Kuranosuke Hamaguchi was known as 'Mr Hitmaker' being one of Japan's most prolific composers of pop songs especially during the the 1950s and 60s including the 'Group Sounds' movement. Born in 1917 he died in 1990 and this 4 CD set of 100 songs has been released to mark his 90th birthday. He is credited as a pioneering composer putting western and Latin rhythms to Japanese lyrics. This album features tracks by many of the artists he composed for plus some of his own versions of his own songs plus special rare tracks that were featured on soundtracks or TV commercials. Tracks include Three Cats - Kiiroi Sakurambo, Hiroshi Moriya - Boku wa naichicchi, Midori Satsuki - Coroque no Uta, Paul Senako - Ame no Pierrot, Hiroshi Moriya - Tsuki no Elegy, Akira Kobayashi - Koi no Yamanote-sen, Kyu Sakamoto - Namida-kun Sayounara, Hiroshi Wada & Mahina Stars plus Miyoko Tashiro - Aishite Aishite Aishichatta Noyo, Teruhiko Saigo - Hoshi no Flamenco, The Spiders - Yuhi ga Naiteiru, Hitoshi Ueki - Warae Pierrot, Yujiro Ishihara - Yogiri yo Koyoi mo Arigatou, Hiroshi Mizuhara - Ai no Nagisa, Kyoko Takada - Minna Yume no Naka, Chiyoko Shimakura - Ai no Sazanami, Hadashi no Bossa Nova - Claudia Caro, Kiyoko Ito - Mishiranu Sekai, Billy Ban Ban - Akai Bara to Chocolate, Village Singers - Nakinagara Koi o shita koro, Akira Nishikino - Atsui Namida, Mari Amachi - Chiisana Koi, Yujiro Ishihara - Koi no Machi Sapporo, Mari Natsuki - Mango no Ki no Shitade, Chiyoko Shimakura - Jinsei Iroiro Special Tracks: Seiji Takano - Hakuba Doushi, Kuranosuke Hamada - Watashi no Carola, Jal Pack no Uta, Bara no Uta, Rumiko Koyanagi - Yakult Jowa no Uta, Tokuko Nakadate - Kao Feather Oil Shampoo.
