[Song Rev. #155] "Mugiwara-bōshi no Anne" by Hiroko Yakushimaru
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Today's song is "Mugiwara-bōshi no Anne" (Anne with her straw hat on) by "Hiroko Yakushimaru".
"Hiroko Yakushimaru" is a popular singer, but also a prominent actor since 1978, and this is a sunny & pastoral nice pop song of her released in 1986.
If you like, please listen.
Some links to the music shops offering song samples are located on the bottom of this page.
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Song data
| Title | Mugiwara-bōshi no Anne |
|---|---|
| Artist | Hiroko Yakushimaru |
| Album Title | Hana-zukan |
| Catalog Number | TYCN-80017 |
| Track No. | 6 |
| Duration | 3:54 |
| Released | 1986 |
| Publisher | |
| Lyricist | |
| Composer | |
| Arranger |
About the creators
Takashi MatsumotoLyricist
"Takashi Matsumoto" is a lyricist, and a former member of a legendary rock band "Happy end" active since 1968.
He has written many big hit songs since he debuted as a lyricist, and been a leading song creator in the J-pop for long time.
Early times
"Takashi Matsumoto" started his music career by joining a progressive rock band "April fool" as a drummer in 1968.
This band soon broke up in October 1969, then "Matsumoto", and his band mate "Haruomi Hosono" gathered up 2 other members, namely "Ei-ichi Ōtaki" and "Shigeru Suzuki", and formed a rock band "Happy end", which later comes to be called as a legend.
"Happy end" accomplished many remarkable works, but it broke up in 1972.
"Matsumoto" then became a member of the other band, or worked as a producer occasionally.
But in 1974, he decided to be a professional lyricist from now on, after a bit of trial and error.
As a lyricist
In 1974, "Matsumoto" debuted as an independent popular song lyricist.
The first song he offered was "Pocket ippai-no himitsu" (A pocketful of secrets) to a popular idol star "Agnes Chan". And luckily, it became a smash hit.
Since then, he successfully wrote quite a few hit songs constantly by the late '70s.
Because of this achievement, "Takashi Matsumoto" became one of the most popular, and recognized as the most promising lyricist in the J-pop.
From the '80s onward
When the '80s began, "Matsumoto" even increased the pace of release, and produced more hit songs by offering excellent lyrics to the dozens of top singers, like "Seiko Matsuda", "Yoshitaka Minami", "Hiromi Ohta", Masahiko Kondō", "Kinki Kids" etc, etc.
And "Takashi Matsumoto" established an unbeatable popularity as a popular song lyricist by the end of the '80s.
Even now, he is writing a lot of nice lyrics to the various artists enthusiastically.
(Ref: Wikipedia, Takashi Matsumoto)
(Ref: oricon.co.jp,
Takashi Matsumoto interview)🇯🇵
Video clip
Lastly, here is a short music clip of a 2015 pop song "Wakusei-ni naritai" (Wish to be a planet), performed by the greatest idol star, "Seiko Matsuda".
Since the debut in 1979, "Seiko Matsuda" has been a top idol star.
There might be more than a thousand of idol stars so far in the J-pop, but "Seiko Matsuda" is a special one.
She is perhaps the only idol star being an idol star for more tha 40 years, just like she was born to be the model of idol stars.
The lyricist is "Takashi Matsumoto". The composer is "Kureta Karuho" (Yumi Matsutōya), and the arranger is "Yasutaka Nakata" (Capsule).
If you like, please listen.
* "Wakusei-ni naritai" by "Seiko Matsuda"
Kyōhei TsutsumiComposer
By chance, Kyōhei Tsutsumi's melody comes up for the second time in a row. So, we put the same content down here.
"Kyōhei Tsutsumi" is a known, long serving, and award-winning composer active since 1963.
He has sent more than 500 songs in the hit chart until now, and been a record-holder, selling the biggest number of records, or CDs as a composer.
Then, he's been recognized as the greatest hit song maker, and music creator in the Japanese modern popular music history.
Early days
"Tsutsumi" began learning the piano when he was three.
At a university, he joined a music circle, and enthusiastically got into Jazz. And began to play the piano in music pubs, or bars as a semi-professional.
After graduated from the university in 1963, "Tsutsumi" directly joined to a record company. And he was put in charge of a director's job for foreign pops.
While "Tsutsumi" was working for a music firm, he had started to write a music in parallel, having support from his peer "Jun Hashimoto", who was already a professional lyricist.
In 1966, "Tsutsumi"'s first song was released as a single record.
Then in 1967, he resigned the record company, and started a professional career as a composer.
A breakneck pace
"Tsutsumi" achieved a smash hit, already with his third song wrote for a front line pop singer.
Thanks to this hit, the singer, "Mieko Hirota" was selected to perform at a prestigious TV music festival, "Ko-haku Uta-gassen" in 1967.
On the heel of this hit, "Tsutsumi"'s next song, that was wrote for a popular "Group sounds (GS)" band, "Village singers", became another big hit, and sold a surprising 0.6 million disks.
"Blue light Yokohama"
And in 1968, "Tsutsumi" wrote a pop ballad in minor, titled "Blue light Yokohama" for a growing pop singer "Ayumi Ishida".
This song sold more than 1.5 million disks, and certainly topped the chart. And eventually, it became a historic big hit.
Thereafter, this song has been a signature song sor both "Ishida" & "Tsutsumi".
The song is still very popular, and proudly representing the port city of Yokohama.
Since then, a great deal of requests for his melodies came flooding in for "Tsutsumi".
But he continued to write an amazing number of hit songs in miraculous high pace, like they were easy tasks.
As a result, "Tsutsumi" became a champion of Japanese popular music composers, and being one of the most respected music maestros.
(Ref: Wikipedia-en, Kyōhei Tsutsumi)
(Ref: Wikipedia-jp, Kyōhei Tsutsumi)
Satoshi TakebeArranger
"Satoshi Takebe" is a keyboardist, composer, arranger, music producer, and music director active since the mid '70s.
"Takebe" is perhaps the most well known as a band leader, and music directer for a prominent pop singer,"Yumi Matsutōya".
Early times
"Takebe" started his music career as a musician of backing bands for the several popular singers. On the other hand, he began to arranger many pop songs for various artists.
Because he started his career like this, he got to push forward the back ground roles like arrangers, or producers afterwards.
But in some interview, "Takebe" mentioned that he is comfortable with producer type jobs, rather than singing, or playing in the spotlight.
"Sotsugyō" (Graduation)
"Takebe" also referred, but among his many arrangement works, a pop song he holds a lot of memory, is "Sotsugyō" (Graduation) sang by a super idol "Yuki Saitō".
In 1985, he participated in the debut song for an idol star, "Yuki Saitō", titled "Sotsugyō" (Graduation).
This song did not become a big hit at that time, but "Takebe" & "Saitō" might felt easy to work together.
Therefore, sincee then, "Takebe", began to take part in the most of songs for "Yuki Saitō", and it is still continuing.
a standard
By the way, this song "Sotsugyō"(Graduation) was not a super hit at the time of the release.
But interestingly, the song had continued to spread among the people over time.
And, it has been a standard number for a graduation ceremony now a days.
(Ref: Wikipedia, Satoshi Takebe)
(Ref: mnavi.roland.jp,
mnavi interview, vol33, 28-01-2018)🇯🇵
(Ref: musicman.co.jp,
Satoshi Takebe interview, 17-12-2010)🇯🇵
Video clip
Finally, here is a music clip of a super rock band "kōkua", which "Satoshi Takebe" is an originator and a member.
The song title is "Yume-no goal" (The goal of the dream). It was released in 2016.
"kōkua" is a conceptual rock band formed in 2006, to perform a theme music for a TV documentary, which introduces dramatic everyday lives of the professionals, such as a Brain surgeon, or Patissier.
When a TV producer of the program consulted with "Takebe" about its theme music, "Takebe" suggested that the band, and the members of band should be equally professional, if it performs a theme music for such a special program.
"Takebe" asked a few of acclaimed professional musicians to participate, and 5 super players were joined.
Mamely, "Shikao Suga" (Vo), "Hirokazu Ogura" (G), "Takamune Negishi" (B), "Gōta Yashiki", and "Satoshi Takebe" (KB).
"kōkua" was supposed to be a one-off band for that recording. But it seems that the members are comfortable with this band, so, they are still capriciously releasing new songs.
If you like, please listen.
* "Yume-no goal" (The goal of the dream)
by "kōkua"
Cover art today
Song image & Lyrics
Open
Link to the lyrics
Copyright notice on the lyrics link
Sound impression
Sunny & idyllic
This is a peaceful, and idyllic pop song in "Macarena" like bouncy rhythm.
Since, the story of the song is a faint love of boy-and-girl.
Pastorally
The drums, bass, whistle, guitar, percussion, and keyboard begin a happy introduction, then the main melody starts.
The basic rhythm and ensemble continue until the end of the song, but the chime, or clapping add more accents.
A pure and clear "Yakushimaru"'s voice is so charming.
Hana-zukan
Her 3rd original album "Hana-zukan" was produced by an up-and-coming lyricist "Takashi Matsumoto", and released in 1986.
To bring out the charm of "Yakushimaru", "Matsumoto" wrote all the lyrics by himself. And (perhaps) asked to the prefect composers to create the best melodies for them.
As a result, this album has been one of the masterpieces of "Hiroko Yakushimaru".
Reference
About Google translate
About the artist
Hiroko YakushimaruThe last film actress
"Hiroko Yakushimaru" is a prominent actor, and singer active since 1978.
"Yakushimaru" debuted in 1981 with single "Sailor-fuku to kikan-jū" (Sailor suit and machine gun). Since then, 21 singles, and 10 original, 2+6 live, and 18 best albums have been released until now.
(Ref: Wikipedia-en, Hiroko Yakushimaru)
Early days
Japanese version of Wikipedia provides an excellent biography about "Hiroko Yakushimaru".
Machine translated version might still be useful, so please have a look if you like.
"Hiroko Yakushimaru" started her career by appearing in a film titled, "Yasei-no shōmei" (Never Give Up) in 1978 when she was thirteen.
In 1981, after appearing on 3 different films, "Yakushimaru" starred in a Yakuza (outlaw) action comedy, "Sailor-fuku to Kikan-ju" (Sailor Suit and Machine Gun).
On this movie, she sang the main theme by herself first time in career, and this fueled the popularity of the film.
This movie did not just become extremely popular, but also caused a social phenomenon.
As a promotion, "Yakushimaru" was scheduled to say a few words in front of the audience at several places, but wherever she went, too many fans are gathered, and often caused a chaos.
Like that way, the popularity of "Yakushimaru" was tremendous on that day. She was like an idol star, rather than a movie star. But it was a natural thing, because she was a cute young woman of seventeen.
Record debut
It might be an unexpected happening for "Yakushimaru", but she got to sing the main theme of this movie, and it turned out to be her debut song as a singer.
Her debut song, "Sailor-fuku to kikan-jū" (Sailor suit and machine gun), which was the same title with the film, was originally created by a popular song-writer "Kisugi" siblings (Etsuko & Takao) as "Yume-no tochū" (In the middle of a dream).
Initially, it was planned that the main theme of the movie would be sang by the song writer "Takao Kisugi" himself.
But one day, the film director suggested to "Yakushimaru", "Why don't you sing this by yourself?".
So, it was a little sudden, but this became her memorable debut song.
Naturally, this song reached number one in the charts.
In parallel, "Takao Kisugi" version was also released as "Yume-no tochū", and both songs became long hits.
As a singer
"Yakushimaru"'s singing career was started in a bit surprise way. but it was more than smooth, since her debut song, and the second song both topped the chart.
She took a break on her music career for a period of time, depending on her environment.
But as a whole, she constantly released singles and albums until the year 2000.
Beautiful voice
What's unique on "Yakushimaru" is her crystal clear high-pitched voice, and a member of choir like classical, orthodox, and straight delivery, with no decoration.
That charming and unique voice attracted a lot of pop maestros, like "Kyōhei Tsutsumi", "Takashi Matsumoto", "Yumi Matsutōya", "Mariya Takeuchi", "Yōsui Ino'ue", or "Ryūdo Uzaki" etc.
They provided the excellent pop songs special for "Yakushimaru" to bring out her charms.
As a result, her discography became artistic, and richer.
Recent
As an actor, "Yakushimaru" had been appearing only for films, and not for other stages.
But in 1994, she lifted the bar for herself to take roles in plays, and in 1997, for appearing in various TV drama series.
Since then, she began to come on stage a lot more frequently. But on the other hand, her music activity had dropped.
There weren't much movement on music for a decade from 2000. But from around 2010, she started to sing again.
In 2013, and 2016, she released 2 cover albums to celebrate her 35 years anniversary.
Since 2017, she also started to hold concert tours in a few of cities.
And in 2018 the last year, she released her 10th album Étoile for the first time in 20 years, and made her fans delighted.
(Ref: Wikipedia-en, Hiroko Yakushimaru)
(Ref: Wikipedia-en, Hiroko Yakushimaru)🇯🇵
(Ref: blog.mora.jp,
Hiroko Yakushimaru and Kadokawa film)🇯🇵
(Ref: oricon.co.jp,
Hiroko Yakushimaru interview, 09-05-2018)🇯🇵
(Ref: realsound.jp,
Why the J-pop maestros love her, 24-06-2018)🇯🇵
(Ref: realsound.jp,
Hiroko Yakushimaru, 26-09-2016)🇯🇵
(Ref: nikkansports.com,
Hiroko Yakushimaru interview, 18-09-2016)🇯🇵
(Ref: music-calendar.jp,
Hiroko Yakushimaru, 04-07-2018)🇯🇵
(Ref: music-calendar.jp,
Kadokawa girls, 28-01-2018)🇯🇵
(Ref: newslounge.net,
Ama-chan)🇯🇵
Video clip
Finally, we would like to post a link to a trailer video of "Hiroko Yakushimaru"'s 10th original album, "Étoile"
It is surprising that she still maintains her clear, and straight high-pitched voice, even she's just celebrated her 40 years anniversary from the debut.
But what we were really shocked was, this was her first album in 20 years.
If you like, please listen.
* "Étoile" trailer video by "Hiroko Yakushimaru"
Music Samples
6
(試聴する)
AD: Listening samples (Free)
Amazon JP(en)
recochoku.jp
Apple Music(jp)
6
Japanese Letters
| Song Title | 麦わら帽子のアン(Mugiwara-bōshi no Anne) |
|---|---|
| Artist | 薬師丸ひろ子(Hiroko Yakushimaru) |
| Album Title | 花図鑑(Hana-zukan) |
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