Mai Yamane -- Foolin' Myself

Something that I've often thought is that certain old Western pop songs and their singers never die, they just head over to Japan for immortality. The Carpenters and their repertoire are arguably the biggest example, and I think somewhere in the deep forests of the Japanese Alps, Elvis may be eking out a happier existence. Another example is Eric Carmen and his 1975 hit, "All By Myself", the heart-on-his-sleeve ballad. I used to hear this all the time on AM radio, and it's found its Valhalla in Japan by having been used in at least a couple of commercials over there. The song was based on a Rachmaninoff concerto; a number of artists have based their hits on classical music, something that has also been cherished in Japan when it comes to their favourite hits, kayo kyoku or Western pop.

Another Carmen creation that perhaps wasn't as big a hit as "All By Myself" was his 1980 "Foolin' Myself", another power ballad which also seems to have a classical base of sorts in its melody. Pretty soon after its release, a Japanese cover by husky-voiced Mai Yamane（山根麻衣）came out in March of that year. I first came across the song in Volume 2 of the "Good Times Diva" series for which I bought a number of discs; as I probably mentioned in the article for that series, I've appreciated the CDs since they've introduced a number of artists that I had never heard of before. Mai Yamane, a native of Shimane Prefecture, is one of those singers. She also pops up in "Japanese City Pop". If it weren't for those two sources, I would never have discovered her, although for anime fans, she's probably known for her work in shows such as "Cowboy Be-Bop" and "Macross Plus".

That resonant voice of hers sold me on the Japanese cover of "Foolin' Myself". With Japanese lyrics by Kazuko Kobayashi（小林和子）, Yamane released this as her 3rd single. She has that nice balance of tough and tender in her vocals when she sings it, and of course, that epic melody makes the song stand out. Originally, the song also was a track on Yamane's debut album, "Tasogare"（たそがれ....Twilight）which came out the same year.

I've heard a few more of her tunes via YouTube, and I'm starting to like her material. If the album hasn't gone out of print, I would love to get my own copy. Mind you, I actually looked for any album by her a couple of years ago when I did my periodic visit to that old CD shop, Tacto in Jimbocho. There was one which was a BEST compilation.....cost 7800 yen! A little rich for my blood.

And here is the original Eric Carmen version of "Foolin' Myself".

Dreams Come True -- go for it!

Dreams Come True -- go for it!

Gotta love that face of Miwa's. As you may be able to see from my photo above, I bought Dream Come True's 13th single at the bargain basement price of 100 yen at a CD rental shop which was trying to unload some of its wares. "go for it!" had come out in September 1993, so it was over a year before my arrival for my second stint as a working stiff in Japan. I think I got this copy some years afterward. If any of you Japanese pop fans are in the country and come across some tiny CD shop with the word SALE! or a flea market, make a beeline for that basket of discs and scrounge around. I'm sure you'll find something that you've always wanted.

"go for it!" is another fun-loving and joyful walk in Miwa Yoshida's（吉田美和） world. Written by Yoshida and composed by her and DCT leader Masato Nakamura（中村正人）, it's the band's telling of that old maxim "Opposites attract". She sings that despite all of the stuff that might keep a couple apart (and apparently, her significant other in the song might be from the U.K., considering the shout outs to Monty Python and Gerry Anderson), they will still go for that relationship and make it work.

(karaoke version)

The song was another No. 1 for the band, their 3rd of 6 consecutive No. 1s ranging from 1992 to late 1994. It was also the 16th-ranked song of the year, selling a little over a million copies. "go for it" also got onto DCT's 6th album, "Magic" released in December 1993, which ended up becoming the top album of 1994.

Hiroshi Itsuki & Marie -- Duo Shinobi Ai （デュオしのび逢い）

Yes, I can smell the cigarettes, perfume, wine.....and later on, the guilt from the bedsheets in that hotel.

"Duo Shinobi Ai"(Duo Tryst) is one of those classic Latin-tinged karaoke bar songs to be sung over a couple of glasses of shochu. With that sultry tenor sax and the piano in the background playing that slow tango, it wouldn't surprise me if one of the karaoke pair suddenly got inspired to put a long-stemmed rose in his/her mouth. And believe me, after a few swigs of shochu, it wouldn't be that difficult.

Strangely enough, though, I never actually did hear this in a karaoke box or bar, although there are plenty of YouTube videos of folks proving the above point. I actually caught it on "Sounds of Japan"one night and I was quite taken with it for some reason, but then again, I came to the realization that Mood Kayo was one of my favourite parts of kayo kyoku. When I first became interested in the country of my heritage, I was especially drawn to what Tokyo was like in terms of its nightlife. And Mood Kayo is still the theme song for a few quarters in one of the largest metropolises on the planet such as Roppongi, Akasaka and Shimbashi.

Enka crooner Hiroshi Itsuki（五木ひろし） composed (he's also quite a talented multi-instrumentalist) and provided one-half of the singing duties for "Duo Shinobi Ai", which was released in November 1984. As for his partner, Marie（マリエ）, I couldn't find anything about the lady. Lyrics were provided by Takashi Taka（たかたかし）, and give plenty of imagery about a romantic couple tripping the light fantastic, slowly energized by some of the bubbly. The video above also helps in that department as well as give some great scenes of the Japanese nightlife.

The video below is just one of the many versions done of the song at karaoke. And although faces have been hidden to protect the innocent, apparently, this couple seems rather young.

Alas, Roppongi, I hardly knew ye!

Miki Imai/Akemi Kakihara -- Nakitakatta （泣きたかった）

I've noticed that there are quite a few YouTube videos devoted to this song that have images of flowers. And that would be no surprise since the lovely "Nakitakatta"(I Wanted to Cry) has that healing aura infused into both the melody and lyrics. Composed by Akemi Kakihara（柿原朱美）and written by Miki Imai（今井美樹）, the song is a track on one of my all-time favourite J-Pop albums, "Retour" that was recorded by Imai back in 1990.

The melody is in the gentlest, most relaxing bossa nova/pop style as Imai sings what is basically an intimate sad scene from a trendy drama. The lyrics describe a woman suddenly collapsing into a major crying jag on the kitchen floor after a painful memory from years back pops up. In Japan especially, having a sobfest whether it's because of a similar situation or even if it's watching a tearjerker is seen as being very therapeutic. Afterwards, people usually feel very sukkiri. So, perhaps the song isn't anything mournful but something very hopeful since one of the last verses indicates that the protagonist feels a whole lot better getting that memory out into the open and out of her system after so much time has passed. Regardless of the psychological benefits, it's a great song to listen to.

Kakihara herself did a cover of her song a few years later in 1993 for her 5th album, "refile". She sounds very much like Imai, but the melody is a bit more uptempo here.

Misato Watanabe -- tokyo

Misato Watanabe -- tokyo

Another birthday....Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里）just turned 47 about a week ago. I haven't profiled her in a while so since the summer is definitely here, let's have another go-around with one of the representatives of the season's music.

"tokyo" is Misato's 6th album which was released in July 1990. I first found out about Misato through her breakthrough hit, "My Revolution" in the mid-80s and up to the time that I got to Gunma in 1989, that was pretty much all I knew of the singer. Luckily, for her and me, she had a huge hit in 1990 with "tokyo". A few of her songs on the album were able to become commercial tunes, and then there was "Summertime Blues", the big song (and her 16th single) which seemed to be the big spearhead for the album. "Summertime Blues" is a great song, and it, along with a couple of other tunes, sparked me to purchase the disc.

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm13381338

(Miku Hatsune version)

https://itunes.apple.com/jp/album/tokyo/575558780
(excerpts only)

The first track is "Power -- Ashita no Kodomo" (the 18th single, released in September 1990) which was written by Misato (as she did with all of the tracks) and composed by Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）, the same man behind "My Revolution" in 1986. It was one of the songs that became part of a commercial, specifically for Meiji Life Insurance. "Ashita no Kodomo"（明日の子供）refers to "Children of Tomorrow", and it kinda proceeds like a superhero show with a bit of minor-key dramatic intro, a verse of innocence before a reassuring and heroic refrain.

The album was the first Misato Watanabe disc that I ever got, and it seemed to make for a great platform for her voice. She blows it out like a rocker in a few of the tracks and then she goes all sweet in some of the others as if she were serenading an elementary school class. "Boys Kiss Girls" is one song that's somewhere in the middle. It's a fun, rolling tune that kinda puts itself in the same area as a Mariko Nagai（永井真理子） pop song. Composed by Hiromasa Ijichi（伊秩弘将）, it was the coupling song to "Summertime Blues". Ijichi, by the way, would later compose a lot of the songs by 90s girl unit, Speed.

And this is how I found out about "Boys Kiss Girls", thanks to a Bridgestone Tire ad, starring a couple of Blake Edwards' most famous creations. This was one of the songs that got me to pick up "tokyo".

"Koi Suru Punks"（恋するパンクス....Punks In Love） is a ska/rock run down the Death Star trench. I'd had an idea that Misato had the potential to blow out the windows vocally, especially after catching yet another commercial featuring her 1989 "Niji wo Mitakai" (also part of the album). But I think she took a couple of swigs of J.D. before hitting the microphone....and good for us. This was her 17th single, released just a few days before the album. This one was composed by Shohei Narabe（奈良部匠平）, a former member of Kome Kome Club.

"Birthday" is the sweet side of Misato as she celebrates her beau's most important day. Usually when I've come across a birthday theme in a kayo kyoku tune, it signals a rather downbeat tone in the lyrics, but the singer keeps it optimistic and celebratory here instead of mournful. Also composed by Ijichi, the melody reminds me somewhat of The Monkees' "Daydream Believer"; it has that 60s pop happy-go-luckiness.

I don't know why Misato decided to title this album, "tokyo", but it served as a good introduction to the vocal variety that the singer can bring. The album hit the No. 1 spot on Oricon and was ranked No. 4 for 1990 with 772,000 copies sold. The photos of her on the cover and in the liner notes pretty much imprinted that look into my memory. Tousled hair, huge eyes and lovely smile...kinda like Tom Baker's Doctor Who, except prettier.

Did a photo shoot in Paris

Akiko Kobayashi -- Touch Me Asa ga Kuru Made （朝がくるまで）

Considering all of the comments that Akiko Kobayashi（小林明子） had been getting about how similar she sounded like the late, great Karen Carpenter since her debut in 1985, it was perhaps a foregone conclusion that Kobayashi would tackle a Carpenters song. So, in January 1988, her 8th single was the cover version of the band's final Top 20 song, "Touch Me When We're Dancing" (created by Terry Skinner, J.L. Wallace and Ken Bell) which had been released in June 1981. Actually, the Carpenters' version was itself a cover of the original by the band Bama back in 1979.

I first heard it on her first of two BEST albums, "The Luxury of Life"(1990). I gotta say that if I hadn't known about Kobayashi and then heard "Touch Me Asa ga Kuru Made"(Touch Me Until the Morning Comes), I would've said that Karen had been miraculously resurrected as a Japanese woman. The arrangement is slightly different from The Carpenters' version, but with Kobayashi's delivery, it certainly comes across as a Karen song. When I heard the song for the first time on the stereo, I wasn't been quite sure where the tune came from since it had been years since I had heard it on the radio, but when I figured out the source, I went "Ahhhhh, naruhodo" and felt it was about time.

The Kobayashi-Carpenters connection would gain further traction over the years. A couple of months after the release of this single, Kobayashi released her 4th album, "City of Angels" which had been a collaboration between her and Richard Carpenter. Then in 2003, she would also release "A Song For You -- Carpenters' Anthology", a tribute album. Not surprisingly, I snatched that one up, thanks to a recommendation from someone in The Carpenters community on Mixi.

As a bit of comparison, have a listen to The Carpenters' version. It was also a track on their album, "Made In America".

Kami Takada Shonen Gasshodan/Zone -- Theme from Tetsuwan Atomu （鉄腕アトムのテーマ）



Oftentimes, when I got together to watch a movie and/or have dinner with the gang in Shinjuku or Ikebukuro, a few of us would take the JR Yamanote Line to take us partway home. In my case, I got off a couple of stations away from either of the two city centres at Takadanobaba Station since that was the connection for my home subway line, the Tozai Line. And every time I got onto the platform, the station theme would come on like this:

For you classic anime fans, do you recognize it? Of course you do. It happens to be the theme song for "Tetsuwan Atomu", aka "Astro Boy". The manga magnum opus by The Father of Manga, Osamu Tezuka（手塚治虫）, was set in this very neighbourhood. A lot of very cheap and ramshackle apartments for university students are still there along with a thriving café-and-restaurant life.

As a kid growing up in Toronto, I sometimes woke up to an instrumental version of the famous theme for the updated version of the series on TV. However, the original sung version had been around for a good 2 years before I was even born. Back then, the heroic theme, written by Tatsuo Takai（高井達雄）, had been sung by the Kami Takada Shonen Gasshodan (The Kami Takada Boys' Choir), a group consisting of students from Kami Takada Elementary School in Nakano Ward, Tokyo. From the 1950s to the 1970s, the choir had been recruited to sing a number of TV program themes and commercial songs, but I can guess that the "Astro Boy" theme is one of the, if not the, most famous song they've done. I think even among the kids today, the theme is still eminently recognized and recognizable.

And that's no surprise when singers and groups have been covering the song for decades. One such example was the Sapporo-based girl band, Zone, which released their first single, "Good Days" in 2001. At the time, the group consisted of four members: Miyu Nagase（長瀬実夕）, Mizuho Saito（斉藤瑞穂）, Maiko Sakae（栄舞子） and Takayo Okoshi（大越貴代）. Zone's ska-tinged version was used in the 2003 edition of the anime.

(Sorry, the video has been taken down.)

This is the full 2:26 version of the song done by The Columbia Yurikago Kai（コロンビアゆりかご会....Columbia Cradle Club), back in January 1963.

Of course, Goodyear knew a good thing when it saw one, and the company even recruited Atomu himself into the ad. Maki Watase（渡瀬マキ）, the lead vocalist from the rock band Lindberg is taking care of this version.

Mention this song or hum a few bars here or over in Japan....you will be happily joined in song! I can also bet that quite a few commuters do the same thing at Takadanobaba Station.