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Friday, December 10, 2010

Smiley Ohara & Skyliners

I don't have a clue what this is all about, but I like it. If anyone can enlighten me, please do.


update: this one's even better. I believe it's the same orchestra, and according to Babelfish it's The Peanuts.

2 comments:

S said...

I'll have to ask one of my Japanese friends about that first video - looks like a clip from some "teen dance craze" type movie featuring Smiley Ohara (スマイリー原島) & his band - he was in several movies, including what looks like a series of films featuring The Drifters (not the ones who sang "Under the Boardwalk," but a comedic Japanese band - Za Dorifutaazu/ドリフターズ - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Drifters_%28Japanese_band%29). Maybe it's from one of those films?

The Peanuts were great - Japanese twin sisters who were pop singers - like a perkier Shangri-Las. Their music ranged from Japanese folk and pop to covers of pop songs in English, Spanish, I think even Italian...huge discography, even though they quit in 1975. You can still get their records, which is good for dorks like me who love J-Pop from the Forties-Sixties.

The sisters also acted in "Mothra vs. Godzilla" and "Ghidrah The Three-Headed Monster," among other films, and contributed songs to the soundtracks. Here they are as li'l singing Mothra fairies: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF0X_Hm3jbQ&feature=related. They show up at about 0:44, then again at 1:15.

Wikipedia does a pretty good job on them, but http://www.godzillamonstermusic.com/godzilla17.htm has pictures of their record sleeves. The "Funk The Peanuts" single shown is by an entirely different, more recent band, though.

Thanks for the clips - now I want to go rent Mothra!

splogman said...

and thank YOU for this information