Favorite J-Pop Singles: Zard / Nemurenai Yoru O Daite

By the time ZARD released their seventh album TODAY IS ANOTHER DAY, I was a MAJOR fan of their work, and made it a point to track down just about every abum  and Cd single that I could! All their albums were top-notch, but (for me, anyway) the three albums that really stood out were the aforementioned TODAY IS ANOTHER DAY,  their frist album proper MOU SAGASANAI, and what must be their finest album  of all, HOLD ME!

HOLD ME works on so many levels, it has so many of my favorite ZARD tracks here, and what holds the whole thing together and makes it a tight, concise piece is the way the songs are strung together and of course , the most important thing: a KICK-ASS beginning song , and that’s EXACTLY what  “Nemurenai Yoru O Daite” is!!! From its awesome majestic keyboard opening to the droning chugging of the guitars and powerful drum beats, this was a ZARD single par excellence!

 Besides being one of my all-time favorite songs from ZARD (along with the similar sounding  “Fushigi Ne” and “My Friend”), Nemurenai Yoru O Daite also has the distinct status of being one of only a few songs ZARD ever performed, and so when we saw the clips of them performing it on the MUSIC STATION 10 Year Anniversary Special, we went nuts!

In later years ZARD would actually go out and tour, but at the time seeing her singing on any TV shows was almost unheard of! It was thrilling enough just to see the band moving around  and playing onstage, but additionally, Izuki Sakai looked so damn pretty, we could hardly stand it! And so we watched those clips Over. And. Over. Again!

PS: Hahaha, Just noticed that during the interview part of the show, you can see Reiko and the rest of the CoCo girls behind the hosts! Ah, these really were the Golden Days!

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: Field Of View / Totsuzen

Theme song from the 1995 Pocari Sweat campaign! Another terrific song  written by the late Izumi Sakai of ZARD, and you can find her version on the terrific TOMORROW IS ANOTHER DAY album.
ZARD's version is an airy and sweet song, quite a different feel from this incredible gothic, chorus-laden version...Field Of View sure knew how to arrange and produce their singles for maximum effect, ne!
Field of View had already sung the absolutely pop-perfect KIMI GA ITAKARA, another great song by ZARD and subsequently another great single from Field Of View! Both songs were performed by the boys when they appeared as Music Champs on Hey! Hey! Hey!

PS: No, You're not imagining things...this post is an almost exact replica of Field Of View's previous post! AHAHAHAHA

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Mizuki Arisa / Promise To Promise

Theme song from the drama/comedy NURSE NO OSHIGOTO, starring Mizuki herself as the klutzy nurse-in-training Asakura, this was a show that started off as wacky and zany as could be, but somehow always seemed to end each episode on a somber/poignant note. And that's a good thing, too, because Promise to Promise just has to be one of Arisa's most beautiful songs, a dreamy tune that makes one feel thoughtful and lonely (at least, that the effect if always had on ME) and it just wouldn't have matched with those early scenes of Asakura dropping needles all over the floor for comedic effect! (and in these days of malpractice and lawsuits, I wonder who the heck would think this was funny anyways! AHAHAHAHA)

The wacky scenes were VERY wacky, and yet, the serious episodes were REALLY  touching, and after it was over, I remember making a copy of the series for my friend Golden, who watched Asakura zanily banging around the Hospital and dropping medications for about 10 minutes before turning off the tape and giving it back to me!


I told him, 'But it gets better! Trust me, only the openings of the episodes are crazy- This is a REALLY GOOD drama! But he just couldn't make it through the silliness and shrugged his shoulders! AHAHAHAHA!

Favorite J-Pop Singles: L<->R / Knocking On Your Door

Theme song for the extremely funny and heartfelt drama BOKURA NI AI O! (Give Us Love!!) starring Eguchi Yosuke, Takeda Shinji and Suzuki Anju (looking particularly yummy here!)

Eguchi runs a dilapidated rooming house filled with equally dilapidated boarders (among them the always quirky Kokubun Taichi of TOKIO!), but he find a goal to strive for when cutie stewardess Anju Suzuki and friends move into next door’s fancy hotel.

Whenever I hear this song, I can’t help picturing the opening credits for the show… so wacky, they've even got Eguchi and the gang lip-synching to the song, happily playing away on instruments and dancing as the credits rolled!

Arg, another song I tried once upon a time (very unsucessfully) to sing at karaoke...

Favorite J-pop Singles: Nakayama Miho and WANDS / Sekaijuu no Dare Yori Kitto

Watching this live video the other night, I was surprised to realize that I hadn't written up something in honor of this awesome single earlier, and in fact, I had to go through my pages one by one to make sure I didn't, 'cause I sure THOUGHT I did!


Taking the solid rock beats and vocalising of group WANDS (whom I've written about before here) and adding the sweet, sweet vocals of petite Miss Nakayama, and you had SUCH an INSPIRED winning combination! Already known to me just by word of mouth, I finally got to see a MUSIC STATION performance of this song, and MAN, was I hooked! The band sounded great, but of course what really sold it was cute li'l Miho, and she had this certain stance that she took during this song, one foot in front of the other, arms crossed and gently bumping along with the rhythm of the tune...!

I've gotten quite a few performances of Miho doing this song since, and it's neat that she takes that killer pose in each and every one of them! Not to mention lookin' pretty as heck!

Kohaku Uta Gassen 2007

Nakai and Shofukutei, note Sayumin looking adorable as heck in the background!

 Well, I have to say that this yer's Kohaku Uta Gassen (or, rather, the Red and White Song Festival) was a pretty straight forward event, and resonated (at least with me) as about as average on the whole scale of Kohakus, anyway. I should have known things would be  meh when I saw that for the first time, they were gonna use two GUYS as the Red and White Captains, respectively Nakai Masahiro for the Red (Female) Team and Tsurube Shōfukutei for the White (Male) Team. How off is THAT?

Apart from that diversion from the traditional, the show went off without hitch and there were a few acts I thought stood out for me...

The Princesses and the Queen:

Morning Musume started the show with an explosion of girlish playfulness...and then Kenichi Mikawa followed with this year’s example of excessive gaudiness! 

 

 

Once again, the Kohaku proved that Enka is still alive and well, and like last year, Yoko Nagayama did her always fierce performance of "Jonkara Onna Bushi", rockin' that Shamisen while growling out those lyrics and delivering the steeliest gaze ever...

And they had cute young girl groups backing up the seasoned pros, this time with Shoko Nakagawa and AKB48 backing up Natsuko Godai...

Kohaku Regulars TOKIO were back again, this time performing their rocker "Seisyun", that cool little theme song from the terrific Nagase Tomoya/Aibu Saki drama "Utahime"...

Nakamura Mitsuko was the one to ring in the “matsuri” stage…

The Shakalabbits- flavoured Mihimaru GT roused the crowd

WaT did their best Simon and Garfunkel….

We had the reunion of Kiyoshi Maekawa and Cool Five…

Enka goodness with Kaori Kozai

We got a TREAT with the reunion of the awesome KOME KOME CLUB, back in rare form performing their old classic hits like Kimi Ga Iru Dake and Roman Hikou!

Ai Otsuka came on to deliver the funniest, zaniest and most eccentric performance of the night, with the bouncy fun "Chu-Lip"!

K-pop Diva BoA wows! 

And speaking of WOWing, even Kimutaku can’t hide his awe at the epic pyrotechnics of Satomi Kobayashi!

 

A softer side of Kumi Koda...

A strangely ghoulish performance by Mika Nakashima…

Ayumi Hamasaki knocks it out of the park as usual

While Gackt does his Taiga Drama performance (in full get-up!!!)

Next we had 80's veteran Noriyuki Makihara come on, but wasn't his performance of his song "Green Days" that did it for me as much as the admiring gaze of adorable Yui Aragaki watching over him as he sang the theme to the drama "Love and Farm"...

Gakky watching Makihara perform

...she approves!

Speaking of which, there was not one but TWO cuties on the judges table this year, with not only Yui Aragaki, but Aoi "Atsuhime" Miyazaki in attendance!

 

 

For me, the absolute highlight of the evening was the incredible performance of "Winding Road" by the smooth sounds of Kobukuro duetting with the stellar vocals of singer AYAKA, man, such a  great song, such a COOL delivery, I loved it! Ah, and wasn't Ayaka just sooooooo PRETTY?! YES!

What Kohaku can be complete without seeing Saburo Kitajima with confetti in his hair (and,occasionally, in his mouth)?

But they seem to be shuffling around the younger acts in recent years, and instead of Saburo Kitajima, we had acts like the mighty Dreams Come True as the penultimate act...

...And having SMAP close the Red and White is definitely something I’ll have to get used to…. 

All in all a fun time!
Well, that was about it for me, We'll see what they come up with NEXT year!

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Zard / Anata wo Kanjite Itai

Another terrific single off of that first J-pop mix I got, (and truthfully, when you consider that that tape was the thing that more or less INTRODUCED me to the world of J-pop, pretty much EVERY song on that cassette is gonna be a certified “fave”!) “Anata wo Kanjite Itai” was the very first song I ever heard from the beautiful stylings of Izumi Sakai and ZARD, a group (or artist, whichever) that would go on to become one of my favorites!

ZARD always seemed like a mystery to me- I never saw them performing on any of the TV shows I watched, and even their CD covers all had this very vague look to them, complete with washed out colors and that famous ZARD logo, but I remember wanting to know more about them! At the time, Zard’s  sixth album FOREVER YOU had just come out, but a guy at work made copies of  his  ZARD albums  Oh My Love and Yureru Omoi  which became the first albums I heard, and they were in fact the first non-CoCo j-pop albums I listened to!

When I first heard Anata wo Kanjite Itai, I figured ZARD to be a kind of dreamy, poppy type of band, but listening to Oh My Love and Yureru Omoi, found they really touched upon all genres of music, from gentle love songs to Beatlesy tunes to almost hard-rock!

By the time TODAY IS ANOTHER DAY came out, ZARD was just about my favorite group, and I remember those days of frantically trying to trace down each and every album and single release! And boy, in the days before the internet, IT WAS HELLA HARD!!!! Ah, but boy, was it worth it!!!

Favorite J-Pop Singles: DEEN / Love Forever

When I received my 5th J-pop cassette Mix from my friend in April of 1996, I was blown away by not just one but two new Hirose Kohmi songs, two new Mr. Children songs, and a couple of songs from a cool rockin’ band I’d never heard before, DEEN! What a terrific group this was!

In a way it was like getting a crash course in DEEN goodness because the two songs that opened up side two of that cassette mix were just about their best songs ever: the catchy whimsical HITOMI SORASANAIDE and the dramatic rock ballad LOVE FOREVER!

Lead Singer Ikemori Shuichi’s vocals always sound great, and I have to say that in LOVE FOREVER, they’ve never sounded better, especially the parts that are double tracked and he’s harmonizing with himself! And that B-GRAM music style of the band sounds so much like ZARD, it almost feels like he’s subbing for Izumi while she takes a breather!

PS: Picked up DEEN’s greatest hits package KISEKI, and was shocked to find out that these were NEW versions of Hitomi Sorasanaide and Love Forever!!! Gack! Lucky I kept my hands on those original singles!!!

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Tamura Naomi / Yuzurenai Negai

Incredible single from Naomi Tamura, the lead singer of kick-ass rock group PEARL (which featured some prolific musicians like Carmine Appice of Vanilla Fudge fame and Tony Franklin) with her solo outfit!
The first time I saw her was on this Music Station special, and I was floored by her powerful voice. The song was “Yuzurenai Negai”, a song I would later see her do on that year’s Kohaku as well! What a Gal!!!

Naomi made a few more rocking singles, and then, strangely enough, I suddenly stopped hearing from her after that! I DID notice Tower Records started carrying various PEARL Cds after this…did the group reform, cutting Naomi’s solo venture short?

Anyway, here's Yuzurenai Negai to wrap your ears around...let the rocking begin!

Favorite J-pop Singles: Mr. Children / Theme of "ES"

My friend Dave made a cassette tape for me that ended with this incredible, epic song from Mr. Children. What a perfect closer to any compilation! Although he'd already introduced me to the music of Mr. Children on an earlier mix with their peppy single See-Saw Game, it was the "Theme of ES" tune that really caught my ear!

A song that starts off silently, with only an acoustic guitar strumming along with the vocals, as slowly, elements enter the song, violin strings, a VERY George Harrison-ish guitar refrain, all building up to a big finish that segues into a gentle ending...

But...what the heck is “ES”, anyway?! Was it some show or something?

プリンセス・プリンセス and 森高千里

   Besides being two of my favorite J-pop bands,Princess Princess and Chisato Moritaka had a pretty close relationship going on at the time.I would frequently see pictures of Princess Princess concerts where Chisato came onstage to perform a song or just to say hello the audience, and Chisato was one of the guests (along with Arisa Mizuki and Hiroko Moriguchi) who helped send off Princess Princess on their final Music Fair appearance.

   Recently browsing through the various Princess Princess clips uploaded on Youtube, I came across two performances featuring Chisato Moritaka and Princess Princess signing together onstage, one featuring Chisato singing "Diamonds" with the girls, and this incredible performance of the group backing up Chisato on her KOKON TOZAI song "Teriyaki Burger"... I just love this clip, because besides the fact that Puri Puri's skills and singing really beef up the song,I love watching the SHEER JOY they're all having performing, especially Kaori!

This terrific performance is from the 1991 NHK Xmas Pop & Rock Special. Sugoi!

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Ribbon / Circus Parade

Ribbon’s ZOKU HARLEM NIGHT JOINT 1992 concert is without a doubt the live event that all Ribbon Concerts before and after must compare- the performances are absolutely ROCKING- the girls are in top form: pretty and enthusiastically singing their hearts out, and having a terrific live band playing behind them just made the songs come alive!! And special mention MUST be made for the girls’ outfits in the last set, which started out as a neon patchwork oversized suit, but slowly peeled down to a micro-short dress!

The “suite” in which this costume dress-down occurred filled up most of Side Two of the Zoku disc, and ended up closing the concert, as well. This awesome run of songs included songs that would go on to become my all-time favorites from ribbon! And while most of this set consisted of then-current songs like Deep Breath and Sensational Wind, the set also introduced me in a BIG WAY to a couple of their older songs that would go on to become big faves, including a then-little-known song called “Circus Parade”, a happy and bubbly song with choreography composed of happily skipping and sashaying around the stage, and when combined with the costume reveal of the girls in these pretty gypsy printed skirts, I was all in!

Later, as I began to collect all of the ribbon albums I could get my hands on, I was concerned to realize that “Circus Parade” wasn’t on any of their CDs as I frantically checked and re-checked the listings on the backs of the albums. It was only with the advent of the Internet that I was to find that Circus Parade was only available as a B-side for ribbon’s second single Sobani Iru Ne!

Well, At least I knew what to look for! I’d been trying to get my hands on all of ribbon’s singles anyway, but somehow it wasn’t until I found out about OTOKICHI PREMIUM did I finally get those elusive singles I was missing, including Circus Parade!

Upon hearing the real track for the first time, I was surprised at how much the song actually sounded like a “circus” song, as they featured keyboards emulating carnival calliope merry-go-round music, an effect that had been absent from that initial live performance. It was soo cool to hear the song in its original state, but listening to it made me want to run back and watch the live performance again!

Favorite J-pop Singles: Kudoh Shizuka / Kuchibiru Kara Biyaku

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!

Favorite J-pop Singles: Moriguchi Hiroko & Dual Dream / Let’s Go!

Back in the early days of j-pop, I would hang out at j-pop guru Dan's house, and we’d watch the latest japanese shows like Hey Hey Hey Music champ and Pop Jam on Fridays. Another fave for us to watch was a show called “Yume Ga Mori Mori”, which starred SMAP and Moriguchi Hiroko. The reason we loved watching it so much was that it was the one show airing that still featured CoCo as guests, often joining in their soccer games and other activities.

After awhile we really started loving the show, Hiroko Moriguchi and SMAP were so darn funny, and the skits I still have on VHS tapes stil crack me up! In my opinion this show did a lot in the way of showcasing the talents of SMAP with the various clips and "mock documentaries"...

Anyway, There was this one particular clip that really entertained us: Hiroko Moriguchi is attempting to sing her latest single “Let’s Go!” with Dual Dream, but she keeps flubbing her lines. At first she's laughing and joking about it, but after a while, she becomes more and more serious as she CANNOT GET THROUGH THE SONG WITHOUT MAKING A MISTAKE! For some reason, they get Nakai Masahiro and Kimura Takuya to come over and give her a “pep talk”, which actually more or less involved them kind of hanging around her.

Then after many, many takes, they try to knock out the song one more time, and much to Hiroko’s relief, she FINALLY GETS IT! She lets out a breath of exhaustion, she’s finally finished the song, and more than that, she’s done her job promoting it, because after hearing her sing (more or less) the single over and over, we’d all just fallen in love with the song, and had to go out and buy it!

Favorite J-Pop Singles: GLAY / Glorious

Another song given to me to learn for that j-pop band. Unlike the WANDS song that was learned but never played, we actually DID try this one out a few times, although the fact that I can’t remember a thing about it makes me think our performance wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be! Ahahahaa

I remember that back in the day, NGN would broadcast Hey Hey Hey during the evening, and play it once more in the morning telecast. I'd gone over to a friend's house and had woken him up. As he groggily got up, he turned on the TV and began making coffee. I was sitting on a stool, when the familiar droning guitar chords came bursting into the room, and I said, "HEY! I know this song...it's one of the ones that I was supposed to learn for that j-pop band!"
As the song went into it's chorus, I sang right along:

"Koi ni koi Kogare koininaku kokoro kaRAA ah itoshii Oh TEENAGE MEMORIES!!"

To which my friend started cracking up, saying, "Why, You DO know this song!" AHAHAHAHA!

Of course, this was only the beginning for Glay, who would later go on to take over Japan like Godzilla. 
A kick-butt song which featured an equally awesome c/w song called "Believe In Fate"!
Though I never got a chance to tape that fateful Hey Hey Hey episode, I WAS able to catch them performing it on the next week's POPJAM, and here it for your perusal!

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Sharan Q / Zuruionna

I used to go over to my friend Dano’s house to watch Japanese music shows on NGN like POPJAM and Music Fair, but probably our favorite show was HEY HEY HEY, where we got to see not only the latest acts, but got updated on the Top Ten Chart Action as well.(with Video clip accompaniment!)

We learned a lot of new faces just watching those top ten segments each week, and there were a few that always seemed to be at the tops of the charts. Some artists we liked (like Amuro Namie and trf) while others were mostly unknown to us (like Globe and the mighty B'z), but there was ONE artist that would always elicit jeers from Dan, and that was  SHARAN-Q, the rock group led by the then-relatively-unknown vocalist TSUNKU.

Every time they would show up on the screen, Dan would groan and say, " Sheesh, it's that group with that dude who dresses up like a GIRL again!" I'd look at the screen and laugh, for that guy on the TV was indeed the most flamboyant performer  there (and in the mid-nineties, that's saying something!) and at the time I actually wondered if Sharan Q was part of that (at the time up-and-coming) Visual Kei acts.

A few weeks later  I receive a new j-pop mix from my friend at work, and I'm instantly taken in by the beautiful opening song by Dreams Come True called "Thank You" (or Sankyu if you gonna get all technical on me) and am floating on a cloud...til I'm suddenly  yanked out of my haze by the blaring opening horns of the next song, a zany and wackily sung jazzy number called "Zuruionna" (Cunning Woman), and I have to say I wasn't all that surprised to find that the group singing the song was none other than those ethereal girly men from the charts, Sharan Q themselves!

That song itself was followed by another beautiful song with Okamoto Mayo's Tomorrow, and this perfect blend of styles complimented  each other so well, that I listened to it all the time and then soon enough(Dan forgive me), I actually started to LIKE Zuruionna! Then came their performance on that year's Recordo Taisho and the Red and White , where I was to realize: They ain't Visual Kei- they jus' KRAZEEE!

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Wands / Ai wo Kataru Yori Kuchizuke Wo Kawasou

I was given this single years to learn for the j-pop rock band I was in for a few years, but we never did get around to playing it! It didn’t matter though, because by the time I was told it wasn't going to be part of our repertoire,I had already fallen in love with the song!

Awesome song, great drums, especially that double-bass kick throughout the tune…woulda been real fun to play it!