Never Ending Summer
Never Ending Summer (Japanese: ネヴァーエンディングサマー; stylized as NEVER ENDING SUMMER) is the third studio album by Kiyotaka Sugiyama & Omega Tribe, released by VAP on December 21, 1984. The album features the single, "Riverside Hotel," which peaked at #21 on the Oricon charts, while the album itself peaked at #8.[2]
Never Ending Summer | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | December 21, 1984 | |||
Recorded | August 10, 1984 - November 2, 1984 | |||
Studio |
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Genre | Kayōkyoku · funk · synth-pop[1] | |||
Length | 40:38 | |||
Label | VAP | |||
Producer | Koichi Fujita | |||
Kiyotaka Sugiyama & Omega Tribe chronology | ||||
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Kiyotaka Sugiyama & Omega Tribe studio album chronology | ||||
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Singles from Never Ending Summer | ||||
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Background
A third album featuring the smash hit "Riverside Hotel", which has been modified to the original line of the debut album. However, from the lyrics scene and the release date, the content of the image is "winter OMEGA" even though the theme is summer. The picture of the jacket was taken in the sea of Guam.[3]
On the A side, vocalist Kiyotaka Sugiyama worked on all songs except for "Riverside Hotel."
The B-side is a series of works titled "Never Ending Summer," written by Yasushi Akimoto and composed by Tetsuji Hayashi, and depicts the men and women who met in the summer parting and trying to meet again. The suite was created by Hayashi with the intention of producer Fujita. The work of connecting "Never Ending Summer I" to "Never Ending Summer IV" was difficult, since the transposing pattern in the song like "Never Ending Summer II" was also rare at that time. In "Never Ending Summer III," the atmosphere of the melody was similar to that of Sugiyama's own work. Sugiyama's ability is fully demonstrated in the "Never Ending Summer IV" ballad. In this work, four songs are connected in a medley format to form one song, but there are independent versions other than "Never Ending Summer III." In the next single "Futari no Natsu Monogatari", the subtitle is "Never Ending Summer", but the lyricist is different, so it is not relevant.
The album peaked at #8 on the Oricon charts, lower than the previous album, River's Island, but exceeded the number of sales. It was ranked #22 on the 1985 Annual Album Chart.
Track listing
No. | Title | Lyrics | Music | Length |
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1. | "Misty Night Cruising" | Chinfa Kang | Kiyotaka Sugiyama | 4:31 |
2. | "Eastern Railroad" | Masako Arikawa | Kiyotaka Sugiyama | 3:56 |
3. | "Twilight Bay City" | Masako Arikawa | Kiyotaka Sugiyama | 4:13 |
4. | "Riverside Hotel" | Chinfa Kang | Tetsuji Hayashi | 4:36 |
5. | "Stay The Night Forever" | Masako Arikawa | Kiyotaka Sugiyama | 5:09 |
Total length: | 22:25 |
No. | Title | Lyrics | Music | Length |
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1. | "Never Ending Summer I" | Yasushi Akimoto | Tetsuji Hayashi | 5:40 |
2. | "Never Ending Summer II" | Yasushi Akimoto | Tetsuji Hayashi | 3:30 |
3. | "Never Ending Summer III" | Yasushi Akimoto | Tetsuji Hayashi | 3:33 |
4. | "Never Ending Summer IV – Prolog" | Yasushi Akimoto | Tetsuji Hayashi | 5:30 |
Total length: | 18:13 |
Personnel
- Executive Producers: Katsuhiko Endo, Atsushi Kitamura
- Directors: Shigeru Matsuhashi, Ken Shiguma
- Arrangers: Ken Shiguma, Makoto Matsushita, Horn Spectrum (horns), Ichiro Nitta (horns)
- Bass – Takao Oshima[lower-alpha 1]
- Drums, Percussion – Keiichi Hiroshi
- Guitar – Kenji Yoshida, Shinji Takashima[lower-alpha 1]
- Keyboards – Toshitsugu Nishihara[lower-alpha 1]
- Sound Advisor: Tetusji Hayashi
- Mixing Engineer: Kunihiko "Jr" Shimizu
- Overdub Engineers: Jun Wakao, Tatsuo Sekine, Hiroshi Fujita
- Second Engineer: Mizuo "Tamadon" Miura
- Mixing Studio: Nichine C Studio
- Recording Studio: Nichine, Sound In, Sound City etc.
- Digital Recorder: Sony PCM-3324 (24ch), JVC DAS-900 (Master)
- Artist Management: Triangle Production
- Session Coordination: Sound Seven
- Photographers: Tadayasu Ozawa (Front cover), Jushi Watanabe (Back cover)
- Stylist: Atsuko Shimizu (Back cover)
- Design: Takeharu Tanaka, Yumiko Ohta
References
- "S. Kiyotaka & Omega Tribe = 杉山清貴&オメガトライブ* – Never Ending Summer = ネヴァーエンディングサマー". Discogs.
- "Hits of the World". Billboard. January 26, 1985. p. 75. Retrieved May 31, 2020.
- Kondo, Masayoshi (August 3, 2016). "杉山清貴&オメガトライブ オリジナル・アルバム5タイトル 2016.8.3ハイレゾ配信 start". VAP (in Japanese). Archived from the original on February 25, 2018.
- "Hits of the World". Billboard. July 6, 1985. p. 73. Retrieved May 31, 2020.
- "Hits of the World". Billboard. July 15, 1985. p. 66. Retrieved May 31, 2020.
- "Hits of the World". Billboard. July 22, 1985. p. 65. Retrieved May 31, 2020.
- "Hits of the World". Billboard. January 12, 1985. p. 56. Retrieved May 31, 2020.
- Also sang chorus