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.
Welcome to the end of another work week. Hopefully, wherever you are, you are about to or are already enjoying some weekend R&R. I can do with a bit more sleep myself.
Although the electro duo 80kidz has been releasing singles and albums up to the present day, it's been a few years since I've put up their name on the byline. I think that the last time they were up there was back in 2018 for their 2010 "Weekend Warrior". Well, this time I get to hear them again for the first time in a long while in collaboration with singer-songwriter punipunidenki（ぷにぷに電機）.
In fact, I'm a little late to the game but their short-and-sweet "Night Session" was released a year ago. Written by punipunkidenki and composed by 80kidz, it's a boozy and woozy night out in the big city played against a background of Latin club dance rhythms and some old-style 80s synthesizers. We even get some vocoder scatting in the bridge. Plus, there is also the attractive smoky vocals by the singer herself. Nice of her to put up the short-and-sweet warning against underage drinking at the end. We can't let things get too out of hand.😋
A few years ago, I wrote about the funk band Zainichi Funk（在日ファンク）, led by vocalist Kenta Hamano（浜野謙太）because some of their songs have been able to be heard on television shows provided by NHK. Having been around since 2007, there is a definite James Brown flavour coming out of his performance.
Their first and only (for now) digital single came out in November 2022. "Mi ni Okoru" (Happens to Me), which was written and composed by Hamano with band saxophonist KIDS Hashimoto（橋本“KIDS”剛秀）also helping out on the music, is a bit more of a slow burn with a tropical flavour thanks to that steel pan drum. As well, there are points during the chorus when I feel that things are going toward a more collaborative Gospellers sound, but then by the end, the funk starts brewing once more with even a Brown-esque grunt bursting forth.
Speaking of collaborations, their website recently noted that Zainichi Funk worked with The God of Love Songs himself, Masayuki Suzuki（鈴木雅之）, on the NHK music show "SONGS" back in April.
Sad to say but I've never had the opportunity to visit the city of Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture although I have a friend who hails from the city. She and her husband just went back there to see family and friends last month. I wouldn't mind going there and Hirosaki in Aomori Prefecture, both prefectures being in the northern area of Japan. By the way, the above video is from Top Tourist Places.
No matter which prefecture it is, it's apparent that the regional television station in each province has an information variety show to provide some light news on entertainment, restaurants and the like. If I were to refer to an American equivalent, perhaps I could cite the early years of "Good Morning America" and "Dialing for Dollars". In Tokyo, for example, there is the TBS show "Ohsama no Brunch"（王様のブランチ...The King's Brunch） that goes on for three hours or thereabouts each Saturday morning. For a while, I was a pretty dependable viewer.
However, Miyagi and specifically Sendai has its own hourly Saturday morning show called "Ara Ara Kashiko"（あらあらかしこ...Arakashi Saturday） on Sendai Television which focuses on women when it airs its information. It's been going on since 2009 and the video above is showing one segment with semi-regular Ayumi Ishida（石田亜佑美）from Morning Musume '23 who also comes from Sendai.
There have also been other assistants on "Ara Ara Kashiko" called the Arakashi Girls, one of whom is singer-songwriter Yuki Hatakeyama（畠山有希）. She's been on the show since 2018 but has also been providing her own songs since that year as well with one of her creations being "for you" which was released in September 2021. It's a bright pop song for which I really like her clear delivery. I'd say that it's fit for a nice bright Saturday morning.
Welcome once again to this week's regular Reminiscings of Youth. Y'know, I saw "King of the Hill" on FOX now and then but never caught this particular episode where Luann finally gets married and Chuck Mangione appears to give his musical tribute along with his most famous piece, "Feels So Good". Apparently, the musician and the song was a part of a running gag all throughout the series' run.
Now, "Feels So Good" wasn't a running gag in my life. It's been a treasured musical key to my memories of the 1970s and times riding in the back seat of the car while the AM radio was on. I used to hear this all the time and enjoyed it immensely before I realized that the light and mellow stuff was my music of choice. It really did feel so good.
It was also the first time that I had ever heard of a flugelhorn which first struck me as a very pregnant trumpet. I assumed that "Feels So Good" had been around since the mid-1970s but it actually first showed up as a track on Mangione's December 1977 album of the same title which got all the way up to No. 2 on US Billboard. Then the single version of the song was released a few months later in February 1978 for which it hit No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. In Canada, it ranked in at No. 5 which explains the heavy rotation on the local radio.
The Wikipedia entry for "Feels So Good" stated that along with its warm inclusion into the "King of the Hill" family, Mangione showed up in those famous Ella Fitzgerald Memorex commercials and the song was used as a line in the first "Doctor Strange" movie. For me, I think it was used in a lot of golf broadcasts when the camera was panning on some lovely scenery. I'm also surprised that there has been no mention of it being used to accompany the scroll of weather information on the nightly news.
According to my usual source, it looks like both of these songs were released on the same day of February 25th 1978 although I don't know exactly when "Feels So Good" came out.
As a PS, I have to also mention about Mangione's soundtrack to the Anthony Quinn movie "Children of Sanchez" which also came out in 1978. Earlier this week, I was having a brief conversation on the blog with someone who was so happy to have re-encountered a "Lupin III" theme song some time ago that he had been seeking for years, and I told him that I certainly could relate to his feeling of joy and relief since I have been in that situation a few times thanks to the blog. It just so happens that in looking up stuff on "Feels So Good", I was able to realize that a certain action-packed segment of the long-running "Children of Sanchez" starting at 3:36 above had been a favourite passage of mine used on the local CBC news broadcasts when I was a kid. Well, my search here is over!😂
July 25th 2025: Unfortunately, I have to inform readers that Mangione passed away on July 22nd at the age of 84 from natural causes. All my condolences to his family, friends and many fans.
Not last night but the week before, pop singer-songwriter Chikaco Sawada（沢田知可子）appeared for the first time on "Uta Con"（うたコン）. It was an auspicious occasion for me as well because it was additionally the first time that I had ever seen her perform on television without going through YouTube. All these years, I've basically known her for the 1990 hit "Aitai"（会いたい）.
And indeed that is what she performed on "Uta Con". It's too bad that I didn't get to hear her talk with the hosts afterwards though. Japan TV has the unfortunate task of carving out certain sections of the show, especially ones where the singers are doing their tribute to Disney tunes, because of copyrights, so it's possible that any talk by Sawada was excised simply out of bad timing. Well, that's the way the cake crumbles, I suppose.
However, having been around seven years since I last put up a Sawada article, I decided that it was the time once more to include another one of her love songs. "Shiawase ni Narou"(Let's Be Happy) was her July 1993 single, and those keyboards sound so wonderfully nostalgic. Written by Chihiro Sawa（沢ちひろ）and composed by Sawada, I definitely feel that they don't make them like they used to. There's nothing like a late 80s/early 90s power ballad. Incidentally, "Shiawase ni Narou" was used as a commercial tune for Oppen Cosmetics.
Well, summer officially arrived here at 10:58 this morning Eastern Daylight Time, so just a little over an hour ago as of this writing (of this first paragraph). It's comfortably cool/warm out there although I've got the fan on behind me, so my tush is currently a happy camper for now.
I've already been putting up summer-titled or summer-themed songs here and there over the past several days. This time, I've got something similar in the mellow technopop vein thanks to veteran unit SPANK HAPPY. "Natsu no Tensai"(Summer Genius) was released in May 2018 as the group's one-and-only single thus far during their third phase which has only Naruyoshi Kikuchi（菊地成孔）, the man who has been behind SPANK HAPPY right from the beginning, and singer-songwriter Tomomi Oda（小田朋美）. Both of them were also responsible for their version of the minyo "Kushimoto Bushi" on the "Gundam Thunderbolt"（ガンダム サンダーボルト）soundtrack the previous year.
"Natsu no Tensai" is a happy synthpop tune with little scoops of rock and soul thrown in for good measure. It wouldn't be surprising if it had been used in an eclectic commercial. The song was also included in SPANK HAPPY's October 2019 album"mint exorcist" that has also been ominously tagged with the phrase FINAL SPANK HAPPY. Since then, I haven't heard anything scheduled by Kikuchi under the band name.
With the song-and-dance group Atarashii Gakko no Leaders（新しい学校のリーダーズ）burning up one corner of the Internet and YouTube for a few years now, I did wonder when Mizyu, Rin, Suzuka and Kanon would have their profile raised high enough that an appearance on the Kohaku Utagassen would be in store. Of course, we're still months away from the annual announcement on NHK, but a big hint was just thrown out at the end of tonight's episode of "Uta Con"（うたコン）. Just before the signoff, the hosts managed to mention that the Leaders would be appearing for the first time on "Uta Con" next week. If they can come onto the weekly kayo kyoku show, then perhaps the Kohaku may come knocking.
Perhaps we AGL fans can celebrate with some KKP bubbly then. Their March 2023 digital single "Janaindayo" (That Ain't It) is a rapid-fire rock tune that sounds tailor-made for some action anime. However, it's actually the theme for a sequel to the original "Baby Walkure"（ベイビーわるきゅーれ...Baby Assassins） from 2021 which involves a couple of high school girl assassins. "Baby Walkure: 2 Babies" came out in theatres a couple of days following the release of "Janaindayo".
"Janaindayo" is also the lead track on their digital mini-album "Ichiji Kikoku"（一時帰国...Temporary Return） which was released in April 2023. The song was written, composed and arranged by jon-YAKITORY. The album also has the supremely catchy "Otonablue"（オトナブルー）.
To wrap up, it wouldn't be an AGL KKP article without a video of the ladies practicing in the studio. I wonder if they'll perform both "Janaindayo" and "Otonablue" next week.
