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Show By LYN COW El t.V POP record hits, according to some music business theoreticians, theoreti-cians, frequently come from left field, but never from any place as remote as Japan ... Latest surprise, sur-prise, however, is a Japanese product, written and recorded In that country with an American GI vocalist . . . Title Is "Gomen-Nasal" "Gomen-Nasal" (translation "Please Forgive For-give Me"), and It's now a hit on both sides of the Pacific. Several weeks ago a sailor from the U.S.S. Bon Homme Richard mailed a Nippon-Columbia recording, record-ing, which he had purchased in Tokyo, to a Los Angeles disc jockey ... ft was played but once and a storm of excitement broke . The station was swamped with phone calls and west coast music business was In a turmoil as the search for writer and recording artist began . . After s week's search by Co- lumbia Records' Paul Weston, the U.S. Army Public Relations Office and the Walt Disney Music Publishing Pub-lishing Firm, the song hit team was identified . Composer was Tokyo bandleader Raymond Hattorl . . Lyricist, ex Sergeant Benedict Meyers, was located In Chicago where he is now teaching at Roosevelt Roose-velt College, and the vocalist. ex-Corporal ex-Corporal Richard Bowers, was found working in a New Jersey fac tory while awaiting a Civil Serv ice appointment. Bowers had sung for his own enjoyment en-joyment for many years and occasionally occa-sionally did camp shows and radio broadcasts In addition to his clerical cleri-cal duties for the army In Tokyo , . He was recruited to do the English vocal for recording of "Gonien-Nasai" . . . The tune became be-came a hit In Japan . . . Discharged Dis-charged from the army, Bowers returned to New Jersey where he suddenly got word that be had become be-come the sought-after vocalist on a hit record ... He now has an American Columbia recording contract, con-tract, personal manager, and a movie contract all as a result of bis Japanese recording session for which he was paid $50 at the time. If you haven't caught up with this lovely ballad yet, by all means do so as it is indeed beautiful Reverse side has "Tokyo Boogie Woogie." American jive sung in Japanese by an Oriental hepster named Shliuko Kasagl. |