My (Meager) Yoko Oginome CD Collection

Snapped this pic for an 80's J-Pop Facebook group, thought I'd post it up here for posterity as well~Yeah, it's not much of a collection but 80's J-pop is getting harder and harder to find so I consider it a success anyway!

An Energetic Ode To Yoko Oginome!

The girls of the Tomioka High School Dance Department (Osaka) gave a fiery show-stealing performance of Yoko Oginome's classic "Dancing Hero" song at this year's recent Event Dance Power SAKAI held at Sakai City Hall Square.

Two camera angles here, one showing the details of their intricate dance moves and one showing the full stage for the overall choreograph effect...MAN are these girls slick and TIGHT with their moves!!! SO IMPRESSIVE!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Some Yoko Oginome Goodness In The Mail

I'm a huge fan of 80's J-pop Dance Queen Yoko Oginome and try to get as many of her CDS as I can, but as most of her stuff is out of print, it's really hard to get ahold of some of them! 
Usually, the way I get them is to wait for a friend to go to Japan and see if they can find any of these elusive CDs for me, but occasionally you'll find someone selling a copy of a CD on ebay- and just the other week I checked and saw not one but TWO different sellers auctioning off several Yoko Oginome CDs I needed, and just today they came it!
 Yoko Oginome has released a box-set of her early releases (the box contained her first 6 CD albums) but she hasn't done so for any of her later releases. so it's up to me to get them all individually. slow going, but at times like this I strike gold and acquire a whole bunch of 'em at once!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Bounty From Japan

The next best thing to taking a trip to Japan myself is having friends who frequent the country, especially when it comes to finding hard-to-get items like out of print J-pop CDs which ain't easy to come across here in the USA. As you know I have a newfound interest in 80’s singer Yoko Oginome and was thrilled when my friend, on a recent trip to Osaka, managed to locate one of Yoko’s out of print albums, her awesome KNOCK ON MY DOOR. Not only was he able to get it, he found a FIRST EDITION copy, complete with deluxe slipcase and photobooklet!!

   Released in 1990, Knock on My Door continues in the Rocking tradition I fell in love with from her album NUDIST, man, all of these songs are so freaking good, and it blows my mind to realize she still has a TON of albums out there that I haven’t heard! Who knows which of these as-yet-undiscovered releases will be future faves!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Yoko Oginome "Nudist" Album Arrives!

  After being introduced to the wonders of awesome 80’s singer Yoko Oginome in a big way, I’ve been diving into her vast back catalog of stuff that I picked up on various (and generous) 80's pop forums. Holy Cow, Yoko Oginome, man, she's the real deal- So many of her albums have become much-played tracks in my car, Raspberry WInd, CD Rider, Knock On My Door, these are all solid rockers…And then there’s “Nudist”.

  Dubious title aside, this album is just about as perfect as an album can get! As the first non-compilation album of Yoko’s I listened to, I expected a lot of average tracks, what I got was a CD filled with so many powerful, hard-hitting songs that I had a hard time believing it wasn’t a collection of singles itself- with songs like, Joy Luck Club. She's Just a Rivla, Nudist, and my personal favorite “Don’t Let Me Down”, this rocking album is as strong as any of Yoko’s Greatest Hits packages out there. 

Though I've got two full Yoko Oginome Greatest Hits collections under my belt, Nudist was an album I just KNEW I had to have, and when I found a dealer in Japan selling a copy (for a mere 15 buck no less!) I ordered that baby right away, and just got int in today! Blasting it over the speakers right now and HOLY CRAP THIS ALBUM IS SO FREAKIN' GREAT!

Ahh, in a way I wish Nudist wasn’t the first proper Oginome Yoko album I heard because every subsequent album, while all good, haven’t reached the level of sheer awesomeness I felt hearing this one! A BIG fave!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

A New Old Favorite: Yoko Oginome

My First Oginome Yoko Purchase!

Up until recently, I wouldn’t say that I knew an awful lot about 80’s idol Yoko Oginome, though I liked the few songs I did know from her, but when I came across a newly updated version of her song “Dancing Hero (Eat You Up)” from her new 2014 album Dear Pop Singer, it totally knocked me out and made me pay attention!

 Now, I’d already known Dancing Hero and had even recently marveled at her awesome performance of it on this past year’s FNS Kayosai, but DAMN, there was something about this new PV that really got me going! It was stylish, it was catchy, and OH MY GOD was Yoko looking BEAUTIFUL! I must have watched the new video three or four times just taking in how gorgeous she was, soooo darn pretty and FIERCE, and after all these years!! I knew it was time I took a closer look at what this gal had to offer!
Going onto Youtube I was rewarded with an amazing handful of terrific live performances of some of Yoko’s biggest hits, including both songs I knew like Dancing Hero and Gallery, and introducing me to some new, exciting tracks like “Roppongi Junjouha”, “Dance Beat Yoake Made” and the stellar (and totally kick-ass) “Stranger Tonight” and “Wangan Taiyou Zoku”!  Even better, these clips were from the Glory Days of J-pop on shows like Yoru No Hit Parade and The Best Ten, complete with live backing band!

I was so taken in by the performances I saw that I no longer was satisfied with the meager downloaded MP3 files I had- it was time to get myself some proper Yoko Oginome CDs, and what better way to start than by picking up an all-encompassing Anthology Collection, and going online,  I found someone selling Yoko's awesome (and out-of-print) Double CD OGINOME YOKO HISTORY which fit the bill!!

 What an incredible collection! Like I said, I knew only a few songs from her before, but I wasn’t prepared for how freakin’ impressive her output was- each and every song was so strong, and Yoko’s voice was never cooler! I found myself taking walks playing this collection over and over and getting to know her better and better…MAN, I’m loving it so much that I’ve been downloading MP3s of some of her other albums… and DAMN, even THESE are freakin’ GREAT! Man, it looks like it may be time to make the leap to pure Yoko Oginome fandom!!!!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Bridging The Gap: FNS Kayousai 2013

FNS Kayousai 2013 with SMAP and those Familiar Chandeliers

  From just glancing at the guest list for this year’s FNS Kayousai Concert, I knew I was in for a trip down memory lane, and MAN! Did I EVER! From the very first chords of the FUN opening song “Shake” by SMAP, I KNEW I was in for one HELLUVA nostalgic trip! Sure, there were a lot of newer artists, but for me it was ALL ABOUT the 90’s throwback theme-so much FEELS!!!!

TOKIO Nagase Tomoya and Yamaguchi Tatsuya

 After a few of the newer acts,TOKIO came up, and doing one of my VERY favorite songs of theirs from yesteryear, AMBITIOUS TOKYO! Gotta tell ya, I was singing right along with them-Too bad it was a shortened version! Still love the parts where Tatsuya Yamaguchi sings his lines- I’ve always loved his voice in this song!

Fujii Fumiya: "I Love You, Sayonara"

Makihara Noriyuki Collaborated with Kis-My-Ft2 for his classic “Fuyu Ga Hajimaru”, Fumiya Fujii continued the Nostalgia vibe by performing “I Love You SAYONARA”, (his old CHECKERS hit) and  Moritaka Chisato teamed up with ABCZ for a most unexpected perf of her song…(wait for it…) “Jin Jin JingleBell”!

Moritaka Chisato and ABCZ

When Luna Sea came out with the opening strains of their rocking song “Rosier”, soon as I heard that drum intor and droning guitar line, I was all like “HECK YEAH!” Man, when I read the guests that were appearing on the show, I was already stoked to see them, little did I know that they’d be performing the hits I knew and LOVED so well!!

LUNA SEA: Rosier

Aikawa Nanase and Nakagawa Shoko

Looking pretty much the same as she did 15 years ago: Nanase Aikawa

Speaking of Rocking, the duet between Nakagawa Shoko and the original Japanese Pat Benatar Aikawa Nanase doing her song “Yume Miru Shoujo Ja Irarenai ” was pretty solid, and my GOSH, Nanase looks EXACTLY the same as she did 15 years ago! A little later she came out and performed another one of her BIG hits, "Break Out"!

TRF with Kusanagi Tsuyoshi

Then finally, one of the acts I was really looking forward to seeing came out, the original Tetsuya’s Rave Factory, TRF, and they went right into their signature song…EZ-DO Dance! Eh, wait, WHAT? EX Do Dance? Not Crazy Gonna Crazy? Awww…Oh Well, at least they didn’t do SURVIVAL Dance, that would have just been tragic! Moving on…

Duets: Kishidan and SCANDAL "One Night Carnival"

Besides all of these classic acts, of course a BIG part of the FNS Concert is having the artists collaborate with one another (like the groovy "One Night Carnival" by Kishidan and girl rockers SCANDAL)  or with the newbie artists singing along with the seasoned acts, and though all of them were interesting, the ones that really made me smile were the collabs between Go Hiromi, Yuzu and those pretty and genki Nogizaka46 girls, so much FUN, and the high-tension ROCKING “White Breath” duet between TM Revolution and Mizuki Nana!

Go Hiromi, YUZU, and Nogizaka46

Mizuki Nana and TM Revolution: White Breath

Such a thrill to see the 80's Idols of the past onstage once more, with girls like Yuki Saito, Yoko Minamino (still as adorable as ever!), Yui Asaka, Iyo Matsumoto, and even Yoko Oginome all singing their classics, now as fine looking ladies! Yoko Oginome, in particular (doing her 80’s hit “Dancing Hero”) shows she still gots the power to rev up the energy, gotta say! So Sexy and COOL!

Saito Yuki and Momoiro Clover Z

C-C- Girl!! Asaka Yui 

Minamino Yoko

Oginome Yoko

Matsumoto Iyo

Iwasaki Yoshimi wi E-Girls

Iwasaki Hiromi wi E-Girls again

My vote for best “Passing the Torch” of styles goes to the duet between Koda Kumi and original Sexy Vixen Linda Yamamoto, BOY they both like they were having fun!!

Koda Kumi and Yamamoto Linda

And my vote for “Strangest Collaboration" HAS to be the duet between Yashiro Aki and “Demon” Kogure…who in the world dreamed up such a duo? ? Even MORE strange than the pair-up is how Aki’s epic Enka style totally matched Kogure’s Overly Dramatic music PREFECTLY! Plus they were having such fun, ya just HAD to laugh!

Yashida Aki and Demon Kogure

And for touching moments, I have to admit, I got a bit teary-eyed watching Tomomi Kahala (along with Tetsuya Komuro) doing a VERY sweet rendition of “I’m Proud/I Believe”, though Tomomi’s mumbling to Komuro at the end WAS a bit awkward…what was up wit dat?

The spirit of this Concert was the cooperation between acts to bring new and exciting versions of songs, and nothing sums up the goodwill and happy vibe of the shpow better than the collaboration between E-Girls and SKE48 joining to sing their version of “Nandetatte IDOL”, proving that the power of Idols lives on!

Of course, besides all of these aforementioned perforamnces, there were a lot of artists singing their latest songs like Arashi, KinKi Kids,even Yamashita "Yamapi" Tomohisa doing his "Summer Nude" song, but for MY money, the real heeart of this show is the duets and NOSTALGIA! Aw, this was yet another GREAT year for the FNS, and I gotta say, the Kohaku has a LOT to follow up to! Thanks for the Memories!!!

PS: I noticed that this year they FINALLY got away from showing that darn Chandelier on the ceiling every time it came back from commercials, LOL!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com