Favorite J-Pop Singles: TOKIO / Love And Peace

Next up is the theme song for the Masahiro Matsuoka Family Comedy/Drama of the same name, LOVE AND PEACE!
The show starred Matsuoka as Horiguchi Kenta, a young detective whose marriage plans fall to the wayside when his older brother and wife pass away, leaving him to raise their three precocious and sometimes ungrateful kids! Of course, as each episode goes by, they learn to rely on and trust each other, and by the final episode, they truly have become a “Happy Family”!

I also developed quite a hankering for actress Aiko Sato, who played Kenta’s fiancee Asuka, and one thing that really stuck out (literally) as one of her striking features were those ears of hers! In fact, I remember even in the drama, when Matsuoka imitated her, he spoke in a girly voice and pulled his ears out! OH my GOSH that was TOO FUNNY!

Aiko Sato would later appear as one of the teachers in the Norika Fujiwara drama NAOMI and would continue to make appearance on TOKIO shows like MENTORE G even YEARS later!

After about three episodes, the theme song for the song had pretty much turned into my favorite tune to listen to, and I knew I had to have it! I moseyed on down to Hakubundo that weekend, and picked up a beautiful specially packaged CD single of the song! The cover was a fold out, lyric sheet included, and they even had a card of the group inside!


If I thought the song was a fave when I only knew the TV show version, well, I was in for a surprise because the complete song was even BETTER! It was one of the few songs that I made a point to learn EVERY word of, so I could sing along with it!


A few weeks later, a friend of mine flew into town, and she suggested we all go out singing Karaoke, and I immediately agreed, exclaiming how I’d been just DYING to go! So we get down there, and after the preliminary preparations of ordering the drinks and snacks, set about flipping through the scattered karaoke books, looking for songs to sing.
My friend had already started on her second song before I realized a horrible truth…Love and Peace was TOO NEW! It hadn’t made it’s way into the latest karaoke books!


“Oh No!” I wailed, “The VERY SONG I came here to sing isn’t in here!”


Now this friend of mine wasn’t into J-pop in the least, the songs SHE wanted to sing were songs like “Zero” by Smashing Pumpkins and “Incense and Peppermints” by the Strawberry Alarm Clock(!), so it was no surprise when her only comment was, “So you can’t get what you want… so what!- GET OVER IT!” We all laughed, and I made the best of the situation by resorting to my “usual” songs to sing.

Later, she said she wanted to order a specific drink from the menu, and when she was told it wasn’t available, she said “, “Aw Crap, I really wanted to drink that!” Then I perked up, and in perfect mock tone of her earlier comment, said, , “So you can’t get what you want… so what!- GET OVER IT!” We ROARED with laughter, as she groaned, “Ooh…I HATE Taking My Own Advice!”!
Fortunately, by the next time I visited a Karaoke bar, LOVE AND PEACE was securely situated in the books, and I made sure I sang it not only THEN, but EVERY subsequent time I’ve EVER gone to sing Karaoke! Sure, It’s one of my fave songs, but I’m pretty sure the real reason I always make a point to sing it is out of SPITE, forever making up for the initial time it was denied me...!!

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Nishida Hikaru / C'mon, C'mon, C'mon

The theme song for the wacky drama Natsu! Depart Monogatari starring Tatsuya Yamaguchi of TOKIO fame as the bumbling but hard working department store clerk whose dream is to become a first rate employee and date the daughter of the company, played by Hikaru Nishida!

Though this show was fun and entertaining, I must warn anyone wanting to check this drama out for the sole purpose of seeing Nishida Hikaru: She 's hardly in it at ALL! Far from what you might think by the promotional picture. (above) Hikaru only appears at random points in the show to smile at or encourage Yamaguchi as he bumbles earnestly through the latest problem! Sigh...but she does look nice when she's onscreen!

C'mon, C'mon, C'mon (or rather, C'mon3, as it's REALLY titled) played during the ending credits as the cast members all gathered together at the beach to play volleyball, followed by the TOKIO song “Soko Na Shi Love” as the previews for the next week’s episode ran...

Maybe it was the visual of the kids playing volleyball and having fun or the sheer poppiness of the song, but this tune always seemed like a really “genki” song, sure to put a smile on your face!

A nice bonus to picking up the C’Mon3 single was the c/w song called “Go Beep”, which is a great, catchy little song she performed live on the “Live 2-4” tour that isn’t available on any album!

Below: Behind The Scenes via BOMB Magazine:

BOMB really was CHOCK full of good stuff for the budding J-pop/Idol enthusiast!

Favorite J-Pop Singles: TOKIO / Love You Only

The highlights of the 1994 NHK Red and White Fetival, or Kouhaku, as they call it, were Sakamoto Fuyumi's ikebana styled "Yuzakura Oshichi", Matsuda Seiko's girly-girly "Kagayaita Kistetsu E Tabidatou", X-Japan's rocking "Rusty Nail" Moritaka Chisato dancing on a cake performing "Suteki Na Tanjoubi", and the first-ever performance I ever saw of Johnny's band TOKIO singing their debut single "Love You Only"!

At the time, I was all about the Otomejuku Idol girls like CoCo, ribbon and Wink , but there was something irresistably catchy about this TOKIO song! It had such a hook that It made me ignore the fact that these were a bunch of dudes, all dressd up in white costumes trimmed with bird feathers! But what WAS it?

We were to find out that the musician who wrote the music for "Love You Only" was the writer responsible for MANY of our beloved CoCo and ribbon songs, too (I think CoCo's ONEGAI HOLD ME TIGHT was one of them!)! It's like they say...everything's connected, well at least as far as j-pop in the mid-nineties!

This song has ALWAYS been an absolute favorite to sing at karaoke: the better drunk to belt out those catch-and-call choruses...KIMI GA, KIMI GA ATSUI KOISURU NARA!!!!!!

Of coure, TOKIO was just the beginning, and I would go on to love groups like SMAP as well as groups that came along a lot later like ARASHI, V6 and the unstoppable KINKI KIDS!

"One More Time!"