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Let's go
back in the summer 1971.
When Agnes debuted in Hong Kong, she received news from her sister
Irene,
who was in Japan to study. The news was "I want you to look after Mr.
Hirao who will be in Hong Kong soon." He was Irene's singing teacher.
From the late '50s to the early '60s,
平尾昌晃 Masaaki
Hirao was rage of the time by the cover songs "One Way Ticket to the Blue," "Diana" and so
on, as one of the three of rockabilly singers with Mickey Curtis and
山下敬二郎
Keijiro Yamashita (平尾昌章
at the time). At the same time, He was also involved in Japanese pop music , such as "星はなんでも知っているStar
knows everything," and others. Later, he had turned into a songwriter and
produced many hits.
Hirao would board a ship Oriana to Hong Kong at Nagasaki with 16 people involved in a writing material company, for the seminar on the sea. Agnes knew it and asked him to appear on her "美齡晚會." He readily agreed to it.
After arriving in Hong Kong, Hirao directly went to RTV and appeared on
"美齡晚會" as a guest. There, he met Irene's younger sister Agnes for the first time. On the
program, he sang Japanese song and made a duet with Agnes in English. But
of course he didn't yet made a duet "香港国際空港
Hong Kong International Airport" with her. She also sang a Carpenters' song in Cantonese version.
Hirao had an impression that "She is a charming and bright" and was
impressed by her "voice and vocal quality that have not been found in the
Japanese"
After the program was over, Agnes gave Hirao her debut album "Will the Circle be Unbroken" as a token of her appreciation for his appearance. But she had no way of knowing that this album would be a passport for her to the wonderland where was far beyond her imagination.
Hirao was convinced that "She will certainly become an idol in Japan
" and told the people around him about Agnes as soon as he returned to Japan.
"There is a singer named Agnes in Hong Kong, who is Irene's younger
sister." The rumor started to spread. The record companies and
entertainment agencies showed an interest in her.
At the time in Japan, there were a sign of a booming of foreign
singers, which was started by the popularity of
歐陽菲菲
Au Yeung Fei Fei. The foreign singers who were acted in Japan before this time were Rosanna
Zanbon of Hide & Rosanna (Italy), Danielle Vidal (France), Jane Shepard
(U.S.), Jun & Shuk (Korea),
王祥齡
(Taiwan) and so on. But the full-fledged boom was brought by the success
of 歐陽菲菲.
Actually, during these period, many singers had made their debut in
Japan. Among them were Marika Kovacs (Canada), Graciela Susana
(Argentina),
Barbara Faure (U.S.), Ada Mori (Italy) and others. At the time, Agnes Chan
was just one of them. Every singer had already made their debut in their
home country with the popularity of their own. But these are unknown to
the Japanese music scene.
Many companies tried to sign a contract with Agnes. "All Staff,"
Irene's agency, and Watanabe Agency, the largest entertainment agency in Japan, were among them.
Watanabe Agency was established by Mr.and Mrs.Watanabe,
渡辺晋
Susumu
Watanabe and
渡辺美佐
Misa Watanabe, in 1959. The agency was an agency capitalized at one million yen and was just one of the small
entertainment
agencies at the time when the agency was established. But it rapidly
developed taking advantage of rockabilly boom and group sounds boom. The
representative singers (entertainers) of the Watanabe Agency at the time
when Agnes belonged it, were 天地真理 Mari Amachi,
アン・ルイスAnn Lewis,
太田裕美 Hiromi Ota, 歐陽菲菲 Au Yeung Fei Fei, キャンディーズ Candies,
小柳ルミ子 Rumiko Koyanagi, テレサ・テン Teresa
Teng, 沢田研二
Kenji Sawada, ドリフターズ the Drifters,
クレージーキャッツ The Crazy Cats,
布施明 Akira Fuse,
森進一 Shin'ichi Mori and so on. It's too numerous to mention.
The Watanabe Agency owned its own music school and audition program on
TV. The agency trains their own artists and had a policy to support a
debut
if the singer had already gain a potential, for example, Rumiko Kayanagi
was a graduate of Takarazuka Music Collage and appeared on NHK's morning
serial drama "虹 Niji" for one year. The popularity of Mari Amachi had been
already fixed by the TV program "時間ですよ Jikan desuyo." It's said that the "prior investment" of at least 20 million yen to 30 million yen was
needed to build up a new singer to stardom at the time. For this reason, the company wanted new singers who were promising for its
"surefire withdrawal of funds."
Agnes, who had already gained a popularity in Hong Kong, had met the
expectation of Watanabe. She processed an unquestionable ability and talent, and also had the
topicality of "foreign girl singer." In June, 1972, Watanabe Agency
invited Agnes to Japan with her parents, to make a decision to a debut in
Japan. For Agnes, a visited in Japan for the first time, brought endless
refreshing surprise to her. Of course she did courtesy visit to the office
of Watanabe Agency.
She wrote in her work that the impression she gave to the Watanabe when
she visited their office for the first time, had seemed to be not quite
good. They said she was a "sour-looking girl," but this would be rough on
her. Since she was not familiar with the traditional practice in Japanese
show business, which required a new face always had to have a smile on
their face. And, if you greeted foreigner besides your sister who got
tensed up in the disorderly office room where incomprehensive words were
flowing around, you would not be able to afford to have a smile.
In any rate, Agnes was favorably impressed by this five-day four-night
trip to Japan. She was inclining to sing a song in Japan.
How did people around Agnes think about this matter? Both her parents
and Hong Kong's show business were opposed to her going to Japan. They
asked her if going to Japan for singing was worth to do even throwing away
the success in Hong Kong. Her popularity got rising around South East
Asia.
But they were unable to change her decision.
Finally, she chose Watanabe Agency as her agency and Warner Pioneer as
her record company.
In the mean time, Hirao, who was considered to promote Agnes and wanted
to make her to sign with CBS Sony. But he gave up because both Watanabe
Agency and Warner Pioneer signed her. It's not unclear whether this
happening caused his delineation from writing her a debut song, or not.
Incidentally, Watanabe Agency participated in the capital of Warner
Pioneer
at the time, and its president was Susumu Watanabe.
Agnes decided to go to Japan.
Two months later, on August 13th, Agnes visited Japan again to record
her debut album at Mouri Studio at Meguro, Tokyo. During the recording,
conflicted discussion continued between the recording staffs and her. The
recording was very difficult work that tried their patience.
Agnes already had established her own style of music. At least, her
stance against music had been fixed. She wanted to be a folk singer who
spoke her own message.
But the world of the music assigned to Agnes was quite alien, compared
to the world she thought. It was a fantasyland, or dreamland.
At the time, Agnes was just 17 years old. At this age, it would not
have been strange if she had dreamed girlish sweet dreams. But she saw the
turbulent society due to the Proletarian Cultural Revolution with her own
eyes, and knew the hard reality through her volunteer activities. She was
going to face up to a clear and present reality and to stand face to face
with it with her feet firmly fixed. What she had were the teachings of
Christ, and songs. For Agnes =
美齡 at the time, song should have been one that comforted people, mitigated their sorrow and give them hope. Song
was
a sole and holy tool a weak girl got in order to get involved in the real
society.
In Hong Kong period, commercialism gradually eroded such her thought
without knowing. Still, she had freedom. But at this time? No wonder her
belief and pride protested fiercely.
But from a shrewd point of view, the world assigned to Agnes might
have made her feel a certain side of school life she was forced to give up with anguished feeling, by entering show business. And she might have been
against it because it frankly made her realize that there was another Agnes in the back of her mind, who could not cast off the longing for such a romantic thing.
During the recording, they checked on the way of her singing. Her
singing style conflicted with what they wanted.
She was hopeless with the Japanese pronunciation. Without the staffs
pointing out it, first-time Japanese for her was very difficult. She got angry and frustration that she could not do as she wished even though she
tried again and again, and their needless pointing out spurred it. Under the situation that she could not do as she wanted and that she had to
follow other's directions, with a lack of communication too, she gradually increased her anger and chagrin. She often shed tears. She stiffened her
attitude and became obstinate toward their way that seemed easily to deny the world a young girl built up at last. Because she did not have much
experience, the wisdom to close a bargain by coming up with a decent compromise, was beyond any stretch of her thinking. And because of her
personality, she could not do such a thing. In a foreign country where was far from her hometown, depending only on her own, she boldly challenged it
head-on with a simple heart.
On the other hand, the recording staffs must have been hard. They had
to direct her singing along a certain direction. It's obvious that the
direction pointed not to "folk singer" but "idol singer." And her role as
an idol singer was to invite listeners (or "lookers") to dream world or
fantasy world, which were fictitious or artificial. Her loveliness and
cheerfulness had to be emphasized to make those stand out.
Perhaps, the staffs directed Agnes along such a line. But all of the
directions encountered her resistance. The staffs must have been
perplexed. Her singing voice and looks suited the world of song so well, because the song suited for her should have been chosen. As they directed to take
advantage of the song, however, she resisted it. In each case, the staffs discussed each other, but what became a problem was a language, or communication. If the staffs were supposed to have made a mistake, the
mistake would be an ignorance of the effort to tell her their thoughts
including the processes of discussions. If they gave her all the details
of their thoughts, at least they should have won understanding, though they
would have not been able to be consented. It seems they didn't well know
that a direction only by conclusion caused needless backlash.
Maybe, both Agnes and the staffs must have felt to have been pushed
through the claim and been forced to compromise. It seems that recording
was a very stressful one. But, it did not take a half-year for their such
troubles being paid.
Any way, Agnes finally finished the recording and returned once to Hong Kong.
Agnes was back to a student when the new semester began in
September. She continued spending her busy days to do a balancing act between work and
study. Her work included coverage by Japan' mass media, in addition to work for Hong Kong, because it was just before her debut in Japan. The agency
began to make genuine efforts to her promotion.
A song "ひなげしの花, Hinageshi no Hana," coupled with "初恋, Hatsukoi," was chosen from the album mentioned above, as her debut song and its
release day was fixed to November 25th, 1972.
It was uncommon procedure for Japanese pop singer at the time that an
album was made first and single was cut from it next. Agnes finished taking steps to transfer to the American School, Tokyo.
The rest was only to wait for the day to go to Japan.
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