Best Hit UKE

Just in case some reader have looked at the News section of Rolling Coconuts recently and wondered "What on earth is that?"......

JVC is releasing tomorrow Japan time an ukulele album containing some of the songs that were big during the heyday of a old TV program (basically the 1980s).

Best Hit UKE (probably read U-K-E) is a take-off on the old Japanese TV music program "Best Hit USA". The gent on the cover holding the Kamaka pineable, Kobayashi Katsuya, used to host the pop/rock music video program back in the days before MTV really made it to Japan. It aired late Saturday nights and had occasional interviews with musicians visiting Japan.

The album contains:

01. Surfside Freeway (the program's theme song)
02. Thriller (Kuricorder Quartet)
03. Living on a Prayer (Nomura Yoshio)
04. Ebony and Ivory (Kondo Kenji of Kuricorder)
05. Every Breath You Take (Nomura Yoshio)
06. Take on Me (Matsui Tomotaka＆Sweet Hollywaiians)
07. Like a Virgin (Kondo Kenji)
08. Let's Dance (Nomura Yoshio)
09. Time After Time (Matsui Tomotaka＆Sweet Hollywaiians)
10. Purple Rain (Kondo Kenji)
11. Karma Chameleon (Kuricorder Quartet)
12.Wake me up before you go-go (Katsu Seiji & Ukulele Eiji）
13. There Must be an Angel (Sekiguchi Kazuyuki)

Unfortunately, Victor's website does not have any song samples. Perhaps Tower Records Japan will have something up tomorrow.

Incidentally, there seems to be a younger Kobayashi Katsuya--an actor I know nothing about. They are obviously not the same people.