Tatsuro Yamashita album teaser
Image: Tatsuro Yamashita RCA/AIR Years Vinyl Collection

Over the weekend, the influential Japanese singer-songwriter and producer Tatsuro Yamashita — often referred to as the "King of City Pop" — released a video teaser for an upcoming collection of vinyl reissues called the RCA/AIR Years (as spotted by the Japanese entertainment site Spice and the current Sega producer Yosuke Okunari).

The roughly 5 minutes and 30 seconds long video plays a collection of Yamashita's hits, like "Windy Lady", "Funky Flushin", and "Let's Dance Baby" while also paying tribute to classic 1980s arcade driving games. It features a fun pixel animation of Yamashita behind the wheel of a red convertible as he drives past several billboards displaying his artwork from his albums. For fans of the genre, it will no doubt call to mind classic games of the period, including OutRun (Sega), Hot Chase (Konami), and Full Throttle (Taito).

Yamashita will probably be best known to more casual listeners for his production work on his wife Mariya Takeuchi's city pop anthem "Plastic Love", which became a surprise viral sensation in 2018 on YouTube. However, he's also had a tremendous solo career of his own, which saw him co-write a number of hit songs with the American singer-songwriter Alan O'Day: "Your Eyes", "Magic Ways", "Fragile", and "Love Can Go The Distance".

The new rerelease sees eight of his albums, released between 1976 to 1982, being reissued on vinyl in Japan:

  • FOR YOU (1982)
  • RIDE ON TIME (1980)
  • MOONGLOW (1979)
  • GO AHEAD! (1978)
  • SPACY (1977)
  • CIRCUS TOWN (1976)
  • IT'S A POPPIN' TIME (1978)
  • GREATEST HITS! OF TATSURO YAMASHITA (1982)

You can watch the full video below. We'd love to know what you make of it!

[source spice.eplus.jp, via twitter.com]