Tropical Dandy is Haruomi Hosono's second solo album. This album continues the tropical style of Hosono House (which would continue later on with Bon Voyage co. and Paraiso) and also features performances from "Caramel Mama" (who had, by this point, changed their name to "Tin Pan Alley"). This album was re-issued as part of a box set with bonus tracks taken from Tin Pan Alley albums by Crown decades later.[1][2][3]
All tracks are written by Haruomi Hosono, except "Chattanooga Choo Choo", with music by Harry Warren, lyrics by Mack Gordon sung in Portuguese with lyrics by Aloysio de Oliveira (recorded by Carmen Miranda); "Hyōryūki", "Sanji no Komori Uta" & "“Yoimachigusa"'s Theme", written by Hosono with horns & strings arranged by Makoto Yano; "Choo Choo Gatagoto'75", written by Hosono, arranged by Tin Pan Alley with chorus arranged by Tatsuro Yamashita and "Yellow Magic Carnival", written by Hosono, arranged by Tin Pan Alley with strings arranged by Masataka Matsutoya
The album's cover is a parody of the sailor-themed packaging of Player's Navy Cut cigarettes, similar to the 1969 Procol Harum album, A Salty Dog. The quotation marks around Hosono's surname is in reference to the "medium" version of the cigarette. The cover also portrays a ship resembling the RMS Titanic, which Hosono's grandfather Masabumi infamously escaped the sinking of on her maiden voyage.
^Powell, Mike (1 January 2008). "Found Sound 2007". Pitchfork. Retrieved 10 March 2014. Hosono deserves distinction for prefiguring stuff like Pizzicato Five and Momus and Stereo Total
^Bell, Clive (August 1997). "Sayonara Cruel World". The Wire (subscription required). pp. 33–34. Retrieved 10 March 2014. It combines Martin Denny's already outdated 'Exotica' and fake orientalism with Dr John-style New Orleans piano.
^Hosokawa, Shuhei (1999). "Haruomi Hosono and Japanese Self-Orientalism". In Philip Hayward (ed.). Widening the Horizon: Exoticism in Post-war Popular Music. Indiana University Press. p. 124. ISBN9781864620474. Retrieved 11 March 2014. reminiscence of a childhood both overwhelmed and enlivened by Americanism
^Baxter, Ed (September 1995). "Haruomi Hosono: Tropical Dandy". The Wire (subscription required). pp. 53–54. Retrieved 10 March 2014. Infectious, veering towards kitsch, it mixes louche cabaret music, rock and traditional instruments with (for its time) state of the art synths, judiciously employed choruses and string sections, and ersatz environmental sound...
