Sometimes I get caught up in things that nobody else finds even half as interesting. As a half Japanese I find researching other half Japanese highly entertaining. Of course I’ll follow a subject deep into Wikipedia or YouTube until very late into the evening, but some topics seem to take over my life and I’m forced to dig into much more detail than is advisable.
One such subject is Golden Half, an all-hāfu girl group that began in 1970 and had a pretty good four year run on the Japanese pop charts. Golden Half (ゴールデンハーフ) was a creation of Watanabe Productions, who would put togther entertainment acts with the intention of promoting them to popularity—irregardless of talent.
Created and launched in September 1970, the started with five members:
Their first appearances were to sing and go-go dance on the Fuji TV show BEAT POP. They often sang western pop songs in Japanese, rarely performing anything original, and they would appear as themselves on various variety shows in the era.
They officially disbanded in 1974. Perhaps their most remarkable appearance was as a club band in the nightclub scenes in Yasuharu Hasebe’s Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter where they performed their hit song Kiiroi Sakuranbo (“Yellow Cherry”).
As half Japanese they certainly had novelty at the time. It was the dawn of an era that produced a number of half Japanese acts, including Michi Aoyama right before them, and Seri Ishikawa soon thereafter.
In any event, I find them super interesting and have spent way too long digging into their discography and timeline. If you have a couple of hours to spare, please take a look.
