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was a Japanese folk rock band, which existed from 1969 to 1972. The band's pioneering avant-garde sound is highly revered and they are considered to be among the most influential artists in Japanese music. They are credited as the first rock act to sing in the Japanese-language and have been called the "Japanese Beatles".〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.japrocksampler.com/artists/.../happy_end/ )〕 They were ranked by HMV Japan in 2003 as number 4 on their list of the 100 most important Japanese pop acts.〔 In September 2007, ''Rolling Stone Japan'' named ''Kazemachi Roman'' the greatest Japanese rock album of all time. The members were Haruomi Hosono, Takashi Matsumoto, Eiichi Ohtaki and Shigeru Suzuki. Hosono and Matsumoto were previously in the short-lived psychedelic rock band Apryl Fool. When Happy End disbanded, Hosono and Suzuki formed Tin Pan Alley with Masataka Matsutoya, Hosono then formed the Yellow Magic Orchestra while Suzuki continued work as a guitarist and solo musician. Matsumoto became a successful lyricist and Ohtaki worked as a songwriter and solo artist, releasing one of Japan's best-selling albums, ''A Long Vacation'' in 1981. Ohtaki died in 2013 from a dissecting aneurysm at the age of 65. ==History== In October 1969, Haruomi Hosono and Takashi Matsumoto formed a group named right after their previous band Apryl Fool disbanded. The group changed their name to Happy End in March 1970 and soon after began recording. Their self-titled debut album (written in Japanese as ) was released in August on the experimental record label URC (Underground Record Club).〔 This album marked an important turning point in Japanese music history, as it sparked what would be known as the . There were highly publicized debates held between prominent figures in the rock industry, most notably the members of Happy End and Yuya Uchida, regarding whether Japanese rock music sung entirely in Japanese was sustainable (previously, almost all popular rock music in Japan was sung in English). The success of Happy End's debut album and their second, ''Kazemachi Roman'' released a year later, proved the sustainability of Japanese-language rock in Japan. For their third album, also titled ''Happy End'' (this time written in the Latin Alphabet), they signed with King Records and recorded in 1972 in Los Angeles with Van Dyke Parks producing.〔 Although Hosono later described the work with Parks as "productive," the album sessions were tenuous, and the members of Happy End were disenchanted with their vision of America they had anticipated. A language barrier along with opposition between the Los Angeles studio personnel and Happy End was also apparent, which further frustrated the group. These feelings were conveyed in the closing track , which received some contributions from Parks and Little Feat guitarist Lowell George. As Matsumoto explained: "We had already given up on Japan, and with (song ), we were saying bye-bye to America too—we weren't going to belong to any place."〔 While the band officially disbanded on December 31, 1972, the album was released in February 1973.〔 They had their last concert on September 21, 1973 titled City -Last Time Around, with a live album of the show released as ''Live Happy End'' the following year. They reunited for a one-off performance at the concert on June 15, 1985, which was released as the live album ''The Happy End'' later that same year. In 2003, their song "Kaze wo Atsumete" appeared in the American movie ''Lost In Translation'' and on its soundtrack. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Happy End (band)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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