Hiro Tsunoda/Kiyohiko Ozaki -- Mary Jane （メリー・ジェーン）

Slow dance, guys! Lights are down low and that disco ball is sending beams of light onto couples swirling so close together that parents would be breaking into a sweat.

Yep, that's how I think of Hiro Tsunoda's（つのだ☆ひろ）"Mary Jane". It's like that one slow song to relax the guys and gals down after a series of fast tunes. My first exposure to it was on an anniversary special of The Tunnels' Thursday-night variety show, "Tunnels no Minasan no Okage Desu"（とんねるずのみなさんのおかげです）, and for some reason, regular member Marina Watanabe had to slow dance with Checkers' Fumiya Fujii in a rather awkward moment while the song was playing.

Since then, I've heard the song off-and-on over the years. And the golden vocals behind "Mary Jane", Hiro Tsunoda (full name: Hirotami Tsunoda...角田博民) has been an occasional presence on TV, almost reaching tarento status. He is a singer, composer, lyricist and drummer...the complete package who originally hails from Fukushima Prefecture. Making his debut as a professional drummer while in high school, he started in the late 1960s as a member of jazz unit The Mitsuhiko Sato Trio, after which he jointly appeared with bands such as Akai Tori（赤い鳥）, Sadistic Mika Band（サディスティック・ミカ・バンド）, Miyuki Nakajima（中島みゆき）and Akiko Yano（矢野顕子）along with others. He also wrote and composed another 70s kayo classic, "Shitsuren Resutoran"（失恋レストラン）for actor/singer Kentaro Shimizu（清水健太郎）. Another notable thing about Tsunoda is that he was also the deep sultry voice in the intro for Akemi Ishii's（石井明美）first big hit, "Cha-Cha-Cha" in the mid-80s (never mentioned that piece of trivia in the original article).

But Tsunoda will always be known for "Mary Jane". While the song was composed by Tsunoda, Fujio Hasumi（蓮見不二男）wrote the lyrics pining for the title character under his pseudonym of Christopher Lyn. Originally appearing on the album "Oshima ga Chikyuu ni Yatte Kita Hi"（大島が地球にやってきた日...The Day The Big Island Came To Earth）by Tsunoda's old band Strawberry Pass in June 1971, it had a longer title, "Mary Jane On My Mind" before it got slightly more truncated. Although it has that 50s ballad feeling, I think it also possesses a certain timeless quality since whenever I've heard it on TV, it never came across as dated. And Tsunoda himself has got that certain larger-than-life quality as that one shibui/cool dude.

That term "timeless" often signifies a lot of covers of the song. And folks like the late Kiyohiko Ozaki（尾崎紀世彦）and Yoko Oginome（荻野目洋子）have given "Mary Jane" their tribute. One of the big surprises, though, was finding out that the American vocal group The Platters performed one of the early cover versions of the song back in 1976. Yes...The Platters of "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" fame.

dela – Kettakogu (けったこぐ)

Today I finally received the CD J-Canuck sent to me after his last visit to Japan (yeah, Brazil's post service can be very slow).

The CD is a compilation of songs performed by aidoru groups. But they’re not only aidoru groups, but local aidoru groups from Nagoya (名古屋市), which makes things even more interesting. So, as local aidoru’s songs are quite hard to find online, this CD was a true jewel for an aidoru fan like me.

Someone new to the subject may ask: what is a local aidoru? Well, local aidoru is, normally, a low budget act that exists to entertain a small-to-medium audience consisting of people from a limited region or, more specifically, home prefectures. Sometimes, local aidoru acts turns into nationwide sensations, as happened with now-Techno pop unit Perfume, three girls that started their careers in 2002 as what I personally call Hiroshima’s (広島県) version of Mini Moni (ミニモニ, a subunit of Hello! Project), and Negicco, a trio of girls from Niigata (新潟県) that started their careers in 2003 promoting the yawahada negi, a variety of green onion from their home prefecture. Even Yasushi Akimoto’s (秋元康) brand of aidoru groups, such as AKB48, SKE48, NMB48, etc., started as local aidoru groups before becoming the biggest CD sellers of the country in the last five years.

For another example of local aidoru, a couple of days ago I talked about Tochiotome25, which is a local aidoru group from Tochigi (栃木県) that, just like the aforementioned Negicco, loves to highlight their prefecture’s gastronomical particularities. In their case, strawberries and the great Tochigi Wagyu.

Back to our compilation, which, by the way, is called “idol wave”, one song that quickly grabbed my attention was dela’s (デラ) “Kettakogu”.

From what I could find, “Kettakogu” first appeared in dela’s debut mini-album “Nanairo no Uta” (ナナイロのうた), which was released in November 2013. I wasn’t able to find if it was released as a single before or not, but that isn’t an important information right now.

Thing is, “Kettakogu” delivers a nice impression from the start with the playful Techno synths. Then, the girls finally appears singing while this bouncy and deliciously repetitive song starts for real. The energy is so great that, after the first listen, I was literally singing “Kettakogu! Kettakogu! Morikogi morikogi kettakogu!” (けったこぐ! けったこぐ! もりこぎもりこぎけったこぐ!) with the girls while waving my head from one side to another.

I listened to it so many times today that I’ll probaby have some trouble sleeping with this amount of saccharine in my blood.

The “idol wave” compilation was released in January 2014. Lyrics for “Kettakogu” were written by Yukimura (雪村), while music was composed by Kaoru Kondou (近藤薫). As for the arrangement, HASSE was the responsible.

idol wave

Azusa Senou -- I Miss You

CoCo became one of my favourite aidoru groups. They are no strangers to me, as I liked two of their songs, “EQUAL Romance” (EQUALロマンス) and “Yokohama Boy Style” (横浜Boy Style), for quite a while, but it wasn’t until some months ago that I decided to seriously listen to their discography.

Well, everything was okay for the group, but, in 1992, CoCo lost one of its members, Azusa Senou (瀬能あづさ), because she wanted to concentrate on a solo career. Yes, it’s the same old story of leaving your group behind to try new things in the entertainment world.

The thing is, Azusa Senou didn’t have to leave the group in order to have a successful solo career. All of her partners from CoCo had their individual solo careers, with varied success. Also, the cute Rieko Miura (三浦理恵子), without having to leave the group, was even more successful than Azusa.

Based on that, I never really liked Azusa Senou, and the only reason was because she abandoned the group. However, I ended listening to most of her solo material and caught myself liking her stuff A LOT. Maybe I was an hypocrite in this case, but I’m trying to redeem myself here.

“I Miss You” was Azusa’s fifth single, which was released in February 1993. At the time of its release, A-chan, as she was called by her fans, was trying to mature and leave the aidoru days behind. Her first album, “Crystal Eyes”, which was released one year before, in 1992, was still aidoru-oriented if compared to the stuff she released for the second album, “Horizon”. With that in mind, “I Miss You” is a good example of the more pop-rock sound she incorporated for her second full lenght release.

One thing to notice is that, although a solid pop release, “I Miss You”, was not very different from a lot other songs released by more famous artists during the early 90s. This mixture of pop-rock with synths in the background was a common place at the time, and I can even remember one song by minor sexy-aidoru Minako Tanaka (田中美奈子), called “Nemuranai Machi” (眠らない街), with a similar arrangement.

Reality is, the early 90s, as we all know very well, was a very hard time for aidoru acts to establish themselves in the industry. The so-called “Aidoru Fuyu no Jidai” (アイドル冬の時代) was a problematic reality, so Azusa Senou had to try different things to stay relevant. She didn’t accomplish that, but, at least, she tried...

“I Miss You” reached #27 on the Oricon charts. Lyrics were written by Toshihiko Takamizawa (高見沢俊彦) and Yoshiko Miura (三浦徳子), while music was composed solely by Toshihiko Takamizawa. As for the arrangement, it was done by Takebe Satoshi (武部聡志).

EPO -- Nichiyou wa Bell ga Naru Mae ni （日曜はベルが鳴る前に）

Going back into the EPO listings, I've decided to pull out an oldie but goodie with "Nichiyou wa Bell ga Naru Mae ni" (Sunday Before the Bell Goes Off) which was on the singer-songwriter's debut album, "Downtown" back in 1980.

Written and composed by EPO herself, it had that nice and even mid-tempo beat which anchors an arrangement that's unmistakably EPO and City Pop at the same time, although her voice is just a tad lower than what she has done since. I could imagine it being a popular tune on the radio dial. Her lyrics talk about being able to beat the alarm clock on a typical Sunday morning and just enjoy the day from an earlier point compared to when she was a kid. That's something that I can absolutely relate to since decades earlier I was rising at the late hour of 10 a.m. to have breakfast and then hit the bed again for a nap. I can no longer do that now, and the latest that I wake up on a Sunday morning is no later than 8. 

Chinatsu Akasaki & Mutsumi Tamura -- Futari no Kimochi no Honto no Himitsu （ふたりのきもちのほんとのひみつ）

AAAAAAAAAAAUGH! That earworm is wrapping itself around my cerebral cortex!!

Yup, I got drilled again with a song that just won't leave my head. And it's the ending theme of an anime that I had never heard of and haven't seen a single episode as of yet. The show is called "Kill Me Baby" and it was on back about 3 years ago. It was one of those "anything goes" anime that starred an airheaded student by the name of Yasuna who one day meets a blonde assassin by the name of Sonya. Hilarity results....apparently.

However, it is the ending theme, "Futari no Kimochi no Honto no Himitsu" (The True Secret of the Pair's Feelings) that has me in thrall. It is simply one of those melodies that just sticks to one like amber. And that intro reminds me a whole lot of a typical Pet Shop Boys song. However, the piece de resistance has been the ending credits which features Sonya and Yasuna prancing about and breaking physics at the same time.

In any case, the two main seiyuu of Chinatsu Akasaki (赤崎千夏...Yasuna) and Mutsumi Tamura (田村睦心...Sonya) took care of the song which was created by Kouichi Fujimoto（藤本功一）and Kimitaka Matsumae（松前公高）. The two, according to J-Wiki, were going for a kayo kyoku-esque feel with the help of some of those traditional Japanese instruments. It was released in January 2012 as part of the maxi-single featuring the opening theme, "Kill Me Baby". It peaked at No. 13 on Oricon.

April 6, 2022 -- OK, I just had to put this one up. The person behind this is a craftsman with a capital C!

Sayuri Ishikawa -- Yotte Soro (酔って候)

I wasn't paying that much attention to Sayuri Ishikawa's (石川さゆり) movements during the first minute or two in the video above where she sang her 84th single, "Yotte Soro", so I assumed she was just doing a little elegant jig that some female Enka singers do when decked out in a kimono. And then again, I did find it a little odd as to why Ishikawa was strutting out in such an erratic fashion with a dazed smile and glazed eyes. It took me a while to finally connect the dots - song name, bizarre movements. Turns out she was just trying to play the role of someone who had a tad too much sake to drink and is now tipsy and somewhat delirious, but it makes sense since the title literally has the word "drunk" in it. Seeing the usually very lady-like Ishikawa staggering about in a drunken stupor was mighty amusing, though.

I discovered "Yotte soro" while viewing an episode of "BS Nippon no Uta" last Saturday. It was one of the more difficult episodes to watch since I was only looking forward to a couple of familiar songs, like Eisaku Ohkawa's (大川栄策) "Abare Funa Uta" (あばれ舟唄) which was aMAzing, only made even better by the fact that I had to sit through about 45 minutes of other songs that I wasn't too fond of beforehand. The other one I was waiting for was Ishikawa's latest single, "Anya no Shinju Date" (暗夜の心中立て), that would be sung during the "Special stage" performance along with singer-songwriter Tokiko Kato (加藤登紀子).

It was an interesting "Special stage", with Ishikawa and Kato singing songs that revolved around the consumption of alcohol. I enjoyed Kato's deep, slightly husky, elegant delivery, but I didn't really like her rendition of one of Ikuzo Yoshi's (吉幾三) hit singles "Suika" (酔歌)... that song needs someone - other than Yoshi himself - with a gritty voice. Next came "Yotte Soro", which surprised me with its funky, sassy, and slightly whimsical score with a hint of Enka added by the occasional entry from the Otsuzumi (I think). It was a nice, unexpected treat... it definitely woke me up, that's for sure.

It was written by Osamu Yoshioka and composed by Masato Sugimoto (吉岡治 . 杉本眞人). I'm not sure how well "Yotte soro" did on the charts since there's no write up on it, but I'll go out on a limb here and say that it most likely did fairly well because... you know, she's Sayuri Ishikawa. To say that she's popular in the world of Enka is like saying Clint Eastwood is manly, and that guy oozes machismo!

www.ishikawasayuri.com

Tochiotome25 -- Wagyuu Fire! (和牛ファイヤー！)

I’ve seen a lot of weird aidoru videos in my life, but Tochiotome25’s (とちおとめ25) “Wagyuu Fire!” probably wins as the craziest aidoru video I’ve seen.

As I could see watching their past videos, Tochitome25 is an aidoru group with a food gimmick, and that’s not quite surprising, to be honest. After Tsuri Bit’s (つりビット) fishing gimmick, Especia’s retro gimmick or BABYMETAL’s Heavy Metal gimmick, I was quite waiting until I would come across a group with a food thematic.

The group is from the Tochigi prefecture (栃木県), which, as I could see, is known for its agriculture and cattle-raising. Based on that, Tochiotome25’s food motif becomes more specific, as the group likes to highlight the great things produced in Tochigi (strawberries, for example, are their main thematic). So, apparently, the Tochigi Wagyu is a famous brand of beef, so that’s why the girls are singing about cows in the first place.

Coincidentally, beef is my favourite food, so the song was quite appealing to me. Well, that wasn’t enough for me to like the song, of course, but, although quite bad at first listen, “Wagyuu Fire!” grew on me in a spectacular manner, and its high energy just pumps me every time I listen to it.

Musically, it’s quite an unique song will all the bullfighting music elements. However, I can’t classify it as a Latin song, basically because it don’t sound like one. All I know is that “Wagyuu Fire!” is an exciting song, and I assume it can be listed as one of my guilty pleasures.

As for the video, it’s amazingly horrible, if that makes any sense. I almost jumped out of joy in my chair after seeing cows spitting fire like monsters near the end, but with special effects that aparently came directly from the 80s. Also, at some points, we can see a cute little piece of beef dancing along with the girls and the manic headbanging cows. In the end, although strange and disturbing, I just love this video.

“Wagyuu Fire!” was released in October 2014. Lyrics were done by Naoya Kurosawa (黒澤直也).

Source: amazon.co.jp