Checkers -- Namida no Request （涙のリクエスト）

Checkers were also another Kohaku Utagassen discovery. I just see these guys dressed up like New Romantics who were late for the party singing 50s Rockabilly. My question was "Who the hell are these guys?"

The answer was a social phenomenon. Once "Namida no Request"(A Tearful Request) got out, these guys from Kurume City, Fukuoka Prefecture probably ended up in every schoolgirl's dreams and record rack. One of my old friends in university who was officially a landed immigrant from Japan repeatedly played "The Checkers"on her stereo in her apartment while whispering the lead singer's name....like the wind.

Fumiya Fujii （藤井フミヤ）is his name, and initially, musical tributes to the 50s was his game. "Namida no Request"was the 2nd single released by The Checkers in January 1984. However, it was the first song recorded by the band. No matter....it zipped up to No. 2 on the Oricon weeklies and became the 4th-best selling song of 1984. The lyricist, Masao Urino（売野雅勇） (who has also written songs for that other big doo-wop group Rats & Star), got his inspiration for the hit from watching George Lucas' "American Graffiti".　The song was also included as a track on the band's first album, "Zettai Checkers!"(絶対チェッカーズ！....Absolute Checkers!) which reached the No. 1 spot on the album charts. In fact, "Zettai Checkers!" has the record of having the most number of LPs sold in one week., which was attained the week after it had been released in July 1984. The achievement was never eclipsed right until the end of the LP sales statistic in 1989.

The video above has the band singing the song somewhat later in their career, their fashion looking like a cross between M.C. Hammer and United Colors of Benetton.

As I've mentioned before, my university buddies and I were frequent customers at Kuri, the karaoke bar in Yorkville. "Namida no Request"was a popular choice, and the above is the actual karaoke video. One of my friends and I just guffawed at the guys who were dancing in Yoyogi and Harajuku. We were wondering if the employment situation had been that tough in Tokyo....they really must've needed the money.

Hi-Fi Set -- Tsumetai Ame （冷たい雨）

It's Golden Week in Japan right now....the first big long holiday of the year, but it seems like Rainy Season decided to invade a month early so it's pretty soggy out there this year. So, I decided to put up another Yuming/Hi-Fi Set song from the mid-70s.

"Tsumetai Ame"(Cold Rain) was originally composed by Yumi Arai（荒井由実） back in 1975 for the folk group BanBan（バンバン） as a B-side. But the vocal group, Hi-Fi Set, which had also covered Arai's ode to graduation, "Sotsugyo Shashin"（卒業写真）, decided to cover the song as its own single released in April/May (differing accounts) 1976 and as one of the tracks for their 2nd album, "Fashionable Lover" two months later. Like "Sotsugyo Shashin", it became a hit for the group as well.

Despite the happy-go-lucky sound, the lyrics are sadder. They describe of a woman going back to her boyfriend's place to make up, only to find out that another woman has quickly taken her place. That rain must've felt even colder...

There are two versions that were sung by Hi-Fi Set. This is my favourite of the two right here, probably because this was the one that I had first heard 3 decades ago and had been hearing for years until coming across the original. It has an even jauntier beat and sounds like something that would be played as a country song at The Grand Ol' Opry. 

Saburo Kitajima -- Yosaku (与作）

Saburo Kitajima（北島三郎）, who first debuted in 1962, is THE rock for Japanese music, and pretty much has been since the passing of legendary singer Hibari Misora（美空ひばり）back in 1989. In a society where age is still king, he's seen as the current holder of the kayo kyoku mantle. Except for one year in the mid-80s (yakuza trouble), he's always shown up on the Kohaku Utagassen for decades, and until recently, he was the anchorman of the show, appearing as the very final performer, dressed up in a classy yukata while paper snowflakes literally threatened to consume him. As has been mentioned on Barbara's Enka Site and J-Wikipedia, part of his longevity can be attributed to his general appearance as an everyday hard-working salt-of-the-earth fellow that a lot of Japanese can relate to.

His songs have often reflected the toil and tribulations of the working class. For me, the stereotypical Sabu-chan song is "Yosaku" which was first released in 1978. The title refers to a man and his wife laboring away. Almost half of the spare lyrics is onomatopoeic (hei, hei, ho....ton, ton, ton) as Yosaku cuts away at the tree. The first few bars by the shakuhachi are instantly recognizable, and the brass has that forceful manly thrust.

"Yosaku" is one of Sabu-chan's most famous songs but when it was first released, it went no higher than No. 25 on the Oricon weeklies.

February 5th 2019: I found out a bit of history concerning this classic.

Miki Matsubara -- Mayonaka no Door （真夜中のドアー）

I first heard Miki Matsubara（松原みき）on a compilation album several years ago, and it turned out to be the song that she's most known for, "Mayonaka no Door"(Midnight Door). Matsubara's first single has that sparkly upbeat sound that a lot of 80s City Pop tunes possess, although it was actually released in November 1979. However, her first album, "Pocket Park"would be released in January 1980 with the song included.

"Mayonaka no Door"would peak at No. 28 on the Oricon charts while "Pocket Park" rose as high as No. 13 on the album charts. Takayuki Fujisawa（藤沢隆行）, a DJ who wrote up on the album in "Japanese City Pop"was very generous in his praise of the album stating that "Mayonaka no Door"by itself cemented Matsubara's career to the emerging genre of City Pop in the 80s. In fact, he would further add that "Pocket Park"was the seed planted in the late 70s to sprout into that genre, with the singer knocking on that proverbial "Door" of the song. I think Fujisawa is a bit florid in his description, though I also like the song and would like to check out the album if it's still out there, since singers like Yuming（ユーミン）and Junko Ohashi（大橋純子） had made their own contributions to the genre even before Matsubara's debut.

I'd also like to note that later on in her career that Matsubara was also composing and singing anime songs for movies such as Gundam and Beauty Pair. Speaking of songwriting, "Mayonaka no Door" was created by Yoshiko Miura and Tetsuji Hayashi（三浦徳子・林哲司）.

The Spiders -- Yuuhi ga Naiteiru (夕陽が泣いている）

The Spiders were formed all the way back in 1961 by leader Shouchi Tanabe（田邊召知） as a band playing lounge music and providing backup for other singers until with some membership changes and the rise of Beatlemania around the world in the mid-60s, they became a popular Group Sounds band for the remaining half of their time. The Spiders were also known for having a bit of a comical touch  due to the core members of Hiroshi Kamayatsu（かまやつひろし）, Masaaki Sakai（堺正章）and Jun Inoue（井上順）. All three are still very much seen on Japanese TV today as tarento (TV personalities) or actors. In fact, I'm pretty sure that a lot of the younger generations are barely aware of these familiar faces ever having been in the music business.

The band's biggest hit was "Yuuhi ga Naiteiru"(Sad Sunset) which sold 1.2 million records after its release in September 1966. It was written and composed by Kuranosuke Hamaguchi（浜口庫之助）. The video from their 60s performance is interesting to see....these guys in dapper suits playing  something approaching moody psychedelic music. The lead singer is Sakai. For an old Japanese TV watcher like me, it was a revelation seeing him sing seriously considering that I used to watch him late night on Saturdays hosting a cooking show on TBS in his typically comically Chaplinesque style.

Top 10 Singles for 1982

1. Aming                                   Matsu Wa
2. Hiroko Yakushimaru            Sailor Fuku to Kikanjuu
3. Hiromi Iwasaki                     Madonna tachi no Lullaby
4. Masatoshi Nakamura            Kokoro no Iro
5. Takashi Hosokawa                Kita Sakaba
6. Miyuki Nakajima                  Akujo
7. Masahiko Kondo                  Hi-Teen Boogie
8. Southern All Stars                Chako Kaigan no Monogatari
9. Masahiko Kondo                  Jounetsu Neppuu Serenade
10. Masahiko Kondo                Furarete BANZAI

Looks like Matchy was having a banner year with 3 singles in the Top 10, but it wasn't all aidoru up there. Enka was represented by Hosokawa's "Kita Sakaba", as well as good ol' pop by Nakajima and Nakamura.

Now, just for the heck of it, let's show what the Top 10 singles back in America were for 1982.

1. Olivia Newton-John                      Physical
2. Survivor                                     Eye of the Tiger
3. Joan Jett and the Blackhearts       I Love Rock N' Roll
4. McCartney and Wonder                Ebony and Ivory
5. J. Geils Band                              Centrefold
6. The Human League                      Don't You Want Me
7. John Cougar                              Jack & Diane
8. John Cougar                              Hurts So Good
9. Steve Miller Band                       Abracadabra
10. Chicago                                  Hard to Say I'm Sorry

(Billboard chart provided by www.musicoutfitters.com)

Hideki Saijo -- Young Man (ヤングマン）

As a kid growing up in the 70s, I used to remember those K-Tel record commercials whose records would invariably contain one or two of the Village People's hits such as "In the Navy" and "Macho Man", not quite aware of their campiness at the time. Of course, "YMCA" was another favorite on vinyl.

Hideki Saijo （西城秀樹）was one of the more groovier male aidoru to enter the kayo kyoku field in the 70s. He was born Tatsuo Kimoto（木本龍雄） in Hiroshima in 1955 and debuted in 1972 at the age of 17. The following year, he was placed with two other singers, Hiromi Go（郷ひろみ） and Goro Noguchi（野口五郎） as the Shin-Gosanke（新御三家...The New Big Three) more as a campaign and sales tool than as an actual group. As such, he peeled off hit after hit. But then in 1979, after a trip to America, both he and his manager became aware of The Village People's "YMCA" which had been first released in December 1978 and within a couple of months, Saijo's version, "Young Man"was released the following February.

Within a couple of weeks, it debuted on the charts at No. 3 and for the following 5 weeks, it would stay at the No. 1 spot. It would also win him a couple of awards, become a perennial favorite at karaoke, and end up being Saijo's trademark tune . All this despite some early trepidation amongst other staff members who had feared that picking up this song would give Saijo a gay edge (I think his costume in the video pretty much threatened that more than the song itself). But unlike the camp of the Village People original, Saijo's version has been used more as a true rallying cry for men and women to step up and be counted.