Japan Jukebox

  When I chat with older folks in Japan, once I tell them that I’m from Louisiana, they start singing this song without fail: …100% of the time. The song is originally by American singer Gene Pitney, but in 1961, Hisahiko Iida released a Japanese language version. Iida’s version became a big hit in Japan the following year, and Louisiana Mama became his signature song. The single sold around 400,000 copies. Because of the success of Iida’s cover, Louisiana Mama is more well known in Japan than anywhere else in the world, including its home country, the United States. Photojournalist Toshiaki Nakayama wrote in his essay collection, “Nobody Knows Louisiana Mama: A Snapshot of America”, about his experience of asking various people in Louisiana about “Louisiana Mama” and finding that nobody knew the song.

Sunday, June 13th, was Record Store Day 2021 in Japan. I took the following Monday to make a trip to Tower Vinyl in Shinjuku. “Tower Vinyl” is a recent addition to the large Tower Records Shinjuku branch. The store spans four floors with Tower Vinyl being the highest. Tower Vinyl is Tower Records’ first vinyl record exclusive store in Japan. You’d think that Tower Vinyl would be Japanese record heaven, but most of the store is western music. The new Japanese records are contained to a pretty small section and they have a sizable “used” Japanese section. I couldn’t find much that appealed to me in the used section, to be honest. It looked like a lot of enka from the 80’s. Actually, I was most excited to visit after seeing some great deals on Tower Records’ online store. Some of the records on my hit-list were on sale for around 80-90% off. But when I found one of the records I wanted with a full price sticker, I asked the staff if the online sale prices a