Spitz -- Cherry

Y'know....this is the first time I ever heard of any band getting their name from a member's love of an English consonant cluster. Spitz（スピッツ） was one of the bands I started hearing a lot about during my early years in my long Ichikawa sojourn. And their vocalist, Masamune Kusano（草野正宗）, had a long love since his high school years for the letters "sp" in words like "crispy" and "special"(I've got a feeling that he may have hung out a lot at KFC after school)....this info I did get from both Japanese and English versions of Wikipedia, by the way. Then, when he came across the word "spitz", he discovered that in German, it had the meaning of "sharp and pointy"or "cranky", and apparently that sealed the deal for the name.

In the Japanese Wikipedia, Spitz is classified as a rock/alternative/power pop band. Perhaps in their very early years playing in the cool-and-youthful Tokyo neighbourhood of Shimo-Kitazawa, they may have been rock, but I've always thought of them as just a good ol' guitar-based pop group, post-Band Boom. They'd been around since the mid-80s but it wasn't until the mid-90s that they hit the limelight with hits like "Robinson", the first song I heard from them.

But for me, my favourite tune by Spitz is "Cherry". Written and composed by Kusano, it's a skipworthy song on a nice Sunday afternoon, and I think their music video kinda reflects that happy, breezy feeling. And I enjoy that little ragtime jazz riff near the end. I read that Spitz got some of their musical influence from Scottish singer Donavan who had some jazz and pop in his songs. The lyrics seem to express a man's gratitude toward a former love for their time together before optimistically moving on.

Apparently, the title for their 13th single has an interesting backstory. Originally, the title was to have been "Biwa"(a fruit in Japan), but Spitz decided to go with "Cherry" since their  release month of April 1996 was also Cherry Blossom season in the country, and so it could also be seen as a launch point on a new journey (the information came from that month's issue of "Rockin' On Japan"). In addition, 5 days before the official release of the song on a broadcast of TV Asahi's "Music Station", Kusano remarked, probably when he was asked about the origins of the title, "Well, since all of us are cherry boys..."(i.e. virgins). I can only imagine the conversation among the band members after the show was pretty interesting; perhaps it started with phrases like "Well, maybe YOU are, Masa...."

Whatever the origins, "Cherry" was another home run out of the park as it hit the No. 1 spot on Oricon and became the 4th-ranked song of 1996.

Miki Imai -- Piece of My Wish

If a magnum opus could be chosen for the first pre-Tomoyasu Hotei chapter of Miki Imai's （今井美樹）discography, it would probably be her 7th single, "Piece of My Wish". I just missed out on getting this CD single since it came out in November 1991, a few months after I had returned to Canada from the JET Programme, and it was still the infancy of the Internet (what was it we were calling it back then.....the Information Superhighway?) and many, many years before YouTube and iTunes. So, it would be quite a few years before I finally got my own copy. However, I still had a friend/JET colleague who was a glutton for punishment and continued for a third year in Gunma Prefecture, and he was kind enough to mail me an audio tape of J-Pop songs including "Piece of My Wish".

Created by Yuuho Iwasato and Chika Ueda（岩里祐穂・,上田千華） two familiar faces in Imai's career during the early years, "Piece of My Wish" is one of the sweetest and most uplifting ballads I've heard. The first few bars of music come off as somewhat comical and whimsical before a richer, heart-tugging melody flows in. Iwasato's lyrics tell of looking forward to a new day with encouragement and hope after a night of crying. Over 20 years after its release, it still has quite the kick in it. Not surprisingly, it was also made into the theme song for a TBS drama with the appropriate title of "Ashita ga Aru kara"(あしたがあるから....There Is Tomorrow). Nice to listen to it after a hard day at work.

This song was definitely special. "Piece of My Wish" was Imai's very first No. 1 single and reached that important sales mark of 1 million. And it was the 9th-ranked single of 1992. Moreover, in Imai's career, it is only second to her later megahit, "Pride", as her most successful song. In a way, it was good that it never went into an original album of hers; it rather stands out on its own. However, of course, it's on a number of her BEST compilations.

As I mentioned at the top, I can imagine "Piece of My Wish" being a magnum opus for Miki Imai. And maybe it was a bit of a goodbye song for that first stage of her career which started in the mid-80s; the song retained that 80s Imai sound but from her next single, "Blue Moon Blue", that sound would start to change.

Miki Imai - Piece of My Wish

Shizuka Kudo -- Arashi no Sugao （嵐の素顔）

Thanks to a commenter for Shizuka Kudo's（工藤静香）"Mugon Iroppoi"(MUGO・ん　色っぽい....Silent Sexy), I went over some more of her old hits, and made a reunion with "Arashi no Sugao"(The True Face of a Storm). Released in May 1989 as Kudo's 7th single, I once thought it had been written and composed by Miyuki Nakajima（中島みゆき） since the theme of a scorned woman was right up Nakajima's alley, and she has written a number of songs for Kudo. But actually it was written by Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）, who had written Seiko Matsuda's（松田聖子） early hit "Aoi Sangosho"（青い珊瑚礁....Blue Coral Reef) almost a decade previously, and composed by Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）, who has created a number of Kudo's songs, and is continuing to create tunes for AKB 48 and SKE 48.

The arrangement is brassy with a good splash of don't-mess-with-me. Just imagine Shizuka in a really bad mood with Darth Vader's powers....at least in the lyrics. In the performances, she actually looks like she's enjoying herself. And why not? "Arashi no Sugao" is also famous for the one little hand jive that Kudo performs midway through the song. Whoever the choreographer was, I hope he/she patented that hand impression of a right angle; considering how many celebs and karaoke enthusiasts have probably imitated that, he/she should be living right in the middle of Ginza by now. Heck, I even used the move sometimes at a stab at levity in my English classes at the junior high schools.

The song spent 4 straight weeks at the top spot on Oricon right in its first month of release and was Kudo's 4th straight single at No. 1, eventually becoming the 8th-ranked song of the year.

Miharu Koshi -- Love Step (ラブ・ステップ）

(karaoke version)

Miharu Koshi is someone that I've wanted to profile for a while now. She's had one of the more interesting careers I've come across in kayo kyoku....not that she's become an award-winning actress or a member of the Japanese Upper House in Parliament. In all those years that I used to browse for CDs in Tower Records, Yamano Music and some of the smaller shops, I often came across her visage on some of her relatively more recent stuff. She appeared as this techno-gamine La Femme Neo-Japonaise with some pretty stark makeup. One of her songs from the 80s popped up in one of my compilation discs, and it was a lively technopop affair with a French twist titled "Hashire Usagi"（走れウサギ....Run, Rabbit). She's also had a long relationship with Yellow Magic Orchestra's Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣） from which they formed a unit, Swing Slow, which took on some old American pop standards. Since then, she's even tackled German avant-garde burlesque.....wow, talk about a niche genre.

However, before コシミハル made the scene in the 80s, she was 越美晴. Koshi made her debut in October 1978 with this lightly sultry pop song with a Latin twist titled "Love Step". I was surprised to find out via "Japanese City Pop" that back in her early years, she had been a lively singer specializing in the Japanese version of AOR. Came across a BEST album that had been released back in 2006 titled "Miharu Koshi Golden Best RCA Years" which showcases her very early material, and so I was able to discover songs like "Love Step".

 Before the metamorphosis, she came across as this lively bouncy young lady on the piano. Listening to the song, I'm kinda reminded of the other New Music singer who specialized in light bossa nova-touched kayo kyoku, Junko Yagami（八神純子）. Koshi's voice, at that time at least, was also somewhat reminiscent of Yagami's although she didn't quite hit the high notes. And like Yagami, Koshi wrote and composed a lot of her music, including this debut.

Guaranteed, I will be showing some of her post-change music as well.

Ｍiharu Koshi

Yoshie Kashiwabara -- Machikutabirete Yokohama (待ちくたびれてヨコハマ）

The first couple of songs that I've profiled about Osaka-born Yoshie Kashiwabara（柏原芳恵） were the beautifully-crafted and tenderhearted Miyuki Nakajima-penned ballads, "Haru Nanoni"（春なのに）and "Saiai"（最愛）, her 14th and 21st singles respectively (already profiled). However, her 23rd single, "Machikutabirete Yokohama"(Tired of Waiting Yokohama) is a more spritely affair.

Written by Toyohisa Araki（荒木とよひさ）and composed by Takashi Miki（三木たかし）, "Machikutabirete Yokohama"has a sparkly and shiny sheen although the lyrics and the video above may show something a little more depressing about a failed love affair. And it just sounds Asian....as overly obvious as that sounds, since it is a Japanese aidoru tune. Perhaps I should say that it has a pan-Asian pop sound as if it could belong just as easily in a Teresa Teng or Agnes Chan repertoire as it does in Kashiwabara's. And that wouldn't be surprising since Araki and Miki would later create one of Teng's big hits, "Toki no Nagare ni Mi wo Makase"（時の流れに身をまかせ）, as they did for her back in 1984 with "Tsugunai"(つぐない).

I first came across this song when I bought an audio tape version of her album of the same title in that ol' Chinatown record store, Wah Yueh, back in the mid-80s. The single was released in April 1985 and peaked at No. 9 with about 100,000 copies sold. The album itself was released in June of that year.

The East Gate of Yokohama's Chinatown

Minato Mirai by Yokohama Bay
One of my favourite places in Japan
Could imagine Yoshie-chan strolling along here!

Oricon Top 10 Albums for 1979

1. Godiego                    Saiyuki
2. Masashi Sada            Yume Kuyou
3. Southern All Stars      10 "Numbers" Carats
4. Satoshi Kishida          Morning
5. ABBA                       Voulez-Vous
6. Alice                        Alice VII
7. Alice                        Eikou no Dasshutsu
8. George Yanagi           Yokohama
    & Rainy Wood
9. ABBA                      Arrival
10. Chiharu Matsuyama  Aruki Tsuzukeru Toki

Aside from Ms. Faltskog and Ms. Lyngstad....and the girl's name "Alice", the Top 10 albums for 1979 were an all-male affair. Godiego capped off their best year ever in their career (5 singles in the Top 100) with the most successful album of the year.

If anyone asks you why karaoke enthusiasts in Tokyo seem to enjoy singing "Dancing Queen"at Big Echo, you can point them to this list. And folk/rock group Alice with Shinji Tanimura and Takao Horiuchi held the middle quite nicely.

Flying Kids -- Tomadoi no Toki wo Koete （とまどいの時を越えて）

Early in my time in Ichikawa, Chiba, I came across this song somewhere somehow. It could've been through that TBS late-night program, "Countdown TV". But in any case, I just found "Tomadoi no Toki wo Koete"(Get Over Confusing Times) cheerfully eclectic (or eclectically cheerful)....which, of course, meant that I had to get it.

Released in April 1995 as Flying Kids' 12th single, the lead singer, Takashi Hamazaki（浜崎貴司）, looks like someone who would be at home with the gang on the American geek sitcom "The Big Bang Theory"(especially with his dancing....not that I'm even nearly as good as he is). Originally, Flying Kids had started out as much more of a funk band in 1988 but coming into the mid-90s, they became poppier. "Tomadoi"itself kinda reminds me of stuff that Kome Kome Club were doing especially with the horn section, which in itself reminds me of some of the brass from 1960s British movies such as the original "Casino Royale" with Peter Sellers. I think what also makes the song eclectic is that there seem to be other genres that wanna get their cameos in like a rock guitar and a techno synth.

In any case, the band got their airy name from a Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎） song, "Flying Kid" from the "Niagara Triangle Vol. 1"LP. Flying Kids had their initial run from 1988 to 1998 before going into retirement, only to come back in 2007.

Flying Kids -- Tomadoi no Toki wo Koete