Uta Doki! - Pop Classics Vol.1

The best Uta Doki Pop Classics volumes that I've seen remain nos. 3, 4, & 5 (all reviewed by me here). Vols. 1 & 2 show them in the early stages of creating a formula that works. The girls are mostly great--and they include most of Hello! Project's heavy hitters--but the choice of songs in Volume 1, all from 1971-78, leaves a lot to be desired. Still, there are a few highlights: Kei Yasuda and Atsuko Inaba, joined by Akira Inaba, sing "Ano Subarashii Ai wo Mou Ichido," also heard on H!P's Folk Songs 3 album. Aya Matsuura sings "Kanda Gawa," originally by Kaguyahime. Maki Goto does "Hageshii Koi," by Saijo Hideki, a rock song with accompaniment by two band members from Sharan Q--Hatake on guitar and Makoto on drums. Nozomi "Nono" Tsuji gets a solo, always a good thing in my book: "Nagori Yuki," by Iruka. Nono's low-key here and very good. Atsuko Inaba sings "(Omoide...)" in a duet with Akira Inaba, who originally performed the song and also accompanies on guitar. A nice slow ballad and Atsuko's an amazing singer. Maki Goto sings "Katte ni Shiyagare" by Kenji Sawada. Possibly the best on the DVD. Yuko Nakazawa joins Sugita Jirou in a duet of his song, "ANAK." He also accompanies on guitar. Maki sings Anri's "Olivia wo Kikinagara," the one with the English line, "Making good things better," which has been covered by H!P before, on the "Folk Songs 2" album, but by different singers. Natsumi Abe does a Momoe Yamaguchi song, "Akai Shougeki," and Mari Yaguchi does a Yumi Arai song, "Chuuou Freeway." Mari also does an Agnes Chan song, "Hinageshi no Hana," but sings it in too high a register. (Mari's not the best soloist in H!P, but she's great in a group.) Ayaka Kimura sings "Monkey Magic," a song about the legendary Monkey King, entirely in English. Ayaka and Kaori have a ball doing Pink Lady's "Nagisa no Sindbad." Also appearing are Country Musume, Melon Kinenbi, and an older female singer, Miki Hirayama. The male singers represented, Sugita Jirou, Akira Inaba, and Gen Takayama, are distinguished older singers, all strumming guitars, and they do a great job with the girls. There are 8 min. of outtakes, including a bit in "Monkey Magic" where Taisei, the keyboardist from Sharan Q, comes out from the keyboard to dance next to Ayaka, the closest I've ever seen a male musician get to one of the H!P girls. It's cute. And perfectly natural for a party boy like Taisei.