JAPAN - LIFE IN TOKYO @ 45

Released on April 13th, 1979, Japan's Life In Tokyo single turns 45 years old today. While it marked an abrupt course change for the group, it would need to be released two more times before it would become a proper chart hit.

With two albums under their belt, both released the previous year, Japan were in the midst of something of an identity crisis. They'd started out as a kind of patchwork of glam-rock, punk and funk, sporting teased-up, garish died hair & makeup, and looking like a slightly more put-together version of New York Dolls. But this approach had left them with little more than a burgeoning cult following in the country of Japan, based on their use of its name for their band. The group were quickly maturing and realizing that they'd miscalculated their stance and were looking to enact a major glow-up in order to set their house in order.

The first step along that path was getting connected with acclaimed and wildly successful electronic disco producer, Giorgio Moroder, who'd made his name working with the likes of Donna Summer, virtually inventing techno dance music with the breakout single, I Feel Love, in 1977. The arpeggio-pulse of his synth bass in that track had become a blueprint for dance floor domination and Mordor set about applying that trademark to the music of Japan, a move that would firmly inform the development of their next album, Quiet Life, recorded later that year.

Its initial release failed to garner much attention, however, but as Japan's prominence began to increase with the release of their subsequent albums: Quiet Life, Gentlemen Take Polaroids, and Tin Drum, the single was remixed and reissued two more times, once in 1981, and again in 1982. This last edition, propelled by the success of the Tin Drum album and Ghosts single, finally clicked on the charts, where it peaked at #28 in the UK.

Within the band's canon of work, Life In Tokyo remains as a critical linchpin between their early glam-punk beginnings and their shift into a sleekly sophisticated outfit that would become a major influence on the New Romantics scene beginning to evolve in the wake of punk.