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Tatsuro Yamashita

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Tatsuro Yamashita is a Japanese singer, songwriter and producer, born in 1953. He began in the band Sugar Babe, with Taeko Onuki and Kunio Muramatsu, which released its only album, Songs, in 1975. After the group split up in 1976 he signed with RCA and began a solo career with the album Circus Town. In the same year he made the album Niagara Triangle Vol. 1 with Eiichi Ohtaki and Ginji Ito. The breakthrough came in 1980 with the single Ride on Time, which reached number 3 on the Japanese Oricon chart, after which the album of the same name went to number one.

Music and breakthrough

The album For You and Ride on Time are seen as symbols of city pop, the polished Japanese pop of the early 1980s. His best-known song in Japan is Christmas Eve, which appeared in 1983 on the album Melodies and has returned to the charts every Christmas season since. He worked with his wife Mariya Takeuchi, on Plastic Love among other things, and with the American songwriter Alan O'Day, who wrote English lyrics. In 2011 his album Ray of Hope topped the Oricon chart.

Influence

Yamashita is known as a master craftsman of sound: some songs he plays and sings entirely himself, with vocals, guitar, synthesizer and drums. The music is predominantly acoustic, but shows great knowledge of analogue and digital recording technique. Since the city pop revival of the 2010s he has also been called the King of City Pop outside Japan.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Ride on Time and notice the clear production and the layered backing vocals, which he builds up himself.

Discography

Studio albums

Mentioned in other articles

Categories: ArtistsCity pop