Maki Ueda -- Aitsu wa Invader（あいつはインベーダー）

Oh, boy! Those ancient arcade video games...they were quite the craze when we were going into junior high school. I remember the game of Pong which could be played on the TV through some sort of controller, but then the industry took a huge leap forward when "Space Invaders" came out. I've played that game but to be honest, I always preferred "Pac-Man" or "Galaga".

During that trip to Japan in summer 1981, my classmates and I ended up at a game kissa（ゲーム喫茶...game café）one sweltering morning, and some of them got to play one of those video games (probably "Space Invaders") while our bemused waiter came up with the iced coffees. Yup, I have been hooked on iced coffee since then. The Japanese did it again...drink, chat and play all at the same time!

The advent of video games surely crashed into all aspects of pop culture, so I couldn't be surprised that a kayo would be made about "Space Invaders". And sure enough, one did pop up: "Aitsu wa Invader" (Guy's An Invader) by Maki Ueda（上田マキ）, one-half of the popular women's wrestling duo Beauty Pair.

"Aitsu wa Invader" was the B-side to Ueda's one-and-only single from 1979, "Invader Walk"（インベーダーWALK）, and if it wasn't for the topic matter and the bleeps and bloops associated, I would have sworn that this song was a theme for a tokusatsu program of almost a decade prior. It has the kids backing up the chorus and it just sounds so heroic. Mind you, I do pick up on the disco as well. Written by Yu Kamimura*（上村裕）and composed by Noriichi Morikawa*（森川範一）, it has been included in a compilation of techno kayo, although I think that the bleeps and bloops are relatively subdued. However, I think Ueda does a pretty good job as an unlikely solo idol type behind the mike. I would also like to know who was providing that bass backup vocal.

No idea how Ueda's tune did on the Oricon charts. But a couple of years later, Buckner & Garcia came up with "Pac-Man Fever" which broke into Billboard's Top 10 at No. 9.

*Once again, I've got a couple of first names that I'm not sure about for the two songwriters. If anyone can come in with any clarification, I will make any corrections if necessary.

Miwa Kawagoe -- Yume Dake Miteru (夢だけ見てる)

This week, while updating some of my 80s aidoru files, and doing some research on the internet, I discovered that aidoru Miwa Kawagoe (川越美和) died in 2008, but it wasn’t until 2017 that it became public. Well, I’ve never been the biggest of her fans, and only knew some songs through the years, yet it was a sad surprise to discover that her death at a young age, more than a decade ago, was unknown to the public until very recently. It made me even sadder to know that, apparently, she was impoverished and with problems ranging from drinking to eating disorders at the time of her death. Anyway, after hearing such awful news, the one song from her that got stuck on my mind was “Yume Dake Miteru”.

Released in September 1989 as her fourth single, “Yume Dake Miteru” is a sad tune with a very timeless and down to earth arrangement, almost sounding like a folk song at times. Alongside the beautiful melody, Miwa did an excellent job here with her vocals, showcasing the vulnerability that is required from every aidoru when singing these types of ballads. I think this style truly suited her, and that’s probably why, according to generasia, she won the “Rookie of the Year” award at the “31st Annual Nihon Record Taishou” with this song.

Despite winning an award, “Yume Dake Miteru” wasn’t a big hit, reaching only #29 on the Oricon charts. It ended being the highest charting single in Kawagoe’s career, but not near a true hit, if you ask me. Lyrics were written by Kei Ogura (小椋佳), while music was composed by Koji Tamaki (玉置浩二). As for the arrangement, Katsu Hoshi (星勝) was the responsible.

In the past, I’ve written about her second single, “Tenshi to Yu-Waku” (天使とYu-Waku), while J-Canuck also took care of “Namida-kun Sayonara” (涙くんさよなら).

As a side note, I was lucky enough to buy one of her compilations, called “MIWA Best Selection” (1991), for a fair price here in Brazil last December. That was quite a find, since Kawagoe was never one of Japan’s major aidoru singers.

Ryusenkei -- Hanabira（花びら）

Y'know...I think that cover of Ryusenkei's（流線形）"Tokyo Sniper" is the meme gift that keeps on giving. How many more captions can any of us come up with for that somewhat annoyed jogger on the lonely road? I already gave a couple in the actual article for the album. Maybe another one is "OK, so was the hitchhiking sign a thumbs up or my arms on my hips?".

Ahem...I did mention in that article as well that I would eventually write about the remaining tracks that I hadn't covered there. So, more than a year later, here is one of them. Actually, it's the 2nd track, "Hanabira" (Petals), written and composed by Ryusenkei guitarist Cunimondo Takiguchi（クニモンド瀧口）.

Glad that I could save this one for its own article since with Nika Eguchi（江口ニカ）, aka Hitomitoi（一十三十一）, in there as the vocalist, "Hanabira" is this creamily groovy piece that has some interesting influences, in my opinion. Track 4, "Koi no Last Number"（恋のラスト・ナンバー）has Steely Dan written all over it, but those first several notes of "Hanabira" had me hearkening back to good ol' Gino Vannelli, and then near the end, in the last minute and change, I even got some fine Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）via that rat-a-tat horn intro into the silky sax solo. That's about as nice an aural cameo appearance as I can get as a City Pop fan.

globe -- Joy to the love

Man, the powers-that-be really updated those characters from "Cyborg: 009"! I was also wondering why they were placed in the thumbnail for a video (unfortunately the video has been taken down) for a globe song when I found out that Tetsuya Komuro's（小室哲哉）trio had provided some music for one entry of the "Cyborg: 009" franchise.

But this isn't the song. Actually, "Joy to the love" was the 2nd single by globe so it had been released some years before the band's relationship with the anime. In fact, I remember hearing it in commercials selling the song and the album "globe". The single itself was released in September 1995 with Komuro providing words and music. It went all the way to the top of the charts and ended up as the 47th-ranked single for the year, going Platinum.

"Joy to the love" isn't up on my list of most favourite globe tunes which would explain why it took so long to finally put it up, but on hearing it again, it's indeed recognizable in a nostalgic way. No, that last phrase isn't exactly redeeming for the tune but it is what it is. 😕

According to the May 1996 issue of SONY magazine "WHAT's IN?" via J-Wiki, Komuro utilized a Jungle loop in the melody while the piano phrasing is bossa nova in nature. More interesting is the true trial and tribulation that the songwriter had to endure in getting this and one other song created.

From an issue of "Pia" magazine, "Joy to the love" was going to be used as the campaign song for the Toyota Cynos and for the shooting of the ad itself, he went over to New York City. The first spanner in the works was thrown when the sponsor apparently demanded that the song be changed which necessitated Komuro to head all the way back to Japan to a studio in Yamanashi Prefecture to whip up a new song at warp speed without the bothersome essentials of sleep and rest. And then, Toyota catapulted the second spanner by having a change of heart and ordering that "Joy to the love" be used after all. Obviously, I wasn't anywhere near Komuro when all this was falling out, but I'm fairly sure that the words joy and love weren't in his heart. He did get into that commercial in The Big Apple, and I hope that he earned a really juicy steak there.

For all that kerfuffle, what was the second song? Well, it turned out to become Tomomi Kahala's（華原朋美）2nd single "I Believe".

Kawai Fujii -- TOKYO Maigo（TOKYO迷子）

Ahhh...nothing like a beefy Mood Kayo while looking over the bright lights and big city. That would especially hold true of Tokyo. Even better if one was holding a glass of bourbon.

I don't quite remember how I found out about kayo singer Kawai Fujii（藤井香愛）but I figure that it must have been during one of my random browsings of YouTube. In any event, I do like her 2nd single "TOKYO Maigo" (Lost Child of Tokyo) which came out in July 2019 for that languid bluesy melody with the saxophone in there; something nice and old-fashioned. That melody was provided by veteran composer Kaoru Ito（伊藤薫）with the lyrics coming from Chisato Sakura（さくらちさと）.

Those lyrics have Fujii pining for a love in the big city or she may be just missing the megalopolis in general. I certainly can understand that latter feeling. Mind you, under the current circumstances I'm grateful to be with family here in Canada, but the Tokyo area still remains a home away from home for me.

(shortened version)

"TOKYO Maigo" managed to get up to No. 62 in Oricon. As for Fujii herself, according to her J-Wiki file, she'd been a big admirer of Speed and Namie Amuro（安室奈美恵）when she was a kid, and started dance lessons and voice training from the time that she was in Grade 2, but due to her parents' influence, she began getting interested in enka and kayo kyoku, including the songs of Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）. She made her debut in 2018 with the song "Tokyo Rouge"（東京ルージュ）.

The Police -- Every Breath You Take/Righeira -- No Tengo Dinero

Rather interesting duo for this particular Reminiscings of Youth article. How did this all come about?

Well, actually, I had been thinking about focusing on just the Spanish-language "No Tengo Dinero" (I Don't Have Money), a song by Italo Disco duo Righeira that came out in 1983. When I first saw the music video for this on one of the many video shows that were showing on the local channels here in Toronto, I was absolutely mesmerized by this bizarre mix of graphics and old historical footage as Stefano Rota and Stefano Righi kept yelling out the title. At the time, I couldn't recognize the language but I'd assumed that it was Brazilian Portuguese. The weird symbolism that I got from the video made me think that this would have made for a wonderful psychoanalytical tool!

However, the thing is that I couldn't pinpoint the exact month that "No Tengo Dinero" was released (no tengo ni idea, I guess), so I decided to bring in the Top 3 Oricon singles in Japan for that entire year this time around. But for that, I figured that I had to track down what the No. 1 song on Billboard was for 1983. Therefore, I went for both songs.

At first, I'd thought that it would be Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean", but that actually came in at No. 2. "Billie Jean" was eclipsed by The Police's "Every Breath You Take". I had my introduction to Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland during that trip to Japan in 1981. One of my classmates had a compilation audio tape of a whole bunch of singers including Split Enz and Queen. The Police was on the tape as well with "Roxanne".

Back to "Every Breath You Take", I got to know the music video far more than I did the audio version of the song. Indeed it was a striking video with the black & white footage of The Police in that darkened ballroom while this deceptively comforting song of Sting vowing to keep an eye on a lover like an omnipresent guardian. The video got heavy rotation on the music video shows and it probably populated the top of the charts for weeks on end.

However, a lot of time later, I found out through interviews that Sting was rather bemused about how "Every Breath You Take" was being received as this deeply romantic ballad when in fact, it was meant as a lyrical version of a twisted suspense movie. The so-called guardian was actually an obsessive ex who wouldn't take NO for an answer. Wowzers! I guess maybe it got left off the playlist during prom season then. It might also explain why Sting looks so intense in the video.

Anyways, what were the biggest hits in Japan for 1983? Well, two of them were enka tunes.

1. Eisaku Ohkawa -- Sazanka no Yado

2. Takashi Hosokawa -- Yagiri no Watashi

3. Warabe -- Medaka no Kyoudai

Yasuhiro Abe -- Kare no Shousoku（彼の消息）

Not nearly as wintry as it was yesterday, so perhaps we will finally be heading into something resembling the proper season of spring. The rate of daily COVID-19 increases has bumped up again for the second day in a row but only slightly, and the premier of the province has once stated that there's good news around the corner, so I'm wondering if this means that shopping malls may be opening up once more. Any sign of team sports is several weeks again at the earliest, it seems.

Anyways, let's provide you with the second song on KKP today, "Kare no Shousoku" (His Whereabouts) by velvet-voiced Yasuhiro Abe（安部恭弘）. A track from his 1984 second album "Moderato", Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）provided the lyrics to the singer's own composition, and as expected, "Kare no Shousoku" goes down plenty smooth. Some nice AOR horns, mellow background vocals and a wistful arrangement characterize this one.

His last album "Through the Past" was released back in January 2019, and though his concert scheduled for March 15th this year was not surprisingly postponed due to the pandemic, he's still planning to hold it on July 11th. I truly hope that he can make sure that the show will still go on.