[Calm & dramatic]
No.243 "Yoru-no Seijya" by Kenji Sawada
Hi. The song we would like to introduce to you today is, "Yoru-no Seijya" (A saint in the night) by "Kenji Sawada".
It is a bit early, but this is the song for Christmas on our blog for this year.
A peaceful, but dramatic pop ballad "A saint in the night" is a song in the 2nd cover album (29th studio album) of "Kenji Sawada" released in 1991.
"Kenji Sawada" is doubtlessly one of the most prominent singer in the history of Japanese main stream popular music scene.
Songs of "Sawada" are mainly straight forward pop-rock, or ballads, then his songs have not been appeared on our site which is focusing on introducing songs in light & mellow category.
But we thought that the song like today's might be of interest even for our readers, and we can possibly achieve our long time wish to introduce our favourite great singer to your guys.
If you like, please listen to.
The original song of this track is "Because I Love You (The Postman Song)" performed by "Stevie B" in 1991.
It achieved No.1 hit in the US, so you might be familiar with the melody.
But lyrics was newly written in Japanese language, while maintaining the perspective of original song. Then it was given a new song title.
Song arrangement was also completed in full orchestra basis, then the impression of the song is different.
So, please enjoy the beauty and the fun of song cover.
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 "▶" mark in each section, so please click it to see.
We are now working on improving appearances of our posts.
If you find anything odd, please kindly let us know.
Lastly, we wish you a Merry Christmas! Thank you.
Cover art today
Song data
| Title | Yoru-no Seijya(A saint in the night) |
|---|---|
| Artist | Kenji Sawada |
| Album Title | A Saint In The Night |
| Catalog Number | UPCY-7047 |
| Track No. | 9 |
| Duration | 3:29 |
| Released | 1991 |
| Publisher | Toshiba EMI |
| Lyricist | Warren Allen Brooks & Wakako Kaku |
| Composer | Warren Allen Brooks |
| Arranger | Takayuki Hattori |
About the creators
Warren Allen Brooks & Wakako KakuLyricists
The Lyricist of this song are, "Warren Allen Brooks" & "Wakako Kaku".
As mentioned earlier, this song was originally written by Warren Allen Brooks as an American Pop song "Because I love you" which is the most well known as an American singer "Stevie-B"s hit song in 1991.
However, when "Kenji Sawada" was covering this song in his new special album, a new lyrics and new song arrangement were prepared.
In lyrics particular, the lyricist "Wakako Kaku" wrote a totally new lyrics in Japanese, while respecting the perspective and wording of original lyrics.
And as a result, a new Japanese song title "Yoru-no Seijya" was given to this cover version.
Then in this section, we would like to focus on the lyricist "Wakako Kaku", since this is the best suitable section for talking about her.
Regarding "Warren Allen Brooks", we would like to cover him in "Composer" section.
About "Wakako Kaku"
"Wakako Kaku" is a lyricist, poet, singer-songwriter, and raconteur of her own poem active since around 1985.
She is a well known lyricist who has written many lyrics not only for popular song singers, but also for the vocalists in classical music category.
"Kaku" is also known as a lyricist of a famous movie song "Itsumo Nando Demo" (Always With Me), which is the main theme for an internationally popular animated fantasy film, "Spirited Away".
References
For more details on "Wakako Kaku", please have a look at the references linked below.
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(Ref: www.kaku-wakako.com,
profile)🇯🇵
Warren Allen Brooks Composer
"Warren Allen Brooks" is a composer, lyricist, arranger, and music producer active since around the mid '80s.
His 1990 song "Because I Love You (The Postman Song)" written for "Stevie-B" became a huge hit, and well known.
References
For more details on "Warren Allen Brooks", please have a look at the references linked below.
Takayuki Hattori Arranger
"Takayuki Hattori" is a composer and arranger active since the late '80s.
He has composed, or arranged various film scores or theme musics for TV dramas or varieties, by using full orchestra which he is very good at conducting them.
"Hattori" is also known as a member of famous "Hattori" music family, while the both his father "Katsuhisa Hattori" & grand father "Ryōichi Hattori" were one of the most well known Jazz, Pops, and instrumental music composers in Japan.
References
For more details on "Takayuki Hattori", please have a look at the references linked below.
Song image & Lyrics
Open
Link to the lyrics
Some notes on the lyrics link
Sound impression
Dramatic & grand
This is a gentle, sophisticated, but dramatic vocal ballad in a gorgeous atmosphere of full orchestra sound, in a flowing slow rhythm.
Elegant & glorious
The harp, strings, contrabass, grand piano, flute, oboe, faggot, and acoustic guitar in a full-orchestra begin a gentle, and peaceful introduction, then main part starts.
In the main section, rich and ground sound of the orchestra powerfully, and elegantly support the sweet, and handsome vocal of "Kenji Sawada".
In the bridge, and ending part, a bright & triumphant trumpet solo play appears, and contribute to increase the rich and glorious mood of this song.
Reference
About Google translate
About the artist
Kenji SawadaA super star
"Kenji Sawada" is a singer, songwriter, actor, and former member of Pop-rock groups (or called "Group Sounds"), "The Tigers", or "PYG" in the '60s and early '70s, active since 1967.
"Sawada" is one of the most popular, and prominent singer in the history of modern Japanese popular music scene, and has scored nearly two dozens of big hit songs during his 50+ years long music career.
In fact his showing, and popularity in the mid '70s to the early '80s was overwhelming, and we remember he was certainly deserved to be called a "monster", at that time.
Or, he is also very popular as an actor, radio personality, or TV character though he is not appearing often in recent years.
Kenji Sawada debuted in 1967 with a single, "Boku-no Mary (My Mary), as the vocalist of a pop-rock band "The Tigers". Since then, 80 singles, and 55 original, 12 live, and 29 best albums have been released as a solo singer until now.
(Ref: Wikipedia-jp, Kenji Sawada)
(Ref: en.wikipedia.org, Kenji Sawada discography)
(The snobbish life in full blast) Kenji Sawada [1977] [Digital music]
Early times
"Kenji Sawada" was born in the west side of Japan in 1948, and grown in the old capital Kyōto.
In the '60s Japan, "Kyōto" was also one of the music capitals same as the cities like Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, Kobe, and Fukuoka.
There were many music spots or Jazz bars (or cafe) in the down town (like Kiya-machi), and a lot of professional, or amateur bands in various categories were performing nightly in those music places.
In 1965, when "Sawada" was a second-grade student at High School, he visited a dance cafe (like a club or disco) with one of his friends, since one of the relatives of his friends were the band master at the hole.
The friend introduced "Sawada" to the band master. And afterwards, "Sawada" and the friend became regular visitors of the hole, since they loved the place so much.
One day, in an unexpected turn of events, "Sawada" ended up to perform some pop-rock song with backing band, at the stage of the hole for the first time in his life.
"Sawada" was quite unused to such situation. But after set his heart on, he began to sing in full power.
Soon, all the people were surprised and amazed, because his singing was so good, and voice was sweet and charming, and more than all. he was shining luminously on the stage.
Everybody, particularly the musicians in the hole recognized his tremendous potential as a singer, or performer.
The band master instantly offered "Sawada" to be a member of band "Sanders" if he likes.
"Sawada" accepted the offer, and began to sing in the band whenever possible.
And this became the start of his long time music career.
The Tigers
In the late 1965, members of other rock band named "Sally & Playboys" , also from Kyoto, saw the performance of "Sawada" at the dance cafe, and deeply impressed.
"Ittoku Kishibe", who's nickname is "Sally", and the leader of "Sally & Playboys" promptly proposed "Sawada" to be a lead vocal of his band which was aspiring to become professional.
After a little bit of consideration, "Sawada" accepted Kishibe's proposal, and joined the band of him in January 1966.
On this occasion, "Kishibe"s band "Sally & Playboys" also changed its name to "The Funnies", which later became a legendary "Group sounds" band "The Tigers".
After a year of struggle in Kyoto & Osaka, "The funnies" finally contacted with a big entertainment agency, and moved to Tokyo.
A new band name "The Tigers" was given from a producer of TV music variety, and their life in Tokyo as a "GS" band was just started.
And in February 1967, the debut single of "The Tigers" titled "Boku-no Mary" (My Mary) became on sale.
When "The Tigers" released a sunny and stylish pop-rock "Seaside Bound" in May 1967 as their second single, their popularity exploded.
And when their 4th single, "Kimidake-ni Ai-wo" (Love only for you), "The Tigers" was already an unmatchable super popular "GS" band, but in fact the large part of their popularity was attributable to a shockingly handsome, and charming lead vocalist, "Kenji Sawada".
Since then "The Tigers" became one of the top group, and led the "GS scene" for few years.
But already in the late 1969, the end of "GS" boom was becoming apparent to everyone.
Under the circumstances, "The Tigers" announced their break-up in the late 1970, and actually ended their band activity after finished their final concert held at Nippon Budo-kan in Tokyo in January 1971.
Solo debut
Coincidently in December 1970, the two of other top category "GS" bands "The Tempters" and "The Spiders" also announced their break-up.
Before too long, some members of those three groups including "The Tigers" joined, and formed a new 6-piece rock band "PYG" (piɡ) featuring twin lead vocals, namely "Kenji Sawada" & "Ken-ichi Hagiwara".
The band looked like a dream team, and the members and persons involved were having a goof prospect.
However, contrary to expectations, a few of unexpected obstacles (like a struggle between the fans of former three groups, or busy schedule of the members etc.) appeared, and they hampered the band activity considerably.
Mainly due to this, the band activity slowed down, and eventually faded away.
And because of this, "Kenji Sawada" finally started a solo career in full swing.
Then in November 1971, the debut single of "Kenji Sawada" titled "Kimi-wo nosete" (My boat for you) was released from Polydor record.
Become a super star
The first 4-5 singles released from 1971 to 1972 were typical "Kayō-kyoku" style, but little serious ballad songs popular in that time.
They were not ranked high in the chart, but his songs were often appearing on the music programs on the radio, and steadily going through to the society.
And in April 1973, "Sawada" launched his 6th single "Kiken-na futari" (Two In The Face Of Danger) which was a sunny pop song, and later reached the top of the chart for the first time in his solo career.
We guess this song was a kind of milestone that "Sawada" was fully perceived as a solo singer.
Even after this first number-one hit, "Sawada" continued to release single record fairly constantly, or every four months. (This interval was pretty common at that time though.)
Then in 1974, his 10th single, "Tsuioku" (Reminiscence) became his second chart topper.
And in August 1975, "Sawada" released a dramatic, but stylish ballad, "Toki-no Sugiyuku mama-ni" (As time goes by) as his 14th single.
Because the song was also used as a main theme for a TV drama series of which "Sawada" himself played the lead, it became a big hit sold near a million copies, and has been a biggest hit song of "Sawada" so far.
Thanks to this song, he seems to have established his name as a star singer.
In fact, in the beginning of his career, "Sawada" was actually, incomparably handsome, stylish, and charming idol star. And naturally, the vast majority of his fans were teens & young women.
But we felt that "Sawada" earned a far wider range of fans by adult and dandy this song.
Monster Jully
In May 1977, "Sawada"'s 19th single "Katte-ni Shiyagare" (Go pound sand) was released from Polydor.
An uptempo, but elegiac Pop-rock became a huge hit, and achieved a sweeping victory, and received all sorts of annual music awards including a Grand prix of "Japan Record Awards" which was the most prestigious music awards in Japan at that time.
Of course, it was the first ever honour for "Sawada".
Around this timing, it seemed that "Sawada" became a pop singer in different class.
Whatever song he released, it became a hit song, and ranked in the top 10.
Actually, he successfully send almost all his single records released from 1977 to 1983 to the best 10 in the chart.
So, whenever you watch music varieties on TV, almost always. "Sawada" was there in that period.
One more noteworthy fact is his extremely unique stage costume and make-up.
In fact his stage costume was not already the ones for pop singers but just like an actor in musicals, or more.
Therefore, TV music varieties spend a huge amount of money for making the set of stage for "Sawada", to make the singer more attractive.
In addition to that, all TV stations competed on this, and it raised the quality of their music programs dramatically.
In this way, the presence of the singer "Kenji Sawada", whose nick name is "Jully", was just like a monster appeared in the popular music scene of the '70s Japan.
Great guy.
His own world
Around the mid '80s, there were inevitable changes on the popular music scene, and the dizzying days of "Sawada" also became more relaxed.
Actually, from this timing, "Sawada" began to released more "Sawada" like songs than the ones that the mission of them were commercial success.
In some songs, "Sawada" has written lyrics by himself.
One amazing thing is his regular release of albums.
"Sawada" continued one album per year pace from 1969 to 2008. And from 2009, he has been continuing it with mini album.
We imagiine it might be a rare record even in internationally.
Recent
"Kenji Sawada" is in his 70s now. But he is still pretty active, and is vigorously participating in, or holding various concerts fairly constantly.
In 2008, "Sawada" held commemorative big scale concerts in the Dome stadiums in Tokyo and Osaka to celebrate his memorial 60th birthday (called "Kanreki" in Japanese).
Only one stage was held in each venue, but more than 50 thousand audience were joined in total. "Sawada" continued to sing more than 6hours in one concert, and this concert received a "concert performance award" from "Music Pen Club Japan".
In 2013, the original members of ""The Tigers" reunited for the first time in 44 years, and held memorial concerts in big venues in Tokyo.
Especially in the last concert held in Tokyo Dome, nearly 45 thousands audience were gathered, and enjoyed a fantastic time.
In June 2023, "Sawada" held a special concert titled "Kenji Sawada Live 2022-2023" at an arena in Saitama to commemorate his 75th birthday.
Some members of "The Tigers" also joined to celebrate him, and nearly 19 thousands audience also came to the show.
In parallel, "Sawada" is also active as an actor.
In the 2022 film, "Tsuchi-wo Kurau Jūni-kagetsu" (Soil-eating 12 months), "Sawada" acted as the main character in the literary arts movie.
And because his performance was so excellent, "Sawada" was given a "Best actor award" from several reputed bodies of film awards, like "Mainichi Film Awards".
In this way, he seems to be a native performer born to entertain people.
References
For more details about "Kenji Sawada", please have a look at the references linked below.
Video clip
"Kenji Sawada" himself or his agency do not seem to have uploaded any of his official music video so far. So there is no music video of today's song either.
However, you can still find the music video of "Yoru-no Seijya" by searching the words like "Kenji Sawada 夜の聖者", or "Kenji Sawada A saint in the night" on Youtube.
Due to copyright concerns, we would like to hold back from putting the links on this place.
But if you like, please search for them, and please listen to.
"Amapola"
Or, if you like, there is a comparable tune in the repertory of "Sawada", and its title is "Amapola" (his 43rd single, 1984).
The classy ballad pop song itself is a old (1920) American pops, and covered by various artists to date.
But "Sawada" seems to have released "Amapola" as a test case of today's album "A saint in the night", since these songs are totally different from "Sawada"'s music world.
Anyway, we imagine it might be of your interest as well.
Please search for the word like "Kenji Sawada Amapola" on Youtube to find out some music videos.
"Royal straight flush"
Lastly, just for your interest, we would like to introduce a shortened version of one of his best albums "Royal straight flush" released in 1979.
The album contains well known big hit songs of "Kenji Sawada", in other words pretty energetic Pop-rock songs. And therefore good or bad, you can feel the atmosphere of Japan's main stream pop rock "Kayō-kyoku" in the '70s & '80s.
If you like, please also listen to, after reduce the volume a bit.
Music Samples
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Amazon JP(en)
recochoku.jp
music.apple.com
Japanese Letters
| Song Title | 夜の聖者(Yoru-no Seijya) |
|---|---|
| Artist | 沢田研二(Kenji Sawada) |
| Album Title | A Saint In The Night |
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