FIELD OF VIEW -- DAN DAN Kokoro Hikareteku（DAN DAN 心魅かれてく）

Hello there. J-Canuck here and welcome to Easter Monday and April Fool's Day at the same time. No fooling around here, though, as frequent commenter and occasional contributor Fireminer will be providing the first two articles on KKP for April 2024! Take it away, Fireminer!

 

“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” as it is often said. It is doubly true when applied to the late great Akira Toriyama. There is an industry in Japan for artists who can imitate Toriyama’s style. Fans of franchises like Dragon Ball and Dragon Quest can be assured that the Toriyama-ness of their favorite series are now safe in the hands of artists like Toyotarou who cut their teeth drawing Dragon Ball doujinshi.

But what happens when an artist imitates himself? Or rather, return to the root of the thing that gave him success? Dragon Ball GT is what happens. It will take far too long to explain what Dragon Ball GT is, its spirit, and its importance within the Dragon Ball mythos as well as to the fandom. What I will say that it is a lot more enjoyable than what Western fans give it credit. That and the opening song absolutely slaps.

J-Canuck has already made a good write-up (https://kayokyokuplus.blogspot.com/2019/11/field-of-view-totsuzen.html) on the band FIELD OF VIEW, so I will only focus on their hit DAN DAN Kokoro Hikareteku (DAN DAN 心魅かれてく, Step by Step, You're Charming My Heart). Written by KKP’s regulars Izumi Sakai and Tetsuro Oda, who also wrote a few other hits for the band, Dan Dan Kokoro Hikareteku is a tour-de-force of a summer song. You simply can’t listen to it and then resist the urge of jumping right on a car and drive along the coast, feeling the sun and the wind rolling on your skin. That is the very vibe of Dragon Ball GT, an attempt to return to the innocence and whimsical adventures of the original Dragon Ball as opposed to Dragon Ball Z’s hot-blooded, roar-till-your-throat-raw spirit.

Dan Dan Kokoro Hikareteku was released by FIELD OF VIEW as their fourth single on March 11, 1996. It was an instant hit, no doubt buoyed by Oda’s breezy composition and Izumi’s lovely lyrics. It peaked at #4 on Oricon and charted for 11 weeks. The song was used as Dragon Ball GT’s opening song and then as the ending theme for Dragon Ball: The Path to Power, a movie that was actually a retelling of the original Dragon Ball storyline. Dan Dan Kokoro Hikareteku was the perfect song to both the show and the movie. I suppose it was also the perfect song for the Dragon Ball fans in the late 90s. Those who were brought up with Dragon Ball in the 90s now reached an age where they felt the first pang of nostalgia. Dan Dan Kokoro Hikareteku is the call to adventure for the restless soul who felt regret for not having made the best of his youth, but also having too much energy and time to just bottle it up. The song asks them to put aside their worries and fatigue for a moment, and just follow what their restlest spirit tells them to./.

ZARD -- Forever You

 

This morning, I saw an NHK weekly news summary series on TV Japan, and one of the features was rather interesting to an ol' pop culture wonk like myself. Apparently, along with the Showa Retro（昭和レトロ）boom, there's been an accompanying Heisei Retro（平成レトロ）boom to represent nostalgic interest in the various fads and fashion that got devoured by Japanese youth during the Heisei era, notably from the inaugural year of 1989 into the mid-1990s at least. So, some of the young folks right now have possibly been inheriting the bits and bites of Heisei culture from their parents including loose socks, platform boots, and midriff-bearing shirts.

And who can forget the ancient Tamagotchi?! I was already there in Tokyo when the digital game/nursery went absolutely bonkers with the Japanese public. As can be seen in the above video, there were hours-long lineups to get that tiny little trinket. I remember walking by Tokyu Hands in Shibuya and witnessing this snake of humanity curling around the corner so that they could get their hands on a Tamagotchi.

My word. It says something when nostalgia and active pursuit for an era which I had entered in my mid-twenties are rising like a wave once more. That spoon stirring my glass of Metamucil is tinkling ever more loudly. 😵

Speaking of NHK, a couple of days ago, I watched a new series called "Heroine Tanjou! Asadora no Dramatic no Onna-tachi"（ヒロイン誕生!朝ドラな女たち...Birth of a Heroine! Morning Drama Women）. If I got the premise right, it's supposed to focus on the lives of certain real people of the past via acting performances. The "asadora" part threw me for a loop initially until I read the J-Wiki article and discovered that the producers behind "Heroine Tanjou!" had gone for a "What If?" approach for their subject and assumed that if a morning serial drama (which is a virtual 15-minute institution on the national network between 8 am and 8:15) could be done for that person, this is what it could look like. But most of the 30-minute program is devoted to the actress asking friends and acquaintances of the subject about her and how she would prepare for the 5-minute vignette that appears at the end.

Usually, such a program wouldn't be my cup of tea, but Episode No. 1 was focused on singer-songwriter Izumi Sakai（坂井泉水）, aka ZARD, whose untimely death had occurred just over 15 years ago in 2007. Hana Kawamura（河村花）portrayed the late Sakai, who had been born Sachiko Kamachi（蒲池幸子）in Kanagawa Prefecture. Well, considering that ZARD had kept her media appearances to a bare minimum throughout her singing career, I was curious.

My impression of Sakai was that compared to some of the over-the-top celebrities that constantly showed up on programs such as "Music Station", the singer was very much down-to-earth and somewhat shy. The footage of her that was aired on "Heroine Tanjou!" along with Kawamura's portrayal rather confirmed that. 

Not surprisingly, because it was ZARD as the subject of the program, the producers focused on a particular song of hers which was the title track of her March 1995 album, "Forever You". KKP friend and co-administrator Larry Chan has already devoted an article to the song in which he stated "Forever You" had been meant as a paean to Sakai's former phase of her celebrity career when, under her real name of Sachiko Kamachi, she paid her dues as a pinup model and race queen. 

In the dramatized scene at the end of "Heroine Tanjou!", there was a newspaper article which pronounced loud and clear about Sakai's "sordid" past for which producer Daito Nagato（長戸大幸）assured the singer that he would try to suppress any more rumours about her. But Sakai countered by stating that there was no need to do that since she was neither afraid nor ashamed of that part of her life because it was due to her work then and the struggles to get through with it that brought her to the successful stage in life that she was now enjoying as a recording artist. Supposedly from that meeting came "Forever You" through her lyrics and Tetsuro Oda's（織田哲郎）melody. It's not a happy rah-rah song by any means, but a musical moment of quiet pride which seems to match Sakai's own personality.

The album "Forever You" itself would hit No. 1 for two straight weeks and end up as the 4th-ranked album of the year. It also broke the 2-million mark in sales.

Aido/Shogo Hamada/ZARD -- Futari no Natsu（二人の夏）

 

Summer officially arrived here in Toronto at 5:14 am this morning and although it was still pretty fresh this morning, the season really roared in from the afternoon, so the temperatures were up to 28 degrees Celsius with a Humidex close to 40 degrees. I was out with a few friends for lunch today and I did my fair share of walking so I'm aching all over as I type this. I could really use that Peach Banana smoothie that you see above.

Well, since it is the first day of summer and therefore the longest day of the year, let's have something seasonally apt. Last year, I wrote about Shogo Hamada's（浜田省吾）old group from the 1970s, Aido（愛奴）, and their "Natsu no Futari"（夏の二人）. Strangely enough, though, that 1976 song was created by band guitarist Tohru Aoyama（青山徹）following Hamada's departure from Aido.

Today, though, I have Aido's debut single "Futari no Natsu" (Two of Us in Summer) ...yeah, just flip a couple of words around. Released in May 1975, unlike the later mellower and perhaps closer to AOR "Natsu no Futari", "Futari no Natsu" has more of that gentle 1950s Richie-and-Mary Beth romantic melodiousness, thanks to Hamada who wrote and composed it. Indeed, it's all about a couple in love just lying on the beach at night and enjoying the moment. I can hear a lot of Beach Boys and "Theme from A Summer Place".

Hamada would cover his creation as his June 1987 21st single, getting up to No. 25. It was also included in his 2nd mini-album from the same month "CLUB SURFBOUND" that hit No. 1. The above imaginative video has that very song as part of a video collection that Hamada provided titled "SHOGO HAMADA Visual Collection "FLASH&SHADOW"" from August 2005. Man, it's so "American Graffiti"! 

Actually, I decided to kill two birds with one stone with ZARD's own "Futari no Natsu", but the only similarity is the title. Otherwise, it's a wholly different animal created by lyricist Izumi Sakai（坂井泉水）and composer Seiichiro Kuribayashi（栗林誠一郎）, and it didn't even come out as a single but as the final track on the singer's July 1993 4th original album "Yureru Omoi"（揺れる想い...Shifting Feelings）. 

The lyrical content also differs from Aido's "Futari no Natsu" in that ZARD's "Futari no Natsu" is a wistful re-encounter between two former lovers at a bus stop one hot day, with all of the feelings remaining in the lady's side. "Yureru Omoi" hit No. 1 on the Oricon weeklies and became the No. 1 album for the entire year, and it still hung around to become the No. 54 album for 1994.

ZARD -- Kokoro wo Hiraite（心を開いて）

Went out early this morning to grab as many groceries for the week that I could. About a hundred bucks later, I dragged the entire load back home, and perhaps my arms got a fine workout, to boot. Not a big fan of those automated cashiers, though.

In any case, it's looking really nice out there with the sun and cool temperatures. But of course, we all gotta stay home. I (and my friends) are hoping that maybe some good news will come in about a month or so.

So, in the interim, how about some nice 90s J-Pop with a rock edge by one of the more famous and popular artists of that decade, ZARD? To be honest, I don't ever recall hearing this 18th single, "Kokoro wo Hiraite" (Open Your Heart) and though it's still a typically upbeat ZARD song, it also sounds a bit gentler, as if she's taking a bit of a break between the really soar-in-the-sky numbers. According to the J-Wiki article on "Kokoro wo Hiraite", that music video was apparently filmed in Sydney, Australia and Monaco (dang, what kind of budget did the production have?); nice break, indeed.

Written by ZARD, aka Izumi Sakai（坂井泉水）, and composed by Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎）, the single was released in May 1996 and was also a track on her 7th original album "Today Is Another Day" from July of that year. "Kokoro wo Hiraite" ended up becoming ZARD's 9th most successful single, selling close to 750,000 copies and hitting No. 1 in its first week. It ended up as the 32nd-ranked single of the year. As for "Today Is Another Day", it also hit the top spot on Oricon and became the 12th-ranked album for 1996.

True to its summery nature, "Kokoro wo Hiraite" was also used as a commercial tune for Pocari Sweat.

FIELD OF VIEW -- Totsuzen（突然）

Welcome to November 2019! Yup, once again time seems to have snuck up behind us and surprised all of us with the penultimate month of the year. The snow didn't come at us as Halloween trick-or-treaters had feared but according to one of my friends on Facebook, some of the white stuff did hit his neighbourhood briefly this morning, although I doubt that there was any accumulation.

As much as I poke a little fun at the contemporary aidoru groups such as AKB 48, SKE 48 and NGT 48 by calling them the alphabet idols, I also fondly remember a lot of the bands from the early 1990s as the Scrabble or Scramble groups since they had names that looked like they had been formed by randomly selecting alphabet tiles from a pouch. I'm thinking of B'z, ZARD, ZYYG and REV.

But there was one band from that time which had a unique name to be sure but at least it did come out as a coherent phrase, FIELD OF VIEW. Starting as view in 1992 under the Being label, the quartet of vocalist Yuuya Asaoka（浅岡雄也）, drummer Takuto Kohashi（小橋琢人）, guitarist Takashi Oda（小田孝）and keyboardist Jun Abe（安部潤）put out their first 2 singles which didn't exactly light any fires. However with a style change of doffing their casual wear for some smart suits, and picking up two more words to their name, FIELD OF VIEW made a re-debut in 1995.

Their 4th single, "Totsuzen" (Sudden) was released in July 1995 and became their best hit chart-wise when it peaked at No. 2 on Oricon. It's a song that brought instant recognition to me after so long, mostly through its use as a commercial tune for the drink Pocari Sweat. With lyrics by Izumi ZARD Sakai（坂井泉水）and music by Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎）, a couple of song-smiths that were prolific during the 1990s, "Totsuzen" relates the story of a guy who may have been given a second chance at a relationship due to a sudden letter from his old flame. I also noticed a certain musical riff in there which reminded me of part of the melody in the SMAP super hit, "Sekai ni Hitotsu dake no Hana" （世界に一つだけの花）.

Selling 1.2 million copies (and perhaps truckloads of Pocari Sweat), "Totsuzen" managed to finish the year as the 22nd-ranked single for 1995. It also made it onto FIELD OF VIEW's debut album "FIELD OF VIEW I" released in October of that year and hit the top spot on the album charts and even became the 43rd-ranked album within those last three months.

Keyboardist Abe left the band following their 5th single to be replaced by bassist Kenji Niitsu（新津健二）. FIELD OF VIEW would release 22 singles and 5 original albums. Their last three singles up to mid-2002 would have the band picking up a definite article so they were known as the FIELD OF VIEW before finally calling it quits.

ZARD/Aika Ohno -- Get U're Dream

Yes, folks, we've now passed the 1-year mark in the countdown toward the Tokyo Olympics, something that NHK has not failed to inform us about. I figure that there will be features on the athletes and venues every day on the national network from now til late July 2020.

To be honest, when it comes to my benchmarks for Olympic theme songs, and all of the Japanese TV networks have loved coming up with such tunes for the past couple of decades, I have to go with Maki Ohguro's（大黒摩季）blood-pumping "Atsukunare"（熱くなれ）for the Summer Games in Atlanta 1996 for the uptempo stuff, and the epic ballad "Hatenaku Tsuzuku Story"（果てなく続くストーリー）by Misia for the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, both from NHK.

Now, it seems as if when it came to the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, hitomi's "LOVE 2000" became the popular tune associated with those Games due to marathon runner Naoko Takahashi's（高橋尚子）love for it. But that wasn't the official NHK theme. Actually, it was "Get U're Dream" by ZARD that was her 32nd single released in September 2000.

I'm not sure but perhaps "Get U're Dream" may have gotten overshadowed by "LOVE 2000". Still, ZARD's contribution to the Olympic theme songs isn't too bad. With lyrics by the singer under her name of Izumi Sakai（坂井泉水）, and music by singer-songwriter Aika Ohno（大野愛果）, "Get U're Dream" won't get listeners wanting to run the 100-metre dash or do a clean-and-jerk like "Atsukunare", but it's a fun enough song to get folks in the mood for some sports viewing. The single managed to peak at No. 4 on Oricon and was also placed as a track on ZARD's 9th album "Toki no Tsubasa"（時間の翼...Wings of Time） from February 2001. It went Platinum and hit the top spot on the charts.

On Xmas Day 2013, Ohno released her own 3rd album "Silent Passage" which contained a cover version of "Get U're Dream" (the entire album consists of covers of songs that Ohno had composed for other artists including ZARD). When it comes to her Ohno's own presence on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", she's just been listed as being the songwriter for Mai Kuraki's（倉木麻衣）tunes including that singer's debut "Love, Day After Tomorrow", so it's nice that I can have Ohno show up here again this time as a singer herself.

Ohno's "Get U're Dream" has got the same level of cheer but with its synth orchestral arrangement, it sounds like something more attuned as a theme for a story of gothic intrigue. "Silent Passage" went as high as No. 110.

ZARD - Forever You

J-Canuck and I probably share the same kind of feeling towards the 90s.

In summer 1990, I set foot on US soil for the very first time in my life for my undergrad.  I have pretty much disconnected myself from Hong Kong pop music from that time onwards.  The Hong Kong music scene was transitioning from the dominance of Alan Tam (譚詠麟), Leslie Cheung (張國榮), and Anita Mui (梅艷芳) to the 4 Gods (四大天王), namely Jacky Zhang (張學友), Andy Lau (劉德華), Leon Lai (黎明), and Aaron Kwok (郭富城).  Like J-Canuck, I also felt like I missed a lot of actions that’s happening in Hong Kong at that time.  Consequently, music from the 90s always invokes a special feeling within my heart.

Forever You was released in a ZARD 1995 album with the same name, 2 years after the tremendous success of Makenaide (負けないで).  Oda Tetsuro (織田哲郎) composed the music and ZARD, or Sakai Izumi (坂井泉水) was of course responsible for the lyrics.  This song is probably a real story of Izumi’s life, and her reflection at that point in her career.  In the song, she talks about the time when she fumbled along her way to seek her dream, referring to her early days as a race girl and model.  Now that her dream has come true, she has found happiness and just wants to take steady steps and may be, find her true love one day.  Reflecting on her past, she felt no regret, as it is the path she has chosen after all.  She also felt extremely grateful and would never forget all the people who have helped her along the way.

Forever You is one of my favorites among many ZARD’s hits.  It is also one of the favorites of Terao Hiroshi (寺尾広), ZARD’s recording director.  In his interview remembering ZARD’s 10th death anniversary, Hiroshi noted the special arrangement of Forever You.  For around 30 years since the birth of J-Pop, its formula has always been one of verse, pre-chorus, chorus (or hook) type of arrangement.  But in Forever You, it lacks a pre-chorus, and jumps from verse directly to the chorus, which he thinks is a smart deviation.  Personally, I think such simple arrangement enhances the story told by the song.

In that same interview, Hiroshi revealed that almost no song was specifically written for ZARD. Consequently, Izumi had almost no contact with the song writer.  It was because producer Nagato Daiko (長戸大幸) didn’t  want to limit the creativity of Izumi regarding lyrics.  Had she known that a song has been specifically written for her, she might be influenced to make word choices that she otherwise wouldn’t make in order to fit a particular melody, out of respect for the songwriter.  I found this point quite interesting.

Enjoy!

ZARD -- Yureru Omoi（揺れる想い）

Well, this news about the abdication of Emperor Akihito has gotten about as much time and pomp as the anticipated abdication itself, by my estimation. But yes, the bell has rung and the countdown has begun toward the end of the Heisei Era....April 30th 2019, to be exact.

That did get me thinking a bit today. When Emperor Akihito's father, Emperor Hirohito (the Showa Emperor) passed away in 1989, there were all sorts of remembrances about the Showa Era through many aspects. And this blog began almost 6 years ago initially as a platform to talk about Showa Era music. For me, music from 1925-1989 would arguably be best characterized by the advent of the Golden Age of Enka and Mood Kayo, but there were also three decades of aidoru-dom plus the smaller waves of New Music, City Pop and technopop.

It's all but guaranteed that there will be tons of news reports and documentaries on NHK and the commercial networks about the 30-odd years of Heisei for the next several months. And I'm sure that music will be part of the equation. So what was Heisei music like between 1989-2019?

Well, for me, I could probably talk best about the early Heisei period in the 1990s. There was the transition from kayo kyoku to J-Pop through the diversification of mainstream Japanese music, the emergence of the Komuro boom, the overall lack of female aidoru for most of that decade until Morning Musume came onto the scene in 1997, and then the rise of J-R&B among other things.

If someone asked me about a prime Heisei Era singer, I could say that ZARD would fit in there. She had that long string of hits through the 90s although her appearances on TV were few. The late Izumi Sakai（坂井泉水）struck me as being somewhat of a J-Pop Greta Garbo. Nonetheless, she was well heard if not seen.

"Yureru Omoi" (Wavering Thoughts) was one of her big hits as her 8th single. It was another summery song of optimism that first came out in May 1993 as ZARD sang about making that leap of faith to commit to that special someone. While Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎）was behind the melody, ZARD took care of the lyrics.

The song was the first one in ZARD's career to enter Oricon at the No. 1 position which it held for 2 weeks and ended up as the 9th-ranked single for the year. It was her second hit following her earlier "Makenaide"（負けないで）. Her 4th album also ended up with the same title; it came out a couple of months after the single and also hit No. 1 for a total of 5 weeks, becoming the No. 1 album for the year.

Being the 1990s, "Yureru Omoi" just had to be attached to Pocari Sweat. Because of its Oricon success, the song also became the most successful contribution to the isotonic drink's campaign history.

ZARD -- Don't you see!

I guess I can say that there for several years in the 90s and 00s, there was that golden age of ZARD. Time wouldn't pass too long during that time before there was another announcement of a single by the late Izumi Sakai（坂井泉水）, aka ZARD, being released. Plus, there was that distinct sound she brought with her music via the guitars, the keyboards and her voice. It was always a sign of summer, in a way. And perhaps she could have been a female equivalent of TUBE.

One of the songs that got a lot of attention back then was "Don't you see!". This was her 19th single released in January 1997 (interesting release date, but it's still a summer song to me), and thanks to that title, it was an easy thing for the song to burrow itself into my memories. Written by Sakai and composed by musician-singer Seiichiro Kuribayashi（栗林誠一郎）, it's an impassioned plea for love to someone who may be exhibiting some relationship reluctance or the fellow may be completely clueless about love.

I remember during those days when ZARD seemed to be as camera-shy as Greta Garbo in her later years. There would be some jokes about rare ZARD sightings on TV. And yet, I think she was probably plenty accessible at her concerts.

What I hadn't known before deciding to do the article was that "Don't you see!" was the 2nd ending theme for the anime "Dragonball GT"（ドラゴンボールGT）which had its run between February 1996 and November 1997. I noticed that the intro to the anime version was a lot more rousing. Of all of the theme songs for the "Dragonball" franchise, this was the only one to hit No. 1 on the Oricon weeklies and in its first week, to boot.

It ended up selling more than 600,000 copies and eventually became the 46th-ranked single of the year. Its first appearance on an album was "ZARD BLEND 〜SUN&STONE〜" from April 1997 which also hit No. 1 and became the 5th-ranked album of the year, breaking the 2 million barrier. Hard to believe that it's been over a decade since the passing of Sakai.

I found the English version of "Don't you see!" although I couldn't find out who the singer was.

ZARD/Seiichiro Kuribayashi -- Kimi ga Inai （君がいない）

As I've mentioned in past articles, there was that period between 1991 and 1994 when I was back here in Toronto to go back to school. I joined up with my old university club at U of T but despite that and all those connections to Japanese pop music through my fellow club mates and the magazine "Eye-Ai" (through money order), I felt that I had lost that strong link with access to J-Pop. Part of it was because I was so ravenous about my CD purchases during my 1989-1991 stay in Gunma.

So in a way, I kinda missed out on who was hot in the Japanese music industry during those early 1990s. When I left Japan in July 1991, acts like Wink, Kazumasa Oda（小田和正）and Princess Princess were some of the big guns. When I arrived back there in late 1994, it was TRF, Namie Amuro（安室奈美恵）and Mr. Children. Going over the history of those middle years, I realized that I was missing out on folks such as Dreams Come True (although they continued to put out mega-hits until late into the 1990s), ZARD and some of those other guitar bands such as WANDS and ZYYG. I'm still rather exploring that so-called lost age.

Of course, ZARD aka Izumi Sakai（坂井泉水）still continued to put out hits even after I started my second stint in Japan but I felt that she really came into her own during that patch between 1991 and 1994. And to be honest, I hadn't felt all that much of a fan of hers since I kinda thought that a lot of her output sounded all the same. Even now, I'm not sure about collecting a compilation of her hits.

Still, I've been coming across a few of her songs on YouTube in small doses, and I've enjoyed this one titled "Kimi ga Inai" (You Are Not Here) which was written by her and composed by ZYYG member Seiichiro Kuribayashi（栗林誠一郎）. This was her 7th single from April 1993.

The thing I like about "Kimi ga Inai" is that loopy guitar rhythm which rolls in right from the start. There is almost something Beatles about it and then there is Sakai providing some nice harmony. It's a pretty jaunty song about a young lady remembering a former relationship and perhaps still showing some regret about the breakup although one of the lines states that the guy lied to her. However, that upbeat melody hints that she's not particularly dwelling on the situation full-time. There are many other fish in the sea.

"Kimi ga Inai" was another success for ZARD. It hit No. 2 on Oricon and sold over 800,000 copies, becoming the 30th-ranked single of the year. The song was also placed on her 4th original album "Yureru Omoi"（揺れる想い...Shifting Memories） from July 1993 which not only struck No. 1 on the weekly charts but ended up as the No. 1 album of the year, selling 2 million copies.

Composer Kuribayashi covered his own creation about a decade later in his album of covers "complete of Seiichiro Kuribayashi & Barbier at the BEING studio" in 2003. It is a bit more rumbly although I think that same synthesizer is in there.

ZYYG, REV, ZARD & WANDS featuring Shigeo Nagashima -- Hateshinai Yume wo （果てしない夢を）

What triggered my memory of this interesting oddity was Marcos V's article on that Mood Kayo duet between SDN48 and television presenter Monta Mino, "Kudokinagara Azabu-Juban"（口説きながら麻布十番）. I think there have been a fair share of duets between singers and non-singing celebs over the years, and "Hateshinai Yume wo" is one that has really settled into my brain.

I was never a big Japanese baseball fan but even I couldn't avoid the Shigeo Nagashima（長嶋茂雄）. He is the legendary Mr. Giants...the winning Tokyo (Yomiuri) Giants player from 1958-1974 and then manager of the same club from 1975-1980 and then 1993-2001. What has also increased his stature among the folks is his affable adorkability due to forgetfulness (feigned or not) and his hilarious remarks, often involving English (just check out the Trivia section in the Wiki article on him). Just imagine New York Yankees' Hideki Matsui and Yogi Berra spliced together. I've always stated that when Nagashima leaves this mortal coil altogether, there probably will be a few days of national mourning, whether or not one loved or hated the Giants.

So, just imagine my surprise when my J-Pop-loving university friend back in the 80s lent me a CD single of this mega-collaboration of pop/rock artists whose names sound like they were fished out of a bag of Scrabble tiles. And Nagashima is in there, too. "Hateshinai Yume wo" (Neverending Dream) was written by Show Wesugi（上杉昇）of rock band WANDS and the late Izumi Sakai（坂井泉水）of ZARD while Masayuki Deguchi（出口雅之）, aka REV, took care of the composing duties, and the song was meant to be the theme for NTV's nightly baseball program back in 1993.

The result was this rousing song of determination to boil up the blood of many a baseball player (pro, amateur or armchair) with this 90s J-Rock sound that made me wonder why B'z didn't get into this project. I also have to say that Sakai and one of the other vocals must have been reaching for the throat lozenges considering how high their voices had to go during recording. However, one must not forget the inclusion of Mr. Giants near the end....who frankly sounds like my father at the few times he's been to karaoke. Nagashima's adorkability quotient probably spiked a bit from this song as well.

Released in June 1993, "Hateshinai Yume wo" went as high as No. 2 on Oricon and became the 39th-ranked song of the year.

ZARD -- Makenaide (負けないで）

It's hard to believe that it's been over 20 years since this one came out. My first encounter with ZARD was through the late Izumi Sakai's（坂井泉水）debut single, "Goodbye My Loneliness", this low-key and down-to-earth pop/rock song. However, if you asked me what the quintessential ZARD song is, it would be "Makenaide"  (Don't Give Up), and for those ZARD fans tuning in, I'm pretty confident that most of them would agree.

Released in January 1993 as ZARD's 6th single, the same tandem behind "Goodbye My Loneliness" was behind "Makenaide", namely Sakai on the lyrics and Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎） on the music. It was used as the ending theme for a Fuji-TV comedy-drama titled "Shiratori Reiko de Gozaimasu" （白鳥麗子でございます....My Name Is Reiko Shiratori）based on the original manga by Yumiko Suzuki（鈴木由美子）.  It hit the top spot on Oricon and went over the million barrier in sales before finishing the year as the No. 6 single.

However, rankings and sales aside, "Makenaide" has taken on a nearly-legendary status, way beyond its start as a drama theme. Since its release all those years ago, it's been a musical tonic for all that ails. Friends use it in karaoke to cheer up a down-in-the-dumps buddy and they can also use it as a rallying cry to get over that hump....such as university entrance exams (a hump the size of Mt. Fuji for a lot of high schoolers).  Beyond that, it has been used in television for mammoth quiz shows and telethons and charities. It was used for the 1994 Japanese High School Baseball Invitational Tournament held annually at Koshien Stadium, an event that is pretty darn equal to the Super Bowl in terms of popularity. And when the 2011 Earthquake happened in the Tohoku area, the "Makenaide Project" charity was started with the song itself as the theme. On TV Asahi's long-running "Music Station", it topped the list of the Top 120 Cheer-Up Songs.

(karaoke version)

I think for a lot of people, it's awfully easy to suddenly get amped up when that guitar intro just revs into gear. And considering how early Sakai left this mortal coil, the song can be pretty poignant when she goes into the famous refrain. Perhaps it's a bit corny to say this, but nowadays whenever the song is played anywhere, it feels like she still hasn't quite left us.

ZARD -- Goodbye My Loneliness

Once I knew that my time in Japan was numbered back in late spring of 2011, although I didn't go on a frenzied dash in the CD shops, I started to make a more concerted effort in getting some of the discs that I wanted to bring back home with me. A few more Yuming albums here, some Taeko Ohnuki releases there, for example. Still, there were a fair number of CDs that I couldn't obtain in time. One was a BEST collection for the band....or perhaps to be more accurate....the singer called ZARD.

I only found out recently that ZARD was not so much a group, but really the vocalist Izumi Sakai（坂井泉水）surrounded by musicians who went in and out since she debuted in 1991. But no matter the fluidity of the lineup, the music of ZARD was something that almost attained a certain ubiquity during their career of the better part of 2 decades. Once in a while, one of their songs would come on out in the karaoke box, the CD shops or on the television as part of a commercial or a show. It was a bit ironic since Sakai was known to be one of the most media-hesitant celebs in recent memory. According to Wikipedia, she made only 7 television appearances, so I'm sure whenever news came out that she would be making that rarer-than-rare appearance on a program like "Music Station", the network would pretty much go nuts on the advertising.

In any case, there is one CD single that I did pick up by ZARD, and that was the one for her debut single, "Goodbye My Loneliness" that was first released in February 1991. It was made as the theme song for a Fuji-TV drama, "Kekkon no Riso to Genjitsu"（結婚の理想と現実...The Ideals and Reality of Marriage）, and it was from the commercials for the upcoming show that I heard the song. What attracted me to it? Well, first of all, it started off with a down-to-earth pop/rock riff that sorta reminded me of John Waite's "Missing You" or any of those introspective 80s power ballads sung by folks like Bryan Adams and Corey Hart (yep, just to remind you, I am Canadian). And then there was Sakai's voice...it was strong but at the same time, it seemed to not want to demand a whole lot of attention. Both music and vocals were coolly low-key. Apparently, the producer for the show heard the demo tape for the song, and just decided that Izumi, who had written the lyrics, was also the one to sing it. Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎）, who had helped in a number of hits by summer band TUBE and who would later assist in rocker Nanase Aikawa's（相川七瀬） career, took care of the melody.

The song's success also started low-key by starting out at No. 28 on Oricon, but within a month of its release, it peaked at No. 9, which is never a bad thing for a debut single. It ended the year as the 69th-ranked song.

I had always wondered about that name, though. Well, apparently, according to Sakai herself, the music producer Daiko Nagato（長戸大幸） was the one to come up with it since he had liked the sound of words such as "blizzard", "wizard" and "hazard". In another interview, she mentioned that bands whose names started with the letter "Z" tended to have a harder edge. I'm not sure if either Sakai or Nagato had been fans of Led Zeppelin or ZZ Top.

ZARD -- Goodbye My Loneliness

DEEN -- Hitomi Sorasanai de （瞳そらさないで）

The late 80s in Japan may have been known for the Band Boom in music, but the early 90s should have been called the Alphabet Band Boom, since there were a number of these acts known for one-word letter clusters such as ZYYG, trf, and ZARD. And there was also DEEN. Back in 1993, the lead vocalist for WANDS, Sho Uesugi（上杉昇）, and singer-songwriter Tetsuro Oda (織田哲郎....behind a lot of TUBE tunes) were searching for someone to sing their song for a DoCoMo pager commercial (the prehistoric age before cellphones that didn't look like bricks), and they found Shuichi Ikemori（池森秀一） from Hokkaido who had come down to Tokyo to start a career in music. Liking what they heard and saw from Ikemori, they partnered him with keyboardist Koji Yamane（山根公路） to form DEEN. With a couple of more additions, that DoCoMo song became the band's 1st single.

However, the song that I will always associate DEEN with is their 5th single, "Hitomi Sorasanai de"(Don't Avert Your Eyes), which came out in June 1994. Also composed by Oda, the lyrics were provided by the late vocalist of ZARD, Izumi Sakai（坂井泉水）, and the song is just a bottle of summer fun. I sometimes have to avert MY eyes from the CD since the tune is so bright and bouncy, and one of my favourite parts is that fast guitar solo near the end. The lyrics themselves are pretty darn optimistic as the guy in question tries to convince his girlfriend that there is still more than a spark in their relationship.

But like that debut song of theirs, "Hitomi Sorasanai de" was also one of the catchy campaign songs for Pocari Sweat, that famous isotonic drink that can be found in just about every vending machine alongside the cans of Coca-Cola. Actress Sae Isshiki（一色紗英）was the face in the commercials during the early 90s, and it's hard to separate her from the product even after a couple of decades. I've often plinked down my coins to get a can of the blue-and-white during those broiling Tokyo summers. The above video, by the way, has the whole series of commercials; "Hitomi Sorasanai de" comes near the end.

The song was DEEN's first No. 1 and million-seller, and became the 18th-ranked single of 1994.

DEEN -- Hitomi wo Sorasanaide
(Bring your shades)