially when he goes for that falsetto. I can easily imagine him actually singing "Koko de Natsu wo Miokuru" near that beachside café. As for the meaning of that album title, I'm not sure except maybe "Bo~ Bo~" is supposed to be the onomatopoeia for a ship blowing its horn...maybe?
Perhaps some of you American viewers of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" can explain the drink Yoo-Hoo to me since it is something that I have heard before on a sitcom, perhaps, but I can't seem to remember the exact one. It's been plugged as this zesty chocolate drink which actually doesn't have very much chocolate at all, according to some of the YouTube comments and the Wikipedia article on the drink. I don't think we ever had Yoo-Hoo ever come up to Toronto. From what I've read and seen in commercials like the one above, I get the feeling that it might be similar in impression at least to Georgia's extremely sweet Max Coffee which used to save me from the sultry summer heat of Tokyo although true coffee connoisseurs would probably prefer to bash their heads against a brick wall than take a sip of the stuff.
The reason that I'm even mentioning this drink here on KKP is that it's been given a shoutout in singer-songwriter Yukio Sasaki's（佐々木幸男）debut single from June 1977, "Kimi wa Kaze"(You Are The Wind). Yep, as Sasaki is crooning about how much he loves his girlfriend, his girlfriend apparently greatly loves her Yoo-Hoo. There are also a couple of mentions of other drinks in his lyrics: hot tea and cider (which I'm guessing is another Japanese favourite: Mitsuya Cider).
As for Sasaki's melody, it begins rather sadly with those tearful strings but after about 20 seconds, "Kimi wa Kaze" enters a gentle country swing that keeps on going to the end of its short three minutes and twenty-eight seconds. Still, it feels quite satisfying by the end...like a small bottle of Yoo-Hoo or Max Coffee.
According to the J-Wiki article for Sasaki, "Kimi wa Kaze" also served as the theme song for the TV music program "Cocky Pop"（コッキーポップ）. Plus, one more piece of trivia about Yoo-Hoo is that in the J-Wiki article for the drink, it started being sold from 1974 in Japan, mainly in Kanagawa Prefecture.
Went for my annual physical yesterday. Found out that I ingested a few too many calories over the past year and I'm admittedly understating this. Of course, having found out about this from my doctor, we all went to Burger King for lunch. I'm definitely a glutton for punishment!
There is quite a bit of weight that I would love to see off, but until that unlikely situation occurs, let us have singer-songwriter Yukio Sasaki（佐々木幸男）see off the summer instead.
I haven't written about one of his own songs since the classic "September Valentine" back in 2012. His "Koko de Natsu wo Miokuru" (I'll See Off the Summer Here and Now) is a track from his debut album in August 1977, "Houbou"（ほーぼー...Everywhere）, and it's a bit more of a cheerful and whimsical number. It starts off with a jazzy guitar before Sasaki provides his light and mellow vocals with some falsetto, and the song is ideal for some sipping of cocktails or perhaps something a little stronger while the sun is out.
Perhaps not exactly the right time of the year to feature this song since we've only just seen the winter off here, but heck, I'm never going to turn down this pleasant on a Tuesday afternoon.
The French "Je t'aime" seems to be one of those popular expressions that used to find itself in a handful of Japanese pop songs and even some of the titles way back when. It is rather ironic that for a people who don't (didn't?) express affection too openly, the ardent l'amour did make its way into kayo lyrics.
One example that is well known to me since I'm a big fan of the singer is "je t'aime" by Ruiko Kurahashi（倉橋ルイ子）. Released as her 7th single in October 1984, the song may have all of its title in small letters but the way song comes out, it really seems to pour out all of the desperation of love and heartbreak like an avalanche. Going through the lyrics, I saw a lot of the tropes for the unhappiness involved in romance such as the dried and crumply leaves of autumn, the mark on the finger where a ring used to be, fog and even that new woman on the old flame's arm.
"je t'aime" isn't one of my favourite Ruiko songs partially due to the arrangement with a strangely dated synthesizer and because I usually like Kurahashi in a more languid style. But the song still pops up in my brain occasionally when her name comes up. It was written and composed by singer-songwriter Kuniko Fukushima（福島邦子）.
The other song by her that I wanted to put up is "Itsuka Happiness"(Happiness Someday). This is one that I do like very much since it is in that languid style that I always associate with her. I'm not exactly sure when the song first appeared although it wasn't an official single. The first time I heard and fell in love with it was through its existence on a compilation tape that I got at Wah Yueh in Chinatown but it's also on the CD that is featured at Apple, her "NEW BEST NOW" disc from 1987.
Written by Kei Murayama and Junichi Kosugi（村山恵・こすぎじゅんいち）and composed by singer Yukio Sasaki（佐々木幸男）, I'd always assumed that "Itsuka Happiness" was about that leisurely Sunday morning brunch at home. It just sounded really relaxing. However, the lyrics really talk about a lass waiting for that phone call in a foggy Tokyo one morning from her beau so that she can tell how she feels about him. Well, it's not exactly the same scenario but perhaps she could still be eating a bagel and lox. In any case, this is more my type of Ruiko.
Seeing that September was rapidly coming to a close, I was looking for any other kayo kyoku songs with the theme of either September or Fall. Of course, I already have Mariya Takeuchi's（竹内まりや）"September" profiled and will get to Ippu-Do's"September Love". Then, by pure accident, I came across this number that I had never heard even in all my years in Japan. On YouTube, I heard EPO's version and then read that the original singer was Yukio Sasaki（佐々木幸男）, a folk/pop singer based in Hokkaido. So I went to his version of the song and enjoyed it very much. All of the renditions come off as rather bluesy. Sasaki originally sang it in 1977 as his 3rd single.
I was surprised to find out that the composer for "September Valentine" was City Pop/J-AOR crooner Yasuhiro Abe（安部恭弘）. His official debut as a solo singer wouldn't happen for another 5 years, although he had been involved in a band called The Real McCoys with fellow singer-songwriter Masamichi Sugi（杉真理） in the 70s. When the band broke up, Abe continued to act as songwriter and backup vocal for other singers such as Mariya Takeuchi. His melody and delivery are mellow but the lyrics by Atsuko Saito（斉藤敦子）are bitter....the hurt protagonist softly chastises his possibly-soon-to-be-ex-lover at the suggestion of a breakup in their relationship. He did his original performance in 1977 at the Yamaha Popular Song Contest (affectionately nicknamed PopCon) in Tokyo. Abe would do another version for his 1994 album, "Passage" which is the video above.
Finally, this is EPO's version of the song that first got me hooked. Not sure where her version is located amongst her albums, but I came across information that it was no later than 1989.
