Ongaku I like and some music, mostly

The title says it all. I sometimes discover music (and ongaku) I like and that I never heard before and I'll post it here for your listening pleasure. I'll also post some of my favourite music. Occasionally I will also write something about certain artists / tracks and how I discovered them. The music I'll post here may also vary stylistically, from Pop, J-Pop, Rock to Jazz, Electronica, Classical, etc. and it will be in different languages.

[musicalongaku]

佐野量子　ゴリラの目ん玉

#佐野量子 みんなのうた　フェスティバル1989年12月23日@昭和女子大学人見記念講堂

Ryoko Sano - 「ゴリラの目ん玉」 ("Gorilla no mendama") (1989).

Lyrics by Yasushi Akimoto. Music by Asei Kobayashi. Arranged by Kazunori Seki.

Happy Birthday to Ryoko!

お誕生日おめでとうございます！

Here is a live performance of her "Minna no Uta" song.

ゴリラの目ん玉 | NHK みんなのうた

【うた】佐野量子【作詞】秋元康【作曲】小林亜星【映像アニメ】アニメ：堀田アツコ【初回放送】1989年12月〜1990年01月　#みんなのうた #ゴリラの目ん玉 #佐野量子

The original animation with the recorded version of the song used to be on youtube, but it seems to have been removed. All the best wishes to her!

[musicalongaku]

https://youtu.be/06LwSZ5Q4b0

Hikaru Nishida - "Nice-catch!" (1988).

Lyrics by Ikki Matsumoto. Composed and arranged by Tetsuji Hayashi.

Happy (belated - if you're in Japan) birthday to Hikaru Nishida!

Here is her 2nd single, which was one of the first songs by her that I discovered.

I couldn't find the music video in decent quality, but here is an old dailymotion upload in about 240p:

The only proper live singing performance I found:

And as a bonus, a sort-of-live version with her jumping around in some sort of swimsuit/bikini.

[musicalongaku]

"Willow's Theme" from "Willow" (1988).

Composed and conducted by James Horner. Performed by The London Symphony Orchestra and The King's College Choir, Wimbledon.

Yesterday was the late great James Horner's birthday, so happy belated birthday to him.

This is one of my favourite themes composed by him.

Maybe I'll be back to posting more here.

[musicalongaku]

Ryoko Sano - 「レタスの恋愛レポート」　("Lettuce no renai report") (1987).

Lyrics by Ikki Matsumoto. Composed by Kazuo Zaitsu. Arranged by Motoki Funayama.

Happy Birthday to Ryoko Sano! Here is another one of my favourites.

Live performance:

Bus tour live performance:

https://youtu.be/tOqZ4aa8Kks

[musicalongaku]

涙 止まらない　-　西田ひかる 2

Hikaru Nishida - 「涙止まらない」 ("Namida tomaranai") (1993)

Lyrics by Jun Satou. Composed and arranged by Ken Takahashi.

A bit late, since it was yesterday on August 16th, so Happy belated Birthday to Hikaru Nishida!

This is one of my favourite songs of hers.

Slightly better quality with watermarks:

https://youtu.be/2PRyNx6WIAs

Live performance: https://youtu.be/S2dnCfOvkmA

[musicalongaku]

Megumi Odaka - 「砂の時期」 ("Suna no toki") (1988)

Lyrics by Eiko Kyo. Composed and arranged by Tsugutoshi Goto

Happy birthday to Megumi Odaka!

This is the coupling song / B-side from her 2nd single "Blue Wind".

Hope you enjoy it.

[musicalongaku]

Marina Watanabe - 「パノラマでMerry Christmas」　("Panorama de Merry Christmas") (1987).

Music and Lyrics by Tomoko Tane.

Arranged by Satoshi Takebe.

Merry Christmas!

Here is a favourite of mine from Marina Watanabe's mini album "Christmas Tales" which I got earlier on vinyl this year.

Hope you enjoy it.

[musicalongaku]

Yumi Tanimura - 「BLUEじゃいられない」　("Blue ja irarenai") (1990)

Lyrics by Yumi Tanimura. Composed and arranged by Tatsuya Nishiwaki.

Recently I've been listening to Yumi Tanimura's songs and discovered (or rediscovered...maybe I've heard it before) this one, which I have been listening to repeatedly.

It's quite catchy and I like that mix of pop with flourishes of jazz.

Here are some live performances:

谷村有美「BLUEじゃいられない 」(Live in Budokan '92)

ライブビデオ「feel mie 1991-1992」より。8th Single (友達c/w)作詞：谷村有美　作曲・編曲：西脇辰弥

[musicalongaku]

Koichi Sugiyama - 「天空城」 ("Sky Castle") from "Dragon Quest V: Tenku No Hanayome".

Performed by Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra.

Conducted by Koichi Sugiyama.

After hearing about Koichi Sugiyama's passing recently, I decided to listen to his score for "Dragon Quest V" again (the only one in the Dragon Quest series I have on CD).

I'd say this is probably one of my favourite pieces of his from this particular score at least.

The original SNES (Super Famicom) version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXtYhmkr1Fg

It reminds me of a bit of Bach's "Air" from his "Suite No. 3".

May he rest in peace!

[musicalongaku]

Ryoko Sano - 「贈り物」 ("Okurimono") (1987).

Lyrics by Ryoko Sano.

Composed and arranged by Ginji Ogawa.

Happy Birthday to Ryoko Sano!

お誕生日おめでとう、佐野量子！

Here is a song from her only live album "Fantastic", released in 1987.

It's the first song she wrote the lyrics for herself.

Ginji Ogawa also composed the stage music for the concert.

Here is a acapella version she performed during a bus tour for some fans:

Hope she is having or had a great birthday today (depending on the time zone)!

[musicalongaku]

Natural Summer days　-　西田ひかる 2

Hikaru Nishida - Natural Summer Days (1989).

Lyrics by Yukinojo Mori. Composed by Kouji Makaino. Arranged by Satoshi Nakamura.

Sorry to anyone who has been following me and expecting new posts. I sort of lost the motivation to post on this blog over the years, but I will try to post again once in a while.

I'm back to post for Hikaru Nishida's birthday, which is/was today, depending on the time zone you live in.

It's actually a repost of a song I posted when I started this blog back in 2012.

Hope you enjoy this classic (I mean the song AND the post).

Here is a live TV performance as well:

[musicalongaku]

Faye Wong - "Miss You Night And Day" (1992)

Original written by Edmonds (Babyface), D. Bristal, S. Johnson

Cantonese lyrics by Li Mou Zhou

Arranged by Yi Cong Tang

Long time no post here...

Here is a cover of "Two Occasions" by The Deele, performed by Chinese singer Faye Wong, also known as "The Diva".

Actually, this is a cover of the extended "live" remix found on the 12" release of the song, to be specific.

Anyway, I really liked it, particularly Faye's vocals.

Original music video (the one I posted extended the video to fit the full song length):

https://youtu.be/0PnhijDQIe0

The 12" original version:

https://youtu.be/KUQLTOp9xXQ

[musicalongaku]

Elsa & Glenn Medeiros - “Un Roman d’Amitié” (1988)

Lyrics by Didier Barbelivien and Diane Warren. Music by Robbie Buchanan.

I think this is my first post of a French (or partly French) song.

I discovered the singer Elsa recently and this is one of my favourite songs performed by her. This may not sound all that special for a ballad produced in the 80s, but I think it’s just really nicely arranged and I think Elsa’s and Glenn’s voices complement each other quite well. It made me think “They don’t make them like this anymore”, however tired that expression may be. I also like the fact that it’s co-written by Diane Warren and Robbie Buchanan, two names I had seen in the liner notes on other albums (Warren wrote several songs for “Chicago 19″, Buchanan was a session keyboard player on many albums). Besides that, the video gives you a nice glimpse of L.A. in the late 80s.

If you’re interested, there’s also a full English version of the song, which changed the lyrics to be about a relationship rather than a friendship. The arrangement also differs a bit (at least the drums and guitars in parts). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kt0E9omsGA

There’s also a version with Ria Brieffies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kt0E9omsGA

I also found this Cantonese cover performed by Pat Chan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrRRwbYhsaY And this cool instrumental cover: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tPrvhR5zVo

Okay, enough links for this post. Hope you enjoy it!

[musicalongaku]

Iyo Matsumoto - 「きっと忘れるから」(”Kitto wasureru kara”) (1990) 

Lyrics by Megumi Ayukawa. Music by Sachiko Kumagai. Arranged by Hiroshi Shinkawa.

Please excuse the lack of posts on this blog during this and last year.  To rectify this I’m sharing this excellent energetic J-Pop from the early 90s that I came across recently. Like often the case I only discovered this because some composer I like wrote the music for this. In this case it’s Sachiko Kumagai, whose composition reminds me of her later solo work. This is actually one of the earliest songs I found for which she composed the music, the earliest being “Koi no recipe” by Noriko Sakai.

Besides that, I also like Iyo Matsumoto’s performance. Apparently she was rather successful as an idol during the 80s and this was her last single. After that she focused on TV drama and shows, though she did make a comeback as a singer years later. Definitely a great song to release as the last single!

NOTE: Unfortunately the above video is blocked in the U.S., so anyone from the U.S. may have to use a service or add-on to unblock said video.  

[musicalongaku]

JUN - “Make Me Your Lady” (1989)

Original music and lyrics by Dieter Bohlen. Japanese lyrics by KOHKI.

Stumbled upon this recently in my youtube suggestions and I was quite surprised when it said that Dieter Bohlen wrote this song.

The original song was called “She’s a lady”, written for Dieter Bohlen’s solo project “Blue System” in 1986, but apparently later popularized by Les McKeown, a British singer and member of the group “Bay City Rollers”, whom Dieter also produced.

The song itself is pretty decent, it sounds like many of the 80s italo disco hits of the time. 

I don’t know how this ended up in Japan, but it seems like the Bay City Rollers and Les McKeown’s solo work had some success there.

This Japanese version slightly changed some of the arrangements (for the better, IMO). I gotta say, I like how their dancing, especially that one guy doing a short breakdance routine.  Unfotunately, I can’t find anything on “JUN”. It seems that this was all she did.

If you’re interested, you can check out Dieter Bohlen’s (Blue System’s) original and Les McKeown’s version:

Blue System: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8o1k1rzWLfA (Is that Leonard Nimoy’s aka Mr. Spock’s voice at the beginning? I wonder if they got the permission to use it )

Les McKeown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hLvnjnWBlA

[musicalongaku]

Kyoko Isobe - 「失恋志願」（“Shitsuren Shigan”） (1989)

Follow-up to my previous post. 

This is the B-side to Kyoko’s single “Fujun?”.

An excellent slow jam.

[musicalongaku]

Kyoko Isobe - 「不純」(“Fujun?”) (1989)

Finally found the full recorded version of this song.

Another talented singer (who could also dance very well, in my opinion), who had a very short career...  in this case it was only 2 singles.

Unfortunately I’m unable to find out who did the music and lyrics. All I could find is a guy called Tetsuo Ootake ( 大竹徹夫 ) who did the synthesizer programming. You can also check out this live TV performance: http://www.veoh.com/watch/v16370289jfr9rMcK