I've been a fan of Japanese popular music for 40 years, and have managed to collect a lot of material during that time. So I decided I wanted to talk about Showa Era music with like-minded fans. My particular era is the 70s and 80s (thus the "kayo kyoku"). The plus part includes a number of songs and artists from the last 30 years and also the early kayo. So, let's talk about New Music, aidoru, City Pop and enka.
Credits
I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.
I could've done without the babies voicing "momo" (peach) at the very beginning, but I picked up Ami Ozaki's（尾崎亜美） 1991 album, "Natural Agency" because of this song. For a singer-songwriter who got noticed for her early bossa-tinged ballads, she apparently decided to channel her inner Kumiko Yamashita（山下久美子）for "Peach Paradise" and rock out.
"Peach Paradise" is sung all in English and is about as quirky and happy as all get out for an Ozaki song. I think there's even a bit of Kate Bush in there as well. The reason I got attached to this song about peaches by her is that there was this commercial that had been running for the longest time during my time in Gunma. The product was Peachtree Fizz by the Mercian company...a cocktail in a can which I've also sampled. Think peach nectar with a jolt of alcohol. Anyways, Ozaki shows up in the ad singing away with a trio of male backup, all looking like some act from an old American 50s variety show.
Unfortunately, there isn't a copy of that commercial on YouTube, but I did manage to find one later ad for Peachtree Fizz from 1990 starring Mami Yamase.
A while back, I did an article on Yukio Hashi's"Muhyou"（霧氷） which was one of the earliest songs that I had ever heard in my lifetime. There was something about the haunting chorus that stuck with me all these years, but I needed a viewing of Hashi performing the song on NHK's"Kayo Concert" one night that finally provided me with the singer and the title.
I didn't need to be that lucky here. "Rosario no Shima" from 1964 is another song from way back in my toddler-hood for which I found the '45 in an old bag of records. I played it on the stereo for the first time in decades, and like "Muhyou", there was a memorable dramatic intro which consisted of a resonant humming and a rhythm that sounded like it got imported from a 40s MGM adventure movie in Africa or the Indian subcontinent. And it was only when I played it yesterday that I could finally read the title and the singer behind it.
I'm not sure whether "Rosario no Shima" means "Rosary Island" (with some sort of religious significance) or if it's actually referring to The Rosario Islands off the coast of Columbia. The lyrics by Yukio Tanaka（たなかゆきを） mention the title but doesn't hint at its geographic location; they describe the usual enka trope of a love that has gone far away to a distant land. The music by Isao Hayashi（林伊佐緒） has that just-as-haunting humming by singer Hachiro Kasuga（春日八郎） and the staccato horns that have also stayed deep in my long-term memory.
As for Kasuga, according to Wikipedia, he was called "The First Enka Singer". Born in 1924 in Fukushima Prefecture with the birth name Minoru Watabe（渡部実）, he debuted with the 1952 record, "Akai Lamp no Shu Ressha"（赤いランプの終列車...The Last Train with the Red Lamp） and had one of his biggest hits with "Otomi-san"（お富さん）in 1954 which sold half a million records in 6 months and eventually topped a million sales.
Kasuga passed away in 1991 at the age of 67. Some of you might wonder why I've enjoyed listening to some of these really old chestnuts when I can also listen to music from the more modern acts such as Anzen Chitai, Akina Nakamori or even a couple of tunes by AKB 48. Well, not to say that I get an onrush of postwar Japanese history whenever I listen to some of the oldies, but hearing some of the old arrangements and deliveries do make me think about what life in Japan may have been like back in my birth decade.
The above is a karaoke version but the singer here sounds quite a bit like the late Kasuga.
About 4 years before Koji Kikkawa（吉川晃司） teamed up with Tomoyasu Hotei（布袋寅泰） of BOOWY to start the duo of COMPLEX, he launched a solo career in 1984. And just like with COMPLEX, his debut single as a solo singer started off with a bang. To be honest, "Monica" is the only Kikkawa song I know. I first heard it at karaoke and then came the appearances on all of those music shows on Japanese TV, and then I even heard Leslie Cheung's cover of it when I was doing one of my frequent record-searching hunts at Wah Yueh downtown.
Now that I've heard a fair bit of Motoharu Sano（佐野元春） thanks to nikala's articles, I think Kikkawa sounds somewhat like him (at least in this song) especially with his choice of genre. However, Kikkawa, as you can see in his appearance above, is more powerfully built. Making my link with the Olympics currently happening in Sochi, Russia, according to the Wikipedia article on him, he was supposed to have been on the Japanese water polo team in the Olympics (presumably the LA Games), but decided to go for the mike instead of the Gold. Still, his training for the sport certainly showed up in those wide-as-a-highway shoulders which certainly helped in gaining a lot of lovestruck fans.
It looks like Kikkawa won the bet as "Monica" became a big hit. Written by Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）and composed by the band NOBODY, it was released in February 1984 and reached as high as No. 4 on the Oricon weeklies. The song also won him a Best Newcomer Prize at the annual Japan Record Awards. Eventually, "Monica" would become the 23rd-ranked song of the year. The song also got onto Kikkawa's debut album, "Parachute ga Ochita Natsu"（パラシュートが落ちた夏...The Summer The Parachute Fell）.
Toronto has been getting dumped with snow frequently this year, the United States has been getting far more than usual, and even Tokyo is perhaps getting a second wallop of the white stuff sometime today. I think for a lot of folks in these affected areas, winter can't get away soon enough.
Allow me to spread a little summer into your lives (you still remember that season, don't you?). I inputted "City Pop" into the YouTube search engine and tried this video containing this song titled "Boekifu ni Sarasarete" (Touched by the Trade Winds) by 70s group, Mother Goose（マザー・グース）. I had never heard of this band before, but I enjoyed the summery and appropriately breezy sensation of this song. It took me all the way to Margaritaville.
Mother Goose consisted of a trio of friends from Kanazawa City, Ishikawa Prefecture. In high school, Mayumi Kaneda（金田真由美）, Yumiko Kyoda（京田由美子） and Sachie Takada（高田幸枝） started singing together under the name of The Campus and performed at record shops and other venues within their hometown as an amateur group. After graduating from high school in June 1975, they released their debut single, "Indian Katie no Uta"（インディアン・ケイティの唄...The Song of Indian Katie） which started getting attention, with Sumio Akutagawa（芥川澄夫） of the now-disbanded band Toi et Moi becoming their first mentor through Toshiba-EMI. It was Akutagawa's idea to have the name changed to Mother Goose, and in July 1976, their 2nd single, "Tonderu Lucy"（とんでるルーシー...Flying Lucy）was released.
"Boekifu ni Sarasarete" was their 4th and final single from November 1977 although it was on their first album, "Indian Summer" from September of the previous year. Written by Kaneda and composed by Kyoda, their producer was none other than Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）. During the band's amateur days, Mother Goose was heavily influenced by the band Sugar Babe (Yamashita's old unit with Taeko Ohnuki) and its album, "SONGS". You can imagine their reaction when they saw their hero in the audience when he noticed that they were performing at a Shinjuku live house.
Yamashita's production of "Boekifu" turned out to be his very first gig in this capacity, and the song has that feel that would go into a lot of his future songs. In addition, the chorus work reminds me a lot of the background work that EPO would contribute to her own output as well as those of her contemporaries later on.
Mother Goose would release 2 albums along with those 4 singles before breaking up in 1978.
March 3rd 2025: Commenter Robert was kind enough to inform me of some concert footage of Kyoda from 1994, I believe.
This article can be considered to be a sequel to one I wrote all the way back in May 2012 for Toshinobu Kubota's（久保田利伸）"Ryuusei no Saddle" （流星のサドル）. Coming across that song via a class dance performance at a school Culture Festival got me to buy Kubota's first BEST album, "The Baddest".
And then when I first put the CD into my portable stereo, I was draped by the slow gospel opening for the first track, "Time Shower ni Utarete" (Hit by a Time Shower) as Kubota crooned about hitting the hay before being body-slammed by the grand funk railroad; the singer then launched into his own dreamland at warp speed. It was the first time I ever heard a Japanese singer do a rap (well, there was Haruomi Hosono's"Rap Phenomena" for YMO, but I don't think Kubota need worry here), and he uses it as the lyrical dilithium crystals to blast us through the vortex of time and space. Try playing this while you're preparing breakfast and NOT start strutting all over the kitchen.
"Time Shower" was Kubota's 2nd single released in December 1986, and along with him coming up with the ion-bopping music, Masumi Kawamura（川村真澄） provided the lyrics. Kawamura was also the lyricist behind Misato Watanabe's（渡辺美里） breakthrough hit, "My Revolution", and where that song was all about triumph and not giving up, "Time Shower" is all about partying and getting down. Kubota doesn't want a sweet romance....he wants some hard lovin' NOW! There are a lot of fine tracks on "The Baddest", including "Ryuusei no Saddle" but for me, "Time Shower" is the one that I really enjoy from that album.
As a PS, I have to say that anyone who can get through the rap of this song at karaoke has my utter respect!
This was another one of those songs that seemed to be everywhere at every time during the space of a year. I had heard of Hitomi Shimatani（島谷ひとみ） previously, through her cover of the Janet Jackson hit "Doesn't Really Matter", but she really hit the pay dirt with this souped-up cover of a song by a band from her own (rhythm) nation from decades back.
I hadn't heard the original version of "Amairo no Kami no Otome" (The Girl With The Flaxen Hair), and I suspect many of the fans of this new version probably hadn't either, but it was one of those tunes that seemed to prick up everyone's ears and get them moving. Released in May 2002 as Shimatani's 7th single, the 21st-century dance arrangement was such that I hadn't realized that it was a cover of something from the 60s, and just thought it was Avex Trax coming up with another rumbly hit a la Namie Amuro or Tomomi Kahala. In any case, the infectiously happy melody, the video, Shimatani's vocals and looks all helped to get the song up to No. 4 on Oricon. It sold about 375,000 copies and got the Hiroshima-born singer an invitation to the Kohaku Utagassen. Ultimately, "Amairo no Kami no Otome" became the 22nd-ranked song for 2002.
The big hit for Shimatani also brought attention to the original song which had been released in February 1968 and sung by The Village Singers (ヴィレッジ・シンガーズ), a Group Sounds band that was around from 1966 to 1971. "Amairo no Kami no Otome" was written by Jun Hashimoto (橋本淳...who also came up with the classic "Blue Light Yokohama" for Ayumi Ishida) and composed by Koichi Sugiyama（すぎやまこういち）. However, the song had a proto-existence of sorts when it was initially made for singer Michi Aoyama（青山ミチ） under the title of "Kaze Fuku Oka de"（風吹く丘で...On a Windy Hill） in 1966; but it got put into the vaults instead until it was dusted off a couple of years later with the new title.
It has that breezy Hawaiian twang feel that was common to a lot of Group Sounds songs. The 1968"Amairo no Kami no Otome" went as high as No. 7 on the then-newborn Oricon chart. It was also used as the theme song for a TBS talk-music variety show aimed at the younger generation titled "Young 720", and from last year, it has been used as the train departure warning chime at Isesaki Station on the Tobu-Isesaki Line going through Gunma Prefecture.
I was never a
big fan of “fallen aidoru” Ami Suzuki (鈴木亜美),
but “alone in my room”, her sophomore single, which was released in September
1998, is an exception. As the last successful artist to debut under the wings
of “invincible producer” Tetsuya Komuro (小室哲哉) in the so-called “TK era”, and also one
of the few successful solo aidoru
singers of its time, it’s incredible how poor of a singer Ami Suzuki was (although
her smile was incredibly captivating).
Way different from
the Techno/Euro House stuff that made Komuro famous, “alone in my room” proves that he's also a very versatile producer. Of course a very dated synth melody
swims through the song, but the main arrangement is acoustic and not dance-oriented.
Nevertheless, it’s a very pleasurable sound that enhances the girl-next-door
quality of the young Ami Suzuki. As for the chorus, it’s catchy and features some
nice drums work (it’s not common for me to highlight drums in a song, so that probably
means something positive in the case of “alone in my room”).
“alone in my
room” reached #3 on the Oricon charts, selling 297,940 copies. Lyrics were
written by MARC and Tetsuya Komuro, while music and arrangement were done solely
by Komuro.
