Older readers may be familiar with Paul Mauriat. He is a composer that was very big in Japan. Japan made superstars (in Japan) out of many instrumental music makers (see the popularity of The Ventures in a previous karaoke post).
I only became cognizant of him after being intrigued by a track of his in the 20th Century Boys movie. But the man provided the background music of my childhood. Here is one of songs, that was a hit in America, in three languages
Japanese:
.
French:
English:
Or perhaps you are a purist and just want the orchestral version.
I have a French-fluent coworker, so I think we will tag-team this song.
I just wanted to take this opportunity to point out that this song existed. I already blogged that part, but I have now confirmed it is available at your closest Utauga karaoke outlet. You can look for it by the name シティコネクション (shite konekushion *snort*) or look for his other songs under エマニエル (emanieru).
Which is more impressive, this or that time Pink Lady had an American TV show? In any case, history is weirder than we were aware.
BTW, yes, I know that most of the old karaoke posts on this site have been milleniumcopyrightact-axed. I'll try to work on fixing them.
Unfortunately, I could not find lyrics attached to a video, but the Uga Uga site has confirmed that they do have this song! I give you Star Wars with disco treatment, a small cantina diversion, and Japanese lyrics. Yay!
スター・ウォーズのテーマ～カンテナバンド
But if you are someone that can bust out a guitar and steal our girlfriends, I also have this for you:
While perusing my copy of 常識として知っておきたい日本語 (Japanese Everyone Should Know), I ran across 巷の灯り (chimata no ikari, the lights of the streets). It refers to the glow of a city at night, and maybe worldly delights/the profane (I'm not always clear at what the author is getting at because he waxes poetic about phrases).
It's not a phrase that lends well to googling the nuance thereof, but I did discover an nice old song with a related title: 街の灯り (machi no akari, the lights of the streets). Yeah the titles are one kanji apart and the nuance I can only guess at, but the song makes me feel all good and lonesome, especially as I sit here trying to figure out what to do for Christmas break and lament the lack of blog readers that could fill me in on the nuances of 巷 vs 街. Make my linguistic Christmas dreams come true, Hopeless Readers.
So a karaoke vid is embedded below (my preferred singer is here in case you need to know how to sing it):
I don't know if anybody follows the karaoke posts, but I love to entertain and challenge myself with them, while providing little discoveries about Japanese pop culture. In fact, I really like the karaoke posts the best of all the nonsense I put out on the interbone. For instance, remember the time I discovered The Nolans were big here? The freaking Nolans. And Webster! We've just pulled into awesome city.
For a long time, I've been wanting to find a way to tell y'all about how ridiculously popular The Ventures are over here in Japan. You probably don't know their name off the top of your head because they never sing in their songs and are thus easily forgotten, but you know this song even if you think you don't, Walk Don't Run:
They also do the Wipe Out! song. But alas, as The Ventures never have vocals in their songs, even when they do songs that should have them, I thought I would never be able to pull off a karaoke post on them. But Japan has foreseen my problem and taken care of it! I give you The Ventures... plus Chiyo Okumura in Kitaguni no Aoi Sora (titled Hokkaido Skies in English): EDIT youtube nerfs karaoke vids all the time, so I'm embedding a new one. It happens to have 3 songs instead of just the one originally told of in this post.
That's The Ventures playing along with her, but it feels pretty different from most of their hits here (maybe the band's instrumental, non-enkaized version will be better for some). Turns out that The Ventures's songs, which were actually catering to Japanese listeners, were sometimes released with Japanese vocals over here. Wikipedia has a bit to say about why:
The Ventures became one of the most popular groups worldwide thanks in large part to their instrumental approach—there were no language barriers to overcome. The Ventures are still the most popular American rock group in Japan, the world's second largest record market. One oft-quoted statistic is that the Ventures outsold The Beatles 2-to-1 in Japan.[1] They produced dozens of albums exclusively for the Japanese and European markets, and have regularly toured Japan from the 1960s through to the present. According to a January 1966 Billboard Magazine article, The Ventures had five of 1965's top 10 singles in Japan.
Note that Wikipedia's picture of The Ventures also has them in Japanese garb. From the J wiki, I learned that their song Ginza Lights was released with words as Futari no Ginza. Here it is:
Much more venturesish. Up for one more? Kyoto Doll became Kyoto no Koi in the hands of Yuko Nagisa. You can actually hear the announcer and the see credits both mention The Ventures in this vid:
The Ventures received the prestigious Order of the Rising Sun (an honor second only to that chrysanthemum prize thing) this year. Seeing as they've played their songs like a billion times by now I'd say that award is well earned.
Though she seems to have done it way back in 2003, Ayaka Hirahara's Jupiter is pretty popular right now. I don't know why, so edifiy me in the comments Dear Reader. Anyways it's brilliant! A take on Jupiter from Gustov Holst's The Planets suite. I am more familiar with Mars, but this one rings a bell. You can hear the original orchestra pieces here.
And here is Ayaka's version with Japanese lyrics and subs so you can practice at home:
She seems to do a lot of such adaptations of the classics. Here is her rendition of Ave Maria. This and Jupiter both appear on her 2009 collection my[sic] Classics! Maybe the momentum has carried over into the current Hirahara boom.
Don't worry Susan Boyle, Kimutaku will protect you from the abstract jokes!
So during my first (and so far only!) trip back to America, I convinced my friend that we needed to go to a karaoke bar. We were in the north of Denver on a snowy night and Google maps directed us to a nearby one in a strip mall. The decor and customers were rather country, but heedless of this I chose to sing Sukiyaki. It was a song I was well familiar with, but the lyrics on the display came out in romaji, which really threw me off. I gave a horrid performance and half expected a cowboy to punch me.
Later in the night I did Mr. Roboto which went over a lot better. Someone even shook my hand after that one. The moral of the story is: Know Thy Audience. Wait, saying it all in King James English makes "know" sound a little biblical. I cannot vouch for the effectiveness of knowing your audience in the biblical way. What? Oh, I'm getting the wave from my producer to move on with the rest of the post.
Here we have a French version of Ameribrittania's Got Idolatrous Talent. The singer has daringly decided to go with the theme song to an anime. Let's see how it goes.
Now here's the original, which you can practice and sing freely if you live in Japan. You can see how environment makes all the difference when Franco-America Wants to Marry an Millionare man is mashed up with it:
Think you are hot stuff in the karaoke box? Try singing custom lyrics to a favorite tune then. This youtuber is constantly localizing lyrics into his native nipponese. I can't wait for him to take on Rock Me Amadeus. Anyways, even if you don't plan to sing, this Dancing Queen cover is a nice little way to study the language.
Before Jero made all the old ladies' cheeks wet, Kiyoshi Hikawa was doing the job with panache, but let's face it: Enka is a dying art form. We need you, brave men and women of THR Karaoke posts, to pick up the slack! Practice this song, and soon you will have all the old ladies shouting out your name just like in this video (seriously, listen for "KI-YO-SHI!" from the crowd in this thing).
During a wiki-surfing session, I ran across a pic of this hand purifying basin, or tsukubai, and learned that the characters meet up with the middle hole, which is shaped like the kanji/radical for mouth (口), to make new kanji. Then those kanji make a sentence. Brilliant!
put them all together as a 4 character idiom and you get:
吾唯足知 or 吾唯足るを知る ware tada taru wo shiru which means I am content with just what I have.
I found a page with a couple of follow up idioms that one may have learned back in the day if they hung around the temple with this profound basin. They are:
知足の者は賤しとも雖も富めり Those that live within their means are rich even when destitute.
and
不知足の者は富めりと雖も賤し Those that live beyond their means, even when blessed with riches, are bereft.
Notice the liberties I took with 賤しい iyashii (greedy, vulgar, shabby, humble, base, mean, vile). You can probably think of a better way to put it, but I am 不知 fuchi (an ignoramus.) By the way, there seems to be a connection of some sort between these two idioms and what Lao Tzu said in the 33rd chapter of his book, How to Make a Blog Post Long, Erudite, and Boring: 足るを知る者は富む To be satisfied with one's lot in life is to be rich.
Okay, are you still with me? Because I wanted to discuss one more thing. You see, I thought I had seen a coin with the same characters as the basin at the top of this post. Turns out that such coins are not currency, but novelty items for sale in some areas, and that I was thinking of the Zenigata's 寛永通宝 kan'eitsūhō (Kan'ei era coins). Their names match the characters on them as you can see in the following pic.
Now the word just said, zenigata, may ring a bell with you. The word was even payed some homage by a Lupin character. Zenigata (coin shape) is part of the title to a series of books, plays, and dramas about an Edo period detective named Heiji that throws coins at bad guys. Somehow that works. Thus the series is called 銭形平次 Zenigata Heiji.
I will leave you with a video from the Zenigata series. Watch for coin throwing and use this vid to practice karaoke. After people get so wowed by you knowing this song that they start throwing money and kisses, you can pull out all the awesome knowledge you got from this post and really impress the crowd. But don't get cocky; know your limit.
Aya Ueto is the super cute daughter in the Softbank family. I didn't even know she was a singer too (of course she is, Clay, every talento must be everything), but here she is singing a nice song that I've previously featured for karaoke posts: Ii Hi Tabidachi. Also, the guy that usually sings it, Shinji Tanimura is right by her, playing along. Perhaps this is the evolution of the enka songform.
Note that there are two vids in this post, so check them both out before you throw something sharp at me.
While trying to find a decent vid with lyrics, I sometimes encounter horrors.
Take the lovely song はつ恋 (hatsukoi, first love) by Masaharu Fukuyama. Then take it to a very scary place, like so (vocals by the genius that is Passion):
It probably only took you 5 seconds to shut that one off, eh?
I'm sorry for subjecting you to that, here's the real song with lyrics to cleanse your palette:
I don't keep up too much on new music, or listen to the radio that often, but some songs are so omnipresent you can't help but learn them. Such is the case with Mr. Kuwata's songs. His voice, as well as other recently popular music, will accompany you in supermarkets, drugstores, even the escalators here. Muzak usurpations may apply. Lately, this commercial has gotten a lot of play, as has the song.
So here are the lyrics in karaoke-ready form. Enjoy.
This is another song I realized I knew without knowing.
Now you can be omnipresent too. Credit for finding the CM goes to the Probe, where James watches even more TV than me.
The giant crowd in this epic commercial are singing 小さな恋のうた (chisana koi no uta, A Short Love Song), which I'm pretty sure the band MONGOL800 came up with. Here's a link to their version. The catchphrase that gets posted over the CM is 歌え、10代 (utae, jyuudai, or sing it, teens!). You can bet I sang this song during last night's karaoke session.
(the title is a Jerry Lewis reference; please don't look up Jerryoke if you value your sanity)
Today's duet selection, which should get some good smiles--and a partner to sing it with!--around the bar is Pink Lady. Your parents might know these gals, as they at one point had an American TV show (wuuuut?). So I'll show you their first American TV appearance, complete with a song that you can probably use at said karaoke bar. Avoid imitating all hairstyles herein though.
Just like yesterday I feel the need to double up on duets. Here is a Japanese one by them, called Uonteddo (Wanted). Again, avoid hairstyles--and clothing for that matter-- in these videos.
Just talking about my Yakuza Karaoke new year celebration made me want to do some more karaoke posts. It's about time I introduced duets to you, and appropriately I will have a companion post up tomorrow. So find a friend and enjoy!
Today's group is The Peanuts (ザピーナツ), a pair of identical twins. Fun trivia: in Japanese one always says older sister or younger sister, not sister, even among twins. Of course some people just resort to names, but usually the old hierarchy culture is payed attention to even at home.
Right, the karaoke. Sorry. Here is Koi no Bakansu (Love Holiday):
Twins engenders a doubling of songs today! Sorry, couldn't find a version of this with the lyrics attached, but it's a pretty easy song. The title: Koi no Fuuga (Love Fugue). I like it even better than the one up there.
And just for fun, you can see them sing the Mothra song, as they were Mothra's fairies for the first few movies (wut?). The song uses Indonesian, so I'd be surprised if it was in the old karaoke machine. That would be a master-level, katakana-only song if it was there. I hate katakana lyrics. Only thing worse is romaji lyrics.
I usually try to find videos with Japanese lyrics attached so you can perform from the safety of your own home before making your debut at the snack bar, but the translations will have to do this time. It's a pretty easy song anyways.
Fret not! I have one more with lyrics: This is probably her most famous song (i.e. findable in that karaoke machine).
So the singer is Agnes Chan (Japanese: アグネス・チャン). She is actually a Hong Kong-born singer, a novelist, a UNICEF ambassador, and a professor. That all makes me feel unaccomplished, but I can drown my sorrows in singing at least.
The thing about the name is for name with the same character as hers, we say Chen, Chin, or Chan in English, but in Japan the standard is just Chin. She just seems to be an exception to the Chin rule, probably because they used her English name (lots of English singing goes on in Hong Kong and almost all Chinese stars have two names). In Agnes' case, her original name's hanzi is 陳 (which has an on-yomi of chin), the same as one of my Chinese classmates, Chin-kun. I don't know why she chose Agnes for her first name though.]
Another 陳 is Jackie Chan (born Chan Kong Sang), who has many names. Jackie gets to break the chin-barrier in Japan too. Agnes and Jackie sang together at some point, but I have yet to track that song(s) down. I did see Jackie singing with Annie Defranko though.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention Richard Yung Ka Tsai, a songwriter and musician that worked with her and collected some of his old works on his youtube page.
Ha, I felt I had to apply English title capitalization rules to the Romaji above.
When Japanese people hear I am from the West and that my family has a couple of horses, they sometimes reminice about an old show called Laramie (ララミー牧場: raramī bokujyō [ranch] in Japananese). It's a show from way before my time, so I just have to shrug my shoulders. But last night, upon meeting a new student, I pulled the old iphone out and found the following vid and showed it to him. Karaoke is the eikaiwa lubricant of choice for me; I have to do it regularly to maintain good relations with my students.
Anyways, all this bokujyō talk reminds me that OK Bokujyō (Gunfight at the O.K. Corral) was pretty famous here too, to the point where saying its name became a joke. Play us out, Japanese Boss Bush!
, I ran across 巷の灯り (chimata no ikari, the lights of the streets). It refers to the glow of a city at night, and maybe worldly delights/the profane (I'm not always clear at what the author is getting at because he waxes poetic about phrases).
