Kenji Ninuma -- Tsugaru no Koi Onna (津軽恋女)

To be honest, I find it ticklish to listen to Japanese songs that have the singer repeat one particular word over and over and over again - the lyricists responsible for such tunes must've had an easier time churning out the lyrics. I guess it's due to the fact that this language is not my native tongue, so I pay more attention to how the word sounds like in comparison to what I know in English rather than its meaning. That part comes a little later, especially if the show doesn't have subtitles. Anyway, some examples include "Anata no Blues" (あなたのブルース), "Musoubana" (夢想花), and ever since Tuesday night's "Kayo Concert" featuring songs of the "Northern Country", "Tsugaru no Koi Onna".

Written by Kyosuke Kuni (久仁京介), this song features the Tsugaru region in Aomori - a hot bed for enka - which is known to have cold winters with lots of snow, so I can see why Kuni had Kenji Ninuma (新沼謙治) sing the word "Yuki" (雪) in rapid succession and even list down the 7 different types of snowfall there at the chorus. The rest of "Tsugaru no Koi Onna" looks to be about a woman from, you guessed it, Tsugaru, pining for her man as she waits for him to return to her - I'm not completely sure if its from the woman's point of view, or the man's, or if Ninuma is just narrating what goes on. And from the looks of the first stanza, she's not taking the separation very well. For a while I wondered how the listing of snow relates to the latter since it seemed to have come out of nowhere, but I soon (this morning, Singapore time) got the idea that the woman has to wait till all the 7 types of snow have fallen before she can see her loved one again. To complete the song is a rather forlorn and slightly dramatic score composed by Mondo Okura (大倉百人).

"Tsugaru no Koi Onna" was released in 1987 as Ninuma's 27th single. Although there's no information about how well it did, I think "Tsugaru no Koi Onna" did well enough for it to still be sung from time to time. It also seems to be one of Ninuma's more well-known tunes.

The video right here was of the performance earlier this week. It was a duet between Hiroshi Miyama (三山ひろし) and Kouhei Fukuda (福田こうへい). Fukuda seemed to be holding back on this one.

Wa-hey, Ninuma looks
cool in this picture!

hmv.co.jp

Hiromi Iwasaki -- Ni-juu-go-ji no Ai no Uta （25時の愛の歌）

This ballad by Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）still pops up in my brain from time to time. "Ni-juu-go-ji no Ai no Uta" (Love Song at 1 a.m.) was another Iwasaki contribution to the "Kayo Suspense Gekijo"（火曜サスペンス劇場...Tuesday Night Suspense） series. Iwasaki provided a lot of her ballads to the long-running anthology show of betrayal, murder, mystery and justice during the 1980s...probably to the extent that true justice wasn't served until Iwasaki's lovely voice slid into the ending credits.

"Ni-juu-go-ji no Ai no Uta" was Iwasaki's 38th single from December 1985. It was written by Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）and composed by Toshiyuki Kimori（木森敏之）(although the song sounds more like something Tetsuji Hayashi would concoct), the same duo who created one of the singer's biggest hits, "Madonna Tachi no Lullaby"（聖母たちのララバイ）back in 1982 (and was another contribution to the ending themes for "Kayo Suspense Gekijo"). However, unlike that successful ballad, "Ni-juu-go-ji" only went as high as No. 79 on the Oricon weeklies unfortunately. And yep, by the last word of that last sentence, I do like this song. Whereas "Madonna Tachi no Lullaby" had that feeling of a cooing lullaby, perhaps as reassurance for the hero/heroine of the episode or as a melancholy sendoff for the criminal, "Ni-juu-go-ji" was more in the cooler City Pop vein. As Iwasaki is singing, I could imagine those end credits rolling up the screen as the intrepid detective drives soberly under the city lights of Tokyo at night as he returns to headquarters after another tough case solved.

However, as the title suggests, the detective may be heading for someone cuddlier in the wee hours.

Yumi Yoshimura -- V.A.C.A.T.I.O.N.

Not really feeling in vacation mode myself but, hey, it's the Fourth of July weekend coming up in the States, and I'm sure Americans are on the move. So I thought what would be another ideal J-Pop song to profile that reflects an American vacation.

Well, it was a song that I had been thinking about doing for a while but now that July 4th is upon us, it's a fine time for Yumi Yoshimura's（吉村由美）"V.A.C.A.T.I.O.N". I guess it didn't take long for the folks surrounding Puffy (or Puffy Amiyumi in North America) to decide that with the success they'd had so far that they could have Yumi and Ami Ohnuki（大貫亜美）do some solo stuff. Of the two solo debut songs, Yoshimura's "V.A.C.A.T.I.O.N" is the one that I still remember for her cute if unpolished vocals and for her travelogue music video through the United States.

"V.A.C.A.T.I.O.N" came out in July 1997 and listening to it, I thought that there was a bit of Shibuya-kei in there, and as it turned out, it was Yasuharu Konishi（小西康陽）from Pizzicato Five who had written and composed the song. But I also heard some of that old-style jangly rock which reminded me of Tamio Okuda's（奥田民生）work for Puffy. All in all, it wasn't exactly a song that I was willing to buy, but it was still a short-and-sweet aside from the usual Puffy works. It peaked at No. 7 on Oricon.

HALCALI -- Giri Giri Surf Rider （ギリギリ・サーフライダー）

Back when I first started "Kayo Kyoku Plus" in 2012, I did mention the hip-hop dynamic dance duo HALCALI performing the cover of Kome Kome Club's "Roman Hiko"（浪漫飛行）very briefly and up to tonight, that has been it for Tokyo's Halca and Yukali（ハルカ・ユカリ）. Actually, I had thought that the ladies hailed from Okinawa.

Well, allow me to rectify that. I used to see a number of HALCALI music videos on one of the Japanese music stations, and to be honest, I was drawn more to the duo's mesmerizing choreography than the actual songs. And the same holds true for their 3rd single, "Giri Giri Surf Rider"（ギリギリ・サーフライダー...Last-Minute Surf Rider）which came out in July 2003. Not to say that Halca and Yukali were bad singers; their hippity-hoppity-poppity and sing-songy delivery of the lyrics added to the charm, but it was seeing the whole package together with the girls singing and dancing that made things really fun.

What I liked about the video for "Giri Giri Surf Rider" was that despite the lyrics about that cool surfer dude on the beach, the visuals concentrated on a potential rumble between a couple of 80s tsuppari gangs before Halca and Yukali save the day and the entire cast ends up dancing the day away on that pier. It was kinda like "Nishi Side Story" for the 21st century. And certainly after a hearty Sunday pancake breakfast in my apartment, the video was an excellent supplement to my coffee.

"Giri Giri Surf Rider" was written by RYO-Z and composed by DJ FUMIYA from hip-hop group Rip Slyme, and it peaked at No. 10, one of their most successful entries. It was also used as the ending theme for the final episode of a CGI anime series "Garakuta Douri no Stain"（ガラクタ通りのステイン...Ga-Ra-Ku-Ta: Mr. Stain on Junk Alley） which came out in early 2003. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a video that had the final episode's end credits, but here is HALCALI's "Tandem" which served as the ending theme song for the first 13 episodes.

Without me having to drone on about the history of HALCALI, you can read about them at the Wiki article here.

1986 Omega Tribe -- Super Chance

Yup, the summer is indeed here. Tonight, our local weather forecaster reported that the high temperatures will be a little lower than average for the rest of July, but for me at least, I don't mind that in the least. After surviving several years of blistering Tokyo summers, I no longer complain about humidity and heat in my hometown. I laugh at any level of moisture in the Toronto air now. 

When it comes to the nostalgic summer music in Japan, names like Anri, TUBE and Southern All Stars come to mind. But of course, there is the very 80s 1986 Omega Tribe. This was the incarnation with Carlos Toshiki（カルロス・トシキ）behind the mike after original singer Kiyotaka Sugiyama（杉山清貴）had left to pursue his solo career. "Super Chance" was the group's 2nd single under Toshiki that came out in August 1986 following "Kimi wa 1000%"（君は1000%）

Written by Masao Urino（売野雅勇）and composed by Tsunehiro Izumi（和泉常寛）, I remember the song mainly for Toshiki's declaration of the title in the refrain, but when I refreshed my memory just now, those summery synths and the electric guitar once again had me going "Natsukashii na..." and "Natsurashii na...". I can no longer visit the beaches near Kamakura but there is still the newly renovated Queen's Quay by Lake Ontario....provided vehicular traffic finally figures out how to handle the new signs there.

It's interesting comparing the vocal deliveries of Toshiki and predecessor Sugiyama. Both singers project that mellowness that fits the genre but I think the former sounds slightly breathier while the latter has a bit more steel in his delivery.

"Super Chance" hit No. 2 on the charts and finished the year as the 47th-ranked song. It is also a track on 1986 Omega Tribe's "Crystal Night" from February 1987. The album reached No. 1.

Hideki Saijo -- Hop! Step! Jump! （ホップ・ステップ・ジャンプ）

No connection to the article but I did want to show
Noelle the donut indulgence I experienced last weekend.

Happy Canada Day to all! My home nation is celebrating its 148th birthday today as it always does on July 1st, and so after walking around downtown Toronto all afternoon, I'm quite relieved to rest my dogs and sit in front of an open roaring computer screen.

While I was surfing through music163 last night, I came across a compilation album of some of the old kayo. Most of the songs have already been talked about but there were a couple that I had yet to cover. Hideki Saijo's（西城秀樹）"Hop! Step! Jump!" is one of them and I hadn't ever heard it before. This was his 29th single from May 1979 and following his cover of The Village People's "YMCA" which would end up as one of his greatest hits. I'm sure everyone involved was definitely hoping for disco lightning to strike twice since the song sounds like the mystery love child for "YMCA".

Composed by Kimio Mizutani（水谷公生）and written by Hikaru/Ko Yamazaki（山崎光）, the two of them absolutely tapped into that vein of Village People disco when they whipped this one up for Saijo. Heck, there is even similar choreography to "Young Man" as shown below. "Hop! Step! Jump!" got as high as No. 2 on Oricon and became the 29th-ranked song of the year. So it wasn't quite the megahit that "Young Man" was, but it still makes for an interesting follow-up. And here I thought that "Hop! Step! Jump!" was just a lyric from a Yoshie Kashiwabara（柏原芳恵）tune.

Not the real Village People
but the good folks from one of my
favourite programs, the legendary
comedy show "SCTV"

Teruko Hino/Yujiro Ishihara/Kazuko Matsuo -- One Rainy Night in Tokyo (ワン・レイニー・ナイト・イン・トーキョー)

When it rains, it pours... ...

Not when you're in Singapore at this time. It has been terribly hot over here with temperatures claiming to be 32-33 degrees Celsius but it really feels like 37-38, and there's hardly any rain to give some respite from the scorching heat. Well, it did rain on Sunday (in the east, at least). For an astounding 5 minutes the sky was grey and it got slightly cooler, then for an amazing 5 minutes it rai-.... no, it just drizzled before the sun was out again. And half an hour later when it was time for me and Pops to go out to the fish farm, there was not a single puddle in sight. On the other hand, according to the weather reports, there has been showers over Tokyo over the past month. How nice.

Speaking of rain in Tokyo, I'll be talking about "One Rainy Night in Tokyo" today. I managed to root out this very comfortable song a few months back when it wasn't so hot and when I was in the mood for something jazzy with the fruity voice of Yujiro Ishihara (石原裕次郎) - he's one of my go-to fellas if I want something relaxing. So while browsing through a YouTube channel with many videos of Tough Guy's songs, I came across "One Rainy Night in Tokyo" (the video above was the one I found) and went ahead with it since its title, combined with the thumbnail's picture, really screamed jazz.

I must say that Ishihara's quiet, laid-back delivery really compliments the soulful saxophone and the light tinkling of the piano. It just made me envision our main character in a wet trench coat taking refuge from the cold rain in a lounge bar after work, with the only thing making noises besides jazz music are the clinking of ice in filled brandy glasses and the low murmur of customers as they discuss about their day. The nighttime aerial shots of the glowing city also just added to the warm atmosphere.

(Unfortunately the Matsuo version has

been taken down so here's Aki Yashiro's cover.)

Anyway, I had an inkling that Ishihara wasn't the original singer of "One Rainy Night in Tokyo" despite the fact that it fits his singing persona perfectly - looking through his huge discography only proved that his version was only a cover, so I decided to search YouTube for the original. Now this is where it got pretty confusing. The results showcased a whole barrage of Mood Kayo singers/groups like the Mahina Stars and Sachiko Nishida (西田佐知子), all of which had "sung" the song. But when I gave them a listen, I realised they were completely different from the "One Rainy Night in Tokyo" I had been enjoying. I then consulted the J-Wiki again, but unfortunately there wasn't an article on the song. Coming back to YouTube, I discovered that the Queen of Mood Kayo, Kazuko Matsuo (松尾和子), had sung it as well, this time, it's the same as Ishihara's one, though more bossa nova - I like this version as well. By then I was quite ready to just throw in the towel and just stop my search there, hoping that Matsuo was the original singer - I was preoccupied with other things at that time. And then, I got the idea of looking up the song's writer and composer. 

It turned out that it was done by lyricist Domei Suzuki (鈴木道明). It was then that I finally discovered the original singer of "One Rainy Night in Tokyo", the late Teruko Hino (日野てる子). That was really a huge breakthrough and the relief was palpable. Anyway, like Matsuo's version, Hino's was quicker in pace, quite bossa nova unlike Ishihara's. You can listen to it here.

The original "One Rainy Night in Tokyo" was released in 1963... I think, that was what the J-Wiki page on Suzuki said. The one on Hino's page said it was released in 1965. I'm not sure which is right, so I'm just going for the earlier date. As for Ishihara's version, it was released in his posthumous album "Ishihara Yujiro Aishoka Best 40" (石原裕次郎 愛唱歌・ベスト40) in 2009. I wasn't able to pinpoint when Matsuo sang the song though.

www.asahi-net.or.jp

Oh yeah, it rained again today. Thankfully more than that sprinkling on Sunday afternoon. Cooler too.