Aki Yashiro -- Ame no Bojou （雨の慕情）

This was a song that I heard a fair bit in the 1980s, and it's one of my favourite enka tunes. Sung by Aki Yashiro（八代亜紀）, "Ame no Bojou"(Yearning for Rain) is one of those songs that makes me imagine having a drink in an izakaya somewhere or walking along a pier in Yokohama....just like one of those scenes on "Enka no Hanamichi"(already profiled under Media), that old TV Tokyo music show on Sunday nights.

Yashiro was born in Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in 1950. Her love of music came from her father who often sang rokyoku (Japanese narrative singing) and lullabies. Yashiro had been painfully self-conscious about her raspy voice as a child, but after her father had bought some Julie London records for her to listen to, the future enka singer realized that London's husky voice could apply to her as well. After graduating from junior high school, Yashiro became a bus guide for a while until she decided to seek her fortune in Tokyo against her father's wishes. She found a job performing in a Ginza club singing pop and standards. She debuted in 1971 with the song "Ai wa Shindemo"(愛は死んでも。。。Even if Love Dies).

29 singles later, in April 1980, "Ame no Bojou"was released. The song, penned by Yu Aku and Keisuke Hama（阿久悠・浜圭介）, dealt with a woman's feelings after a romantic breakup. When I first heard it, that raspy voice seemed to fit the song to a T since it sounded as if Yashiro, or the protagonist, had been crying. Also, one of the parts of the song that has become famous in the enka world was the lyric, "Ame, ame, fure, fure, motto fure"（雨、雨、ふれ、ふれ、もっとふれ...Rain, rain, fall, fall, fall some more) and the gesture that the singer uses to express it.

"Ame no Bojou"would win a slew of awards by the end of the year including the Grand Prize at each of the Japan Record Awards and the Japan Kayo Awards. Of course, there was also the appearance at the Kohaku Utagassen. On Oricon, the song managed to peak at No. 9 while it ended up being the 26th-ranked song of the year.

Tatsuro Yamashita/Mariya Takeuchi -- Your Eyes

This is an unabashed love ballad that still sends shivers up my spine whenever I hear it. I'd wondered if Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）had always made this song for singer-songwriter Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）whom he had married in 1982. It turned out that he did make the song for her....to sing. However, for some reason, the deal fell through, so he took on the singing duties. Yamashita actually took care of the composing while American singer-songwriter Alan O'Day wrote the lyrics. O'Day had his own No. 1 Stateside back in 1977 with "Undercover Angel", a song that I could imagine Yamashita handling easily.

It was one of the first songs by Yamashita that I'd heard....what an impression. It's one of those soaring summery tunes that wears its heart on its sleeve. I think he just nails it here, right down to those "I love ya"s at the fade-out, and the lovely sax solo in the middle. "Your Eyes" was the final track for his 1982 album, "For You", which also contains his cover of his wife's "Morning Glory" and "Amaku Kiken na Kaori"（あまく危険な香り.... Sweet Dangerous Scent), great AOR songs both of them (and already profiled under his name). The album, released in January 1982, hit No. 1.

Well, an update of sorts from January 11, 2014. I just caught the pilot episode from what has probably got to be the most bizarre effort of Takuya Kimura's long career in dramas: "Ando Roid", （安堂ロイド）which came out just last Fall on TBS. Basically, I'm thinking "Terminator", "The Matrix" and your average sci-fi anime with this one. But within all of the special effects, Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや） came up with a cover of her husband's classic ballad. So, she finally got to sing it after all. It got a limited release as a single in October 2013.

By the way, this is Alan O'Day's "Undercover Angel".

Mayo Shouno -- Tonde Istanbul （飛んでイスタンブール）

Osaka-born Mayo Shouno's（庄野真代）5th single, "Tonde Istanbul"(Fly Istanbul), was another example of kayo kyoku's seeming interest in Central Asia and Europe during the late 70s. The exotic sound here, though, was a bit more subdued when compared to Saki Kubota's "Ihojin" and Judy Ongg's "Miserarete". I'd say that there was more of an even mix between the usual kayo kyoku and the exotic sound so that it may have been one of the first examples of what has been called European enka.

Released in April 1978, "Tonde Istanbul"was created by lyricist Tetsuya Chiaki（ちあき哲也） and composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）. It went as high as No. 3 on the Oricon charts, and sold more than 600,000 records. In addition, it and the following single, "Monte Carlo de Kanpai"（モンテカルロで乾杯....Here's to Monte Carlo) earned Shouno an invitation to that year's Kohaku Utagassen. The song is also available on her 4th album, "Refrain"(1978). Overall, the song was the 19th-ranked song of the year.

According to J-Wiki, Shouno made her first visit to Turkiye a couple of years after releasing the biggest hit of her career, and was rather shocked initially:

"I arrived in Istanbul after a long-distance bus ride from Greece, and it was snowing there! The humidity was high, though. We didn't have the Internet to collect any information, so I was surprised to see this weather since 'snow' and 'exotic' don't match at all."

My advice: July is better.

Toko Furuuchi -- Hayaku Isoide （はやくいそいで）

"Hayaku Isoide" was Toko Furuuchi's（古内東子）debut single released in February 1993, and even right at the beginning, her voice just seemed to be as soothing as a cup of chamomile. Written and composed by the singer herself, the ending theme for a TBS documentary program has this smooth dreamy arrangement throughout the song which matches Furuuchi's vocals. It's a bit ironic that the title means "Hurry Quickly", but her lyrics talk of not letting that opportunity run away.

Although the song first appeared on her very first album, "Slow Down"(1993), I first came across "Hayaku Isoide" on her first BEST album, "Toko -- best selection"(1998) which reached No. 2 on the album charts and was the 61st-ranked album for that year. Selling close to 400,000 copies, it reached Platinum status. Even better news would happen when her next album, "Mahou no Te"（魔法の手...The Genie's Hand), would become her first No. 1 on the charts.

And her latest good news was just two weeks ago: she finally tied the knot three days before her 40th birthday!

Pink Lady/W -- Southpaw （サウスポー）

After the monster hit that was "UFO", the Pink Lady juggernaut came out with their 7th single a few months later, "Southpaw". Inspired by Japanese baseball legend Sadaharu Oh (王貞治....who was indeed a southpaw), Mie and Kei brought their usual energetic dance moves, this time stylized around a baseball theme. Dressed in cute shiny disco baseball uniforms, I can imagine that their garb was probably responsible for the wear that every aidoru or cute female tarento has sported if selected to throw the ceremonial first pitch at a Japanese baseball game....at least, that's my theory.

Of course, with a Pink Lady profile, I have to provide a video of the duo performing on stage. I think this was from "Best 10", rather than the Kohaku Utagassen (ahh...no, it ain't). "Southpaw" was released in March 1978, and according to one YouTube source, this was the biggest-grossing song in Pink Lady's career with 1.8 million records sold (the statistic given by Victor). However, according to Oricon, the total number sold was 1.46 million which would put it just below "UFO", the popularly-recognized No. 1 with 1.55 million. Still, the ladies and the creators needn't have worried. They were on a roll.

As with "UFO", lyricist Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composer Shunichi Tokura（都倉俊一）were behind "Southpaw". Considering the high-tempo final version of the song, it was interesting to read about this bit of trivia on J-Wiki. Apparently. Aku and Tokura had created a far more slower and more mature song which was indeed given a first recording. However, the director behind it, Hisahiko Iida（飯田久彦）, shook his head in disapproval stating that this original version lacked any passion or fun. Fearing that if this version were released, the air from Pink Lady's soaring balloon would rush out like a gale, a re-boot was demanded and the song was indeed re-tooled to become the classic that it has become, staying at the No. 1 spot on Oricon for 9 straight weeks. It became the 2nd-ranked song of 1978....just behind "UFO".

In 2004, Nono and Aibon of W came up with their own version of the song. Their"Southpaw" was never released as a single but was a track on their very first album, "Duo U&U", released in June of that year. It peaked at No. 4. Although it didn't merit its own single, it still got its own video as you can see here.

Kenji Sawada -- Stripper （ス・ト・リ・ッ・パ・ー）

Yup, that album cover below says it right there. This was no longer Kenji Sawada（沢田研二) of the old Group Sounds band, The Tigers....this was Julie The Sex Machine! As you'll see from the video, he made himself available to just about everyone. Personally, I thought he probably would have made a better foil for David Bowie than Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一) in "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence".

Source: Amazon.jp

This NHK video from 1994 is pretty tame considering my first viewing of him when he came on the 1981 Kohaku Utagassen (the top video). Throughout the program, I saw frilly-dressed aidoru bouncing about, yukata-garbed enka veterans warbling away and other singers in between. Then, HE came out. My jaw was fully dropped. Kenji Sawada looked like a mixture of the late American comedienne Phyllis Diller and David Bowie during his Aladdin Insane phase. And then came this low and rumbling dangerous bass and a twangy electric guitar before Julie started bopping about singing these lyrics:

Take off the heels, take off the rouge,
When you've taken everything off, come here,
We can't start until you're naked,
Start of the show, baby,
Take off the past, take off the yesterday,
When you've taken everything off, come here,
It won't do to hide your eyes to escape,
Morning, night, noon...passion is a stripper
Naked contact,
Summer, Fall, Winter....love is a stripper
I'll show you but I win, baby,
I'll show you everything I got,
I wanna see everything you got!

Yup, I think there was a reason for him being slotted into the 2nd half of the program. NHK probably didn't want any more parents and senior citizens storming the gates with swords and pitchforks on New Year's Eve. I would've loved to have been in the audience when Julie showed up and performed. A lot of those folks knew him as the nice vocalist from The Tigers....not anymore. I wouldn't be surprised if the inspiration for Visual-kei came from him.

Sawada composed the song with Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子) taking care of the lyrics. Released in September 1981, "Stripper" rose to No. 6 on the Oricon charts and won a Gold Prize at the Japan Record Awards. The single also managed to sell 350,000 records. The album, "S/T/R/I/P/P/E/R" had already come out in June 1981 and peaked at No. 13.

Ann Lewis/Teresa Teng -- Goodbye, My Love

Ann Linda Lewis（アン・ルイス）was born to an American father and a Japanese mother in 1956 in Hyogo Prefecture before her family moved to Yokohama. She was a child actor and eventually she started living on her own in Roppongi, Tokyo at the age of 18. By that time, she had already started modeling and singing. But my first memories of Ann Lewis were far from the cute young lady you see in the video. I first saw and heard her when she had already become a hard rock goddess on the level of a Lee Aaron or the Wilson Sisters of Heart. One of our old karaoke members at Kuri made it a weekly custom to sing a Lewis rock song.

Nope, I was surprised when I learned that she had once been an aidoru who sang this cute if slightly corny little number called "Goodbye, My Love". Released in April 1974, the song was written by Rei Nakanishi（なかにし礼）and composed by Masaaki Hirao（平尾昌晃） (who had composed and sung "Canada kara no Tegami"). Once in a while, another one of our group would also sing this one although I wouldn't find out who the original singer was for quite some years. The song went as high as No. 14 on Oricon, and her 6th single would become her first big hit.

The late Teresa Teng (テレサ・テン) also did her own winning cover of the song although I'm not sure if it ever came out as a single in Japan. Apparently, it's on one of her BEST compilations.