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.
Keeping on the Tanabata theme, there is one ballad that inevitably bubbles up in my head whenever July 7th comes around. It helps that the title incorporates that very date: "Shichi-gatsu, Nanoka, Hare" (Seventh of July, Sunny Day), and it is by that group famous for its love ballads, Dreams Come True.
As usual, DCT members Miwa Yoshida（吉田美和）and Masato Nakamura（中村正人）took care of this song which I was surprised to find out was never an official single, although, as JTM mentioned in his huge article on a BEST article on the band, it was used as the theme song for a 1996 romantic motion picture of the same title starring Arisa Mizuki（観月ありさ）. I do remember that "Shichi-gatsu, Nanoka, Hare" the song got as much promotion as the movie did, and personally speaking, I think it deserved it.
The song is a quietly soaring and epic piece which starts out as if it were the background music for the legend of Orihime and Hikoboshi with Yoshida plaintively calling out how much she wants to meet her Mr. Right but just cannot. Then from that intro, it does a dive into modern-day Japan through the music which sounds as if it has to be listened to at night when the stars are out...it almost sounds like City Pop. Then the melody starts to zigzag into different keys which could describe anything from a romantic but tumultuous flying carpet ride (a la "Aladdin") to a whirlwind romance in the metropolis or the modern-day version of the two aforementioned deities running from fate. But all of that is anchored by the reassuring and just-as-soaring vocals of Yoshida. It's been a while since I heard this one...good to hear it again.
The song may not have been a single but it was a track on Dream Come True's 8th album, "LOVE UNLIMITED∞" from April 1996 which hit No. 1 and became the 8th-ranked album for the year. It was also included on their greatest hits album, "The Soul" which JTM covers, and also the soundtrack for the movie "Seventh of July, Sunny Day".
Well, it's July 7th which means it's Tanabata in Japan, the time for those star-crossed lovers to meet for that day. The above video provides a very nice description of what the day is all about in the city of Sendai. I never got up to the city in Miyagi Prefecture but I've written my share of wishes on those colourful strips of paper and attached them to bamboo trees when I was living in the Kanto.
Of course, the holiday was also not lost on the folks at NHK. "Kayo Concert" devoted its 45 minutes to the annual Star Festival, and so the kayo all had a "star" theme to it. The second song was "Hoshizora ni Ryote wo"(Both Hands to the Starry Sky) which was originally sung in 1963 by Hiroshi Moriya（守屋浩）and the late Chiyoko Shimakura（島倉千代子）.
I couldn't really tell whether the song was an enka number or a pop kayo, but it definitely chimed in with my early memories of the J-oldies. It had that jaunty beat which seemed to invite all listeners into a singalong, and my memories of those kayo way back when didn't involve drinking establishments or samurai warriors but just regular folks having a happy time. For those folks who really remember the old movies and singers in North America, I've often likened such kayo to the duets by Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald in the 40s with the admittedly cornball devotion and love.
"Hoshizora ni Ryote wo", written by So Nishizawa（西沢爽）and composed by Yoshiyuki Kouzu（神津善行）, is in the same ballpark, thematically speaking. The couple in the song may not possess a whole lot of money but that doesn't bother them one whit. They happily bring up their joined hands to the starry night sky and proudly state that the stars will be their rings. Perhaps the younger couples these days may kinda stick their fingers into their mouths on hearing this, but for an old duffer like me, it's still quite adorable, and as you know, I'm all about the nostalgia.
Oricon wasn't around in the day but "Hoshizora ni Ryote wo" sold 700,000 records when it was released, so I could imagine it hitting No. 1 on the charts.
I never watched Takuya Kimura's（木村拓哉）original "HERO" but did hear all about it by reputation as the smoldering member of SMAP took on the character of the rebellious but brilliant lawyer, Kohei Kuryu. And my musical image of the show was that proud brass instrumental theme that was featured in all of the promos for the series.
So, I didn't have any idea (or I just plain forgot) that singer-songwriter's Hikaru Utada's（宇多田ヒカル）"Can You Keep A Secret?" was the theme song for "HERO". I always had thought the song and series were on their own separate paths. Another hit show for KimuTaku, another hit song for Hikki. In fact, I kept associating the latter's 7th single more with the music video of the close relationship between her and her robot.
As was the case with just about all of her hits, "Can You Keep A Secret?" was all over the media for weeks on end. It hit No. 1 on the Oricon weeklies easily and later became the No. 1 song for the entire year after its release in February 2001. In fact, according to a web archive featuring an article from "Sponichi Annex", a little over a million copies of the single were shipped out the day before its official release in the stores. A day later, Toshiba EMI had to add another 300,000 copies to keep the fans happy. No doubt, the recording company was probably way beyond happy. The single was also a track on her 2nd album, "Distance" which was released in March 2001, and did the same thing as "Can You Keep A Secret?" by hitting No. 1 for the weeklies and for the year. In fact, it became the 4th-ranking album in Oricon history.
To be honest, "Can You Keep A Secret?" isn't totally a favourite Hikki song for me. I like the main chorus and the nice little Latin touch to it but there are some other Utada hits that still outrank this one. However, it's been a while since I posted up a Hikaru Utada song, and I also wanted to commemorate the fact that just a few days ago, Utada let her fans know on her blog that she has just become a mother to a little boy. Man, time sure flies.
Ahhh....memories of my compilation tapes. Actually, earlier this afternoon, I saw former Onyanko Club（おニャン子クラブ）aidoru Eri Nitta（新田恵利）on NHK's morning program "Asaichi" on a segment featuring how to take care of one's elderly parents. My Dad and I were both watching her when he remarked, "Man, she got old!" All I could say was "Well...it's been 30 years, y'know...". And I'm still a few years older.
Anyways, on getting my memory jogged on the sight of Nitta, I did a bit of looking up and found one of her solo efforts on YouTube and music163 that I had first heard on one of my old Chinatown compilation tapes. I recognized the kanji for Nitta's name, but I couldn't read the Cantonese translation for the title of her 4th single, "Naisho de Love Story" (Secret Love Story) from November 1986, so I finally found out tonight.
Remembering "Naisho de Love Story" on the tape, Nitta sounded so much younger with that nasal voice. And yup, I just thought that those were indeed the aidoru days of the 80s...not particularly a polished delivery but cute and earnest enough and girl-next-door. Singer-songwriter Ami Ozaki（尾崎亜美）provided the music while Jun Natsume （夏目純）took care of the lyrics. Although it was her 4th single, it was her first one after graduating from Onyanko Club. Looking at some of her history via J-Wiki, I found out that she was the 4th member to be brought into the aidoru megagroup and became the ranking member after the first 3 members were ousted for smoking. Several years into the 90s, she would end up marrying a Fuji-TV staffer who was in charge of a reunion event involving Onyanko Club.
"Naisho de Love Story" hit No. 1 on the charts and was also a track on her 3rd album, "ritardando" from April 1987.
Now, the YouTube video above is a karaoke version but I just had to import it because of that picture of Hiromi Go's（郷ひろみ）cover for his 5th single, "Hadaka no Venus"(Nude Venus). Being a Trekkie and all, I recall seeing one of the episodes from the 1st season of Classic Trek titled "Arena" when a bloodied and beaten Captain Kirk had a final meeting with a god-like alien called a Metron. We never got a particularly close-up look of the fellow but if we did, he would like Go above.
I saw Go on a recent episode of "Kayo Concert" in which he introduced his latest 100th single (!), and he was still looking very much like the J-Lothario at the age of 59. It's hard to imagine that he was ever a kid, but indeed he was when he first sang "Hadaka no Venus" at the tender age of 17. The music by Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）was real nostalgic 70s although with its energy, it sounded like something that Pink Lady would've been happy to tackle. Tokiko Iwatani's（岩谷時子）lyrics had the innocent-looking Go slavering away at this girl who he compared to that titular woman on the half-shell in the ocean. I think he's polished his approach a whole lot more since then.
"Hadaka no Venus" peaked at No. 2 on Oricon after its release in June 1973 and ended up as the 16th-ranked single of the year. It was also a track on his 3rd album released in January 1974, "Hiromi no Heya"（ひろみの部屋...Hiromi's Room）.
Man, this is one interesting discovery on YouTube. I had no idea what this band Spectrum was all about but looking at that long hair and the spaced-out getups, I just had to take a peek. And what I got was something like the Japanese version of KC & The Sunshine Band.
Spectrum was a band that had a short shelf life of two years from 1979-1981 and it focused on brass-based rock, jazz and fusion. The leader was Ichiro Nitta（新田一郎）who was also the main vocalist and trumpet player on the band, and he led quite the gimmicky crew with those costumes and the fact that he was labeled Spectre (or Specta?) No. 1 with the members following suit with the numbers. I was surprised to find out that Spectre No. 6 was Keiichi Oku（奥慶一）, the keyboardist, since he would also be a composer for a number of singers such as Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）.
Single No. 4 (out of a total of 7) was "Sunrise"(June 1980) which sounded more like a supernova rising up from the horizon. Written by Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）and composed by Spectrum, the intro with the brass sounds like something I've heard over and over as an intro for action scenes on variety shows, and judging from some of the Japanese comments I've read on YouTube, it seems like a number of folks were also surprised at the origins. In fact, I read on the J-Wiki article for the band that the song was actually used as the entry theme for an American wrestler by the name of Stan Hansen who found a lot of success in Japan.
Speaking about the comparisons with American bands such as good ol' KC & The Sunshine Band, Spectrum were also called imitators of Earth Wind & Fire, but apparently they were more along the lines of Chicago and Kool & The Gang in terms of influences. In fact, according to that J-Wiki article, Spectre No. 1 stated that his entire life changed when he heard the first track on Chicago's debut album from 1969 when they were called The Chicago Transit Authority.
Bear with me here for some several lines while I set tonight's article up. For years, I used to watch the American sitcom "MASH" which featured the comedy and drama surrounding the doctors and nurses of the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital 4077 during the Korean War. The show lasted 3 times longer than the actual Korean War and made household names out of the entire cast.
Then, sometime after the tearjerking finale in 1984, I was shocked when I saw most of the cast come back in a series of TV ads for good ol' Big Blue, aka IBM. To see folks like Major Frank Burns, Father Mulcahy and Radar O'Reilly pop up as modern working folk in a trendy looking startup was really quite fascinating.
That's how I kinda look at the situation with the 2006 "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" and the currently-running (for a few more weeks, anyways) 2015 "The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan". In the former show, there were all of these high school characters of whom most were actually aliens investigating a Miss Haruhi Suzumiya（涼宮ハルヒ）who may be the most powerful being in the universe. It made quite the splash in its first season but then apparently almost sank under the notorious story of "The Endless Eight" in its second season (my anime buddy is a huge fan of the franchise and even he won't let me get anywhere near that one).
Cue ahead almost a decade. Well, mind you, in my case, it would only be a few years since I played a lot of catch-up where the franchise was concerned since I only started seeing it from around 2012. We all find out that "Haruhi" is coming back but it would be an alternate universe version focusing on the character of Yuki Nagato（長門有希）. The characters and their accompanying seiyuu are the same, along with the setting, but everyone is absolutely 100% human and the plot has been focused for the most part on down-to-earth relationships among the kids with a mix of comedy and drama. More importantly, Nagato is not a superhuman artificial humanoid who could possibly give a certain Kryptonian a run for his money but a timid high school girl with the hots for good guy Kyon（キョン）. It's kinda like taking Mr. Spock and making him a Bostonian librarian by the name of Lenny.
The opening theme, "Fure Fure Mirai"(Rainy Rainy Future), also has that feeling of familiarity and something new. Sung by all of the female cast known collectively as the Kitakou Bungeibu Joshikai （北高文芸部女子会...North High Literary Club Girls' Association）, I decided to identify everyone by name up above. There is that very big echo back to the ending theme from "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya", "Hare Hare Yukai"（ハレ晴レユカイ）although it's not quite as catchy as that latter theme (perhaps it will grow on me in time) and the only dancing involved in the opening credits is a very brief second of Miley Cyrus moves. But I figure that's probably the way it should be since Haruhi would definitely be the type to drag everybody for a dance-a-thon whereas Yuki is more demure about such exploits.
Aki Hata（畑亜貴）was responsible for the lyrics for "Fure Fure Mirai" as she was also for "Hare Hare Yukai", but this time the composer was Yugo Sasakura（佐々倉有吾）. Actually, maybe it is growing on me much more since I've been enjoying the full version of the song; it certainly sounds as if the cast was enjoying themselves in the recording booth. There are just a few more episodes left in this series but unlike the seemingly dour tone of the title, I'm hoping that there is a happy resolution of sorts between Yuki and Kyon.
Although I've already done so for the first three seiyuu due to "Hare Hare Yukai", allow me to provide the singers' names in kanji:
