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.
In the relevant J-Wiki article for this particular song by chanteuse Yuiko Tsubokura（坪倉唯子）, she sang this on TV Asahi's "Music Station" while still in her wild costume as the squeaky-voiced singer for B.B. Queens. Maybe they were reprising their hit song "Odoru Ponpokorin"（おどるポンポコリン）. Anyways, I would have loved to have seen the expressions on everyone's faces while she was creamily singing it. Well, we can all check the video below out.
No squeaky voice here for her 4th solo single"Je t'aime" which came out in January 1993 and definitely no hint of "Odoru Ponpokorin". This is a classy urban ballad that sounds as if it should have been the ending theme for a drama. Guess what? It was...it finished each episode of the NTV drama "Jealousy"（ジェラシー）. Written by Akira Ohtsu（大津あきら）and composed by Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎）, this sophisticated pop song was Tsubokura's highest-ranking single when it hit No. 25 on Oricon.
Good evening. As I mentioned in yesterday's articles, I was busy today meeting friends for lunch, some of whom I hadn't seen in a few years. Of course, with all of the drizzle and gloom outside, it was the perfect day to tuck into a bowl of Black Garlic Ramen at Santouka. I've always said that it's the wintry days that have the ramen tasting especially great.
A few years ago, I introduced a singer named Emi Shirasaya（白鞘慧海）on the blog who had an initial career singing R&B during the 1990s before trying her luck in the United States in 2001. Her early stage had her going by a couple of names with me showcasing her second of two singles in 1997 under the Shirasaya（しらさやえみ）name.
Her first four singles between 1995 and 1997 were released under the name Chiemi（千恵美）. However, the song of this article actually resides in her debut album from October 1995, "C". "Anata ni Ima Aitai no" (I Wanna Meet You Now) is a snazzy urban tune that shows off some more power in her husky vocals along with some of that City Pop of the 1990s; the Bubble Era may have been long gone by that time, but it sure didn't feel that way in the music with those synth horns and the devil-may-care arrangement. ATSUKO came up with the lyrics while Seikou Nagaoka（長岡成貢）was the composer here.
Although today has had a slightly changed schedule to accommodate my busier one tomorrow, I still haven't forgotten that Thursdays are devoted to regular Reminiscings of Youth songs. We did have the special holiday edition earlier this week, so here's the regular one.
So, it's nice to have the Queen of Quiet Storm herself, Anita Baker, back on the blog. I became a fan from the 1980s but she kept on going well into the 1990s and beyond. I have her first four albums but didn't continue the collection of her discography after heading to Japan. Well, some years during my odyssey there, I was either in Tower Records or HMV when I discovered her 2002 BEST compilation,"The Best of Anita Baker", and it took me all of a second to make the purchase.
Along with those hit songs from her early albums, there were some new ones that I hadn't heard by Ms. Baker, and one of them was "I Apologize" which was a October 1994 single. I may have been eight years late but better late than never. And it was another soulful smash for me and in my humble opinion, it was the standout new song for me. Created by Baker, Gordon Chambers and Barry J. Eastmond, it's a heartfelt tribute to the one action in a relationship that might be extremely difficult but absolutely necessary. I've spoken to enough married students to get that impression.
On Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, "I Apologize" hit No. 8. And perhaps I should apologize since I didn't realize that Baker just celebrated her birthday last month on the 26th. In any case, what was also being released in October 1994 in Japan?
One of the earliest Mood Kayo-based articles that I ever put up on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" was Yujiro Ishihara's（石原裕次郎）1977"Brandy Glass"（ブランデーグラス）which was about as dramatic as one could get with that cigarette-and-whiskey-soaked voice along with the background chorus and trumpet. It didn't open the door wide for my jump into the bar-and-tryst-filled Japanese music genre at the time that I first heard it in the early 1980s, but it did stick to me for many years until I finally admitted my liking for Mood Kayo.
Of course, with "Brandy Glass" being the typical 45" single, there was a B-side to be heard as well. So, I finally listened to "Ashiato"(Footsteps) which was the flip side to the original single when it was released in April 1977. Somewhat more lighthearted than the A-side, it was also a different genre: more old-style club jazz standard that would attract someone like Nat King Cole to do an English version of it. It was the same songwriters behind "Brandy Glass" who tackled "Ashiato": lyricist Yoko Yamaguchi（山口洋子）and composer Mitsuru Kotani（小谷充）with the song being about Ishihara musing about a wistfully lost opportunity: seeing the lady she loved getting married to someone else without him being able to express his opinions to her. All he can do now is to wish her well. The song would be perfect for a 50s or 60s nightclub aside from a weirdly inserted twee synthesizer or something like that.
"Ashiato" was the original B-side to "Brandy Glass". However, in a later reissue of the single in 1979, the B-side ended up being "Koi no Machi Sapporo"（恋の街札幌）which was a 1972 single by the Tough Guy.
As a sad sign of the times, another establishment close to my friends and myself is going into liquidation proceedings right now. My anime buddy who's also a big guitar enthusiast often went down to Steve's Music Store in the Queen West area of downtown Toronto to check out the guitars and any other equipment. Well, if he wants to pick up any final things there, he's gonna have to put a rush on.
It's a bit of a melancholy way to start off an article about a very reassuring tune, but I had to go with something. Regardless, here is "Deanna" by Tokyoite jazz/fusion guitarist Yoshiaki Masuo（増尾好秋）. Although he never got any formal training in the instrument, according to his website's biography section, he was the son of a jazz band leader and then he took up the guitar by himself when he was 15. Obviously the talent and affinity for music was passed down to him. While he was playing away at the Waseda University jazz club, he was discovered by theSadao Watanabe（渡辺貞夫）, saxophonist extraordinaire, and recruited into his own band in 1967. Masuo's first album would come out a couple of years later titled "Barcelona no Kaze"（バルセロナの風...The Winds of Barcelona）.
In 1980, his album "The Song is You and Me" was released, and it had at least a couple of notable guests helping out: Yutaka Yokokura（横倉裕）, and the jazz fusion duo The Brecker Brothers. One of the tracks is the soothing "Deanna", penned by drummer Tony Cintron Jr., which sounds readymade for some sipping cocktails at sunset. If you've had a bad day, this should take some of the edge off. As for the mime tuxedo that Masuo is wearing on the album cover, I'm not too sure about that. However, he's being kind to the canary on his finger, so I'll give him that.
Some bright lights from the neighbourhood of Ameyoko in Tokyo just to let readers know that I'm starting the Urban Contemporary Friday for at least a couple of songs early on a Thursday because I will be busy tomorrow for a good chunk of the day doing other things. I occasionally have a life outside of KKP.
I was going to post up an article regarding punipunidenki's（ぷにぷに電機） "Zurukunai?"（ずるくない？）from 2021, only to find out that I had already jumped the gun on that one a couple of years ago. I was slightly deflated there but I was then able to find this one by the Neo-City Pop songstress which goes even earlier into her discography. June 2019, to be exact.
"Kimi wa Queen"(You are a Queen), which was written and composed by punipunidenki and given additional songwriting credits by composers Mikeneko Homeless and Shin Sakiura, is pretty much as advertised. It's a bouncy urban tune about someone liking and then lusting over a lady in Tokyo. Not surprisingly, the singer herself is taking a walk throughout the bright lights and big city of one of the world's largest metropolises while her singing is happily tripping the light fantastic on those streets.
He passed away only relatively recently in 2023 at the age of 85, but Bill Salugawas a comedian who was part of the improv troupe The Ace Trucking Company. He'd been performing since the 1960s but the one character that certain generations will always remember him for was the nattily-attired Raymond J. Johnson Jr. His schtick was that whenever anyone called him Mr. Johnson, he would take umbrage and rattle off all of the different permutations of his name that he preferred to be addressed by. I did see him on the old variety shows on television and commercials doing that bit. Typically, it goes like this (and this is from his Wikipedia profile):
"NOOO!!! You don't have to call me Johnson! My name is Raymond J. Johnson Jr. Now you can call me Ray, or you can call me J, or you can call me Johnny, or you can call me Sonny, or you can call me Junie, or you can call me Ray J, or you can call me RJ, or you can call me RJJ, or you can call me RJJ Jr. . . but you doesn't hasta call me Johnson!"
And that is who I was reminded about when I first heard about 80s aidoru Kaori Moritani（守谷香）. Now, a number of celebrities in Japan have gone through multiple name changes in their careers, including enka legend Hiroshi Itsuki（五木ひろし）, and so on that note, the Aichi Prefecture-born Moritani isn't any different but for some reason, Moritani just sparked my image of Raymond J. Johnson although the lass is far prettier. Along with the above name, she's also gone by a different reading of that family name which is Kaori Moriya in different configurations of kanji and hiragana（守谷佳央理、もりや かおり）. She's also gone by Kaori Morizumi（守純かほり）and even, briefly, WANKU.
Her first six singles, in fact, were recorded under her name of Kaori Moritani, and for the purposes of this article, here is the B-side for her May 1987 debut single"Yokokuhen"（予告編...Trailers）, "Chiffon no Tsubasa" (Chiffon Wings). It is indeed a cutesy aidoru tune but with some of that Doobie Bros. bounce thrown in to help launch things. You can thank composer Takashi Ike（池毅）and arranger Ichizo Seo（瀬尾一三）for that along with lyricist Rui Serizawa（芹沢類）. It managed to reach No. 12 on Oricon.
One other notable piece of trivia regarding Ms. Moritani is that she had once been married to TOSHI, one of the members of X Japan, for several years. She even left show business to help run her husband's entertainment agency. As of right now, she is going by the name of Kaori Moriya.
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