Eikichi Yazawa

A leading figure in Japan's music industry for 50 years, Eikichi Yazawa was born in Hiroshima on September 14, 1949. Inspired by the Ventures, the Rolling Stones, and the Beatles, he began making rock & roll music as a teenager and formed his first band, Carol, in 1972. After scoring hits with the songs "Namida no Teddy Boy" and "Funky Monkey Baby," Carol split in 1975. Eikichi Yazawa released his first solo album, I Love You, OK, later that year. His popularity steadily grew, and he reached the top of the Oricon Albums charts for the first time with Goldrush, his fourth record, in 1978. That same year, "Time Stop" became his first Number 1 hit in Japan. After moving to Los Angeles, he released the English-language album Yazawa in 1981 and continued to record in English for several years, often collaborating with American legends like Little Feat and the Doobie Brothers. Even so, Eikichi Yazawa failed to generate the same popularity in the US that he enjoyed back home. Returning to Japan by the decade's end, he scored another Number 1 hit with "Pure Gold" in 1990, followed by the chart-topping albums Heart and The Name Is… in 1993 and 1994, respectively. Although heralded as one of the Japan's long-running rock & roll legends, he also maintained his relevance as a mainstream force with records like Someday, Until The Day Comes, with peaked at Number 1 on the Oricon Albums chart in 2019.

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