japanese blue angel

I was looking for some amusement today and found the following on Youtube:

It's a Japanese neo-rockabilly band performing a song called "Heart." I find this interesting for a number of reasons.

First, "Heart" is an old Rockpile song. It was one of the two songs on the one official Rockpile album (Seconds of Pleasure, for those keeping score) to be sung by Billy Bremner. Then, after Rockpile broke up, Nick Lowe put a much slower (and, honestly, inferior) version on his next solo album, Nick The Knife. As I've stated before, I am fond of well-done covers, especially when a song is reinvented.

Second is the band name, Blue Angel. That was the name of Cyndi Lauper's band 30 or so years ago (before she hit it big as a solo). I always find it interesting when I come across two bands with the same name -- especially if I worry that both will end up in my CD collection. That just causes my anal-retentive self lots of annoyance. Since Lauper's old band is in my collection, and I am seriously tempted to try to find this album, there's a real possibility here.

Finally, I am endlessly fascinated by the large volume of Japanese bands doing American-style rock music.

Here, for what it's woth, is another video of Blue Angel doing a classic. I just love the whole seductive comb bit from roughly 0:15 to 0:29.