Crystal Gayle -- Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue

 

My surprise and only regret about Crystal Gayle's wonderful "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue" is that it's only a little over 2 1/2 minutes long! For such a congenial country/pop ballad, I thought it would have been a lot longer. But having said that, it's truly a short and sweet love song that would be welcome on the car radio late at night or over the speakers at a bar at about the same time before closing time with a couple of lovers dancing slowly on the floor. Gayle herself cut quite the figure on stage with her extremely long dark hair and that velvety voice.

I've mentioned this a few times over the history of "Kayo Kyoku Plus", but for a time when I was young, our family did watch our fair share of country music programming whether it was any of the Tommy Hunter specials on CBC or "Hee Haw" and those Johnny Cash shows in the United States. Heck, I think we even caught the "Grand Ole Opry" a few times on the telly. So, singers like Conway Twitty, Charlie Rich, Donna Fargo and Crystal's sister, Loretta Lynn, were familiar to us.

Even before I really started to appreciate music in general as a high school student in the early 1980s, there was something about "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue" that really stuck with me out of the many country songs that I heard. And indeed, it stuck out with a lot of folks on either side of the US/Canada border since it hit No. 2 Stateside and No. 1 in the Great White North in the Top Singles charts (it did hit the top spot on US Billboard's Country Songs list).

The single, created by Richard Leigh for Gayle, was released in June 1977. Of course in Japan, there were plenty of singles released in that month, too.

Pink Lady -- Nagisa no Sinbad （渚のシンドバッド）

Candies -- Shochū Omimai Mōshiagemasu（暑中お見舞い申し上げます）

Yumiko Araki -- Nagisa de Cross（渚でクロス）

John Williams -- Star Wars (Main Title)

 

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.

Yumiko Araki -- Nagisa de Cross（渚でクロス）

Yukio Sasaki -- Kimi wa Kaze（君は風）

Yumiko Araki -- Ai shika nai no ni（愛しかないのに）

 

The above picture is an especially precious one for me since the structure no longer exists. It was the Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka, and I first saw it through a photo in my brother's collection of shots that he had taken when he and his class went on the graduation trip from his Japanese language school in the summer of 1982. Design-wise, it was quite striking and if I saw it from the sky, it probably looked like a jagged boomerang. I was glad to finally see it in person (although I never got to stay in it) when I began living in the Tokyo area from the mid-1990s.

However, as they all say, all good things must come to an end, and surely enough, several months before my departure permanently back to Canada, it had been decided that the Akasaka Prince was to be demolished. Of course, the Japanese came up with an ingenious plan to take it down without too much hassle for the surrounding neighbourhood. Still miss the old building, though.

My above story on the Akasaka Prince really has nothing to do with this song, but I simply wanted to describe my affection for it.  Anyways, "Ai shika nai no ni" (I Have Only Love) is Yumiko Araki's（荒木由美子）10th and final single during her initial run as a singer after which it wouldn't be until December 2017 that she would release one more single, "Watashi wa Buranko"（私はブランコ...I am a Swing）.

A little less than a month ago, I put up Araki's song "Haru ni Fukarete"（春に吹かれて）from her October 1977 debut album "Virgin Road/Nagisa de Cross"（ヴァージン・ロード／渚でクロス）when she was known as an aidoru. Indeed, "Haru ni Fukarete" was a happy-go-lucky number with a spritz of Caribbean. On the other hand, "Ai shika nai no ni", which came out in March 1980, pretty much takes the singer out of the aidoru genre and into something more Mood Kayo and perhaps even enka (although that might be a bit of a stretch depending on how often I listen to it). 

At the very least, it's rather dramatic and polished kayo. Lyricist Kenji Kadoya（門谷憲二）, composer Makoto Kawaguchi（川口真）and arranger Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）all worked on the song. Perhaps I should change my stance from earlier about the Akasaka Prince not having anything to do with "Ai shika nai no ni"; this is the sort of song that I think would be set in one of the posh dining establishments in the old hotel. To be honest, though, the actual room as shown below has more of that faded beauty look...kinda like what the original Tokyo Prince Hotel looked like before its major renovation a few years ago.

Yumiko Araki -- Haru ni Fukarete（春に吹かれて）

 

The first time that I had heard of Yumiko Araki（荒木由美子）was through her debut single "Nagisa de Cross"（渚でクロス）from June 1977 which I wrote about a little over a couple of years ago.

I've already given out much of her biography through "Nagisa de Cross", so let's cut to the chase with this track from her debut album "Virgin Road/Nagisa de Cross"（ヴァージン・ロード／渚でクロス）which was released in October of that same year. The husband-and-wife team of Ryudo Uzaki and Yoko Aki（宇崎竜童・阿木燿子）, who had also come up with "Nagisa de Cross", was also behind "Haru ni Fukarete" (Carried Away by Spring), this time with arrangements by Motoki Funayama（船山基紀）.

The debut single may have been a bit more rock n' roll but "Haru ni Fukarete" is more lighthearted with a touch of Latin in there. It's more like a stroll in some tropical paradise and there is that velvety singing by Araki herself. Not a bad thing to hear especially as the season is here.

Yumiko Araki -- Nagisa de Cross（渚でクロス）

I've referred to this before, but as much as that huge pyramid of 80s aidorus separated into ranking levels existed, I think there was also that somewhat more obscure but similar 70s pyramid of teen singers.

There were those singers such as Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）, Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）and Pink Lady（ピンク・レディ）up at the top of that pyramid in the late 1970s, but to be honest, I don't have nearly as much knowledge about the B-team below those 70s stars as I do for the equivalent ranking with the 80s aidoru. However, I did find out about one such singer recently from the late 70s second tier.

Her name is Yumiko Araki（荒木由美子）and she hails from Saga Prefecture, which is the setting for one of this season's most popular anime incidentally speaking, and she's currently known as a singer, tarento and actress.

In 1976, when she was around 16 years of age, she earned herself a prize at the 1st annual Hori Pro Talent Scout Caravan, a talent show whose Grand Prix winner was none other than Ikue Sakakibara（榊原郁恵）. Then, some months later in June 1977, Araki made her singing debut with "Nagisa de Cross" (Crossing at the Beach) which earned her some Best New Artist honours alongside the aforementioned Sakakibara and Mizue Takada（高田みづえ）.

"Nagisa de Cross" was created by the husband-and-wife team of Ryudo Uzaki and Yoko Aki（宇崎竜童・阿木燿子）, the same tandem behind a number of Momoe Yamaguchi's later hits such as "Imitation Gold"（イミテイション・ゴールド）. Finding this out as I listened to the song, I could pick up on the tough girl feeling as Aki's lyrics seem to relate a fierce rivalry between two girls over a guy during the summer (from the title, I had initially thought it was about volleyball). It's almost as if Araki was the teen version of the jaded seen-it-all done-it-all character that Yamaguchi was portraying through her hits, although we all know that Yamaguchi was still very much an adolescent herself at that time.

One other thing that I picked up on as "Nagisa de Cross" was playing in my ears was the overall arrangement by Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）. That rumbling melody had me thinking of tough girls and guys and their motorcycles which then reminded me of Akina Nakamori's（中森明菜）"Ni-bun no Ichi no Shinwa"（1/2の神話）that would come out several years later in the 1980s. The interesting point was that Nakamori was seen as the heir apparent for Yamaguchi through her image and deeper voice.

Her debut single didn't particularly take Araki into the stratosphere as "Nagisa de Cross" peaked at No. 56 on Oricon and sold 44,000 records. However, she would release a total of 10 singles up to 1980 along with 4 albums while also entering the tarento and acting worlds of the geinokai. In 1983, she then married fellow entertainer Masayuki Yuhara（湯原昌幸）and retired for many years before making a return in 2004.