Eikichi Yazawa

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Eikichi Yazawa
矢沢 永吉

Origin Hiroshima, Japan
Years active 1975–present
Genres J-Rock
Labels Toshiba-EMI

Eikichi Yazawa (矢沢永吉 Yazawa Eikichi, born September 14, 1949 in Hiroshima) is a Japanese rock singer. He was a member of the legendary Japanese rock group Carol, and is one of the most successful rock singers in Japan.

Yazawa formed the band Carol in 1972. They were strongly inspired by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Carol had some minor success and a few hit singles and albums were released. After the band broke up in 1975, Yakawa flew to the U.S. to start his solo career. His first solo album, I Love You, OK, was recorded at the A&M studio in Los Angeles and produced by Tom Mack.

In 1977, he was the first artist to perform at the Budokan hall in Tokyo, to a thronging crowd of over 13,000 people. He now holds the record of most performances at the Budokan hall, having performed there about 80 times.

1978 was a greatly successful year for Yazawa. His fourth studio album, Gold Rush, went to #1 in the charts. He also held a hugely successful performance at the Korakuen baseball stadium (now the Tokyo Dome) for over 40,000 people.

In 1980, Yazawa, seeking worldwide success, signed a contract with the Warner Pioneer record company and moved to the West Coast of the United States. He recorded the albums Yazawa, It's Just Rock n' Roll, and Flash in Japan, all of which were released worldwide, but were not very commercially successful.

In 1996 Yazawa experienced a mild comeback/revival with his single MARIA, and appeared in a string of commercials for such products as "Boss" coffee. His commercials typically were of him in various "cool" poses around Tokyo, with his new songs serving as background music and his own voiceovers rather than on-camera talking.

In the late 1990s, Yazawa was swindled out of about 3.5 billion yen for a huge building construction project in Australia.

In December of 2005, Yazawa ran a sold-out Japan tour of "live houses" (Japanese-English for a live-music club) as a part of his "back to roots" approach to his 30th anniversary as a solo artist, following the break up of rock band Carol in 1975. 'Ei-chan' delighted fans with a rendition of "Whiskey Coke," a hit from that year (and a Karaoke library mainstay), as well as numbers from his 2005 album, "Only One,".

In total he made seven albums using American pop singer Andrew Gold as a producer. His albums have sold about 10 million copies in the Japanese market, and he has had a strong influence on modern Japanese rock music.

Contents

[edit] Discography

[edit] Singles

[edit] Albums

[edit] Live albums

[edit] Compilations

[edit] External links

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