Crest Four Singers -- Elise

 

I still don't know a lot about the vocal group Crest Four Singers aside from the fact that they had started out in the 1970s with Tsunehiro/Norihiro Uchida（内田典宏）as a folk/Mood Kayo group before female vocalist Kazumi Kaai（かあいかずみ）joined. Then, the group went more into the jazz and urban contemporary.

At this point, Crest Four Singers released two albums with their debut being the 1978 "The Crest Four Singers" (the definite article, you might say? Sorry, that was a "Doctor Who" joke), and I've yet to hear the entire album (as provided above) but it seems as if the group was fully in thrall to their jazzier side by this point. At 4:15 of the video is the second track, "Elise", a rum punch of a song with influences that seemingly fly in from Santana, Henry Mancini and disco. Kaai shapes her vocals like a seen-it-all and done-it-all heiress in the lap of luxury while Uchida and the rest of the Singers provide some French in some funky harmony. Listening to the coolness of "Elise", I just kinda wonder why I never heard about Crest Four Singers at the same frequency of fellow vocal acts Hi-Fi Set and Circus.

Michiru Kojima -- Haruka naru Rakuen（遥かなる楽園）

 

For some reason, YouTube's "kojima michiru -- Topic" placed this song and album as 1996 productions when they actually come from the year (September) 1986. But to be honest, listening to the cool and crystalline "Haruka naru Rakuen" (Distant Paradise), I probably would have believed the 1996 dating. There's just something about the certain synths or other keyboards in the song that also has me thinking the 1990s.

But let's not stray from my observation that this is a pretty good tune by Michiru Kojima（児島未散）. Written by Chiroru Yaho（谷穂ちろる）and composed by Masaki Matsubara（松原正樹）with Ichizo Seo（瀬尾一三）as arranger, I was hovering between City Pop and regular pop for at least half the song until certain urbane chords punched their way through and that saxophone at the end finally convinced me that we had another City Pop tune. I guess on the pop side of things, we can consider "Haruka naru Rakuen" a pop tune of sophistication. Incidentally, this song belongs to the album "Michille".

Ken Shima -- Misty

 

Yup, I still have the latest Seizo Watase（わたせせいぞう）calendar hanging up in my room. If I can't have the good life, well, at least, I can watch it vicariously.

According to YouTuber Marty McFlies v2, there was a manga by Watase known as "Hurricane" which lasted all of one volume, and jazz pianist/arranger Ken Shima（島健）created an image album of music based on it. Released in 1989, this album, also known as "Hurricane", looks awfully classy on its cover...almost like an old movie poster of some thriller movie starring Bogie and Bacall. Shima is no stranger to Watase projects since he had also been helping out on the anime form of the illustrator's "Heart Cocktail" through songs such as "Cool Lunch Time"（クールランチタイム）.

The first track on "Hurricane" is a cover of the 1954 jazz standard "Misty" by jazz pianist Erroll Garner. Shima's take on it is very refined and romantic...somewhat Mancini-esque in arrangement. I start remembering the more tender moments in the detective dramedies "Moonlighting" and "Remington Steele" when I hear this one. Very expensive dinners under moonlight also come to mind. 

Cunimondo Takiguchi's Personal Selection for His Top 10 City Pop Albums of the 1980s ~ Part 2

 

Last week, I started posting a 2-parter translation of an article that I'd found in the April 2018 issue of "Record Collectors" titled "Cunimondo Takiguchi ga Erabu Shiteki Hachi-juu Nendai City Pop Best 10"（クニモンド瀧口が選ぶ私的80年代シティポップベスト10）. Part 1 contains the Ryusenkei（流線形）leader's first five albums for his Top 10 City Pop list and I'll be wrapping up here with Nos. 6-10. Again, although he doesn't go into great detail about his choices, I will still leave what he said about each one. One more point is that except for No. 6, I was able to bring in whole albums for the other entries. (Part 1 of the article is here.)

6. Baker's Shop with Haruko (Kuwana) -- Hot Line (1980)

I got to know Baker's Shop when they performed as Ruriko Ohgami's（大上留利子）backup band on "Yoru no Hit Studio"（夜のヒットスタジオ）. I thought that their playing was just so cool and reminiscent of a bunch of foreign studio musicians. It was through my discovery of Haruko's "Akogare no Sundown"（あこがれのSundown）in the 90s that I found out about this album. Their wonderful performance was able to bring back some distant memories to me.

7. Harumi Ohzora -- VIVA (1983)

The tropical impressions I got from the savannah band kayo of "VIVA" led to some exciting metropolitan vibes even within all of that nostalgia. 

8. JADOES -- Free Drink (1987)

I bought "Free Drink" because Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）was the producer.

9. Toshiki Kadomatsu -- Gold Digger ~ with true love ~ (1985)

As for "Gold Digger", my buddies and I sang "Tokyo Tower" while driving through Roppongi back in our high school days. We really got that urban vibe.

10. Kyosuke Kusunoki -- Just Tonight (1985)

The AOR and soul here felt just right and I couldn't get enough of its urbaneness. Hiroshi Narumi's（鳴海博）guitar and arrangement were the best.

Timelesz -- Kakumei no Dancin' Night（革命のDancin' night）

 

Admittedly, I haven't had the sharpest eyes looking out for the STARTO (formerly Johnny & Associates) boy groups over the past few years, so I was a little surprised when a commenter informed me about this group called timelesz. I didn't know who they were so I looked them up on J-Wiki and Wikipedia and found out that they used to be known as Sexy Zone. "Kayo Kyoku Plus" has a couple of Sexy Zone's songs so with the new name change (which came into effect as of April 2024), I've made some adjustments to their Label on KKP as you can see at the bottom of the article. Their new name was formed from one of their previous incarnation's final songs before the 2024 change, "Timeless" and a fusion of the initials from Sexy Zone added onto the end of their new name. With the name change also came a fairly large change in the lineup which is currently numbered at eight members.

Moving on, the commenter also recommended one of their songs under the new regime, as it were. From their June 2025 album, "FAM", I give you the bouncy "Kakumei no Dancin' Night" (Revolutionary Dancin' Night). For me, it's been SOP that whenever I see any title containing the phrase "dancing night", I check it out for some of that juicy urban contemporary nature I've enjoyed in City Pop, R&B and the like. The commenter told me that there is some of that Neo-City Pop feeling in "Kakumei no Dancin' Night" and that's all probably due to the composer Umi Kinami（きなみうみ）who has had a love for AOR and Black contemporary music. There is also a quartet of lyricists on this one: Kinami, Yui Kimura（木村友威）, EARSY and Shori Sato（佐藤勝利）. 

As for "FAM", it went to No. 1 on Oricon and it also went Double Platinum.

Reiko Ohshida -- Dousei Jidai（同棲時代）

 

A couple of years ago, I posted "Onna no Gakko"（女の学校）, a 1970 kayo kyoku and debut single by actress and singer Reiko Ohshida（大信田礼子）who had been in the popular action series  "Playgirl"（プレイガール）. "Onna no Gakko" was a slithery and sexy song of the night that also probably summed up Ohshida's character in the TV series.

Ohshida released seven singles up to the middle of 1973 with her penultimate one being "Dousei Jidai" (The Time of Living in Sin) which came out in February that same year. Composed by Shunichi Tokura（都倉俊一）and arranged by Hiroshi Takada（高田弘）, the melody sounds a whole lot more peaceful and innocent but the lyrics by Kazuo Kamimura（上村一夫）are quite the downer as a couple discovers that they can't live with each other and yet they can't live without each other. In fact, at one point, the woman had even considered killing her paramour and then killing herself. Talk about words and music going into opposite directions!

Interesting piece of trivia is that Ohshida actually ended up getting married to composer Tokura the following year, although she had apparently not gotten along with the man during the production of "Dousei Jidai". The marriage didn't last too long, however, since they divorced by 1978. As well, Ohshida had been classmates with Kenji Sawada（沢田研二）from elementary to high school in their native Kyoto.

Linda Ronstadt -- Just One Look

 

Not only did I hear "Just One Look" on the radio but I also heard plenty of it as a commercial jingle for cars. I just forgot it was for the Mazda. By the way, the actor speaking in the ad ended up becoming a doctor at "General Hospital". In any case, "Just One Look" renditions by different singers and bands were used in other commercials; that title was just perfect for selling.

But the first time was on radio. Didn't know at the time that this wasn't even an original by Linda Ronstadt but a cover version done by her, but it has been the one that I will always remember. Released as a January 1979 single, it's a tune that starts off country congenially but then becomes progressively buzzier with the rock edge. I also didn't realize that the main chorus is only heard once and at the end of this fairly short song at just a little over three minutes. Ronstadt's cover did modestly well on the Canadian and American charts by  posting somewhere in the 40s but in the former's Adult Contemporary chart, "Just One Look" placed in at No. 4 while on the latter's East Listening chart, it had a No. 5 ranking.

The original "Just One Look" was recorded by singer-songwriter Doris Troy for release in May 1963 with Troy and Gregory Carroll creating the song. It's an even shorter tune with the main chorus basically acting as a fadeout coda. 

We have here the Top 3 singles of Oricon for January 22nd 1979, a day before Ronstadt's cover was released.

1. Pink Lady -- Chameleon Army (カメレオン・アーミー）

2. Alice -- Champion （チャンピオン）

3. Godiego -- Gandhara （ガンダーラ）