Shinji Harada -- Teens' Blues (てぃーんず ぶるーす)

Well, talk about making an entrance. In late 1977, Shinji Harada（原田真二）made his presence grandly known on the music scene by releasing his first three singles once a month between October and December, the reason being that apparently one song was not enough to show the appeal of this singer that I've seen as the Japanese version of Gilbert O'Sullivan of "Alone Again, Naturally" fame.

His debut single was "Teens' Blues", a song that he composed with veteran lyricist Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）behind the words. Harada is still a fellow that I'm just beginning to know, and in fact, I tried to get his debut album "Feel Happy" but perhaps unsurprisingly, it was sold out. No worries, though since there is always Xmas. Listening to some of his early hits such as this one and "Candy", I could really hear that Harada was going as far away from the typical kayo mold as possible; his melodies were arranged such that they could have been played alone on radio in my neck of the woods without anyone the wiser that these were coming from Japan. The Hiroshima native must have been fairly quickly labeled as one of the new Kings of New Music to stand next to the Queen, Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由実）.

According to J-Wiki (there was quite a bit of text to go through so if I've made a mistake in my understanding please let me know), Harada had originally created the song while sitting on a bench along Peace Boulevard in Hiroshima. At first, the title for his song was to have been "Kimi no Sedai e"（君の世代へ...To Your Generation）with the lyrics taking on a very heavy message about world peace and the fate of the younger generation since at the time, there had apparently been an uptick in organized criminal activity to the point that it was becoming a rather large social problem.

However, the song was seen as being a little too serious so Matsumoto was brought on board to see if it could be lightened up somewhat. The recording staff saw the union of Harada and the former drummer of New Music pioneering band Happy End (はっぴいえんど) as fortuitous since Matsumoto was influenced by John Lennon while Harada was a huge fan of Paul McCartney (a bit of a reach, I know...). Still, it seems that initially there were some growing pains since Harada was told that his lyrics were a bit weak and by his own admission, he had that defensiveness of youth so there was some push back against what he saw was some potential danger of having his material overly influenced by Matsumoto.

As it turned out, the final version of the lyrics involved a certain rebellious young man turning his back on love while still wondering if he could see his former flame on the train, presumably taking her to a new city and life. So the blues of the title was brought down from its lofty societal perch to a very personal level.

The rest was history, as they say. "Teens' Blues" was the launch point for Harada's career, and it was a home run. The song became a hit and the new singer became a sensation in the music industry for his new sound...and at the teen age of 18 as well. As I mentioned above, he released his 2nd and 3rd singles in November and December respectively which were the aforementioned "Candy" and "Shadow Boxer" (that last one I'm gonna have to check out). The unusual and unprecedented decision to release his first three singles once a month paid off in dividends as all three ended up in the The Top 20 of Oricon, the first time that had ever happened.

"Teens' Blues" went all the way up to No. 6 and ended up as the 47th-ranked single of 1978. It was also indeed on that first album "Feel Happy" which hit No. 1 on the charts.

Nana Kondo -- Toi Omoi (遠い想い)

Looks like some of us have got holidays. We've got Thanksgiving here in Canada, America is celebrating Columbus Day while the Japanese have just gotten over Sports Day. It's ironic that in Japan on that particular day, it's all about the folks getting out there to enjoy some exercise through local sports activities while here in the Great White North, we're settling down to overeat.

Today's first song is by someone that I only discovered on YouTube recently by the name of Nana Kondo（近藤名奈）. Hailing from Aichi Prefecture, she made her debut in 1993 as a singer who was seen as the second coming of Mariko Nagai（永井真理子）due to her tomboyish looks and a similarly crisp and clear voice. She even started out at Fun House, the same production company that had also enlisted Nagai.

"Toi Omoi" (Distant Memories) is a track from her 3rd album in 1994, "Saiko no Egao wo Hanataba ni Shite"（最高の笑顔を花束にして...Make the Happiest Face Into a Bouquet）, and it's true that she does sound somewhat like Nagai but with a mellower element in her sound as if a part of singer Yurie Kokubu（国分友里恵）in the 1990s had been injected into her. The ballad created by Chisa Tanabe and Nobuhiko Kashihara（田辺智沙・樫原伸彦）has that fresh and inspiring quality with which Kondo's soaring vocals match quite well.

Kondo remained a singer during the 90s, releasing 13 singles and 5 albums. From 2000, she became a vocal trainer.

ManaKana -- Jaga Bata Kon-san (じゃがバタコーンさん)

It was a nice family birthday dinner tonight up north followed up by some birthday cheesecake at my brother's place. Then my niece and I played the updated version of The Game of Life. It's quite different from the one that my brother and I used to have way back when...certainly a fair bit smaller. You may have noticed that I haven't mentioned Game 3 of the American League Division Series between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Texas Rangers or the other potentially bloody battle tonight, namely the 2nd debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Well, frankly I can do without the increase in my blood pressure so I'm happy just to listen to some jazz and write an article for the blog.

To start off, over the last few years, the latest child actor to make her grand presence known onscreen is Mana Ashida（芦田愛菜）. Actually she's been famous for the past number of years now and she's just on the cusp of becoming a teenager at the age of 12. Doing the usual round of dramas, commercials and even some music, she's even done one Hollywood movie with her short appearance in the sci-fi adventure "Pacific Rim" as the child version of the Mako Mori character portrayed by Rinko Kikuchi（菊地凛子）.

Now if you think the topic of this article deals with Ms. Ashida according to the title, you would be mistaken. Mana-chan was just a helpful segue to introduce twin sisters who were themselves the IT children of the day on TV a couple of decades ago. Mana Mikura and Kana Mikura（三倉茉奈・三倉佳奈）were these brightly smiling siblings from Osaka who hit it big right from the age of 5 in the early 1990s. They also did the round of dramas, commercials and music...

....which included their fourth single, the foodie-inspired "Jaga Bata Kon-san" (Mr. Potato Butter Corn) that became the sixth ending theme for the long-running anime "Chibi Maruko-chan"（ちびまる子ちゃん）. I had completely forgotten about this song which was created by the creator of the original manga Momoko Sakura（さくらももこ）. This came out in July 1998 when ManaKana (the name of their unit when they were singing at the time) were 12 at the time, and it's this wacky fuzzy electro-rock thingie that came with choreography provided by the characters. Anything to get the fans dancing, I guess.

Folks in Idaho can live happily since their fine product of potatoes has been given a shoutout in the song which was arranged by Keigo 'Cornelius' Oyamada（小山田圭吾）, formerly of Flipper's Guitar. I did think that there was a hint of Shibuya-kei in there.

Some eighteen years later, I still see the sisters from time to time on TV Japan mostly through an NHK noon hour variety series "Variety Seikatsu Sho Hyakka"（バラエティー生活笑百科...Laughter & The Law） which features situations that need a legal decision which the celeb guests guess at before the legal eagle of the week provides the correct answer. I can also add that they have retained those wide smiles.

Juri Hamada/Mari Amachi/Hitomi Ishikawa -- Omoide no Serenade （想い出のセレナーデ）

Enjoying your Sunday, I hope. There's nothing like weather in Toronto...a mere few weeks ago, the forecasters were giving us heat warnings but there has just been a frost advisory issued for tonight! It will be a properly chilly Canadian Thanksgiving tomorrow. However, my family no longer does the turkey thing for Thanksgiving but since my darling niece's birthday is imminent, we will be having some Japanese fare outside tonight.

For this article, I have three aidorus from two eras performing one song. It was another happy happenstance that I was able to encounter "Omoide no Serenade" (Serenade of Reminiscences) on YouTube by aidoru Juri Hamada（浜田朱里）who had a relatively brief singing career at a little over 4 years in the early 80s before focusing more on acting for several more years.

I gotta say that I like the cover for Hamada's 7th single from February 1982. Nice lighting and that certain uncertain expression on her face which seemed to be one of a few default expressions used in photographing single covers. "Omoide no Serenade" was created by a couple of veterans, Michio Yamagami（山上路夫）for the lyrics and Koichi Morita（森田公一）for the melody.

The J-Wiki bio for the Tokyo-born Hamada, who made her debut in 1980, stated that she stood out for her unique and husky voice despite her cute aidoru looks although I don't think her vocals on "Omoide no Serenade" were particularly un-aidoru-like. Perhaps compared to teenyboppers like Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）or Naoko Kawai（河合奈保子）but otherwise...

Melodically, the song has that arrangement by Kei Wakakusa（若草恵）which stamped a lot of aidoru ballads from that time: a lot of wistful strings and an overall feeling of meruhen or fantasy as if the singer was meant to be waltzing around in that huge ballroom of a palace somewhere in Lichtenstein. In terms of the lyrics, Hamada sings about remembering a romance which is now very much in the past although the heroine most likely harbours that torch for her old flame.

"Omoide no Serenade" turned out to be Hamada's most successful single, peaking at No. 51 on Oricon with around 43,000 records sold. In all, she released 4 original albums and 11 singles. Her hit single was placed onto her final album as the title track in 1983.

When Hamada first entered the scene in 1980, it had been reported that she had an aura similar to that of imminently retiring Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）which had her staff grooming her to be the "Post-Momoe". Unfortunately, it didn't quite take although she came onto the scene alongside Naoko Kawai, Yoshie Kashiwabara（柏原芳恵）, Yoshimi Iwasaki（岩崎良美）and Seiko Matsuda, the last one who became a close friend of Hamada. According to the J-Wiki article, Hamada herself even implied that she really didn't like singing all that much and preferred to head into the acting field. Still apparently, she has her own dedicated legion of fans. After getting married in 1995, she decided to retire from show business to start raising a family.

I found out a bit later that Hamada actually sang a cover of the original "Omoide no Serenade" by 1970s aidoru Mari Amachi（天地真理）. Her 11th single from September 1974, it was interesting to compare the arrangements between Hamada's cover and Amachi's "Serenade". There are indeed those strings and that light touch in there but the arrangement by Koji Ryuzaki（竜崎孝路）included some hints of rollicking drums which brought a bit of that city and go-go boots feeling that I've often associated with 1970s kayo kyoku. Of course, there is Amachi's breathy high-tone voice that automatically brings up memories of my first ever trip to Japan in 1972.

"Omoide no Serenade" was Amachi's 11th and final Top 10 hit, getting as high as No. 8, selling 340,000 records. It was also the 41st-ranked single for 1974. The song also punched her ticket into the Kohaku Utagassen for the 3rd and final time in her career.

Several days ago, I noted through an article that 70s/80s aidoru Hitomi Ishikawa（石川ひとみ）had provided an audiotape in the year of her debut, 1978, which is most likely the rarest of the rare for kayo collectors. Titled "Kurumiwari Ningyo/Migimuke Migi=Watashi wa Hi-to-mi="（くるみ割り人形・右向け右 =わたしはひ・と・み=...The Nutcracker/Right-Turning Right=My Hi-to-mi=）, the B-side has covers of a number of other songs including that of "Omoide no Serenade" arranged by Akio Araki（荒木圭男）. Ishikawa's version sounds a bit more laid-back with her vocals also being high but perhaps a bit sharper for the lack of a better term.

Hiroshi Tachi -- Asa made Odoro (朝まで踊ろう)

... I feel conflicting feelings here.

fanfan1.com/products/detail/725587

As you probably know by now, I am quite... fascinated by Hiroshi Tachi... Okay, fine, "quite" and "fascinated" are an understatement but you get what I mean. He's cool, intimidating and suave as a hard-boiled detective; silly and warm as a home drama father figure in the recent years; hilarious as a high school girl in her father's body. However, one part of Mr. Dandy that I'm still not a big fan of is him as a biker dude/bad boy. I don't know, the combination of an all black leather get-up, the hair gelled up to the high heavens, the defiant look, and hunched swagger, just made me go, "He looks like a goon." rather than the usual (for Tachi) "Dang, that's hot." despite showing off them abs. Fine, the latter came afterwards and there is sort of a twisted charm in seeing a mischievous smirk like what you see up there. Nevertheless, goony Tachi from the 70's is goony and I'm really, really glad he grew out of that stage.

The song that introduced and reminds me of the actor-singer's biker phase from time to time is "Asa made Odoro", the newer version with rock band, THE COLTS, to be specific. It's got a funky 70's rock'n'roll vibe, plus those deep blaring horns and wonky rumbling of electric guitar that is reminiscent to a roaring Harley Davidson. While I did come to appreciate the music for its amazingly cool arrangement and the conjured image of a current-day, sunglassed Tachi riding that hulking motorcycle, it was initially quite bewildering to realise that the gentleman I see now was a scrappy, James Dean-like fellow the moment "Asa made Odoro" hit my ears - the goony Tachi pictures I saw later only intensified the bewilderment. Well, I guess everyone's got to start somewhere, right?

Prior to the self-cover with THE COLTS in 1996, "Asa made Odoro" had been released several times from the late 70's to the early 80's but it officially came out in 1977 as Tachi's 2nd single. The original isn't as loud or intense and it doesn't sound very much like rock. Daiko Nagato's (長戸大幸) composition has more of a laid-back, Latin feel and a young Tachi sounded like he had just taken a few shots before recording it. I much prefer the self-cover and I find that its arrangement better represents Tachi's lyrics of dancing all night long with his lady - isn't that tiring though? (opinions of a lazy person)

Now, that's a lot better.

On a side note, it seems like Tachi enjoys dancing as seen from the multitude of songs he has regarding getting down on the dance floor and there being a number of dance scenes involving him throughout the "Abunai Deka" series.

Nanako Sato -- Doyou no Yoru kara Nichiyou no Asa e （土曜の夜から日曜の朝へ）

Been a while but I got to meet a few old friends tonight (Saturday night) down in Greektown on the Danforth at the Pantheon Restaurant. It was busy as all heck and there was a sizable lineup but we got in easily due to some wise reservations, and I can understand why. Tasty souvlaki and flaming saganaki came courtesy of a friendly and witty waiter along with endless bread and butter, and some honey cake for dessert on the house. I gave an appropriately generous tip.

The event tonight gave me an in to talk about the singer Nanako Sato（佐藤奈々子）for the first time on the blog. For years, I've been seeing her visage on the pages of "Japanese City Pop" but never really got to know her at all. The notable thing about her is that when I first saw her face on the albums that were listed, she reminded me a bit of current R&B songstress Thelma Aoyama（青山テルマ）.

She's got an interesting backstory according to the J-Wiki article on her. Sato was born in Tokyo in 1955 and she had been groomed to become a gymnast along the lines of her aunt who had taken part in the Olympics. However, a head injury during her high school days brought her athletic career to an end. During university, though, she met singer Motoharu Sano（佐野元春）at a mini-concert during the annual campus festival at Keio University that he had participated in, after which he proceeded to teach her the ins and outs of making music. Having her listen to Bob Dylan was part of his curriculum. After winning a songwriting prize at a contest organized by the university, she and Sano worked together to produce Sato's first album "Funny Walkin'" in June 1977 as well as her first single, "Street Corner Betty"（ストリート・コーナー・ベティ）which came out in the same month. And all this happened a few years before Sano himself debuted as a solo singer.

Side-B to "Street Corner Betty" is "Doyou no Yoru kara Nichiyou no Asa e" (Saturday Night to Sunday Morning) which is also a track on "Funny Walkin'". It is the only track that didn't involve either Sato or Sano; Masayuki Okubo（大窪雅之）took care of the writing and composing duties here. And it does stand out since it is a playful jazz ditty that evokes the feeling of those smoke-filled gin joints in the rundown alleys. Just add Sato with a piano, a wood bass and a snare drum.

Sato has a whispery voice filled with a sense of ennui so I think the jazz ballads were a good fit for her although she was known as a City Pop singer. In her first stint as a singer, she released 5 albums including "Funny Walkin'" and 5 singles between 1977 and 1980. She also started to help in writing songs for other artists such as Kazuhiko Kato（加藤和彦）before taking a new path as a professional photographer. In 1993, after living in Paris for 5 years, Sato returned to Japan to take up music once more but this time under the name of nanaco.

Pizzicato Five -- couples

Yup, after writing up the article on "Summertime, Summertime"（サマータイム・サマータイム）, one of the tracks on Pizzicato Five's debut album "couples" from April 1987, I decided to plunk my yen down and get it. After all, it was the full introduction to P5 and their brand of new old music.

Of course, when I say "new old music", I'm referring to Shibuya-kei. From what I've heard and read of the genre through acts such as Pizzicato Five, Flipper's Guitar, Kahimi Karie and Fantastic Plastic Machine among others, there is that mixture of French pop music, contemporary dance beats and all that homage to Burt Bacharach, Henry Mancini and Frank DeVol from the 1960s.

As someone who was born in that decade, I have some faint memories of the music (that have been luckily enhanced through media such as YouTube) since a lot of those memories are based on old TV show themes. So when I think of Shibuya-kei in terms of the music and jet-set fashion as filtered through those theme songs, I get the openings from the 1960s and 1970s American sitcoms "That Girl" and "Mary Tyler Moore".

So, hearing all that P5 isn't just cool, it's truly nostalgic for me.  I was trying to wrap my head around the fact that a music genre named after the Teen Mecca of Japan has partially supplied the swingy music of my toddler TV years.

Although I tried to look through the information on J-Wiki for "couples" on whether the album was Ground Zero for Shibuya-kei music, I couldn't get any definitive proof at all. Perhaps there may have been other attempts at such an album by another artist but unless I hear from somebody or come across something similar, I will go with this album as the motherlode. And it all starts off with Track 1, "magical connection"（マジカル・コネクション）as vocalist Mamiko Sasaki（佐々木麻美子）and one other band member (not sure who) provide a dreamy brand of bossa nova lounge. Enjoy the caipirinha!

Ironically enough, this wasn't even a Yasuharu Konishi（小西康陽）original but a cover by American singer-songwriter John Sebastian from 1970. Yoshiro Nagato（長門芳郎）provided the Japanese lyrics.

And since we're sorta on the topic of American sitcoms, Sebastian would later become far more famous for providing the opening theme song "Welcome Back" for the 1970s show "Welcome Back, Kotter".... which had a breakout star in the form of John Travolta.

Track 3 is "Minna Waratta"（皆笑った...they all laughed）with Konishi providing lyrics (as he does for all of the other tracks aside from "magical connection") and band member Keitaro Takanami（高浪慶太郎）composing the music. It's a jaunty tune, perhaps in that French pop style, supporting a comically sad tale told from the angles of a man and a woman who can't quite believe that they are actually liked by someone (each other, maybe?). Their peers can't quite believe it either which brings out a lot of laughter at their expense so why should they do so?

It's hard for me to imagine that "Apaato no Kagi"（アパートの鍵）was not named after the famous 1960 movie starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine considering the overall tone of the album and the fact that the English title for the song is indeed "The Apartment". It's a nice slow waltz with those plucky 60s strings as the duo of Konishi and Takanami seem to lyrically mash together the humdrum life of an apartment resident with the end of a romance. The song describes what could have been the sad alternate ending of that movie if C.C. Baxter hadn't won over Miss Kubelik and had to go back to his old nebbishy if stable life.

The American sitcom theme rears its head once more with my final song for the article, "Yuutsu Tengoku"（憂鬱天国）. This solely Konishi piece takes a riff from "The Odd Couple" which was another Lemmon movie (with Walter Matthau) that got turned into a long-running TV comedy series with Tony Randall and Jack Klugman (one of my favourite early shows). Another comically sad tune, the English title is "My Blue Heaven" but it's more telling that the direct translation of the title is "Depressing Heaven". A fellow is wondering why his girlfriend is so miserable when it's fairly evident that he himself is miserable under any definition. Strangely enough, the lyrics themselves might hint at the fate of Felix Unger or Oscar Madison. Ironically enough, the previous track is given the English title of "Odd Couple and the Others".

Above are the opening credits for the TV version of "The Odd Couple". Listen and compare.

Writing this article, I can truly realize how much of a stroll into yesteryear I've taken while listening to the various tracks on "couples". I still gotta listen to the album a few more times for further insights but yep I'm happy that I finally got what could have been the start to the Shibuya-kei movement. All of the tracks are short and sweet with the longest one only getting as far as 4:19 and I gather that due to vocalist Sasaki, Pizzicato Five had more of a demure and coquettish quality when compared to the go-go boots and wild child that Maki Nomiya（野宮真貴）would bring in the 90s for the band.