Arisa Mizuki/Ami Ozaki -- Densetsu no Shojo （伝説の少女）

Another one of those songs that I got drawn to through a commercial....namely this one:

About 20 years ago, I came across this TV ad for a Kirin drink called Chasse, featuring a teenager who was about to loom large in the geinokai, Arisa Mizuki（観月ありさ）. She had already appeared in one other commercial with this striking look, and she had a small supporting role as the younger sister in a pretty dark psychological horror drama (yep, it ain't all frothy romantic-comedies on Japanese TV....mostly but not all). But there was this commercial, and then the song attached to it.

I only heard a few seconds of the song, but I just enjoyed the strings and the breezy feel of it. I was eventually able to track it down in the CD shops as a single titled "Densetsu no Shojo"(Legendary Girl), sung by Mizuki herself. The J-Wiki writeup for this song rather marveled at the fact that at the turn of the decade during the Band Boom (and the Winter of Aidoru-dom[their words]), this lone 14-year-old girl was able to hit it out of the ball park with 220,000 discs sold and a peak ranking of No. 5 on the Oricon weeklies with her debut single. Legendary girl, indeed. And the song also managed to rank No. 61 in the yearly rankings for 1991 after its May debut.

Mizuki may have been one of the few prime aidoru during the early 90s, but I don't consider "Densetsu no Shojo"to be an aidoru tune. It just sounds so lush. And perhaps that may be due to the singer-songwriter behind it, Ami Ozaki（尾崎亜美）.

Ozaki was apparently inspired by another hit and debut single for another young singer, the 1978 song "Olivia wo Kikinagara"（オリビアを聴きながら....While Listening to Olivia) for Anri（杏里）, when she wrote and composed "Densetsu no Shojo". But I think there were some other people in the mix as well. The backup vocals sing out famous lyrics from songs by Carly Simon, The Supremes, Paul Young and Stevie Wonder for some reason.

A year after Mizuki's hit, Ozaki did a cover of the song for her album of covers, "Points-3", released in March 1992. Her version has more of an R&B vibe along the lines of Lou Rawls in the arrangement as compared to the slightly more AOR/standards feel that the Mizuki version has. I enjoy both and couldn't choose which one is better.

As for Mizuki, I last saw her as a tough-as-nails genius lone wolf police inspector in a 2012 drama serial "Answer". Boy, has time flown!

Arisa Mizuki in Myojo

Countdown TV (CDTV)

When I got to Japan in the summer of 1989, the era of the 70s/80s ranking shows was coming to a close. The legendary "The Best 10" was closing down in September after nearly 12 years, and "The Top 10" would end its decade-long run in 1990. Shows like "Music Station" and "Music Fair" were still there and still are, but they weren't quite the same.

However, in my second run at living in the country, I found out about another music ranking show. But unlike the "10"s, this one came on in the early, early hours of Sunday morning on TBS, and instead of flesh-and-blood hosts and announcers, the people running the show were actually CG characters. Welcome to the world of "Countdown TV".

It wasn't must-see TV for me, but if I ended up staying up past the midnight hour on Saturday and still had that coffee coursing through my veins, I would catch "CDTV" at its usual time slot of 12:55 a.m. Hosted by Abi-kun, Kikuchi-kun, and a third female character which has changed over the years since its debut in 1993 (currently it's Maki), the three of them would hyper-cheerfully introduce the Top 50 songs of that week, along with lists as specific as the Top 10 ringtone songs or television drama themes.

The lists are given during the first half of its 45 minutes. Then in the second half, there would be the performances of various singers and bands. I remember a lot of folks that I "discovered" by watching the show: Namie Amuro, L'Arc-en-Ciel, Nanase Aikawa, UA, etc. Of course, the final moments would highlight the Top 3 of the week.

As the year comes to a close, there is a 2-hour special of the show, but this one is manned by humans such as professional TBS announcers and tarento.

The glory days of "The Best 10" and "The Top 10" may be gone, but if one is a bit of a night owl over the weekend, there is always "Countdown TV".

Rebecca -- Friends （フレンズ）

I'd always wondered where the band got its name. The first leader of the band, guitarist Takehiko Kogure（小暮武彦）, revealed that "Rebecca" came from Kate Douglas Wiggin's "Rebecca of Sunnybook Farm"(according to J-Wiki)....not sure if he had been a fan of hers. Another interesting piece of trivia I got was that he and lead vocalist NOKKO had actually gone to America before the band got started in 1984 to try their luck there, but didn't quite succeed so they returned.

My first sighting of the band was on one of the music ranking shows, and they did a live remote appearance of one of their hits, "Monotone Boy"(so probably around 1987). I'll be honest with you...NOKKO's vocals were off, and the song was meant to be fairly screamed out, so I wasn't too impressed. I just thought "NEXT!"

Then, I came across one of their earlier singles, and thought it a lot more appealing. "Friends" was Rebecca's 4th single, released in October 1985, and whenever I hear it now, it just takes me back to those days when there were bands and singers which were going a different way from the aidoru and enka routes. NOKKO just reminded me of a softer and perhaps shorter version of Pat Benatar, and this single sounded, in a glancing way, of Benatar's big hit, "Love is a Battlefield". The sound also made me think of some of the pop/rock that had been going on in the early 80s back in the US; stuff by Quarterflash, for instance.

Written by NOKKO and composed by Rebecca keyboardist Akio Dobashi（土橋安騎夫）, "Friends" also happened  to be the theme songs for two different TV dramas, "Half-Potato na Oretachi"（ハーフポテトな俺たち....Us Half-Potatoes) in 1985 and "Lipstick" in 1999, both programs about growing up as teens. I saw a few episodes of the latter show, and the reappearance of the Rebecca classic got people remembering and probably singing it in the karaoke boxes. In its original release, the song got as high as No. 3. It was also a track on Rebecca's 4th album, "REBECCA IV -- Maybe Tomorrow"(November 1985) which hit the top spot on Oricon and became the 3rd-ranking album for 1986.

Still not sure about "Monotone Boy", but "Friends"...and "Lonely Butterfly" are some of my late 80s touchstones.

Mariya Takeuchi -- Suteki na Holiday （すてきなホリデイ）

(cover version)

Let us talk of Ivan Pavlov. Yes, this is the Nobel-winning Russian physiologist who came up with the notion of Classical Conditioning in which he could get a couple of dogs salivating by merely ringing a bell (which often signified food).

The J-Pop version of that famous experiment has been in existence since the beginning of the 21st-century with this song,..Mariya Takeuchi's（竹内まりや）"Suteki na Holiday"(Happy Happy Holidays). Since 2000, this has been the theme for Kentucky Fried Chicken Japan during the Xmas holidays, and nothing says Xmas dinner than KFC over there. Seriously. In the United States and Canada, bringing home a bucket from the Colonel on December 25th will probably get you a reservation at Chez Doghouse, but in Japan, you'd be given a hero's welcome. Turkeys aren't all that plentiful, except in the major cities and the average gobbler probably wouldn't fit into a Japanese oven unless premature dissection were performed. So, what to do? Of course, head for the Golden Drumsticks!

As for "Suteki na Holiday"itself, it's probably the most Norman Rockwell of Japanese Xmas songs. Written and composed by Takeuchi herself and arranged by Katsuhisa Hattori（服部克久）, it presents itself as a melodic Hallmark Xmas card with all of the nostalgic trimmings, right from the prelude. I can easily imagine the sleigh being pulled by those two horses through the snowy forest as I hear those first lines. I'm not sure if Takeuchi was trying to relive her days back in Illinois when she had done her year of high school there, but she did mention in her giant Best album, "Expressions"(2008), that she'd wanted to to put a day in December to music with a Disney-like orchestration.

The song became part of her 9th album, "Bon Appetit!"(2001) which hit the No. 1 mark and was the 18th-ranked album of the year.

This is a 2009 KFC commercial with the song. Every time I hear this, my salivary glands start chugging away and thoughts of "breasts", "drumsticks" and "11 herbs and spices"start dancing in my head. Perhaps the rumours are true....Harland Sanders and Kris Kringle are one and the same!

Junichi Inagaki -- Merry Xmas ga Ienai （メリークリスマスが言えない）

With all of the celebrity that has surrounded Junichi Inagaki's（稲垣潤一）"Christmas Carol no Koro ni wa"（クリスマスキャロルの頃には....already profiled) over the years, it can be surprising that the J-AOR crooner actually had released a prior Xmas song. "Merry Christmas ga Ienai"(I Can't Say Merry Christmas) is another one of those sad ballads of a lonely person on the 24th reminiscing to happier times when he did have a significant other to celebrate the Holidays with.

Released in November 1990 as Inagaki's 20th single, the song was written by Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康） and composed by pianist-songwriter Toshiaki Matsumoto（松本俊明）, who would later create a Misia masterpiece, "Everything" a decade later. Compared to "Christmas Carol no Koro ni wa", "Merry Christmas ga Ienai" has more of the traditional Yuletide arrangements, albeit it's a more melancholy song. It was released 5 times as a single between 1990 and 1994, with the 3rd and 5th times being coupled with its more frenetic cousin "Christmas Carol". The first release was, by far, its most successful outing in terms of sales with it peaking at No. 10 on Oricon. The song was also a track on Inagaki's 11th album, "Will", released in April 1991.

University of Toronto

Sachiko Kobayashi & Katsuhiko Miki -- Moshikashite Part 2 （もしかして・パート２）

As far as my memory goes, enka star Sachiko Kobayashi（小林幸子） was arguably the first big name from Japanese music to come to Toronto. Perhaps, others may have preceded her arrival to T.O, but they probably came before I was born. I think she came over just shortly after her big hit of "Omoide Zake" （おもいで酒）in 1979, and the venue was the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre (JCCC). Not sure how the organizers pulled it off but most likely, a concert in New York probably helped in the logistics since by air, a flight from The Big Apple to The Big Smoke is barely an hour. In any case, Kobayashi's arrival to perform here was treated like an appearance by the Queen. I remember my parents dressing up to the nines to see her.

In any case, Sachiko Kobayashi had a fine decade in the 80s. One of her teiban songs was "Moshikashite" (By Chance), originally released in January 1984. A sparkly and sprightly tune, the song matched the singer's bubbly personality. It has a bit of a tango flair in it as well. Whenever we borrowed any music tapes from Nippon Video, she was sure to pop up with this one.  "Moshikashite" got as high as No. 11 on the Oricon weeklies, and got her a ticket to that year's Kohaku.

The song was written by Michiko Sakaki（榊みちこ） and composed by singer-songwriter Katsuhiko Miki（美樹克彦）. For Miki, I guess it just wasn't enough for him to stay on the sidelines; he decided to jump onto the stage and so, in July 1984, "Moshikashite Part II" was born with some changes in the lyrics to fit a duet for both him and Kobayashi. It looks like the upgraded version had some bigger benefits. The song again peaked at No. 11 but also became the 60th-ranked song for 1984, and earned a Gold Prize at the Japan Record Awards on New Year's Eve. And it has become a karaoke favourite with the older couples...perhaps after a few drinks.

The Peanuts -- Santa Claus is Coming to Town

And here I thought that the sisters merely specialized in giant caterpillar calling (just joking). Over here, when one thinks of The Peanuts' Christmas, one would automatically think Charlie Brown, that sickly Xmas tree and the glorious dance on the auditorium stage with Vince Guaraldi. However when I go into kayo kyoku mode, I think of Emi and Yumi singing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" or as it's known over there, "Santa ga Machi ni Yatte Kuru"（サンタが町にやってくる）, a direct translation.

According to the uploader, The Peanuts did their cover of the Yuletide classic (still remember the Rankin & Bass cartoon with Fred Astaire) in 1962 as a special single. Would love to know if there is a "live" version of them singing it somewhere on YouTube.

courtesy of potato potato
from Flickr