[Elegant & breezy]
No.182 "Pastel Love" by Yūko Kanai
Hi. We hope everyone is keeping well. Stay safe.
Today's song is "Pastel Love" by "Yūko Kanai".
It's an elegant & breezy nice pop song of the '70s, performed by an impressive singer "Yūko Kanai" who is known with her pure & sweet alto voice.
If you like, please listen.
Links to the music shops, offering song samples, are located on the bottom of this page.
Some contents have been put away in tabs with " ▼ " marks in each section, so please click it to read.
We are now working on improving appearances of our posts.
If you find anything odd, please kindly let us know.
Thank you.
Cover art today
Song data
| Title | Pastel Love |
|---|---|
| Artist | Yūko Kanai |
| Album Title | |
| Catalog Number | PCCA-50295 |
| Track No. | 2 |
| Duration | 3:44 |
| Released | 1978 |
| Publisher | |
| Lyricist | |
| Composer | |
| Arranger |
About the creators
Amii Ozaki Lyricist & composer
"Amii Ozaki" is a prominent singer-songwriter, lyricist, composer, and keyboardist active since 1976.
She is a well known hit maker, and was particularly noticeable in the '70s & '80s.
Early times
"Amii Ozaki" debuted in 1976 with her first single "Meisō" (Meditation), produced by a talented musician & music creator, "Masataka Matsutōya".
The song was highly pop & sophisticated, and quickly gained attentions from the core music fans & professionals.
In 1977, her 3rd single, "My pure lady" was selected for a TV Commercial Jingle of a leading cosmetic company "Shiseido".
It became a smash hit, and ranked 4th in the hit charts.
The name of "Amii Ozaki" became more recognized by the music fans.
Break
Then in 1978, "Ozaki" achieved a remarkable success.
At that time, she was a songwriter on the rise, and a number of request, asking her to write a song, were also increasing.
Under the circumstances, she wrote 3 great songs namely, "I've been mellow" for "Saori Minami", "Olivia-wo kiki-nagara" (Listening Olivia) for "Anri", and "Anata-no sora-wo tobitai" (Wish to fly over your sky) for "Mariko Takahashi".
All of these songs became "Smash" or "Sleeper" hits, and has been a signature hit for those respective artists.
And on top of that, these songs are recognized as J-pop standards now a days.
By this success, "Amii Ozaki" established her name as a competent songwriter.
Notable name
Since then, she has been singing and writing music as one of the most notable music creator in the J-pop.
For more information, please check with a wikipedia page on her.
We also have written slight more detailed article about her in our past, "No.94 Sensation by Amii Ozaki".
If you like. please also check.
-
(Ref: amii-ozaki.com,
profile)🇯🇵
Motoki Funayama Arranger
"Motoki Funayama" is an arranger, and composer active since 1974.
He is known as a prominent arranger in the J-pop, and has been ranked in the 2nd place in all-time list of the total amount of sales in value terms.
(The current champion is Hitoshi Komuro.)
Early times
"Funayama" became familiar with music from his childhood.
In the university, he joined "Hi-society orchestra" music circle, and participated actively in as a concert master, and a saxophonist.
While studying in the university, he got a part time job at a famous "Yamaha music foundation" where a lot of talented music creator were working for in the early '70s.
Azami-jō no lullaby
After learned a lot in the foundation, "Funayama" became an independent arranger, and debuted in 1974 with "Miyuki Nakajima"'s debut single, "Azami-jō no lullaby" (A lullaby of Lady-thistle).
He must be very lucky since he had a bonanza to arrange the debut song of "Miyuki Nakajima" who later became one of the greatest & most prominent singer songwriter in Japan.
But to be fair, both "Nakajima"s song & "Funayama"'s arrangement were equally superb, and the both elements made this a memorable super song.
"Funayama" was also requested to arrange "Miyuki Nakajima"'s 2nd single "Jidai" (Days).
This became an amazing super hit, and it has been a signature hit song of "Miyuki Nakajima" even now.
So, actually "Funayama" is one of the biggest contributor made "Miyuki Nakajima" a super star.
By the excellent works he did on these hits, the name of "Funayama" quickly began to recognize as a very competent arranger.
Katte-ni shiyagare
In 1977, "Funayama" had a chance to arrange a song for one of the most shining super star, "Kenji Sawada".
"Sawada"'s 19th single, "Katte-ni shiyagare" (Over my dead body!) became a marvelous smash hit.
And was given the Japan record awards, Grand Prix in 1977.
By this amazing success, "Funayama" established his name as a talented arranger.
And since then, he has arranged thousands of songs, and made hundreds of them hit songs.
Reference
For more details on "Funayama", please have a look at below references, if you like.
-
(Ref: funayamamotoki.com,
profile)🇯🇵
Video clip
Finally, here is a music clip of a rising pop singer "Miyu Itoh". And the song title is "why? Mayonaka-no yokan" (why? A sense in the mid-night).
"Motoki Funayama" has participated in this as an arranger.
This is not like a machine made modern pops, but a little nostalgic good old pop song in hand made taste.
If you like, please listen.
Song image & Lyrics
Open
Link to the lyrics
Copyright notice on the lyrics link
Sound impression
Crisp & elegant
This is a crisp & elegant pop song in a gentle rhythm.
It remind us of a pleasant morning of spring.
A beginning of love
The acoustic guitar & piano, the bass, drums, chorus and electric guitar begin a flowery but elegant introduction.
In the main part, a combination the strings & chorus gently accompany with the main vocal.
The pure, clear & moist alto voice of "Yūko Kanai" renders a bit dramatic scene of lyrics singing a beginning of love.
Reference
About Google translate
About the artist
Yūko KanaiInspirational vocalist
"Yūko Kanai" is a singer, and lyricist active since 1978.
She is known with her beautiful alto voice, and the debut song "Pastel Love" which became a smash hit in 1978.
Her full-scale activity had lasted only for 4 years from 1978, but there are still a lot of fans, and some fresh listeners are "rediscovering" her smart & elegant pop sound in these days.
(Just an information, but there is a pop singer "Yūko Kawai". "Kanai" and "Kawai" are both singers in almost same generation, but they are different artists, and singing unalike type of songs.)
"Yūko Kanai" debuted in 1978 with a single, "Pastel love". Since then, 11 singles, and 5 original, plus 5 best albums have been released until now.
(Ref: Wikipedia-en, Yūko Kanai)
Star Tanjō
"Yūko Kanai" first appears as an auditionee for a popular talent scout audition variety, "Star Tanjō".
From the early '70s to the mid '80s, there was a famous talent scout audition program, titled "Star Tanjō" (A star is born), and had been broadcasted on TV in every weekend.
It was hugely popular, because all of the participants were purely non-professional ordinal people, but the winners of the grand final were almost promised to debut as a professional singers.
And actually a surprising number of super stars, like "Momoe Yamaguchi", "Pink Lady", or "Hiromi Iwasaki" were born through this particular program.
"Yūko Kanai" had challenged 3 times for a local preliminaries which thousands of participant join in every week.
She had qualified as a finalist twice. And in the 23rd grand final, as a 2nd time charm, she won the contest, and debuted as a fresh singer.
For more information about "Star Tanjō", please check with "Wikipedia", which is the most convenience.
Or, we have written slight more detailed article in the past in our post No.152.
If you like, please have a look.
Pastel Love
Fresh debuting idol stars in the '70s were usually middle teens, and appeal their youth were normal promotion style at that time.
Contrarily, "Yūko Kanai" was already 20 at the time of debuting, therefore, the entertainment office she belonged to set a tactics to promote her as a young adult singer focusing on singing rising urbanized & stylish new category pop song.
The music producer to "Yūko Kanai" selected "Amii Ozaki" who one of the most shining song creators at that time, as the song writer for "Kanai", and requested the best possible song for her.
"Amii Ozaki" answered his expectations, and provided an elegant, but friendly nice song. That was "Pastel Love", the debut song of "Yūko Kanai".
This flowery and elegant nice song sold well, and left a strong of "Yūko Kanai".
The result was good enough as the 1st song for a newly debuted young vocalist.
Excellent staff
The singers from "Star Tanjō" were usually given more catchy type of songs for winning general popularity.
But the songs provided for "Yūko Kanai" were the most stylish, up-to-date ones, which were not created by the big names, but rising talented young creators, like "Amii Ozaki", "Masataka Matsutōya", "Haruomi Hosono", or "Taeko Ōnuki".
The excellent works of those shining creators, and a marvelous vocal of "Kanai" has given a unique value to "Yūko Kanai" 's music.'
That might be why her music is still loved by a lot of fans.
As a lyricist
"Kanai" was also writing lyrics not only for herself but also for other singers "Yoshimi Iwasaki" or "Kyōko Koizumi", though it wasn't many, since active period of her as a lyricist was short.
Become a yoga teacher
Even she was establishing unique position in the J-pop, she decided to leave from music scene in 1982.
But sometime after she left the scene, "Kanai" decided to roam around foreign countries.
And while she was traveling India, she came across to Yoga.
She spent some amount of time for exercising Yoga in there. And came back to Japan as a practitioner of Yoga.
After came back to Japan, she has opened a Yoga class, and teaching it to the participants.
Recent
In 2016, "Yūko Kanai" made a one time appearance for answering a love call from a male vocalist group "Mameshiba", which we will be referring later, after 35 years silence.
Since then, she is occasionally participating in their gigs as a surprise guest.
And in 2017, all of her 4 albums released in the '70s & '80s have been remastered, and relaunched as Digital music.
It seems that people will never forget good music and good singers.
-
(Ref: yukokanai.namaste.jp,
profile)🇯🇵
Video clip
Finally, here is a live clip of "Yūko Kanai" when she appeared & as a main guest for a live concert of "Mamesiba", a male vocal unit formed in 2016.
("Mamesiba" means smaller individuals of the "Shiba Inu" dog breed, which is popular in Japan.)
"keiZiro", a member of "Mamesiba", has been a long time fan of "Yūko Kanai".
He had been asking a favor of "Yūko Kanai" to have a joint session with his vocal unit "Mamesiba" through his radio program for a long time. And "Kanai" finally responded to his request in 2016.
Actually, it was a live stage for "Yūko Kanai" for the first time in 35 years.
The title of the song is "J's Bar".
It was released in 1981 as the 2nd track of her 4th album, "écran".
The lyricist of this refined sunny pop song is "Yūko Kanai", and the composer is "Jun Satō".
We really can't understand why a talented artists like her chose to quit from singing such early.
But, if you like, please listen.
(The original version is available from a digital music shop. If you like, please check this link (Amazon).)
Music Samples
2
(試聴する)
Amazon JP(en)
recochoku.jp
Apple Music(jp)
2
Japanese Letters
| Song Title | パステルラヴ(Pastel Love) |
|---|---|
| Artist | 金井夕子(Yūko Kanai) |
| Album Title | Feeling Lady |
Comments