Saburo Kitajima -- Hakodate no Hito （函館の女）

Heard this one a fair bit on the old RCA Victor stereo as a toddler. "Hakodate no Hito"(Woman of Hakodate) was enka singer Saburo Kitajima's（北島三郎）14th single released in November 1965. The city of Hakodate on the southern tip of Hokkaido was definitely familiar to Sabu-chan (formerly Minoru Ono...大野穣) since he had attended Nishi High School there.

For those who are reading this and are learning the intricacies of kanji,, that last character in the title is indeed the one for "onna" meaning "woman". But it's read as "Hakodate no Hito" for some reason. Actually, this song would be the first in the 『女』-titled series of songs that Kitajima would release over the decades in which there would be a city or region represented. For example, there is "Ise no Hito"(1968) and "Okinawa no Hito"(1972). And it would seem that all or a lot of those songs were written and composed by Tetsuro Hoshino and Nobuo Shimazu（星野哲郎・島津伸男）.

In what would be a venerable enka trope, Kitajima sings of coming back from a long way off to Hakodate to find the love of his life, the woman of the title. When I listen to "Hakodate no Hito", I know that it is an enka tune (certainly seeing the manly Kitajima in his yukata on the cover tips me off), but there is a bit of a plucky guitar in there that hints at a certain Latin machismo as well.

Seeing the TV performance of the song here, Kitajima shows that the message in "Hakodate no Hito"isn't meant to be merely stated but is to be jauntily declared to everyone as he tries to find his lost love once again (perhaps that might be my karaoke advice to anyone who wants to try it at the box). When the single was originally released in 1965, Oricon was still about a few years away, but it did sell close to 1.5 million records, a hit by anyone's standards.

Wink/Bobby Caldwell -- Special To Me

(April 24 2015: My mini-rant in the first couple of lines has been rendered moot.)
It's unfortunately one of those things when one can't transfer over a video from YouTube. Well, that's the case with the Wink cover of "Special To Me", but there are three videos of the song, including a concert version at YouTube. It was actually the 2nd song (the first being "Samishii Nettaigyo") by the duo that I'd ever heard after arriving in Gunma. And it is special to me since I kept hearing the song constantly because of its use as the campaign song for the Volleyball World Cup for that year via Fuji-TV. It was never released as its own single though but was a track on Wink's 3rd album, "Twin Memories" which was released in December 1989 and reached a peak of No. 2 on the album charts.

Now, why have I put an American singer up there? Well, Bobby Caldwell was the originator of the song all the way back in 1978 via his very first LP, "What You Won't Do For Love"; I'd only become aware of the original a few years after hearing the Wink cover, and since I was a huge fan of the man, I was pleasantly surprised by the old-fashioned disco pop roots. I've got Caldwell as an honourary kayo kyoku artist since along with this song, he has beautifully covered a Kazumasa Oda（小田和正） Xmas song (which I will profile next month) and did a duet with Mariko Takahashi（高橋真梨子）. Plus, Caldwell is even more of a legend in Japan than he is in the States.

Ah, my 500th entry?! Then, this is truly special to me!

Momoe Yamaguchi -- Imitation Gold （イミテイション・ゴールド）

As a kid in the 70s, I'd heard the name Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）and perhaps I'd seen her perform on those old VHS tapes of Japanese programming that used to be shown at the old Toronto Japanese Buddhist Church on Bathurst & Bloor on Wednesday nights. But the first time that I can remember seeing the future Mrs. Miura on TV was when she performed this sultry number. Even back then, I could make out her singing the title....and the suggestive tone. My suspicions were confirmed when I asked my mother about what Momoe was singing about, and Mom (who was no fan of hers) stayed resolutely mute.

As I was later to find out, Momoe had had quite the reputation of singing some racy lyrics despite her youth, and she sang "Imitation Gold"at the tender age of 18. From the words in this song, it starts off with Momoe singing about getting out of the shower and reaching for "this year's man". Imitation Gold-Digger, perhaps?

Yamaguchi's song, released in July 1977, was her 18th single and the 3rd of 12 singles that the husband-&-wife team of Ryudo Uzaki and Yoko Aki（宇崎竜童・阿木耀子）would pen during the last half of her career. It peaked at No. 2 on the Oricon charts and most likely would've made it to the top but Kenji Sawada's（沢田研二） "Katte ni Shiyagare"and Pink Lady's "Nagisa no Sinbad"(both already profiled) were just too powerful. It would become the 20th-ranked song of the year, and the song was also a track on her 12th album, "Golden Flight", released in August 1977. It managed to reach No. 3 on the album charts.

But even though she was 18 at the time, she certainly didn't look nor sound like a callow high school senior when she performed "Imitation Gold". Her lower voice gave an effectively blase account of a seen-it-all, done-it-all lady who went through men like most people went through a box of chocolates over the Holidays.

Hiroko Yakushimaru -- Tantei Monogatari (探偵物語）

Hiroko Yakushimaru（薬師丸ひろ子） has always had that angelic, bordering on operatic, aidoru voice handling somewhat more meatier melodies....case in point being her debut single of "Sailor Fuku to Kikanjuu"(セーラー服と機関銃...Sailor Suit and Machine Gun）by the Kisugi siblings for the titular movie. Her second single, released in May 1983, was "Tantei Monogatari"(Detective Story), also a theme for a major Japanese release of the same name. And she also starred in the movie, albeit as a character under more normal circumstances than was the case in "Sailor Fuku"; she played a university student ready to head over to America when her suspicious father hires a detective played by the late Yusaku Matsuda (松田優作）(of "Black Rain" fame) to keep an eye on her.

The theme song was written and composed by Takashi Matsumoto and Eiichi Ohtaki（松本隆・大瀧詠一）with arrangement by Akira Inoue（井上鑑）. It's a wistful and slightly foreboding ballad which would probably describe the life of a down-at-luck private eye. Yakushimaru's singing gives it a bit more of an innocence, and the tinkly piano of Ohtaki's arrangements can be heard in the back there, although it's a little more reserved. In addition, the piano intro reminds me of one of Neil Sedaka's old hits, "Laughter in the Rain" (1974).

"Tantei Monogatari", like her previous song, also hit No. 1 on Oricon and became the 4th-ranked song of 1983. Yakushimaru was only the second singer in Oricon history to follow up a top-ranking debut single with a second No. 1 (the first one being Kentaro Shimizu with his debut of "Shitsuren Restaurant"『失恋レストラン』; already profiled). As of 2012, she is also the only female artist to have had a single at No. 1 for 7 straight weeks ("Tantei Monogatari" being that single), although Akina Nakamori (1/2 Shinwa), Aming (Matsu wa) and Shizuka Kudo (Kousa ni Fukarete) came close with their individual hits at 6 weeks.

This is the trailer for the movie which was released in July 1983.

Top 10 Singles for 1992

1. Kome Kome Club             Kimi ga Iru Dake de
2. Shogo Hamada                Kanashimi wa Yuki no yoh ni
3. B'z                                Blowin'
4. Daiji Man Brothers Band   Sore ga Daiji
5. Southern All Stars           Namida no Kiss
6. The Tunnels                    Gara Gara Hebi ga Yatte Kuru
7. Noriyuki Makihara            Mou Koi Nante Shinai
8. Chage & Aska                 if
9. Miki Imai                        Piece of My Wish
10. Miyuki Nakajima             Asai Nemuri

Pretty testosterone-heavy lineup until we get to the last two entries, both of which are great songs as well, particularly Miki Imai's wonderful ballad. Southern All Stars had a pretty mellow Top 10 hit in "Namida no Kiss" while Kome Kome Club had its biggest hit, a song that would become the biggest single of the 90s.

(Thank you musictvprogram.com for the ranking information)

Kome Kome Club -- Kimi ga Iru Dake de （君がいるだけで）

(cover version)

Had no idea that this would be the biggest-selling J-Pop single of the 1990s, especially with some of the rankings powerhouses during that decade such as Southern All Stars, Namie Amuro, B'z, SMAP, etc. Not that I ever considered Kome Kome Club（米米クラブ）a one-hit wonder by any means; they've had so many hits (my favourite being 1994's kinetic "Abracadabra"), and their concerts could give SAS a run for their money.

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm27807542

I heard "Kimi ga Iru Dake de"(Just by You Being Here) for the first time in a long while last night, and a shiver went up my spine as I heard the intro. It was like meeting an old friend again after so long. And like an old friend, my mood just ascended....after the busy week I've had, it needed a good deal of ascending. I'd first heard it back in the year of its release...May 1992, to be exact....when it was used as the theme song for the Fuji-TV drama, "Sugao no Mama de"（素顔のままで...Just the Way You Are) starring a recovered Akina Nakamori and actress Narumi Yasuda as two initially clashing women who become the closest of friends. It was basically the Japanese re-telling of the Hollywood movie "Beaches" which starred Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey.

According to J-Wiki, K2C's 13th single was the song that changed the band from being an underground cult fave to one of J-Pop's premier outfits, something that I don't quite agree with, since I think their 10th single, "Roman Hiko" (1990) didn't exactly slouch in sales and popularity on the mainstream level. But going back to "Kimi ga Iru Dake de", the song has such a sunny disposition that it sounds more appropriate to play it during broad daylight when compared to their more evening fare of funk and dance stuff. The single was also a track on the band's 8th album, "Octave" released in June 1992. The album was also a winner, hitting the No. 1 mark and selling close to 2 million copies.

Written and composed by the band itself with Tatsuya 'Carl Smoky' Ishii （石井竜也)at the lead, the song was at No. 1 for a combined 6 weeks, and would join songs like Akira Terao's （寺尾聡）"Ruby no Yubiwa" and Kazumasa Oda's （小田和正）"Love Story wa Totsuzen Ni" (both already profiled) as the No. 1 song for its year with just a hair under 3 million discs in sales. In fact, in the history of Oricon, "Kimi ga Iru Dake de" is the 5th-highest selling single. Critical accolades also came in the form of a Grand Prize in the Pop and Rock genre of the Japan Record Awards for that year.

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm9811094

So, of course, NHK came knocking. Kome Kome Club made its appearance to do the song to rousing applause. Interestingly enough, the song was originally written not as a television show theme song but as a musical gift paying tribute to the wedding of Ishii's sister, Minako, and Flash Kaneko, both members of the band.

Kome Kome Club -- Kimi ga Iru Dake

Imo Kin Trio -- High School Lullaby

Another one of those early discoveries I made in my long history of kayo kyoku, Imo Kin Trio's（イモ欽トリオ）"High School Lullaby" was a frequent pop-up on all those "Best 10" and "Top 10" shows on my classmate's VHS tapes. And no wonder....it had a 7-week run at the top of the charts from August 24~October 5 after its initial release in early August. It was a fairly insane song created by former Happy Enders Takashi Matsumoto and Haruomi Hosono（松本隆・細野晴臣). Hosono's YMO influence is also obviously in there.

The Imo Kin Trio was three tarento: Ryoichi Yamaguchi, Koji Nishiyama, and Kenji Nagae（山口良一・西山浩司・長江健次）as overaged high school boys appearing on the Fuji-TV variety show "Kin-Don! Yoi-ko, Warui-ko, Futsuu no ko" （欽ドン！良い子、悪い子、普通の子...Kin-Don! Good Kid, Bad Kid and Normal Kid). which ran from 1981 to 1983. These "kids" were probably almost or just as popular as the Tanokin Trio, whose name they were parodying, of Masahiko Kondo, Toshihiko Tahara and Yoshio Nomura. The song ended up being the 4th-ranked tune of 1981. Would love to find an original appearance by them on one of the ranking shows just to show the nutso choreography.