Akiko Nakamura was a popular actress and singer in Japan in the '60s and '70s. This album was released in 1968 and it features a cover of Scott McKenzie's flower power hit 'If You're Going to San Francisco' amongst all the bubblegum J-Pop. The big hit from the album is 'Nijiiro no mizuumi' (which translates as Lake's Rainbow Colours or something like that). Here is Akiko herself performing the song in some teenbeat movie or other. Its totally swingin' kids:What can you expect on the album? Well a much more polished sound than found on the clip above featuring a full string section, backing singers, brass section, marimbas, glockenspiels, tiki style rhythms. A wonderfully mixed bag of gorgeousness.
Tracklisting:
01. 虹色の湖 (nijiiro no mizuumi) Rainbow Lake
02. 花のサンフランシスコ (hana no san francisco)San Francisco Flower (i.e. If You're Goin' to San Francisco)
03. 太陽に恋をして (taiyou ni koi woshite) Love in the Sun
04. 愛の願い (ai no negai) Please Give Me Love
05. ラ・ラ・ラ (la la la)
06. ブルー・シャトウ (blue chateau)
07. 砂の十字架 (suna no juujika) Cross in the Sand
08. 別離(わかれ) (betsuri (wakare)) Separation
09. 霧情 (kiri jou) Mist
10. フラワー東京 (tokyo flower)
11. 夢みていたい (yume miteitai) I Want to Dream
12. ロック天国 (tengoku rock) Rock Heaven (I Dig Rock and Roll Music; Peter Paul & Mary)
Many thanks to Richard and Peter for their fantastic translations. Superfast work too chaps!
Get it HERE.
13 comments:
Total coolness! ;-)
so nice, thanks!
here is the tracklist:
01. 虹色の湖 (nijiiro no mizuumi)
02. 花のサンフランシスコ (hana no san francisco)
03. 太陽に恋をして (taiyou ni koi woshite)
04. 愛の願い (ai no negai)
05. ラ・ラ・ラ (la la la)
06. ブルー・シャトウ (blue chateau)
07. 砂の十字架 (suna no juujika)
08. 別離(わかれ) (betsuri (wakare))
09. 霧情 (kiri jou)
10. フラワー東京 (tokyo flower)
11. 夢みていたい (yume miteitai)
12. ロック天国 (tengoku rock)
Translations of the titles:
01. 虹色の湖 (nijiiro no mizuumi)
= Rainbow Lake
02. 花のサンフランシスコ (hana no san francisco)
San Francisco Flower (i.e. If You're Goin' to San Francisco; Mamas and the Papas)
03. 太陽に恋をして (taiyou ni koi woshite)
= Love in the Sun
04. 愛の願い (ai no negai)
= Please Give Me Love
05. ラ・ラ・ラ (la la la)
06. ブルー・シャトウ (blue chateau)
07. 砂の十字架 (suna no juujika)
Cross in the Sand
08. 別離(わかれ) (betsuri (wakare))
= Separation
09. 霧情 (kiri jou)
= Mist
10. フラワー東京 (tokyo flower)
11. 夢みていたい (yume miteitai)
= I Want to Dream
12. ロック天国 (tengoku rock)
= Rock Heaven (I Dig Rock and Roll Music; Peter Paul & Mary)
Sounds interesting. I think I will DL and take a listen. Thank you for the upload.
Fucking insane. I came here looking for a lou reed album and i found this. Thanks for the beautiful music.
It's my pleasure Frano. Thanks for dropping in and I hope you find plenty more ear candy.
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I'm listening to the album right now. I found that track 8 is a cover of a "bolero" that i ussualy hear in spanish http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQC8d0NgqLE
its very weird to hear that song in japanese jaja sorry about my english im a nineteen year old argentino.
Your english is great, much better than my Spanish. Thanks for posting the spanish version, great to hear. I think that Akiko Nakamura does a lot of cover versions on this record. I really like the slow tracks on side two.
Thanks! I only had a single (tracks 1 & 11 of this) and was looking for some more songs by her.
Additional information...
05, La La La, is a cover of "La La La La La" performed by Stevie Wonder
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3PfcsoKGq0
06, Blue Chateau is by ジャッキー吉川とブルーコメッツ (Jackey Yoshikawa & Blue Comets) and was a big hit for them in Japan in 1967.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKz9Kq8vFjQ
1,3,4,7,9,10,11 are presumably original songs not covers as they all have the same songwiting credit (words:Yokoi Hiroshi, music:Ogawa Hirooki).
Thanks Egg Crisis for the extra info. I hope you enjoy the album.
She looks like Gillian Hills' Japanese sister.
This is the greatest! Thanx...........
Terrific album! Thank you so much!
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