Momoe Yamaguchi/Masashi Sada -- Cosmos (秋桜)

Hiya, I'm nikala. Huge thanks to J-Canuck for making me part of the team, and I hope to make some worthwhile contributions to this blog.

For my first entry here, I chose to cover Momoe Yamaguchi's (山口百恵) "Cosmos", which was released as a single in October 1977 and written and composed by folk singer-songwriter Masashi Sada (さだまさし). It became one of the singer's signature hits, selling around 500,000 copies total and became the 35th-ranked single of 1977 and then the 92-nd ranked single of 1978. Sada would later record his own version of the song for his album Shikashu (Anthology).

I debated with myself for a while about whether to attribute this piece to the original performer or the mind behind it, and at the end decided that both of them deserve equal credit. I think that Yamaguchi's singing on the original is absolutely stunning. There's something powerful about the pairing of this simple folk-ballad melody with her bold tone that makes chills run down my spine every time I listen to it. I also got a little teary eyed watching her performance of it during her farewell concert, a sentiment I share with the singer herself.

On the other hand, I think the song really befits its writer. I was first introduced to Masashi Sada through his soundtrack for the early-80's drama Kita no Kuni Kara and since then would associate his work with warm and homely family imagery. He specializes primarily in folk ballads that express traditional Japanese fondness for communal and family unity. Even the 23-year old me who's never been to Japan feels inspired to see my old relatives who live far away. Just listen to his version of "Cosmos" below and you'll see how much care he put into it.

The lyrics for "Cosmos" deal with a young woman's feelings towards her mother who has a hard time letting go of her daughter's hand in marriage. They almost read like a poem without the music due to rich descriptions of the two women's gestures during this very short scene. And the daughter, despite looking optimistically on the new life ahead, wants to suspend the current moment and remain a child for a little longer. During my experience working part-time for wedding ceremonies, I've observed a number of sweet exchanges between the newlyweds and their parents, but nothing beats the serene beauty of this song. I think I'm turning sentimental here.

According to J-Wiki, the song surprised both Yamaguchi's and Sada's fans when it was released. Yamaguchi's songs, for much of 1977, gave off an image of an aggressive young woman, and then "Cosmos" showed up expressing feelings associated with gentle Japanese femininity. It's as if the singer and the songwriter didn't suit each other. Yamaguchi's fans wondered why she decided to perform Sada's song, while Sada's fans wondered why he wrote it for Yamaguchi. Interestingly enough, at the time the 18-year old idol seemed oblivious to the fact that the song was about marriage. Sada even phoned her asking if she "still didn't get it", and she confirmed his suspicions. Then in 1980, when she retired from show business and became a married woman, she sent a note to Sada telling him that she has finally understood the meaning of the song. Aww...

Image source: yae340 from Yahoo Blogs

Welcome, JTM and nikala!

Hello, J-Canuck here, and just into the 2nd year of this blog, I would like to welcome a couple of new contributors: JTM from Hawaii and nikala from Toronto. Both of them have been reading and commenting for the last few months on various postings I have written, and so I invited them up here to see if they would like to post some of their favourites.

JTM has already gotten one up for Meiko Nakahara（中原めいこ） and nikala will soon have her post up for a Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵） classic.

I also extend an invitation to a couple of other commenters (if they have the time and interest): jarteaga obregon and bode1967 to post up some of their favourite songs from the world of kayo kyoku and J-Pop.

Nakahara Meiko - Konya Dake Dance Dance Dance (今夜だけDance Dance Dance)

Thanks again to J-Canuck for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this great blog. For my first post contribution, I wanted to start off with one of my personal favorite 80s Jpop artists -Nakahara Meiko (中原めいこ).

Nakahara is probably most familiar to audiences for her various アニソング/Ani-Song soundtrack contributions during the アニメ boom of the 80s. Songs like ロ・ロ・ロ・ロシアンルーレット (Ro Ro Ro Russian Roulette)/宇宙恋愛 - スペースファンタジー(Uchureiai-Space Fantasy) both used for the cult anime series 『ダーティペア』 (Dirty Pair) and 鏡の中のアクトレス (Kagami No Actress) / Dance

In The Memories both used for the hugely popular series 『きまぐれオレンジ☆ロード』 (Kimagure Orange Road) have become favorite classics of anime fans. Yet Nakahara Meiko was an accomplished singer/songwriter/lyricist well before finding fame among the anime crowd. 

Born Obara Meiko in 5/8/1959 in Yotsukaido City in Chiba Prefecture, Nakahara learned to play music at a very early age mastering the piano as a child. Nakahara had dreams of becoming an idol as a teen but did not have enough confidence in her abilities at first and thus decided to enroll into composer/arranger 鈴木邦彦/Suzuki Kunihiko's "Pop School" to further prepare for show business. Suzuki has worked with such artists such as ザ・ピーナッツ/The Peanuts and ザ・ゴールデン・カップス/The Golden Cups. She got a small taste of singing professionally as a backup chorus singer for 70s teen idol 郷ひろみ/Go Hiromi for one of his concert tours.

Nakahara eventually made her debut in 1982 with this funky, latin-inspired pop tune 『今夜だけDANCE・DANCE・DANCE』. It was a minor hit in 1982 but it would not be until her 1984 release 『君たちキウイ・パパイヤ・マンゴーだね』 until Nakahara found fame with that song which was selected by カネボウ化粧品/Kanebo Cosmetics to be it's Summer campaign song for that year.

Since then Nakahara has released other songs both as a solo artist and as a producer for such singers as girl group 少女隊/Shojo Tai and Guam/Hawaii raised idol 早見優/Hayami Yu whom she collaborated with on her hits 『PASSION』 and 『Caribbean Night』.

Her Hi-NRG, "Freestyle" inspired songs remind me a lot of ANRI/杏里 who also has a similar "American-pop" song writing style.

Nakahara eventually retired to New York in 1992 but has periodically contributed her talents as a producer/song writer for artists such as vocalist 坪倉唯子/Chibokura Rui (of B.B.クィーンズ/BB Queens fame).

Here's the ED for きまぐれオレンジ☆ロード 『Dance In The Memories』

Here's another live performance video (from 1994) featuring a medley of her songs.

Courtesy of  Spade13th at Flickr

Osamu Minagawa -- Kuroneko no Tango （黒猫のタンゴ）

Who had the top-selling single of 1970? Enka singers Shinichi Mori or Keiko Fuji? Mood Kayo group The Cool Five? Nah....it was some 6-year-old Tokyo kid singing an Italian children's song about a little cat. Really....

I've heard "Kuroneko no Tango"(Black Cat Tango) from time to time over the decades, and thought it was actually a somewhat older song. Not too surprised at this overwhelming success. I've found that once in a blue moon, a kid's song managed to reach the giddy heights of the Oricon charts, such as Masato Shimon's "Oyogi, Taiyaki-kun!", B.B Queens'"Odoru Ponpokorin"(both already profiled), and "Dango San Kyoudai".

What became "Kuroneko no Tango" was an Italian children's song "Volevo Un Gatto Nero"(I Wanted a Black Cat), written and composed in March 1969 by Francesco Pagano. It didn't take long before the song managed to make its way to Japan. The recording studio, Japan Victor, asked the leader of a school's choir group to choose a member to sing the cover version. She chose her nephew, Osamu Minagawa（皆川おさむ）. And the rest, they say, was history. With Japanese lyrics provided by Mizuho Miota（見尾田みずほ）, the single managed to sell close to 3 million records and make little Osamu a star....at least for a little while. Furthermore, the single managed to stay at the top of the charts for 14 straight weeks! Apparently, the kid wasn't too up on his musical genres at his tender age; he'd thought that "tango" was the name of the cat.

Having locked up the most successful song of the year, Minagawa inadvertently started a small kid singer's boom for a few years. There were a few boys and girls who were getting their tunes out in the zeitgeist....and even one American boy by the name of Jimmy Osmond was able to get his foot into the shoji because of what happened with Minagawa. As for the lad? Well, he's now a half-century old, and he is neither a professional singer nor a pet shop owner, for that matter. Osamu Minagawa is currently an industrial graphic designer.

July 24th 2025: Unfortunately, I have to state that Minagawa passed away yesterday at the age of 62 from chronic kidney disease.

Fubuki Koshiji -- Ai no Sanka （愛の讃歌）

For a very long time, there was and has been a cultural bond between France and Japan. Former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone (a best bud of Ronald Reagan's when he was the US President) loved French culture, and apparently former French President Francois Mitterrand was a big fan of sumo. French restaurants of any size seem to populate a lot of street corners in Tokyo and even in my bedroom city of Ichikawa....along the side of any McDonalds or massage clinic. My students took me to one which was situated just metres away from a major highway overpass and a bowling alley. And the quality....and the prices....certainly fit the image of a fine French restaurant.

Chanson was and has made up a small part of the kayo kyoku world almost as far back as when Edith Piaf held audiences enthralled in France. And once in a while, on a TV retrospective, I would see and hear the late vivacious Fubuki Koshiji（越路吹雪） warble the sounds of "Ai no Sanka".

Born in 1924, the former Mihoko Konno（河野美保子） entered the world of the famed women's acting troupe, The Takarazuka Revue, to become a top star during the latter half of the war and the postwar years.. When she retired from the Revue, she shifted to the world of stage musicals, and around that time, Koshiji recorded a cover of Edith Piaf's "Hymne A L'Amour". As for exactly when the recording was made is of some conjecture. According to the Japanese site OKWave.jp, there were two possibilities, 1951 or 1953. The former year coincided with her departure from the Takarazuka, while the latter year was given on a BEST compilation. I flipped a coin....1951 won. Although Koshiji would continue down the path of chanson until her untimely death in 1980, I think "Ai no Sanka"pretty much cemented her title as The Queen of Chanson in Japan. Her release of the song, with Japanese lyrics by Tokiko Iwatani（岩谷時子） (with the original composition by Margueritte Monnot and the original lyrics by Piaf herself), sold over 2 million copies.

Edith Piaf will always be the one and original behind her 1949 "Hymne A L'Amour", but I think Koshiji made "Ai no Sanka" her own.

February 8 2022: I have to admit that the 1961 Brenda Lee version of the song, titled "If You Love Me (Really Love Me)", that was used as the ending theme for Episode 4 of "Loki" really got to me.

Yellow Magic Orchestra/Asako Toki -- Kimi ni Mune Kyun （君に、胸キュン）

"Open cheek, stick tongue in..."

That was the first impression I got when I saw the music video for YMO's "Kimi ni Mune Kyun"(Making Your Heart Go Boing). And I'm sure that was what Ryuichi, Haruomi and Yukihiro were going for when they did both the song and the video.

Released in March 1983 as their 7th single, the song surprised me....and probably the rest of the technopop fans. Compared to their previous songs, "Kimi ni Mune Kyun", is the poppiest effort I'd ever heard from the band. And according to the J-Wiki article on the song, the lads wanted to doff off their image as the cool and cold robotic warriors just once and become ".....adorable old geezers..."(translated from the article). Judging from their choreography, I'd probably change the first word in the quote to "adorkable". And considering that at the time, the individual members were also penning a number of songs for aidoru singers, I guess they were also trying to get that cute soft image. But I have to admit that during the part of the video where they're chasing that frouncy French girl in the avant-garde forest, I am still doing involuntary cringes.

But you know, kinda like in the way that adding salt to watermelon ironically brings out the sweetness in the flesh, I think putting this song into their repertoire added that extra oomph. I can't explain why....it just does. And certainly, the citizenry of Japan thought so as well. "Kimi mi Mune Kyun" became the highest-ranking technopop single to debut on Oricon at No. 2....a record that YMO would retain until Perfume took it over in 2008 with "Love The World". It was also a track on the band's 6th album, "Naughty Boys", released in May 1983. "Naughty Boys" was the final YMO album to top the charts, and the last technopop album to hit No. 1 until once again the girls from Perfume did so with "Game" in 2008. Strangely enough, both album and single ended up at No. 28 on the yearly rankings. Ah, by the way, the band was responsible for the music, but the lyrics were by Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）, Haruomi Hosono's old bandmate from Happy End.

Asako Toki（土岐麻子） gave her own groove-a-licious version of "Kimi ni Mune Kyun" along with cute little video as part of her 5th album, "Weekend Shuffle" in December 2006. The soft-singing artist has often given summery light covers of famous J-Pop/kayo kyoku tunes such as "Komugi Iro no Mermaid" by Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）.

A lot of other covers out there such as Miku Hatsune's （初音ミク）take.

And there is also Human League's take on the song. Gotta say that a match between YMO and Human League is one made in techno heaven!

March 14 2021: Also have a look at Ginger Root's own cover of the song!

Happy Anniversary, Kayo Kyoku Plus!

Well, yesterday on January 31st, my blog, Kayo Kyoku Plus, actually reached 1 year old! I had done a blog during the last several years of my time in Japan before and when I finally got back in December 2011, I decided to continue it since I liked writing.

However, there was also a part of me that thought about those CDs I lugged back from the Pacific to join the CDs and the several Japanese albums and dozens of cheap Canadian Tire cassette tapes of radio programs that had been left back here in Toronto, along with my early memories of kayo kyoku on the stereo. And I thought, like peanut butter and chocolate, I could put the two, kayo kyoku and blogging, together. I mean, I knew that there have been other people who have posted their own blogs about Japanese music up, but I also wanted to inject a little about my thoughts about the music and the circumstances in which I bought it...just because. At first, I'd wondered about doing a podcast about it but after reading a rather thick tome on podcasting, even my rather thick brain quickly got the message that playing music on a podcast was gonna get me into some trouble.

So, I went for the blog. And in retrospect, I think it was the better way. Part of my purpose was not just putting my stuff and commentary up there, but to see if there were anyone else who had an interest in some of the old Showa Era music. And even though I am grateful for the number of pageviews approaching 50,000 at the time of this writing (although I'm also aware that probably a certain fraction of them have been of one-second duration), I am especially thankful for those who have been taking the time and energy to comment on some of the songs.....people like bode1967 from South America, JTM from Hawaii, makotogawa from Croatia, The President from the UK, nikala from my hometown, and all of the others. The surprising thing is how wide-ranging the look-ins have been. There have been contacts from Algeria, Norway, Singapore, Russia and Pakistan. I look forward to their continued comments and also encourage others to comment, even if it's just for one song and one singer.

One of the bonuses of doing KK Plus has been the ability to learn more about the songs themselves....about the stories behind their productions, and who were responsible for them. A year after I started the blog, names like Yu Aku, Kyohei Tsutsumi and Takashi Matsumoto have become pretty household for me over the past year.

And another bonus has been some of the commenters giving their suggestions about songs they've enjoyed. Some of them were tunes I'd forgotten about, others I had never heard of. So, in the future, I will put up some additional stuff for Ryoko Shinohara and Ichiko Fujii. That was what I was hoping to get: a conversation going about this admittedly very niche topic for a blog.

Now, as for the future....I had thought naively in the start that I was gonna end up gasping and wheezing to the finish line of one year, bereft of any other songs I could put up. But as I got closer to the end of 2012, I realized that I was gonna be going beyond January 31 2013 by a fair margin. I'm still not sure whether I can actually make a 2nd anniversary doing the same thing I've been doing but for the meantime, thanks to the suggestions, books like "Japanese City Pop" and some dusting off of the cobwebs in my memory, I think I can still keep on chugging away for the next little while at least. I'm now thinking about going back to my old cassette tapes and hear anything I've missed.

Finally, I just wanted to thank The President for informing me about the presence of this rarity, "Love Trip" by Takako Mamiya. I made the investment and got the CD a few days ago. It's always satisfying when I can get something special like this. Someday, I'd like to get a disc of Makoto Matsushita's "First Light". One never knows what's possible.

Anyways, yoroshiku onegai shimasu.