1981AidoruFolkGeorge DukeHitomi IshikawaJ-AORPopReminiscings of YouthSaki KubotaSingleStanley ClarkeToshiyuki Nishida
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It is a national holiday today so as per KKP custom, we have a special holiday version of Reminiscings of Youth. I'd say this story goes back almost thirty years but when I was teaching a class in Tokyo, I recall asking the students regarding their favourite ice cream flavour (my classes were often quite whimsical). One of the students was a half-French/half-Japanese lass named Francoise who was quite popular in the group and had quite the outgoing personality. As usual, she went beyond the parameters of the question and gave us her own choice of an invented ice cream flavour. When I then asked her what she would name this new taste, she enthusiastically chirped "SWEET BABY".
Not too long after, I was at Yamano Music in Ginza doing my usual browsing of anything interesting in the CD department. I ended up purchasing the two discs making up the BRIO AOR collection, one of which had a song by a couple of musicians that I had never heard before: the late American keyboardist George Duke and American bassist Stanley Clarke, and the two of them had apparently collaborated back in 1981 through an album titled "The Clarke/Duke Project". The song from that album was the song chosen for the BRIO collection and it was called surprisingly enough, "Sweet Baby".
Yes, I will always remember Francoise and her ice cream flavour through Clarke and Duke's "Sweet Baby". For one thing, the song is probably one of the smoothest and most enjoyable AOR songs that my ears have had the honour to absorb and digest, and for another, it came out in the year that I was finally awakened to the wonders of not only Japan but also music in general. My only regret is that I hadn't discovered it back then and that I would have to wait until the end of the century to finally know about it. And who would have thought that an AOR tune would invite an electric sitar into the mix? To finally reach full circle, I would love to encounter an ice cream at a parlor somewhere that was actually called Sweet Baby.
"The Clarke/Duke Project" came out in April 1981, so let's find out what else came out that month in Japan. Toshiyuki Nishida -- Moshimo Piano ga Hiketanara（もしもピアノが弾けたなら）
The KKP file for singer-songwriter Mebae Miyahara（宮原芽映）isn't very large but from the relatively few songs that I've heard, she's dabbled into both pop and City Pop. Furthermore, her style strikes me as being rather light and eclectic.
Case in point: the B-side to her 2nd single"10 Years" which was released in July 1981. "Tasogare Metro" (Sunset Metro) fulfills both adjectives that I used in the previous paragraph, and as written/composed by Miyahara, there is something that feels like French pop and 1950s pop at the same time. At the same time, Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）was also utilizing some of that Gallic flavour in her music but I wouldn't say that Miyahara's style is similar to that of Ohnuki...at least, not from what I'm hearing in this particular song.
"Tasogare Metro" can also be found in Miyahara's debut album"Cat" which came out earlier in May of that year. Have a gander at "Milky Cat" which is also on the LP.
Welcome to the Victoria Day 2026 edition of "Kayo Kyoku Plus". Yes, we actually do have national holidays here although in Canada, they may seem rare when compared to the bushelful of holidays that Japan has. And since it is Victoria Day, it's also known as the unofficial beginning to summer and perfect timing, too, because we surprisingly have our first heat advisory of the year with Humidex readings threatening 36 degrees C! No worries, though...in a couple of days, our high will only reach 14.
Of course, if summer has arrived, then it's time for the usual TUBE article. If I'm not mistaken, Nobuteru Maeda（前田亘輝）and his guys are celebrating 41 years in the music business. And from their very first album released in July 1985, "Heart of Summer", here is "Midnight Beach", a languid nighttime ballad that brings to mind cool nights, crackling beachside campfires and most importantly, a lot of snuggling by the fire. Composed by Masao Nakajima（中島正雄）and written/arranged by Daiko Nagato（長戸大幸）, it's a pleasant way to finish off Side A of the album.
We may be a little early for this scene this year but I hear in Japan, they are more than ready for beachside activity. According to some of the citizenry though, the heat wave has come in a little too hot and early.
Sometime in high school, I became disillusioned with modern movies. They just weren’t capturing my attention in a way that sparked my imagination anymore. One day, after spending my entire Japanese language class discussing Studio Ghibli films, I decided to look into Hayao Miyazaki’s filmography and discovered that he had directed a Lupin III movie called The Castle of Cagliostro.
After sitting down and watching the movie, I was hooked. The comedy, the action, the fun and witty dialogue — always watch the Manga dub if you can — all pulled me in. But what captivated me the most was the music, especially the main theme song, Fire Treasure (炎のたからもの).
It’s no secret that legendary jazz composer Yuji Ohno (大野雄二) practically defined the musical identity of Lupin III. But what makes this particular theme so special is that it isn’t bombastic like the big band sound of “Lupin ’89,” nor does it have the exploitation-style funk of the 1979 theme. Instead, it’s a nostalgic ballad sung by Toshie Kihara (木原敏恵), with lyrics by Jun Hashimoto.
Much like the movie itself, “Fire Treasure” embodies a feeling of longing for adventure and romance. I can’t think of another song in the Lupin III canon that captures the same whimsical sense of mystery this song evokes. Ohno would try to recapture that feeling in the 2019 film Lupin III: The First — Lupin’s first 3D CGI movie — with the song “GIFT” featuring Lyn Inaizumi (稲泉りん). It’s a beautiful song in its own right, but it just doesn’t hit the same way.
“Fire Treasure” is truly lightning in a bottle and a showcase of Yuji Ohno’s genius. Most people only know him for his LupinIII music, but he did so much more. As J-Cannuck once put it, Ohno was essentially the Japanese Henry Mancini, composing iconic themes and soundtracks for various television and film productions such as Proof of the Man andDai Gekitō Mad Police ’80.
Yuji Ohno would pass away in his sleep on May 4, 2026, but he left behind an incredible legacy of music for the world to enjoy. And much like Lupin himself, he stole our hearts.
It's been a while since Seri Ishikawa（石川セリ）has been up here on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", so I've got some of her "Desire" for a Sunday. And no, it has nothing to do with Akina Nakamori's（中森明菜）signature song that would come out in 1986. Ishikawa's "Desire" actually was a track on her September 1985 album, "Rakuen"（楽園...Paradise）. Written and composed by Moonriders' drummer Tetsuro Kashibuchi（かしぶち哲郎）, it's got that 80s combination of thrumming bass synth and boppy bass so I think I can hear this on many an American cop show from that decade as background music. Yeah, it's an upbeat pop song of the times. I also wrote about another track on "Rakuen", "Ai no Bunryo"（愛の分量）back in 2020, so give that a gander as well.
I remember when Sanae Takaichi（高市早苗）first took the reins as Japan's first female prime minister and she exhorted she couldn't care less about work-life balance as it pertained to her. She said that she would be a machine and keep on working. For me, it's more about life balance since I'm basically semi-retired now. And for today, it's all about heat dissipation because for the first time this year, I'm baking again in my own juices since we've got a summery day out there. Anyways, we've got cutesy-voiced Nagisa Cosmetic, aka former model-singer and current creative consultant Nagisa Ichikawa（市川渚）. When I was going through that eclectic compilation album "Contemode V.A. 2" and found acts such as spaghetti vabune! and Plus-Tech Squeeze Box, I also saw Nagisa Cosmetic in there, too, and I remember posting her first article almost a year ago. Well, within "Contemode V.A. 2", she's contributed "Life Balance" which was also originally placed as a track on her lone 2004 album "NAGISA COSMETIC". Yasutaka Nakata（中田ヤスタカ）was once again behind words and music for the techno-Shibuya-kei-esque "Life Balance" and there's much about it that reminds me of Nakata's other project, capsule, when the duo was more into Shibuya-kei in their early days.
Hello, J-Canuck here. We have another article by occasional contributor Fireminer. Following the video, he'll take over the narrative.
I sometimes peruse YouTube for retro Japanese commercials, which was how I came across this Xerox advert. The song being featured is “Tokyo Girl” by the American single Joleen Benoit. It is the first track on her 1988 Japan-exclusive album “Joleen”.
This is a crowd-pleaser. On top of a catchy AOR tune guided by the clapping, you put a gratuitous amount of saxophone for that 50s flair. It goes well with the sunny lyrics, which depict a boy pinning for a manic pixie-type of girl with so much allure. Furthermore, “Tokyo Girl” and the rest of the album were performed by experienced artists who were pretty well-known in the easy listening world like Andrea Robinson (backing vocal), Joey Carbone (keyboardist) and Michael Thompson (guitarist). It is not a surprise that the song jumped to first place on the Oricon Western music chart in September 1988. Having the young actress Yuki Matsushita (松下 由樹) danced to your song in the Xerox commercial helped too. As for the singer, Joleen Benoit was from the city of Farmington, Minnesota. She became Miss Minnesota in 1973 and toured with the United Service Organizations (USO) for a period of time. Her first single, 1986 “Forgotten Man”, was even about servicemen returning home. Joleen was also one of the people responsible for creating the Minnesotan supergroup “Women Who Cook”. The band was put together for the PBS Nighttimes Variety Show which Joleen was the host of. They even performed in the Soviet Union on a peace tour! You can read about the band here.
Joleen eventually released a follow-up single called “Tokyo Woman” (1990). I can not find anything about that single as well as the subsequent releases, but her last single was in 1999. Joleen then worked as a CBS Host for several years. I found her Facebook and YouTube page, but the former has been set to private while the latter has been inactive for years.
Remembering back to 2017, I posted an article on Anri's（杏里）November 1982 album"Heaven Beach". I recollect that I didn't do a total job on it but it was still fairly thorough so for all the intervening years, I didn't revisit it. Well, there are still a few tracks that had yet to be covered and one was "Memorial Story". Written and composed by the singer, it's a very amiable and palm tree-friendly song that kinda brings in the California AOR sound, and it sounds perfect for "Heaven Beach". Without needing to rely on songwriters such as Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）, it's evident that Anri had that feeling for the genre as well.
I know that Daiei is one of the major supermarket chains in Japan. There was one branch of it near my apartment...a mere ten-minute walk away. The actual supermarket was in the basement but it was huge, fairly comparable to some of the No Frills supermarkets we have here in Toronto, and my Daiei also had a couple of floors above the supermarket for clothes and the usual department store stuff.
Let it be known that it would be grand folly to describe the amazing things that the late legendary Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）did musically in one mere paragraph. He was a pioneer in technopop, helped give a new exciting sound to Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）in the early 1980s, provided some of the catchiest and quirkiest melodies to other singers such as Miki Nakatani（中谷美紀）, arranged one of the cutest kid-friendly songs for an aidoru trio, created some fine and comfortable New Age music, and was even responsible for a blippity-bloppity theme for NHK News back in the day.
And yep, he even gave his all for commercials including one for my beloved Daiei where I often got my bento. And I mean, he gave his all.
(Mock conversation between The Professor and Daiei)
Daiei, nervously: So, can you...uh...provide a nice jingle for our supermarket?
Sakamoto, haughtily: I, Ryuichi Sakamoto, do NOT compose tiny insignificant baubles of eighth notes for anything! I compose full breathing songs, sir!
Daiei: Well...uh...how catchy and long can you make this song for our humble company?
Sakamoto: YES!
And thus, "Daiei" was born in 1983. And here I thought his "GT" was cool and upbeat. "Daiei" may be his most foot-stomping and toe-tapping work yet. It's got his 80s synth beats, celebratory Christmas bells, bounce-off-the-wall saxophone, cool background chorus and bang-and-crash percussion. Good golly...how big was that sale for fruits and vegetables? You will never simply walk over to your local grocery ever again.
Anyways, "Daiei" is available on his November 2002 compilation album"Works I - CM".
Although I never saw either of them during their original airtime, I had heard of James Corden's"Carpool Karaoke" and the game show "Cash Cab".
In either case, it's quite the elevation in being driven home. Sing your favourite songs or win some good hard money although I believe the former situation only invites celebrities.
That's the image I got on watching the music video for Hikaru Utada's（宇多田ヒカル）latest single, "PAPPAPARADISE". They have got to be the most cheerful taxi driver on Earth and I'm not sure which area is being represented here: Tokyo or her native New York City. I only see Hikaru taking care of Japanese fares and yet the singer-songwriter is wearing street clothes behind the wheel which is verboten in Japan's taxis. But that's not the point. The amazing thing is that Hikaru is greatly enjoying life and entertaining the customers through their song which was released on May 6th. It's an upbeat tune with a bit of 1950s music, doo-wop and even some Steely Dan horns in there.
And it was after viewing the music video that I found out that "PAPPARADISE" is being used as the latest ending theme for the long-running anime "Chibi Maruko-chan"（ちびまる子ちゃん）. So, Utada joins folks such as B.B. Queens, Keisuke Kuwata（桑田佳祐）and Kahimi Karie（カヒミカリィ） on that august list.
Talk about a song that has had nine lives like a cat. Yasuha's（泰葉）1981"Fly-Day Chinatown"(フライディ・チャイナタウン) has once again popped up like a rubber duckie in the pop culture bathtub after getting its exposure at the end of Episode 5 of the currently running anime "Ganbare! Nakamura-kun!!"（ガンバレ!中村くん!!...Go for It, Nakamura!）. And hey, a good song is a good song no matter how often it arises out of the ether.
As such, I wanted to see what the B-side for "Fly-Day Chinatown" was. It is "Morning Date" which was also the creation of lyricist Toyohisa Araki（荒木とよひさ）, composer Yasuha and arranger Akira Inoue（井上鑑）after their primo work on the A-side.
"Morning Date" is the opposite of "Fly-Day Chinatown". For one thing, as the title shows prominently, it is an upbeat morning tune compared to the nocturnal swings of "Fly-Day Chinatown". Moreover, instead of some rumbling City Pop through a famous part of Yokohama, this is basically some happy West Coast AOR in an apartment featuring a couple of newlyweds as a wife wakes up all fresh and freshly showered just so that she can greet her husband in the breakfast nook. I don't think I've ever experienced a married couple that blissful at breakfast; must be really early in the relationship. Still, I can hear some City Pop chord progressions blipping through along with a rock n' roll coda.
I've got to admit...I wasn't quite sure what to make of this B-side to Hi-Fi Set's（ハイ・ファイ・セット）8th single from April 1977, "Kaze no Machi"（風の街）. The A-side is the straightforward City Pop driving song that's got the breeze going through the hair and love filtering through the heart. "Crystal Night", not to be confused with Junko Ohashi's（大橋純子）classic "Crystal City" which came out the same year, is a B-side that had me popping question marks around my head initially. Right from the intro, my ears were hit by a mixture of disco strings and country-loving steel pedal guitar before things settled down into this 1970s peppy City Pop song. And then, the roots rock guitar came crashing in like Superman through a wall. Still, "Crystal Night" overall feels like another hot evening on the town much like its companion "Kaze no Machi". Two of the members of Hi-Fi Set, Shigeru Okawa（大川茂）and Toshihiko Yamamoto（山本俊彦）were responsible for words and music respectively with Ichizo Seo（瀬尾一三）taking care of the arrangement. The song was also a track on the group's 3rd album from February 1977,"Love Collection"（ラブ・コレクション）which not only hit No. 1 on Oricon but it was also the No. 1 album of the year.
I'm probably going to have to come up with an Author's Picks regarding New York-based kayo kyoku sometime soon. I've been encountering them during the past fourteen plus years that "Kayo Kyoku Plus" has been in business and perhaps it's enough that the bunch of these Manhattan music tributes in Japanese can make up a subgenre of sorts within City Pop.
Anyways, I have another one here by singer-songwriter Iruka（イルカ）who was in her 1980s City Pop phase at the time. I don't have my own copy of her April 1985 12th album"Heart Land" but I have covered at least one song on the list, "Ame no Distance"（雨のディスタンス）, which also qualifies as a City Pop tune. This one here is "NYC wa Toosugite" (New York City is Too Far Away) which was actually written by Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）and composed/arranged by Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）, so Iruka was just behind the microphone.
This is quite the romantic strolling tune to be enjoyed at sunset, and of course, Iruka's velvety vocals help with the overall listening pleasure. I can imagine that Japanese tourists must have been swooning for the Big Apple at the time, especially when that saxophone comes into play halfway through. Well, it helps that the Bubble Era started around the time that "Heart Land" was released.
1992City PopEtsuko YamakawaJ-R and BKeiko UtsumiSingle
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Finally, we have a proper spring day out there with seasonal temperatures and bright sunshine. And just in time for the Victoria Day long weekend, too. Plus, the other wonderful thing is that we've got another Urban Contemporary Friday on "Kayo Kyoku Plus".
Today, we start off with singer-songwriter Keiko Utsumi's（宇都美慶子）"Futari dake no Kyuujitsu"(Only Our Holiday) from her September 1992 4th album"Ren'ai Shosetsu"（恋愛小説...A Love Romance） as introduced by a radio DJ who apparently is only a sporadic student at Berlitz. Written by Utsumi and composed by Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）, the song strikes me as the prototypical 90s City Pop tune with those certain synths at play, and as soon as I learned that Yamakawa was behind the melody, I immediately pressed "play". Lots of good groove and soul in this one and I always appreciate a good sax solo (although for some reason, they had brought in a rather twee synth sax earlier in the song). As for Utsumi's lyrics, they don't completely describe a blissful relationship (the fact that her recipe for vegetable juice sounds more like a recipe for vegetable stew doesn't help) as the arguments start flying near the end with things finishing up on an uncertain note. Hey, love and life downtown!
We're kinda getting close to the end of the work week once more so perhaps a little zip in the music here might help in the anticipation toward the weekend. Over here, there is even more significance since we have a long weekend coming up with Victoria Day happening on Monday.
Nice to have the good folks at Nash Music Library helping out again. This time, the music maker has come up with a synthesized version of swing jazz via The Andrews Sisters. Titled "Astro Swingin' Sisters", I think it's well named although there is no singing here by any sisters but the feeling is there, and I can imagine a sorority trio in spacesuits harmonizing out there while this is playing. The song comes from the August 2019 album"Sparkling Brass".
Mother's Day was the theme for the most recent episode of "Uta Con"（うたコン）a couple of days ago, and singer-songwriter Ayaka（絢香）was on stage to provide an old favourite as her contribution to the holiday for mothers.
During the talk segment, she also had her turn on the microphone. She's been taking care of a couple of daughters as a mother herself which includes having the entire family learn how to downhill ski. Then, she introduced her most recent single which got out on May 6th titled "OK! GO!". Sounding quite upbeat and inspirational, it has an arrangement which reminds me of some Motown soul from the 1970s; maybe there's even a bit of gospel soul beating in there as well. Cute video, to boot; it looks like unmalicious Monty Python.
1984AidoruAkina NakamoriCheckersJ-R and BOff-CoursePopPrinceReminiscings of YouthSingle
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A commenter told me a few weeks ago that the 10th anniversary of Prince's untimely death had occurred on April 21st and so I said that I would try and get another Prince song up as soon as possible. Well, just a couple of days shy of the 42nd anniversary since its release on May 16th 1984, I give you "When Doves Cry".
Prince already has half a dozen songs up on KKP but this is just his third ROY article as a performer after "Batdance"; the rest of the articles are up here because he contributed to the songwriting whether it be for Kahoru Kohiruimaki（小比類巻かほる）or other fellow artists such as Chaka Khan. But although I provided "Batdance" as his first ROY on the blog, I think it's safe to say that "When Doves Cry" is the more significant one in terms of his discography and legacy within music (it's ranked No. 37 on the "Rolling Stone"500 Greatest Songs of All Time list).
Personally, my memories of "When Doves Cry" is the video which had heavy heavy airplay on the various music shows. For a period of several months, I frankly thought that it would become a permanent entry on any Top 10 video list. I had a friend who lived in a university dormitory who often woke up to this song along with one other tune; apparently he'd dance to it as well which is one good way to wake up for classes, although I'm not sure how his downstairs neighbour felt.
Now that I've listened to it once more after a very long time, I realize that I'm having a tough time trying to categorize it. And apparently, Wikipedia has had a tough time of it, too, throwing a number of genres at it including avant-pop and neo-psychedelia which I never would have thought of. In the end, my Labels list has it as pop and R&B, but you readers may have different opinions. It is indeed a distinct song in the universe and many folks came to the same opinion as well as it topped the Billboard charts for months in America. It did the same in Canada, too.
Well, exactly 42 years ago to the day, what was up on the Top 10 of Oricon just about when "When Doves Cry" was released?
Etsuko Sai（彩恵津子）has done her share of City Pop and J-AOR during her career, but this one favors an arrangement that was also pretty popular in the 1980s. From her 1984 album"Reach Out", I give you "Heart wo Knock Shite" (Knock on My Heart). Composed by soul singer Hiro Tsunoda（つのだ☆ひろ）and written by Kazuko Kobayashi（小林和子）, the song has that certain languid 1950s pop vibe...kinda like Richie and Mary Beth sitting on that porch swing at night while the grown-ups are watching Uncle Miltie on TV. According to the comments underneath this particular video, it's the late great Jake H. Concepcion on the saxophone and at points, I was thinking that this was on the verge of going City Pop but then pulled back itself to its old spot a few decades earlier.
19751978198019811986AnimeCity PopCreatorDiscoHatsumi ShibataHi-Fi SetHiromi IwasakiJ-R and BJazzYuji Ohno
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Earlier today, I received word from commenter and contributor Fireminer that musician and composer/arranger Yuji Ohno had passed away on May 4th from natural causes at the age of 84 according to newspaper reports just coming out today.
Whenever I heard his name, the music that automatically flowed through my head was jazz...whiskey-on-the-rocks jazz with lots of pizzazz. And of course, that means his iconic theme from the anime "Lupin The 3rd"（ルパン三世）comes pounding to mind. There have been a variety of versions of that theme but at the core of them all is a song that was just perfectly made for the bumbling if charming thief.
Born on May 30th 1941 in the city of Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture, he started playing the piano during elementary school and formed his own unit in high school while schooling himself on the joys of jazz music. He became a member of Keio University's Light Music Society, the school's big band of the genre while studying in the Faculty of Law. His first work for the public came out in 1966 for a record featuring singer/actor Yuzo Kayama（加山雄三）.
Sometime in the early 1970s, Ohno opted to take a break from piano playing and focus on composition. His first album "Sound Adventure Act.1" came out in 1975 and the above video has the whole album with the first track being the propulsive "Too High".
Ohno would create his brand of exciting music which took in disco, City Pop and jazz among other genres, and in the same year as "Sound Adventure Act. 1", he was also responsible for making most of the tracks on Hatsumi Shibata's（しばたはつみ）2nd album, "Singer Lady", including the title track whose lyrics were created by Takahiro or Masahiro Takeda（武田全弘）. Evidently, Shibata wanted some sort of melodic calling card for herself and Ohno provided one that pretty much bashed down the door.
The J-Wiki article for Ohno features a long list of clients who he whipped up songs for, ranging from Hi-Fi Set（ハイファイセット）and Circus（サーカス）to SMAP and Sayuri Ishikawa（石川さゆり）. He was also in the business of making music for not only singers but also for commercials, TV soundtracks and anime. For example, the aforementioned Hi-Fi Set got to record one of his compositions "America Monogatari"（あめりか物語）in 1978 which was used for a Japan Air Lines campaign.
One of his TV works was the opening theme for "Daigekito Mad Police '80"（大激闘マッドポリス'80）under the collaborative name of You & Explosion Band. It's a kickass tune to match a kickass special police squad. All I can say is that the horns should have been paid time-and-a-half for their work here.
For all of his swaggering and staggering jazz, Ohno probably surprised quite a few people including myself when he composed the tenderhearted "Chiisana Tabi" (小さな旅）for NHK's long-running documentary travelogue series. Here, Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）provided a sung version of the song for her album "Wa Ga Ma Ma" in 1986.
As for one more entry here, I only found out about this in the last few minutes, but apparently Ohno also provided his own tribute to the American cop series "CHiPs" through a 1981 album which included a really disco take on the original theme by John Parker (in fact, I'd probably say it sounds closer to Alan Silvestri's handling of the theme from Season 2 onwards). I didn't watch too much of the series compared to other cop shows but I recall the theme being pretty darn cool.
We lost one of the big guns in Japanese pop composition today. My condolences go to Ohno's family, friends and many fans out there. Play your "Lupin III" theme today if you've got it.
1975BalladEmiko NakayamaFumiko OkadaJ-R and BKen SatoPopSingle
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A lot of us have half-jokingly remarked that whenever we hear soundtrack maestro John Williams'"Special Report" theme for NBC that it's not only the most epic music for a potential crisis but it makes us all go into Pavlovian-induced ("Oh, my word. It's John Williams! Activate the Panic Room, honey!) states of fear.
Well, Emiko Nakayama's（中山恵美子）"News Sokuhou" (Newsflash), which is the B-side to her 6th single from December 1975, "Yuu Gohan wa Curry ni Shimashou"（夕ごはんはカレーにしましょう）, is about as far away from Williams' bulletin song as Coruscant is from Tatooine. It's also quite different from the happily perky A-side which basically acted as a commercial jingle for Bon Curry Gold.
Lyricist Fumiko Okada（岡田冨美子）and composer Ken Sato（佐藤健）, who had taken care of "Yuu Gohan wa Curry ni Shimashou", also created "News Sokuhou". I don't know where the newsflash aspect of this kayo kyoku comes in, but it is still a curious ballad in that it begins with what sounds like a 1970s breaking news alert before it suddenly transitions into a languid Motown soul love song (with electric sitar) containing some sappy love talk about comparing the songwriting boyfriend to Takuro Yoshida（吉田拓郎）himself. It's got plenty of atmosphere, too, with some stormy sounds busting in. Hopefully, the newsflash is that the pair is getting married instead of breaking up which a lot of lyrics and sound effects of storms tend to hint at.
Only found out about this song and its singer in the last several weeks. However, she's got a lovely and refreshing voice to go with the breezy arrangement so let's take a look. There's not a lot of information on singer-songwriter Kumiko Yanagida（柳田久美子） via J-Wiki and it's rather incomplete considering that although this song "Crazy Baby" was released as a single in 2020, her J-Wiki profile only goes as far as 2007 in terms of her albums and singles while her contributions to compilations take things to the mid-2010s. Her website no longer exists and her blog entries finished in 2016. In any case, as mentioned above, Yanagida has created a nice tune in "Crazy Baby" with guitar and synths that don't sound too over-the-top. In fact, I'd say that it goes more for the indies pop sound. The Iwate Prefecture-born singer did start out as an indies artist in 2001 before going major in 2004. But apparently, once her contract to Toy's Factory finished in 2007, she went back to the indies route. As of this time, she's released nine singles and four full albums.
Looks like Episode 7 of "Ganbare! Nakamura-kun!!"（ガンバレ!中村くん!!...Go for It, Nakamura!）is now in the record books. This time, it used the well-worn anime plot device of having the main characters go through a scary place...and for this episode, it was the school after dark. From the few excerpts available, it appears that Nakamura-kun was able to turn the tables on good ol' Hirose for once.
As has been the case with every episode, the ending theme for Episode 7 was again another throwback to the past. Furthermore, as was the case with Episode 4's ender, Barbee Boys'"Makeru mon ka"（負けるもんか）, this one is also a song that I had never heard before.
For one thing, it's a heavy metal tune and I don't really listen to the genre. Mind you, Seikima II（聖飢魔II）does have representation on KKP via its "EL-DO-RA-DO" and I'm going to add its second entry here with "Rouningyo no Yakata" (House of Wax) which supposedly ended Episode 7, and yeah, why not end this scare-themed entry with a song titled after a famous horror movie from the past?
Released as Seikima II's debut single in April 1986, the former Demon Kogure（デーモン小暮） plays his role perfectly as one of Satan's best right down to the delivery of his terrifying warnings. I have to say that his singing voice is quite pure...almost angelic, but don't tell him that. The single managed to reach No. 17 on Oricon. Words and music were provided by Damian Hamada（ダミアン浜田）.
To continue to show that Demon Kogure now Demon Kakka（デーモン閣下）is really a fairly mellow guy, here is his interview with British talk show host Jonathan Ross.
Wow! I can actually say that this is a trailer that reveals nothing of the movie itself. I actually caught "House of Wax" at the theatre when it was given a re-release during my university years.
I heard this one last night on "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）for the first time, and it was originally sung by Sachiko Nishida（西田佐知子）. "Acacia no Ame ga Yamu Toki"(When the Acacia Rains Stop) was Nishida's 13th single from April 1960 with Kaoru Mizuki（水木かおる）as lyricist and Hideyuki Fujiwara（藤原秀行）as composer. Delivered in a sad and resigned tone by Nishida, it recounts the story of a lady whose paramour has suddenly left her bereft of love and hope. The horns led by a crisp trumpet sound forlorn and melancholy.
Strangely enough, through a 2003 magazine article via J-Wiki, the story goes that "Acacia no Ame ga Yamu Toki" was the song that a lot of young folks protesting the 1960 US-Japan Security Treaty ran to like a buddy giving solace when things didn't go their way. Perhaps they were crying in their beer as this song was playing in the bars and izakaya. Another tidbit from J-Wiki is that Nishida had been struggling with singing the song until lyricist Mizuki helped out by saying that it had been based on famed author Kojiro Serizawa's（芹沢光治良）1947 novel "Paris ni Shisu"（巴里に死す...A Death in Paris）. Nishida would then record it while thinking of images from the City of Lights.
Eventually, "Acacia no Ame ga Yamu Toki" would hit the million-record mark in sales by 1968. Nishida would also sing the song at her second appearance on NHK's Kohaku Utagassen in 1962, a year after she'd performed her more famous rendition of "Coffee Rumba"（コーヒー・ルンバ）on the same stage. She also sang "Acacia" on the 1969 edition of the Kohaku. In 1963, a cinematic adaptation of the song was produced which had Nishida in a supporting role.
No particularly good reason to do so but I just wanted to post up another Author's Picks with the theme today being "good" songs. That is to say, songs with "good" in the title and they are good songs, to boot. Plus, it is a Sunday so a lot of whimsy to share.
Happy Mother's Day! Hopefully, wherever you are, you and your mother are enjoying a meal, flowers and other things this day. The above photo is that of a Chinese buffet and although we're not going to one tonight, we are going to get some Chinese food delivered to us on Mom's request. Calories be damned!
Speaking tangentially and delicately on buffets and calories, I have this song "Fatty" here by singer-songwriter Jun Matsue（松江潤）. Now, Matsue has representation here already as the leader of his later project Spoozys which was something of a late 1990s/early 2000s group, and from the songs that I've covered under that band name such as "Plastic Planet", we got to hear some raunchy techno rock along the lines of POLYSICS.
Well, "Plastic Planet" may have been Spoozys' debut outing, but "Fatty" was Matsue's first single all the way back in September 1993. And I'm assuming that it was also a track on his first album from that same year, "Sunny Pop Generation". It's definitely some sunny guitar pop/rock...venturing more into the Shibuya-kei sphere than technopop. Instead of POLYSICS, I get more Flippers' Guitar with perhaps a bit more liveliness in the guitar. Maybe it's not really a Mother's Day tune (well, with a title like "Fatty", it shouldn't be😨) but it can still fit the feeling of a nice sunny Sunday song.
One of the more common catchphrases and situations in anime at one point, the "moshi, moshi...keisatsu desu ka"(Hello, is this the police?) was definitely the existential salve for one character to erase the presence of a more troublesome character. If a 911 response in Toronto were only that quick nowadays...
Anyways, the preamble ramble this time is for Hidemi Ishikawa's（石川秀美）5th single"Hey! Mister Policeman" which first made its presence known in May 1983. Written and composed by Kyoko Matsumiya（松宮恭子）, perhaps she was inspired by The Marvelettes' "Please Mr. Postman" in terms of the title and the catchy rock n' roll arrangement by Kazuo Otani（大谷和夫）. As for Matsumiya's lyrics, I'm not sure whether Hidemi-chan is calling for a cop to stop a particularly pesky (and perhaps wealthy) suitor from following her or perhaps she's asking for the officer to stop the guy himself from moving his eyes to other female targets other than her. According to the J-Wiki article for "Hey! Mister Policeman", it was Ishikawa's first single to get into the Top Ten of Oricon by placing in at No. 10. Furthermore, according to the aidoru's then-manager, everyone had been so busy that they didn't have enough time to take a suitable photo for the single jacket. While everyone was wringing their hands at this situation, Ishikawa and company went down to Guam for filming during which they ran into a local police officer, so taking advantage of things, Ishikawa was able to get some cute photos with the cop. There was the bright idea about using one of those Hidemi-and-cop shots as the jacket, but they simply weren't in time for the first production run of the record. Basically, the result was that "Hey! Mister Policeman" ended up with two different single jackets that you can see in the video above. I guess all involved made do with one of those initial photos after all.
1981Chage and AskaGoro MatsuiIchizo SeoJ-RockPopSingle
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We are approaching the 45th anniversary of this Chage & Aska tune "TABIBITO"(Traveler) which was released on May 25th 1981 as the duo's 4th single. Compared to the slicker and older Chage & Aska that I got to know best when I was living in Japan (as you can see in the top photo), according to the cover of the single for "TABIBITO", the fellows were looking quite rugged back then.
Goro Matsui（松井五郎）was behind the lyrics while Chage took care of the music as Aska sang about heading to wherever to forget about a romance gone sour. Under Ichizo Seo's（瀬尾一三）arrangement, there is something quite Queen-ly or maybe even ALFEE-ish in parts of "TABIBITO" but then hearing Chage and Aska doing their harmonizing, I went, yeah, it's Chage & Aska!
The song peaked at No. 30 on Oricon. "TABIBITO" didn't get onto an original album initially but it was finally placed as a bonus track on the 1986 CD version of Chage & Aska's 3rd album from February 1982, "Tasogare no Kishi"（黄昏の騎士...Twilight Knights）.
2026 marks Haruo Minami's (三波春夫) 25th death anniversary. To commemorate the occasion, the Minami Creates team has bestowed upon us an official lyric video of one of the kayo world's most revered figure's long form kayo-rokyoku (chohen kayo rokyoku...長編歌謡浪曲) works, Nobunaga. On top of that, it was streamed on most, if not all, music listening platforms.
To be honest, Haru-san has recently taken a bit of a back seat, what with HachiandMr. Nakano usurping the majority of my attention. Wading into rokyoku territory and watching the odd narrative-singing show live, usually at Asakusa's Mokubatei theatre, has ensured Haru-san got some love outside of his birthday and death anniversary celebrations - it's so hard to love all my bois equally. But even with that said, I've fallen behind on delving deeper into his discography, so Minami Creates dropping Nobunaga on 14th April (the day of Haru-san's death anniversary) was a welcomed present.
Seeing as how it's been a hot minute since I talked about Minami, here's a brief intro to chohen kayo-rokyoku, conjured up by the man himself. As the name implies, it’s an even fusion of kayokyoku (pop music) and rokyoku (narrative singing). Imagine a kayo or enka with its 3 stanzas. Now imagine fitting a rokyoku's fushi (the singing part) and/or tanka (the spoken part) into the kayo/enka's musical interludes. There you have the basic structure of one of Minami's music babies. Duration-wise, they can be as short as 4 and a half minutes or as long as 20 minutes, but are, on average, about 6 to 10 minutes in length. This makes them longer than the average 3-ish/4 minute kayo, but much shorter than the average 25-35 minute rokyoku set.
The idea of making rokyoku more quickly consumed and digestible, and thus more acceptable to a population that was beginning to lose interest and patience for the older genre, was a significant factor that pushed Haru-san to make this bite-sized (relatively speaking) fusion a reality. From my understanding, he'd already been thinking of some way to make “singable naniwabushi (the older term for rokyoku)” (utau naniwabushi) since he restarted his rokyoku career upon returning from Siberia, where he'd been a POW. Despite switching career tracks (rokyoku artist to pop singer) in 1957, this idea began to take shape when Haru-san was given the rokyoku-like Otone Mujo (大利根無情) in 1959. Its massive success led to a him releasing a spate of rokyoku-inspired kayo and kayo that were based on actual rokyoku stars of the past, like Ippon-gatana Dohyo-iri (一本刀土俵入り),Tochuken Kumoemon (桃中軒雲衛門), and Meigetsu Ayataro Bushi (名月綾太郎ぶし). Still, I'd say these were still more kayo than rokyoku at this point.
I believe that it was only in 1962 when Haru-san first experimented with longer forms of this genre with Soga Monogatari (曽我物語). This fresh take on kayo-rokyoku finally came into the limelight in 1964 with the heroic, Chushingura-affiliated drama Tawaraboshi Genba (俵星玄蕃). Since then, Haru-san would regularly create chohen kayo-rokyoku for the next 30 plus years of his life, making Japanese historical figures, folk tales, and rokyoku more accessible to the average pop music listener.
Moving on to the song itself. Nobunaga is one of Haru-san’s many self-written projects, albeit one from later in his life, having been released in January 1992 in an album of the same title. This tune is not to be confused withOda Nobunaga (織田信長), which Minami created in January 1970. The latter is considerably shorter at 4 minutes, while the latter is twice its length at 8 minutes. Nevertheless, I think Nobunaga can be seen as a plus alpha to Oda Nobunaga. If it's not already apparent, these 2 songs were based on the revered daimyo regarded as Japan's first unifier.
For reference, here's Oda Nobunaga
From what I gather, Haru-san mainly focused on the infamous end to the daimyo in Oda Nobunaga, wherein he perished in the Honno-ji temple fire ambushed by his once-trusted retainer Mitsuhide Akechi. The later Nobunaga includes this incident, in addition to listing the efforts the daimyo made to bring the fragmented lands under his rule, which, aside from waging several important battles, included improving transport networks and loosening trade barriers across the Kansai region. One such policy was the raku-ichi-raku-za, which made trade possible anywhere within castle town grounds, as opposed to having it be restricted to designated areas. Music-wise, both of Haru-san's Oda-centred works have proud and heroic-sounding melodies, fitting for an all-powerful daimyo. However, I feel that Nobunaga is elevated by Nobuyuki Sakuraba's (桜庭伸幸) fantastic arrangement, which paints a Oda in a more intimidating and powerful light with the thunderous rolling drums; the ko-tsutsumi and flute further draws out an air of ancient grandeur.
My knowledge on Japanese history before the Taisho era is paltry, and I know next to nothing about Oda. So, listening to Nobunaga and its predecessor took me back to my old days. I remember learning about the likes of Taira no Kiyomori and Kinokuniya Bunzaemon through Haru-san's kayo-rokyoku, using them as stepping stones to delve deeper into that the drama of these figures online so that I could get more context to better understand his work.
Haru-san had written in one of his books Utagei no Tenchi (歌藝の天地) that one of his wishes was for the world to remember his songs, even if it's been 2 decades since his passing and his name forgotten. The Minami Creates team, helmed by his daughter Miyuki Minami (三波美夕紀), seem to have been working tirelessly over the years to make sure this wish of his comes true. Well, suffice to say that, 25 years after his passing, the name "Haruo Minami" is still remembered alongside his chohen kayo-rokyoku.
I started off today's batch of urban contemporary tunes with a sultry nocturnal song by Naomi Akimoto（秋本奈緒美）, so why not wrap up things with something conversely lighter and bouncier?
Here's something to go with your margarita. "Palm St." is a track on guitarist Masayoshi Takanaka's（高中正義）6th original album"T-Wave" from June 1980, an album that hit No. 7 on Oricon and ended the year as the 34th-ranked LP. It's quite the spritzer of a song that was composed by Izumi Kobayashi（小林泉美）as a tune to get folks into a conga line out at some Caribbean resort after dinner to shave off the calories. When Takanaka gets on a bender with his guitar, enjoy the ride!
Speaking of composer Mimi, the musician did a self-cover of "Palm St." the following year when she released her first solo album"Coconuts High" in December 1981. This slightly longer version has Kobayashi showing off some layered scatting, more steel pan and her own virtuoso performance on the keyboards in an arrangement that invites some good old jamming. Incidentally, I covered the final track on "Coconuts High" a few years ago, "Mr. Cool".
When it comes to veteran actor-singer Yutaka Mizutani（水谷豊）, I will always think of him as the refined and cultured detective on "Aibou"（相棒）or as a rarin-to-go rookie cop in his younger days. Certainly, the song here would tend to emphasize my opinion.
Ironically, "Futsu no Love Song"(Just a Regular Love Song) wasn't used for a cop show. It was actually used for a 1982 NTV series titled "An-chan"（あんちゃん）which dealt with Mizutani's character who had been a pro wrestling manager and trainer before becoming a head priest and a counselor for troubled youth. But there's no doubting that the theme song sounds quite urban and urbane as crooned by the actor himself; it would sound just as fine as a theme for a regular detective show set in Tokyo. "Futsu no Love Song" was created by the golden duo of lyricist Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）and composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）.
One interesting tidbit of trivia is that Mizutani had just gotten married to his first wife, actress Miki McKenzie, in early 1982 but were soon separated within half a year, when he co-starred in "An-chan" with former Candies' member Ran Ito（伊藤蘭）. Some years later after the divorce had been finalized in 1986, Mizutani and Ito would get married following a long courtship in 1989.
We've got some decent weather over the past couple of days and hopefully that means we can actually start dressing for spring. Drivers can finally replace the winter tires.
And on a nice day like today, especially on Urban Contemporary Friday on KKP, we should bring back the Horigome brothers of Kirinji（キリンジ）. This time, I have their 6th single from April 2001, "Good Day Good Bye". To quote the person who came up with the article for the song on J-Wiki: This upbeat song features a lively brass arrangement and a distinctive urban, poppy sound. And indeed, when I listen to it, I can get shades of City Pop and Shibuya-kei at the same time. Lyrically, the song seems to be about life in an idealized metropolis, one with lots of flowers and humour, efficient subways and friendly people that the protagonist would love to strike up a chat with (although he's too busy handing out flyers, probably near the station). Not surprisingly, Tomita Lab（富田ラボ）was the one producing the source album, "3", which came out in November 2000.
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