Eriko Tamura Singles, Collected!

 Just About TWO YEARS to the day since I first was introduced to the lovely tunes of “Legendary Idol” Eriko Tamura, and I’m treated to a wonderful new release!!!

As I’ve mentioned before in entires like my recent Yukiko Okada post discussing her Okurimono Albums, once you fall in love with an artist and have exhausted their album discography after playing them over and over and OVER again, the next step is to seek out all their Non-Album songs, the Single-only tracks, the soundtrack releases and of COURSE the ever elusive B-SIDES!
B-Side songs have always had a special element to them, as far back as the 80’s when I realized you could only get Fleetwood Mac’s beautiful Stevie Nicks-penned song “Silver Springs” as the flip side to their single “Go Your Own Way”, B-sides have long been the rabid music fan’s treasure-hunting dream!
Occasionally record companies will release collections featuring both the A and B sides of singles, most famously VICTOR with their wonderful “CD FILES” collections, but usually the only real way a fan can get all the songs is to seek out the actual singles and rip them into MP3s themselves!
Such it was with the Lovely Ms. Eriko Tamura. Originally starting with a Greatest Hits collection, I immediately fell in love with what I was hearing and had to get ahold of all her albums! After months of playing those terrific CDs to death, I became a SUPER fan of hers and knew it was time to investigate the hidden world of her Singles and B-Sides!

Below: Some of my CD singles.

While all of Eriko’s “A” sides had been collected and repackaged a number of times on CD, very rarely did they include any of the B sides. and it was only by acquiring the singles (and, through fan forums, MP3 rips of the ones I couldn’t find) that I was able to put together a real, comprehensive anthology of all Eriko’s ‘rarities” (so to speak)!
Out of her output, a good part of her singles tracks DO appear on albums, but over time I was able to whittle out the core songs that were exclusively her non-album tracks, here highlighted:
1
Locomotion Dream
Namida No Hanbun
2
Sukiyo
Watashi wa Soyokaze
3
Honki
Next
4
Process
Garnet Densetsu
5
Domino
Kibou No Melody
6
Reversible
Niji no Shima Kara
7
Nijiiro no Namida
Innocence
8
Little Darling
Ai No Nightingale
9
Makasete Chin Ton Shan
(Anime Song)
10
Yuuwaku no Cha Cha
Tokyo Venus
11
Saigo No Oshiete
I Love Me
12
Sutekina Ame
Just All My Love
13
Ningyo No T-Shirt
Kara Kara Tenki
14
Ashita no Yukue
Kara Kara Tenki
15
Kanashimide wa Owaranai
Maboroshi no Ai Demo
16
Sabishi ni Kowasaretemo
Owaranai Owaraserarenai

Using the highlighted tracks, I was able to make a nice 1 hour+ collection of new music, and, once putting it together and then uploading it onto my Iphone, it soon became one of my most FAVORITE albums to listen to:

1. Sukiyo
2. Process
3. Kibou No Melody
4. Niji no Shima Kara
5. Innocence
6. Ai No Nightingale
7. Makasete Chin Ton Shan
8. Yuuwaku no Cha Cha
9. Tokyo Venus
10. I Love Me
11. Just All My Love
12. Kanashimide wa Owaranai
13. Maboroshi no Ai Demo

14. Owaranai Owaraserarenai
15. Sabishi ni Kowasaretemo

I had left the track order pretty much as they were originally released, with the one exception of her very last single “Sabishi ni Kowasaretemo/Owaranai Owaraserarenai” ... Instead of having it A-B, I flipped it to B-A as I really wanted to end the album with the hauntingly sweet and achingly melancholy Sabishi ni Kowasaretemo (one of my HUGE favorite tracks from Eriko) -

As an accompaniment to my evening walks, the mix would start at the beginning of my walk, and end RIGHT as I hit the beachwalk, making for a perfect pairing with the sunset as Sabishi ni Kowasaretemo concluded the album!

Now, as PERFECT as this new mix was to me, there WAS one detraction to it- the wildly uneven sound levels from track to track! Naturally, since all of these songs came from various different releases (and sources!), some were louder and some were softer in volume, a real jolt when one song ended quiet only to go to a blaring track next!
WELL, if THAT was my only quibble, it was now to be SOLVED, as Universal Music has FINALLY come out with a collection with ALL her A and B side songs on ONE Release!
Celebrating Eriko’s 35th Anniversary since her debut, ERIKO TAMURA SINGLE COLLECTION gathered all A and B side singles as well as Namida no Hanbun (New vocal Mix) and Nijiiro No Namida (New Remix Version), and remastered(?) on SHMCD for wonderful crystal-clear sound quality!!!

Oh MAN, what a WONDERFUL gift for all us Eriko Tamura fans! Since I only recently got into Eriko (now two years to the date since I first got into her!), this is the FIRST release of hers that i’m buying as a new release that will be counted and of which goes directly to supporting Eriko!
On J-pop forums focusing on Idols and 80’s-90’s act,I was jazzed to find many others excited about the upcoming Eriko release, and I just saw that they’ve already sold out on Amazon Japan! Hope many fans get to grab this so Eriko can see just how much she is still beloved!!!!
OK< Time to take this one out for a SPIN!!!!!

A HUGE Eriko Tamura Christmas Gift to Myself!

My HUGE Eriko Tamura HAUL!

 I was a relative newcomer to the wonder and excitement of idol/artist Eriko Tamura’s catchy pop perfect melodies- As some of you may remember, I initially picked up her Greatest Hits collection after hearing her terrific song “Sukiyo”, and, falling in love with all the tunes I heard on that collection, wasted no time getting ahold of her ENTIRE domestic CD run!

Well, I dove right in to the Eriko Tamura goodness, and over the past year have been exhausting those albums for all their worth! Week after week I played those songs over and over, and then it occured to me that I hadn’t yet explored all the singles-only and B-side tracks from her yet!

There is this wonderful 80’s J-pop related site (which may or may not appreciate me mentioning here so I won’t name it) where you can download and listen to all of Eriko’s singles and B-sides,  and I was stunned to find a whopping SIXTEEN non-album songs, enough tracks to put together a whole new album! That new non-album mix became my new go-to to listen to on my walks, and it soon became apparent that I needed to get the physical copies of THESE CDs as well!!!

Going online, I was EXCITED to find a dealer in Japan who was selling 15 of her 16 singles in one amazing LOT!! This was PERFECT for me since I didn’t own ANY of her singles and would give me an almost complete set in one crack!

I must say I had some reservations when I saw the store was asking for 400 BUCKS for it- 400 bucks is like 25 bucks per single!!! Plus 24 bucks shipping. But when I looked CLOSER at the info, I saw the DREADED shipping note we all here in Hawaii hate to see: DOES NOT SHIP TO ALASKA OR HAWAII!

Well, that made my initial reluctance to drop 400 bucks on the lot a moot point! Sadly, there are way too many dealers in Japan who simply refuse to ship outside of Japan to places like Hawaii.

Then it occured to me-what about trying SURUGUYA, the place where I got my Erika Tamura CD albums from?? Visiting the site, I was THRILLED to find that they had ELEVEN of Eriko’s singles, and FURTHERMORE, at a VERY reasonable price! Each single averaged about 3-10 dollars, so affordable that I decided to grab a few of Eriko’s LASERDISCS as well! I also grabbed two of her anthology CDs, BALLADS and DISCOVERY, and sent in that order with fingers crossed!

WELL, JUST this week, my package came in, and I am beside myself with how GORGEOUS these collectibles are!

First off: the singles! It's been awhile since I was so thrilled getting a shipment of j-pop CD singles, a format which though long gone really holds a sentimental place in my heart as it was the format of choice in the golden era of J-pop for me! 

Locomotion Dream, Honki, Process, Domino, Reversible,Nijiiro No Namida,Little Darling, Suteki na Ame, Ningyo no T-Shirt, Kanashimi de wa Owaranai, these singles were SO beautiful, my only regret is that I can't get ahold of those old PIKO CD single plastic cases to encase these in for protection and an added gloss to them!

I keep forgetting that in the early days of the 3cm Single, they were REALLY trying to give the fan a bang for his/her buck- as I’ve shown in various singles of artists like Hikaru Nishida and ribbon, they tried to cram as much ‘goodies’ into the single as possible, and the Eriko singles for Locomotion Dream, Honki, Process and Domino are a good example: pull-out cards and even glossy photos!

Speaking of singles, there was a hidden gem in this shipment. When I put in the order for Eriko’s CD single of “Sukiyo’, I noted that for some reason, the cover artwork didn’t look like the pictures I had seen online. I chalked it up to being a later re-issue or something, but when I got it, I was thrilled to find that it was in fact a CD CASSETTE single!WOWW!

This was really exciting for me as I’ve NEVER owned ANY j-pop on cassettes, though several of my friends (who were into J-pop from the early, early days) did! Of course, this means that I will still have to eventually get my hands on a copy of the CD single itself, but as Sukiyo was the ‘ground zero’ song of Eriko’s that got me into her in the first place, I don’t mind owning it in several formats, and even hope to someday get in on 45 as well!

As I mentioned before, I’d already gotten all 8 of Eriko’s original CD releases, as well as her Greatest Hits collection, but there WERE a couple of CDs I didn’t have, a Ballad Collection as well as a later Greatest Hits package called DISCOVERY, the latter of which I resisted getting not only because I already had the songs but because I dislike the cover so much!! Why do idols all go through the phase of permed hair! Egads! Conversely, I also got the CDV of “Reversible” which, though I can’t even play it, has a cover which looks so beautiful I just HAD to have it!

As far as the Laserdiscs go, I got a Live Concert and two Video Collections! Must say, they are beautiful and I can’t WAIT to watch them as soon as I have the time to haul out my old creaky laserdisc player (which I HOPE still functions!) so I can watch ‘em!!! MOST looking forward to “Sweet Farewell” which was promoting her album “Shoujo de Iraretara",  one of my ALL TIME FAVE albums of hers, and I can't WAIT to see her do the songs LIVE!!

Such an AWESOME Eriko Tamura haul for someone like me in the midst of Eriko fandom, and do you know, with the price of those CD singles and the additional items like the CDs and the Laserdiscs, the bill only came out to 97 dollars! True, there was a shipping charge, but even with that and Suruguya’s modest commission fee, my grand total was STILL under 150 DOLLARS, a FAR cry from that $400 auction I would have gladly shelled out if I could have! So LUCKY I didn’t!

Favorite J-Pop Artists: Eriko Tamura!

 As you may recall I was first introduced to J-Pop singer Eriko Tamura a few months back when someone included a  very early performance of hers doing her single “Sukiyo”. I was entranced not only by her cute idol looks and style, but she had a really great voice that I fell in love with at first hear! Wanting to hear more, I purchased her “Golden Best” collection and was soon introduced to her entire singles output! 

I had fallen in love with Sukiyo for its cheerful, bubble-gummy pop sensibilities, but I was to note that for the most part, Eriko’s songs were more on the mature side (though of course entirely idolly) that leaned more towards R&B and ‘regular” Top 40 pop-rock.

No matter, because within a week’s worth of playing, I had fallen for all of her songs, especially tracks like “Reversible” and “Domino”. etc! It was then that I began venturing into her catalog of music, and thanks to some blessed niche 80’s J-pop sites, was able to grab MP3’s of some of her albums.

I must say that I was immediately captivated by Eriko’s album output. Each one was sooo good with tons of terrific songs that I soon found myself planning my entire days off around listening to them!!!

Some of the albums became BIG favorites of mine and I got to the stage of Eriko fandom that I wanted to own the physical CDs of them as well! Through online shop Surugu-ya I was able to get ahold of two Eriko CDs, including Ima no Watashi De… as well as my still hands-down favorite album from her, “Shoujo De Irareta”, but knew I would soon be wanting more!

Well, as of this past month, my love for Eriko’s music has reached an all-time high, and with  her songs constantly on play, decided to celebrate by purchasing ALL the remaining CDs I’d been missing in her catalog, May be Dream, Myself, Behind The Heart, Taiyo No Vacance, Der Traum and Sure!

 ...to make a COMPLETE collection of all Eriko’s 8 original studio album releases!!!

MAN, I cannot stress enough how much I’m loving these albums, and as I listen, I am constantly baffled why Eriko wasn’t more popular as an artist! She had the voice, the looks, and a HELLA lot of wonderful, catchy and groovy songs in her catalog!

More Bounty From Japan

 My latest shipment from Japan auctions using Suruga-ya for the first time, four classic Iyo Matsumoto CDs and two Eriko Tamura CDs!

Eriko Tamura: "Sukiyo"

One great thing about getting into a new genre of music is that there is a whole world of sounds and artists to hear, and though I’ve now been a fan of J-pop for over 25 years, there are still exciting new acts from years gone by that I’m discovering for the first time!
As some of you know, I’ve only recently become a big fan of 80’s artists like Yuki Saito (since 2017), Yu Hayami (since 2019) and Chiemi Hori (since 2020) and it was while watching a performance compilation of idols with them that I was introduced to my latest obsession!
The clip began with a very cute young girl dancing to a poppy dance intro, and I expected a little girl voice as well- but when this pretty  young girl began singing, she had a mature, smooth voice that belied her sweet and adorable looks..and OH!! What a CATCHY TUNE!
Her name was Eriko Tamura, and while I had known about her primarily as an actress (notably in Hideyoshi), this was the first time actually hearing and seeing her perform, and WOW, she was so GOOD singing this wonderful tune “Sukiyo”!!!

WELL! I just fell in LOVE with boht the song as well as Eriko herself and I needed to hear MORE!  Wanting to hear a full range of her stuff, I got her “Golden Best” Greatest Hits album which covered her singles from her debut in 1989 to 1995! Sounded like a good bet!

WELL, I  took the album for a spin and was promptly impressed by the entire collection! Songs so good, though I did note that only a few were very “idolly” like “Sukiyo", most of the others were more of a rock/pop feel like Mari Hamada or Yoko Oginome, no matter, they all kicked!! Now I’m curious about the rest of Eriko’s catalog. Thankfully there are a few dedicated 80’s forums where I can listen to some of her albums and get a feel for what i should get!!! Looks like I'm about to go down another wonderful 80’s fueled RABBIT HOLE!