Back in my early days of J-pop love, most of my exposure to all those other groups out there came from Japanese shows like Music Fair and Popjam, but by far the most informative and rockin’ one had to be HEY HEY HEY Music Champ! Hosted by DOWNTOWN, this show was one that really catered to the classic artists, and what they would do is have a certain so-called “Music Champ” come onto the show each episode, and have the artist sing a medley of two or three classic hits, sit down for an interview, and then sing their latest song they were promoting.
This was an awesome formula, and it was cool to be introduced to all these artists I either didn’t know or only knew a little of, and every once in a while, they would have these Hey Hey Hey SPECIALS, where they would showcase past guests and show snippets of them being interviewed as well as an edited clip of the most popular of the songs they’d performed.
I was watching this one particular special primarily for Princess Princess’ appearance (the clip they showed was them doing “Diamonds, of course), but it was this clip of exotic Kudoh Shizuka singing an insanely catchy tune called “Kuchibiru Kara Biyaku” that really piqued my interest!
Sounding almost SKA-like in mood, this bouncy number (featuring an incredibly giggly Shizuka!) immediately caught my attention with its infectious CHOTTO MATTE YO NE! verses accented with jazzy horns, and then that cooing chorus of “Iiyo, Iiyo…IIYO!” DAMN, this song was so damn catchy, I must have re-watched that clip a hundred times, and I immediately asked the j-pop buyer if he could get the single for me the following day!
The more I fell in love with this song, the more I cursed the fact that it was such a short, truncated clip, and I remember catching the bus into town to my japanese video rental store, hoping and praying that they’d have that original Hey Hey Hey episode that Shizuka appeared in for me to borrow! Well, that didn’t happen, but some good luck came my way when the j-pop buyer told me that he was indeed able to order the single for me, and it arrived in only a few weeks time!!!
A year or so later I got ahold of a copy of the 1990(!) Red And White Song Festival, and I was in for the THRILL OF MY LIFE when I finally got to see a sexy and sultry Shizuka performing Kuchibiru Kara Biyaku in its ENTIRETY!!!! Iiyo Iiyo iiyo!!!!
To this day Kuchibiru Kara Biyaku remains my favorite song from Mrs. Takuya Kimura!
PS: I might even add that the c/w song "Serenade" is one of Shizuka's most beautiful songs, as well!
