Hikaru Nishida -- Kinou to wa O-Chigai （きのうとは大違い）

Hikaru Nishida（西田ひかる）has been more in Marcos V.'s wheelhouse although I have known about the bilingual aidoru for years. However it's been more for her appearances on the telly as a young tarento that I've been familiar with Nishida. Apparently, she and her family are living very close to Hanshin Koshien Stadium where the baseball team Hanshin Tigers play. However, although her husband is a dyed-in-the-wool Tigers fan, Nishida is an ardent Tokyo Giants enthusiast. I can only imagine the conversations during the summer in their household.

Getting back to the topic at hand, I encountered this song, "Kinou to wa O-Chigai" (A Big Change From Yesterday) by Nishida which is a track on her 9th original album from July 1996, "24 two-four". I was initially searching for some music by singer-songwriter Kyoko Endo（遠藤京子）since I hadn't written about her in some time but then I came across this tune that she had created for Nishida and took an instant liking.

From listening to Endo's own BEST compilation, I garnered that she enjoyed some of the old-fashioned standard arrangements such as jazz. And true enough, she made "Kinou to wa O-Chigai" as this nice and light and breezy ballad with a bit of Bacharach and Alpert infused in there as Nishida sings about a girl's life being changed forever on discovering her first love. Nope, I don't think Nishida has the most solid vocals especially when she goes high but as has been discussed before between Marcos and me, a fine arrangement of music has often provided good enough support for an aidoru.

Eiichi Ohtaki -- Rock 'n' Roll O-Toshidama （Rock 'n' Roll お年玉）

And a Happy New Year to you all! Woke up at 8 this morning and had the usual o-zoni breakfast of white miso soup with mochi inside. At my age, I guess I gotta be a bit careful about ingesting the rice cakes lest they get caught down my throat and my vacuum cleaner gets a new usage.

Before I forget, I should mention that 2017 is the 150th anniversary of Canada so predictions are that inbound tourism will be increasing. Heck, my old collaborator JTM is currently enjoying Vancouver. So hopefully some of you folks will come over to the Great White North this year. Also, the city of Kobe in Japan is also celebrating its sesquicentennial so maybe tourism will perk up over there as well. Maybe the beef will come at a small discount? Maybe not.

(cover version)

To start off the 2017 edition of "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I was looking for something that would be appropriately New Year's in mood. And so I thought that it would probably be one of the really old songs that has been recognized by the Japanese government. But instead, I managed to find this Eiichi Ohtaki（大滝詠一）tune called "Rock 'n' Roll O-Toshidama" (Rock 'n' Roll New Year's Gift). Now for those folks unfamiliar with the Japanese custom, o-toshidama is the gift of money given in small envelopes to kids on January 1st each year. Being raised in Canada all these years, my brother and I never got an o-toshidama plainly because our parents never told us about the custom. Very shrewd, my parents are.

And true to an Ohtaki tune, there is a good dollop of that ol' 50s honky tonk rock 'n' roll in there as the late singer-songwriter talks about the usual spending of a New Year's Day at home which often involves a lot of TV watching (as my family is doing as I write this) while he also throws in a lot of lyrics from some old American standards from way back. I swear, though, that when Ohtaki sings this, I get reminded somewhat of John Lennon for some reason. The liner notes for the song even dedicates it to folks ranging from Elvis Presley and Fats Domino to the good folks at NHK.

"Rock 'n' Roll O-Toshidama" is a track on Ohtaki's 4th album "Niagara Calendar" which was released on Xmas Day 1977. The novelty about the album is that each of the 12 songs represents a month on the calendar so "Rock 'n' Roll O-Toshidama" starts the album off. The original album didn't seem to chart the first time but a re-release of it in 1996 had it peaking at No. 60.

Top 10 Albums for 2010

1.  Arashi                                  Boku no Miteiru Fukei
2.  Ikimonogakari                     Ikimongakari ~ Members' Best Selection
3.  Kana Nishino                       to Love
4.  Funky Monkey Babys         Funky Monkey Babys Best
5.  Mr. Children                        Sense
6.  Namie Amuro                      Past < Future
7.  Tohoshinki                           Best Selection 2010
8.  Ikimonogakari                     Hajimari no Uta
9.  Masaharu Fukuyama           The Best Bang!!
10. Kaela Kimura                     5 Years

So this will be the final "Kayo Kyoku Plus" article for 2016. A year ago, I went on to say that I would be pulling back from the blog to a certain extent. But ironically, we've ended up putting the largest number of articles in a single year at 809! So much for that prediction and we are approaching Year 5. Happy New Year!

Top 10 Singles for 2010

1.  AKB48                                 Beginner
2.  AKB48                                 Heavy Rotation
3.  Arashi                                   Troublemaker
4.  Arashi                                   Monster
5.  AKB48                                 Ponytail to ShuShu
6.  Arashi                                   Hatenai Sora
7.  Arashi                                   Love Rainbow
8.  AKB48                                 Chance no Junban
9.  Arashi                                   Dear Snow
10. Arashi                                  To Be Free

I haven't commented on these rankings anymore but, geez, 2010. I don't have any major grudge against AKB48 or Arashi but a little more variety would have been nice.

Paris Blue -- Anata ga Suki (あなたがすき)

I haven't been able to find much information on this duo which lasted from 1992 to 1996 but I found a few videos by Paris Blue on YouTube. And from what I've seen so far, I like. Just from looking at some of the photos of Miki Taniguchi（谷口實希）and Shingo Hibino（日比野信午）and hearing their melodies, I would say that this was one of those Shibuya-kei groups that I had yet to encounter.

"Anata ga Suki" (I Love You) is Paris Blue's debut single and a track on their debut album "Sing A Simple Song" from December 1992. It has that certain sophisticated swing paired with some 70s soul reminiscent of Lou Rawls with that French accordion thrown in for good measure. Taniguchi took care of lyrics and vocals while Hibino was the fellow behind the melody and backup vocals.

So, on that note, I have completed my theme of "Something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue".

Masaaki Hirano -- Enka Chanchakachan （演歌チャンチャカチャン）

Entry No. 3 for my New Year's Eve whimsical series on "Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue". With "something borrowed", I had come across an interesting novelty tune that came out all the way back in 1977, some months after the very first "Star Wars" had come out.

I first heard it on an episode of "Itsuki Sensei no Utau! SHOW Gakko"（五木先生の 歌う！SHOW学校...Itsuki Sensei's Sing Show School...the 'SHOW Gakko' is a pun on shogakko or 'elementary school'）, another NHK kayo-based show which has veteran enka singer Hiroshi Itsuki（五木先生）host a short comedy-variety series. Based in an old rickety elementary school classroom, the titular teacher stands guard over his students comprised of a mix of tarento and singers trying to get their music on.

Now, the "something borrowed" happens to be a comical little tune titled "Enka Chanchakachan". There is no translation for the title since that last word is just a bit of Japanese onomatopoeia that's put into the song for fun effect. What the song did and does is borrow various lines from other enka tunes or kayo and smash them together for the singer to traipse through gleefully. It's basically an enka smorgasbord.

The gleeful singer was a fellow by the name of Masaaki Hirano（平野雅昭）who at the time was running a bar in Roppongi, Tokyo. Although the J-Wiki article didn't make it particularly clear, it seems like he was the one who concocted this cocktail of enka hits interspersed with the happy delivery of "chanchakachacha". Among the enka songs included here were a couple of Ichiro Fujiyama（藤山一郎）chestnuts including "Tokyo Rhapsody"（東京ラプソディ）, Taro Shoji's（東海林太郎）"Meigetsu Akagiyama"（名月赤城山）, Yoshio Tabata's（田端義夫）"Kaeri Bune"（かえり船）, Tetsuya Watari's（渡哲也）"Kuchinashi no Hana"（くちなしの花）, Rumiko Koyanagi's（小柳ルミ子）"Watashi no Joukamachi"（わたしの城下町）and Masako Mori's（森昌子）"Sensei" (せんせい). Whew!

Hirano hit on something big here. And perhaps some good luck in timing helped out as well since karaoke was starting to come into its own. "Enka Chanchakachan" went all the way up to No. 3 on the Oricon charts and sold around 800,000 records after its release in November 1977. The song also had its visual element as well as Hirano himself displayed in his appearance on "Yoru no Hit Studio"（夜のヒットスタジオ）. Along with having a rollicking good time during the performance, he would always stretch out his right arm while looking in that direction whenever he threw out the onomatopoeia. I gather that at the time, this was the equivalent of the karaoke Olympics...the song was probably meant for the most proficient enka lovers.

There were apparently variations on the song. The one that Hirano performed above (sorry but that video has been taken down) was quite different in content from the original version. I can imagine during New Year's, there will probably be still some households with family and friends who may take this one on with the in-house karaoke machine.

bonobos -- Cruisin' Cruisin'

Well, continuing along with my theme of "Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue" today on New Year's Eve, here is the "something new" segment.

Bonobos is a band that I've known for one song and one song only thus far. That would be one of my biggest earworms titled "Thank You For The Music" which came out over a decade ago. Whenever I hear the boom-boom-thwack beat ring out in my memories, I just feel like searching for the song again.

In recent years, though, the band has also been helping out on an NHK kids' program that comes on just before the news, "Nyanchu World Hoso Kyoku"（ニャンちゅうワールド放送局...Nyanchu's World Broadcasting Corporation）. Of course, the music provided by the band there is a lot more geared towards the little ones.

However, I did find this song that had come out as part of bonobos' latest album from September 2016, "23-ku" (２３区...23 Wards). Titled "Cruisin' Cruisin'", it's actually a nice slice of slow-groovin' soul written and composed by vocalist Chunho Sai（蔡忠浩）. The riffs and Sai's crooning of the title have created a new bonobos earworm for my head, and the song actually takes me more into the territory of Tomita Lab and Sing Like Talking.

But that official music video is perfect for the song. Listening to this while admiring the view on a rooftop looking out at Tokyo Sky Tree is just the tonic. I've been hearing about the flood of Air BnBs that have shown up in the metropolis over the last year or so. Wouldn't it be wonderful to track a place down with that sort of view?

Judging from the title of bonobos' album which refers to the 23 wards of Tokyo, I wonder if the release is going for a more urban contemporary beat. If so, I wouldn't mind perusing the tracks further.