Wink/Mari Amachi/Candies/Yoko Ishida -- Sugar Baby Love

(Candies' version)

This article certainly got a little more involved that I had thought it would be.

Well, first off, when I landed in Japan in mid-summer 1989, I had gotten onto the Wink bandwagon midway when the entire country seemed to be in the thrall of "Samishii Nettaigyo"（淋しい熱帯魚）. My first impression of Sachiko Suzuki and Shoko Aida（鈴木早智子・相田翔子） when they appeared on all of the music shows was that they were not just a new type of aidoru but ai-dolls from their looks and moves which just added to the Wink mystique when more of their hits came out.

So, when their BEST collection of singles came out in November 1990, "Wink Hot Singles", I decided I needed to catch up a bit on their pre-1989 releases. The first song was of course their debut, "Sugar Baby Love" which came out in April 1988. As is the case with many a star singer's discography, the debut and the early releases sound quite a bit different. And so I was a bit intrigued to hear "Sugar Baby Love" as this aidoru-esque tribute to the old doo-wop sound which had an intro which reminded me of "Little Darlin" by The Diamonds from the late 50s.

If I had heard "Sugar Baby Love" when it first came out, I probably wouldn't have predicted that Wink would've gone onto stardom, but according to the charts, there were already signs that things were looking pretty up for the duo. There was no major ad campaign for Wink or the debut, but it still managed to get as high as No. 20 on the singles charts and stayed in the Top 100 for 11 weeks. In addition, it was even used as a theme song for a Fuji-TV drama starring Yoko Minamino titled "Netsuppoi no!"（熱っぽいの...I Feel Feverish!）Not too shabby.

Now I had heard that Wink's "Sugar Baby Love" was a cover of an original tune by a European band. I'd assumed that it was some of Eurobeat group from the mid-80s, but actually the original singers came all the way from 1974. The Rubettes hailed from the UK as this doo-wop group and their own debut of "Sugar Baby Love" got them to the top of the charts for 8 weeks straight. It even got placed at No. 37 on the US Billboard charts. Wayne Bickerton and Tony Waddington wrote and composed the song, and according to Wikipedia, they had first offered it to another band following the production of a demo version but were declined. Then they offered it to the studio musicians who had recorded that demo....on provision that they become a group. Hence, The Rubettes were born.

And it was there that I thought that the article would end. However, by accident, I discovered that Wink hadn't been the direct Japanese inheritors of "Sugar Baby Love". I came across a YouTube video that showed that 70s aidorus Mari Amachi（天地真理）and Candies had done their version of the song in the same year that The Rubettes premiered it. Amachi had done her version through her first live LP, "Mari Amachi on Stage" from December 1974. In the same month, Candies provided their version via their 3rd album, "Namida no Kisetsu"（涙の季節...Season of Tears）.

Finally, there was even another cover which followed the Wink version. In 2001, singer Yoko Ishida（石田耀子） provided her own "Sugar Baby Love" as the opening theme for the anime "Chiccha na Yuki Tsukai no Sugar"（ちっちゃな雪使いのシュガー...Little Snow Fairy Sugar）and her 5th single.

As Bickerton and Waddington illustrated, isn't it nice what happens when you ask nicely?

Sachiko and Shoko must have been shopping
before the government raised the consumption tax!

Hiromi Ohta/Kaze -- Kimi to Aruita Seishun （君と歩いた青春）

I was listening to the BEST compilation of Hiromi Ohta（太田裕美） for the first time in a long while when I heard her ballad, "Kimi to Aruita Seishun" (The Salad Days I Walked With You) and felt that I just had to write about it. It's one of those lovely bittersweet ballads of parting as a man says his goodbyes to a now-former love who was adored by all of his buddies. There's no recrimination, though. The man asks her to give his regards to everyone while he heads off for parts unknown and she heads back to the hometown. Shozo Ise（伊勢正三） from the folk group Kaguyahime（かぐや姫） wrote and composed the song, and I'm pretty much convinced he can make a block of granite tear up. He has written some of Iruka's（イルカ） tenderhearted ballads and Ohta's cover version is also another wonder.

Ohta originally sang "Kimi to Aruita Seishun" in December 1976 as a track on her 5th album, "Juu-ni Page no Shishuu"（１２ページの詩集...12-Page Anthology of Poems） which peaked at No. 9 and became the 46th-ranked album of 1977. Then she did a self-cover of it in 1981 as part of her 15th album which had the same title as the song. It was even released as her 21st single in August 1981 which got as high as No. 80.

However, the Ohta cover led me to the very original version by Ise himself through his folk duo, Kaze（風）. This version sent up quite a few shivers up and down my spine, especially when the guitar and the strings appeared during the bridge. It's the equivalent of watching the most brilliant sunset from a high point somewhere. "Kimi to Aruita Seishun" was a track on Kaze's 3rd album, "Windless Blue" from November 1976. The album had a mix of adult contemporary, folk and soft rock songs with a hint of City Pop, according to the J-Wiki writeup. It peaked at No. 3 on Oricon and became the 17th-ranked album of 1977.

As for Kaze itself, it was formed in 1975 with Ise teaming up with Kazuhisa Okubo（大久保一久） of the folk group Neko（猫）. The duo lasted four years releasing 6 original singles and 5 albums.

Misato Watanabe -- Sotsugyo （卒業）

https://itunes.apple.com/jp/album/%E5%8D%92%E6%A5%AD-single/666199357

(excerpt only)

Yet another song by the title of "Sotsugyo" (Graduation), but unlike the aidoru tunes by Yuki Saito and Momoko Kikuchi（斉藤由貴・菊池桃子）or the protest ballad by Yutaka Ozaki（尾崎豊）, Misato Watanabe's（渡辺美里）19th single from April 1991 is about the closest to sounding like a good old-fashioned graduation song that would be played at the annual school ceremony.

I remember when Watanabe performed this on an episode of "Music Station" or some other show. She sang this under a huge mockup of a brilliantly-lit blossoming cherry tree on an otherwise dark stage. It was just about Kohaku-worthy in the setup. The lyrics by the singer herself reveals the uncertainty of leaving school and friends, including one in particular, and paired with Tetsuya Komuro's（小室哲哉）near-elegiac melody, I wouldn't be surprised at one point if the song had actually been used at some of the schools. Strangely enough, it was used as a campaign song for a life insurance commercial, but I guess one is never too young to start paying premiums.

The single also belonged on Watanabe's 7th album, "Lucky" which came out in July 1991. It not only hit No. 1 on the album charts but it ended up as the 9th-ranked album of the year.

Yasuhiro Abe -- Cafe Flamingo

At first, when I came across the title of singer-songwriter Yasuhiro Abe's（安部恭弘） 2nd single from February 1983, "Café Flamingo", I got the impression that this was gonna be along the same lines as WHAM!'s "Club Tropicana" (where the drinks are free). However, it actually turned out to be more of a "daylight" tune by Abe, compared to the more nighttime songs that I've already written about. In fact, I think "Café Flamingo" has more akin to the uptempo stuff by folks like AOR singers Christopher Cross and Jackson Browne.

Although the song probably was included on his debut album, "Hold Me Tight", I first heard it on the BEST album I got. I've compared it to Cross and Browne but if I were going along Japanese City Pop lines, I would also compare it as similar to the songs of Abe's contemporary, Junichi Inagaki（稲垣潤一） who was also just starting his long career. As with Inagaki, his upbeat stuff goes nicely with that drive along the beach on either side of the Pacific.

Hiromi Iwasaki -- Hatachi Mae... （二十才前...）

Fortunately for a guy who loves the oldies, the various recording companies kinda got rather nostalgic at the turn of the century and started releasing kayo kyoku galore from as far back as the 50s via compilation albums, and then they began to re-issue actual re-mastered albums by specific singers such as Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）, Junko Ohashi（大橋純子）, etc. Hiromi Iwasaki's （岩崎宏美）collection also got the same treatment and since she was one of the first Japanese singers that I fell in love with, as soon as I saw her soft-cover (as I like to call them) jacket versions of her 70s and 80s albums hitting the shelves, I went on the hunt.

One of the first re-issued albums I bought was Iwasaki's "Hatachi Mae..." (Before 20...), her 6th album from April 1978. Aside from the title track, I hadn't known any of the other songs on it but I decided to buy this one solely because of the cover photo of the then-19-year-old lass standing in front of the mixing board at the studio. She just looked so young and quite different from my image of her with the long, long hair and the formal dresses; according to her comments in the liner notes, everything she was wearing in the photo was all bought by her without any stylist calling the shots. She could've just been shopping at the local supermarket.

The album starts off with her 12th single, "Hatachi Mae", a song that I'd actually heard from years back when Mom got me a BEST tape of hers. Now in Japan, the age of 20 is one of the big ones since the teens legally become adults and there seems to be this romanticism surrounding the big 2-0. Written by Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composed by Yusuke Hoguchi（補口雄右）, the intro and Iwasaki's sung prelude strikes me as being the innocent and nostalgic end to adolescence as the singer elegantly makes a written greeting to a certain young man about how he's doing and if it isn't too much trouble if he could meet her. Then the song ramps up into a light bouncy disco trot as she looks forward to life beyond 20 although she hopes to get that answer from her Romeo before the big birthday.

I think that "Hatachi Mae" probably strikes a chord with a lot of people in my age range with the music and lyrics. However, according to those liner notes from the album, it was memorable for Iwasaki in that it was exceedingly difficult for her and the orchestra to tackle during recording due to the arrangement and the tempo shift. It also didn't help that the lass was in the throes of a bad cold at the same time, so an initial version of that recording has also been included in my softcover album along with the official one. To be honest, I couldn't really tell much of a difference....Iwasaki handled herself with aplomb....and tissues.

"Hatachi Mae" was released as a single in February 1978 and got as high as No. 10 on the charts, and eventually placed No. 76 in the annual singles charts.

Also on the album is her 10th single from July 1977, "Nettaigyo"（熱帯魚...Tropical Fish）. What struck me about this song was that the Aku-penned lyrics already had Iwasaki growing up even faster than the innocent in "Hatachi Mae" as she sings about hanging around that bar in a melancholy state while nursing that cocktail and refusing to go home due to guy trouble. Makoto Kawaguchi（川口真） provides a jaunty aidoru kayo melody that reminds me a bit of Momoe Yamaguchi's（山口百恵） discography to a certain extent. The single peaked at No. 4 and ended the year as the 44th-ranked song.

However, the one song from the album that got my attention was "The Man"（ザ・マン）. The same fellows behind the more famous "Hatachi Mae" were responsible for a song that I think would have made a cool theme for a 70s Japanese detective show. The cool staccato horns and the guitars just give "The Man" a really nice City Pop beat for that decade. And lyrically, Iwasaki takes on the role of that manly man and the woman who doesn't quite know what to do with him by alternating the masculine and feminine speaking styles. Not that I would have noticed the difference on first listen since she sounds so beautiful either way. The song was the B-side to the "Hatachi Mae" single.

https://music.apple.com/jp/album/%E4%BA%8C%E5%8D%81%E6%89%8D%E5%89%8D/251296109

(30-second excerpt only)

Two of the songs on the album were written and composed by singer-songwriter Keiko Maruyama（丸山圭子） which also got my attention. The one above is "Imayo Tsuzuri"（今様つづり）, the type of wonderful ballad that Iwasaki has done so well for so many years, and listening to it, I immediately had images of a young couple in ancient Japan walking discreetly on a country lane since the lyrics referred to floating cherry blossom petals, castles and old tiled roofs. I'm not all that confident of my translation of the title but it may mean "Heian Style Writing" or "Modern Style Writing" (If my Anonymous Iwasaki fan commenter can clear this up, I would appreciate it).

As for the album, "Hatachi Mae..." peaked at No. 10 on Oricon.

http://music-tsutaya.tsite.jp/album/view/AL121046

(excerpts from the album)

Sing Like Talking -- Rendezvous

http://www.amazon.co.jp/Welcome-Another-World-SING-TALKING/dp/B00005EJNF

After discovering the band Sing Like Talking through their wonderful album, "Discovery" in the mid-1990s, I started doing my own J-Pop version of Indiana Jones and began the tracking down for some of their past albums. But during the hunt, the follow-up to "Discovery" came out in May 1997 with their 9th album, "Welcome to Another World".

On the whole, although I wasn't as big a fan of "Welcome" as I was with "Discovery", there were still a few songs in there which struck a chord with me. One was "Seasons of Change" which I talked about in the article on their BEST album, "Second Reunion", and the other was this one, "Rendezvous". It's another relaxing silky-smooth ballad by vocalist/composer Chikuzen Sato（佐藤竹善） and keyboardist/lyricist Chiaki Fujita（藤田千章）. It never came out as an official single but I think it certainly could have earned at least coupling song status with that mellow and soulful delivery by Sato. However, it did get onto another BEST album of their ballads, "Round About" in 2001. As for "Welcome to Another World", it managed to peak at No. 4 on Oricon.

You can listen to a very brief excerpt of the song at the above link.

Kiyoko Suizenji -- Namida wo Daita Wataridori （涙を抱いた渡り鳥）

I was going through my Dad's 45" collection when I came across that familiar face of Kiyoko Suizenji （水前寺清子）beaming on the cover. The song she was representing there was her debut, "Namida wo Daita Wataridori" (Migrating Birds Holding The Tears) from October 1964 (although the version that I have is a 1972 re-issue). When I played it on the TEAC, "Namida wo Daita Wataridori" once again jogged my long-term memory as Cheetah's piercing voice came through the headphones. It was yet another oldie from my childhood.

Written by Tetsuro Hoshino (星野哲郎...under the pseudonym of Megumu Arita), who later wrote the theme song to "Tora-san" and Suizenji's own crowd-rousing "San-Byaku Roku-Juu-Go Ho no March"（三百六十五歩マーチ）, and composed by Shosuke Ichikawa (市川昭介...under his own alias of Yutaka Izumi), the lyrics made me wonder if this would also have been a fitting song for the aforementioned wandering salesman Tora-san, as Suizenji sings about traveling from place to place like the birds in the title but never quite finding that significant other.

Oricon didn't exist back in the mid-60s but Suizenji's debut single made an impact since she was later invited to the 1965 Kohaku Utagassen for the very first time in what would be a long series of appearances on the NHK special. She certainly made an impression on the stage that night as she brought that swagger and brio in her performance.

Now, as for the Cheetah nickname....I had always thought that it was given to her as a tribute to her power as a singer in comparison with the famed animal from Africa. Well, count me wrong on that score. According to J-Wiki, her birth name was Tamiko Hayashida（林田民子）, and songwriter Hoshino, before Suizenji's debut, derived the nickname as an abbreviation of his declaration "Chiisai Tami-chan no kimochi wo wasurenai you ni"（ちいさいたみちゃんの気持ちを忘れないように...So that you don't forget little Tami's feelings）.