On the Street Corner

There are a lot of reasons that Tatsuro Yamashita has become the crown prince of city pop. He’s a proficient songwriter and arranger, writing original songs and making compelling interpretations of funk and soul classics. More than Tatsuro’s skill as a composer or producer, though, his voice is what truly sets him apart from his contemporaries. (He correctly notes in interviews that he’s one of the only Japanese vocalists from his era that even had a good sounding falsetto.) The On the Street Corner series is a showcase of his raw ability, with only sparse accompaniment and light multi-tracking to back him up. He runs through a gamut of soulful doo-wop standards like “Spanish Harlem” and “That’s My Desire,” making it sound easy—though nothing about what you’re hearing came naturally to him. He trained his voice rigorously to attain his exceptional vocal range, and he learned the lyrics for each song phonetically despite not speaking any English.