Jitterin' Jinn

Formed in 1986 in the city of Nara, Japan, and comprising guitarist Jinta Haya, vocalist and accordion player Reiko Kagawa, drummer Miyuki Irie, and bassist Matsuzo Urata, Japanese pop/rock quartet Jitterin Jinn were leading figures in the same late-'80s and early-'90s band boom that also included such luminaries as Begin, Tama, and <a href="spotify:artist:4W37YDXgjhg4WLxQajsEE8">Blankey Jet City</a>. The band made their debut in 1989, with the rockabilly-influenced power pop single "Everyday" coinciding with a major tour throughout Japan, which was swiftly followed by the release of their first album, Doki Doki. At around the same time, they made a splash on the popular TV audition show Miyake Yuuji no Ikasu Band Tengoku, where they took the title of "king" of the show from the previous week's holders, Rabbit. They were soon toppled by the following week's challengers, Cement Mixers, but by this time they had already achieved a level of attention that would catapult them into stardom.

1990 saw the release of "Present," the number one hit "Nichiyoubi," and their most enduring hit, "Natsu Matsuri," which found the band beginning to fuse their ska-pop sound with more traditional Japanese and Okinawan sounds. Also released that year were Jitterin Jinn's second and third albums, Hi-King and Punch Out, which reached number two and number three on the charts, respectively. While the band continued to release singles for the next few years, 1990 proved to be a high point, with the more synthetic, heavily produced sounds of J-Pop taking over the airwaves and charts, forcing the band's movement into steadily diminishing returns. Urata left the band and in the end was never permanently replaced, with the band eventually settling for working as a trio with a string of support musicians. Nevertheless, Jitterin Jinn continued releasing albums throughout the '90s, increasingly focusing on fan club-only releases. At the same time, bandleader Haya's songs were successful for a number of other artists, such as pop singers Noriko Sakai and Tomoe Shinohara, as well as for anime voice actress Yuko Miyamura.

In 2000, a cover of "Natsu Matsuri" was a hit for all-girl punk-pop quintet <a href="spotify:artist:76oZZyUq2OsR4uvuZVYdPn">Whiteberry</a>, causing a renewal of interest in the band, with another of their periodic revivals occurring in 2008 with two Jitterin Jinn songs featuring on the soundtrack of the film Aozora Punch. ~ Ian Martin, Rovi