NHK's "ETV Special: POP Eiichi Ohtaki: A Happy Ending," a program featuring singer-songwriter Eiichi Ohtaki, who passed away in 2013, will be broadcast on NHK Educational TV from 11:00 PM on September 13th. The program will premiere 37 hours of audio recordings of the creative process behind his biggest hit single, "A Happy Ending," revealing the story behind the creation of this timeless classic.
Otaki is an exceptionally talented man who has worked in singing, writing lyrics, composing, arranging, recording, producing, radio DJing, and label ownership, and has independently researched the history of pop music. While almost no footage remains, the program conveys Otaki's musical philosophy through rare footage of a 1976 studio live performance, handwritten notes, unreleased interviews from the 1990s, and testimonies from his close friends Takashi Matsumoto and Shigeru Suzuki.
The film climaxes with a look at some of the 37 hours of unreleased audio recordings that document the creative process behind their biggest hit single, "Shiawase wa Ketsumatsu" (1997), depicting the creation of a classic song that is still sung today.
A program representative commented, "'Nostalgic yet new.' This is how many people described Otaki's music during the interviews. Otaki loved rock, R&B, ondo, and comic songs equally. He taught us that nothing that transcends time can be created without exploring one's roots. We hope that these valuable, unpublished materials will provide an opportunity to think about the important message that Otaki left behind."
