last eri chiemi

[David Hopkins]

How about that? The C'mon-a My House in my memory, apparently derived from 
TV performances, was indeed much faster than the performance on the record. 
(Much more like Rosemary Clooney's.)

I'm also a bit hesitant to overconceptualize pop music. It is so very much 
more a disposable product than, for example, most movies are, and "tin pan 
alley" productions especially so. I'm not sure that raiding foreign pop 
musics for catchy tunes or novelty value has the broader ramifications of 
imperialism, domestication of the other, hegemony of the mother culture, 
etc. Certainly the fifties are an extremely interesting time in pop music, 
all around the world. After the hyper-politicization of entertainment during 
the war years, that kind of meaning and nuance becomesindirect. Certainly 
fascination with American trends is a politically meaningful activity, but 
it is also merely a consumption pattern after all of the American "teeth" 
have been pulled.

For example, when Elvis Presley was first introduced in Japan, he was 
compared to
Eri Chiemi's label-mate on King Records in the fifties, Mihashi Michiya, the 
only possible point of comparison being their great popularity. How many 
Americans can think of Elvis as "the American Mihashi Michiya"?!

David Hopkins, thankful for an excuse to play some more old records.