In 2018 the Japanese label Fastcut Records released a much deserved, a much awaited, retrospective of the 90s indiepop band Sunny Gets Blue. This Japanese band formed by Ryotaro Abe on vocals, piano, guitar and harmonica, Toru Fukuda on guitar, Takashi Togawa on bass and Eiji Miyauchi on drums released just two records back in their day and appeared on many compilations.
The first release I am aware is a split CD with another legendary Japanese band, Sunnychar (who I should write about sometime soon). It was titled “Teenage Speedster on Sunny Monday Morning” and came on a mainly red sleeve with a red race car. On this 13-track CD, 8 of the songs were from Sunny Gets Blue. The first 5 were by Sunnychar.
The tracks by Sunny Gets Blue on this 1994 CD released by Pushbike Records (UFPB-008) were “Vespa 125et3”, “S.S.J.”, “Funny Weekends”, “Girlfriend”, “At the Brilliant Corners”, “Sometimes, I Remember”, “This Feeling (Demo)” and “Vespa 125et3”.
The band would release another record that year, a tape called “Ducks and Drakes”. It came out in the Japanese label Chocolat Art Records (CA-004) and included 6 tracks, 3 on each side. These were “Riding on the Motorcycle”, “Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush”, “Haven’t We Met”, “Bye Bye Mr. Raindrop”. “Convertible in Almond Blue” and “Hours and Times”.
As mentioned too, the band appeared on many compilations. So in 1993 they appear with “I Go Down to the Sea” on the CD comp “See-See-You, Tomorrow !!” released by Pushbike. That same year, and again on Pushbike, they have the song “In My Heaven – All These Friends and Lovers” on the CD “Happy Day, Happy Time!! Pushbike Compilation Vol. 2”. Lastly their song “Riding on the Motorcycle” appears on the cassette comp “We Don’t Need Another Hero” released by Haarnadel.
In 1994 they have the song “Boy Should Go!” in Pushbike and Chocolat Art co-released CD “The Cacaos Like Hotcakes”. In 1995 they have “Les Adventuriers” on “Fancy Fantasy! Gian-Robot Compilation Vol.2” released by Giant-Robot Records and also the track “At The Brilliant Corners” on the Pushbike comp “Good Thing Goin’ Pushbike Compilation Vol. 4”.
1996 has “Riding on the Motorcycle” on “Cherries and Sunny Days” an Italian compilation tape released by Shiny Sunset.
Then much closer to these days, in 2007 they have “At The Brilliant Corners” on the four-CD compilation “Love Flowers: Under Flower Nation 15th Anniversary Compilation” released by Under Flower Records (this was the parent label of Pushbike). And then in 2022 Testcard Records included their song “Haven’t We Met” on “Under Flower Fes Compilation”.
As mentioned Fastcut made a compilation of their songs. One that included a CD and a 7″. The good thing is that the songs on the 7″ are on the CD. I really dislike when that is not the case. The compilation was called “At the Brilliant Corners” and had the catalog number FCEP-026.
The tracks on the record were: “S.S.J.”, “Funny Weekends”, “Girlfriend”, “At the Brilliant Corners”, “Sometimes, I Remember”, “This Feeling (Demo)”, “Boy Should Go!”, “I Go Down to the Sea”, “Marinegirl”, “Riding on the Motorcycle”, “Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush”, “Haven’t We Met”, “Bye Bye Mr. Raindrop”, “Convertible in Almond Blue” and “Hours and Times”.
Looking for more info, I figure out that their name probably comes from a famous pop and jazz standard called “When Sunny Gets Blue” that was first recorded by Johnny Mathis in 1956.
The one other cool thing that I fund was this video of Ryotaro at the Neo Acoustic Pavilion vol. 44 about a year ago, on August 3 of 2025. Here he DJed and also played a mini live setlist where he played two Sunny Gets Blue songs, “Back to You” and “This Feeling” as well as a cover of “Big Bad Bingo” by Flipper’s Guitar.
Very cool! Hope we get to learn more about this classic band!!
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