The Sapphires
The Sapphires | |
|---|---|
 Ritsuko (left) and Yurika Shimizu (right) | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Antánas, Tandar, Gylias |
| Genres | |
| Years active | 1959–present |
| Labels |
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| Associated acts | |
| Website | http://www.sapphires.gls/ |
| Members |
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The Sapphires are a Gylian pop music duo composed of spouses Yurika and Ritsuko Shimizu. Formed in 1959, they are known for their critically acclaimed close harmony vocals, and public image as a successful married couple.
They first achieved fame in the 1960s on Confectionery Records, where they formed a close collaboration with Charlotte Böttcher. They sang lead vocals on a series of Charlotte-led studio projects, released under their names and other aliases. These critically acclaimed and commercially successful recordings are considered one of the pinnacles of Gylian Sound. They would later be compiled on the 1995 box set Listen to the Flowers Grow.
The Sapphires later left Confectionery and formed their own label, Harmony Records. They learned to play instruments and released a series of folk-influenced albums notable for their home-made aesthetic and themes of domestic bliss. They experienced a second wind of popularity in the 1990s, and recorded several Neo-Gylian Sound albums on Readymade Records.
In addition to their solo careers, they have been prolific studio backing vocalists, collaborating with bands such as The Beaties, The Watts, The Monkees, The Affirmatives, The Chrysalides, Asuka and the Mighty Invincibles, Stella Star, and Yoko Kanno and the Seatbelts.
History
Background
Yurika Fukahori and Ritsuko Mukae both came from Miranian Gylian families, grew up in Antánas, were interested in music, and began singing at a young age. They met in 1958, and became close friends. They would spend most of their time together, practicing vocal harmony and listening to music. Early influences ranged from pop, jazz, and folk to traditional Miranian music.
They first performed together at a local talent show in 1959. Encouraged by the positive reception, they decided to pursue a musical career. They attended college from 1959 to 1962, where they studied music and took Brilla-Paglin vocal school lessons. They named themselves "The Sapphires", after their fascination with the gemstone.
Yurika and Ritsuko's friendship became romantic after they discovered their mutual attraction. Their romance blossomed rapidly, and they married in 1966. They adopted the surname "Shimizu" upon marriage. Their stage name gained additional meanings: an allusion to the poet Sappho (and thus their lesbian relationship), and the colour of their stage outfits.
Early years
The Sapphires began their musical career in earnest after graduating from college in 1962. By this time, they had discovered rock and roll and become fans of The Beaties, which shaped their career. They refined their image and adopted their "Sapphire suits" after the Beaties' outfits.
Between 1962 and 1964, they took on a variety of work as session vocalists and touring as backing vocalists with other groups. One of these sessions saw them sing backing vocals on The Watts' "I Can't Explain". They found themselves in high demand as vocalists due to their fluency in English, which set them apart from other Miranian musicians. They also appeared in bit parts in some movies and television shows.
While in Kyman in 1964, they had a chance meeting with Mary Willett, who brought them to visit Beat Studio. There, they spontaneously "auditioned" for Susan Shelley, who liked them enough to record a demo of them. They left with the acetate disc, which became their "visiting card", and Susan's phone number.
Later that year, they settled in Riáona, and began working at Confectionery Records. Yurika recalled in the documentary The Sapphires: A Love Story, "It was like we joined another family. We were adopted into a zoku of lovely ladies who looked after us and sort of babysat us through recording sessions. It was lovely." They became protégés of Charlotte Böttcher: she adored their vocal harmonies, and they were awed by her talents as an arranger.
Peak popularity
Having released a couple of singles under their own name, it was their association with Charlotte in the midst of the "psychedelic revolution" that propelled them to the height of their popularity. Between 1966 and 1969, The Sapphires were key contributors to Charlotte's studio projects such as The Ballroom, Sagittarius, The Millenium, and The Flower Children, handling the outsized share of lead vocals compared to colleagues like Les Myas, Marian Ellis, and Charlotte herself.
These projects were critically acclaimed and commercially successful, yielding a string of hits that included "Spinning, Spinning, Spinning" (1966), "Sunshine Today", the Beach Boys homage "Let's Go to California", "Believe You", "Love Divided by Two" (1967), "My World Fell Down", "To Claudia on Thursday", "Some Sunny Day" (1968), "The Blue Marble", and "Cooks of Cake and Kindness" (1969).
In addition to their hits with Charlotte, they continued to be highly sought-after backing vocalists, and their acting career also took a leap after they starred in the Beaties' Magical Mystery Tour, where their role as "two very proper schoolgirls" garnered critical acclaim. The Mişeyáke Metro Mail wrote in 1968 that the duo had "quietly imposed themselves as one of the most popular, respected, and influential duos since the Beaties", and noted how they'd achieved their lofty position without "stooping to conquer".
The Sapphires took an uncommon approach to their promotional efforts at their peak. They never toured or played live shows, concentrating on studio work. Instead, they relied heavily on promotional clips — some directed by big names like Annemarie Beaulieu and Lia Fyresi — and appeared frequently on television, on shows like Ready Steady Go! and interview programs. For this reason, Liisa Salmela considered them "the first television-based pop stars Gylians had seen", and commented that they "established themselves as a pleasant, charming, and above all consistent presence, gradually winning the esteem of Gylians."
Departure from Confectionery
In 1970, the Sapphires left Confectionery Records, disillusioned with the label's dormancy and Charlotte's musical inactivity. They instead formed their own label, Harmony Records, and reached a co-distribution deal with Making Records. They took time off from their career, learning to play instruments and moving to a coastal village in Nauras.
Their 1972 album Young Adult inaugurated their new sound. Gone were Charlotte's elaborate studio confections and psychedelic aspects, replaced by mainly acoustic instrumentation and a "homemade" aesthetic similar to the Beaties' "part-time years". The Sapphires now wrote their own songs, which drew influences from folk rock, jazz, bossa nova, and rock and roll, and whose lyrics mainly dealt with quotidian concerns and themes of finding joy in simplicity and domesticity.
Young Adult gained a positive reception in the music press, but its distribution figures were far below the Sapphires' heyday, largely due to minimal promotion. It thus defined this period of their career: sporadic activity, unconcerned with promotion, and producing albums whose comfortable sound was acknowledged by playful titles like Quietly (1975), Politely (1978), and Utahime (1983) — the Miranian word for "chanteuse" (歌姫). In another departure from their previous practices, they now sang more in their native Miranian.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the Sapphires licensed many of their latter-day songs for inclusion in slice of life animation (both Gylian and foreign) and pornography. The latter was somewhat unexpected at the time, but as one biographer noted, both proved to be shrewd choices, exposing new audiences to their music and acquainting them to the "warm and comfortable sound" of the Sapphires.
Comeback
In the 1990s, the Sapphires experienced a second wind of popularity. They started a collaboration with Ritsuko Management, and released several Neo-Gylian Sound albums on Readymade Records, collaborating with Stella Star. At the same time, their career was bolstered by the release of Listen to the Flowers Grow, a 1995 box set of Charlotte's confectionery work that brought new attention to their 1966–1969 material.
They were extensively interviewed by Rasa Ḑeşéy for the 2019 documentary The Sapphires: A Love Story. The documentary reflected on their late 1960s stardom, their work in the Gylian Sound idiom with Charlotte, and their public reputation.
Musical style
The Sapphires' music is primarily classified as Gylian Sound. Throughout their career, they have drawn influences from and explored various genres, including pop, rock, jazz, bossa nova, psychedelic pop, dream pop (particularly in the 1980s), and Neo-Gylian Sound.
Yurika and Ritsuko's high, clear voices were described by Musical Update as "one of the undisputed treasures of Gylian music". During their collaboration with Charlotte, they were renowned for their elaborate, multi-tracked harmonies, influenced equally by the Beaties, the Beach Boys and Kaida Rakodi.
They sing primarily English and Miranian. Their English fluency made them stand out among Miranian musicians and helped them become sought-after session vocalists, as they could sing in English using a neutral accent, so much so that some of their listeners were surprised to discover they were Miranian Gylians.
Image
The Sapphires' fame was enhanced by their refined image. Their "Sapphire suits" — dark blue skirt suits with white shirts and red bows — made them easily recognisable and style icons in the 1960s.
From the beginning, they cultivated a wholesome image, and presented themselves as "upstanding young girls". While not specifically drawing attention to their ethnicity, they benefited from reflecting positive stereotypes of Miranian Gylians. They were seen as well-mannered, well-dressed, and virtuous. This was reinforced by their soft-spoken presence and polite language in interviews. Their role as "two very proper schoolgirls" in Magical Mystery Tour reflected their reputation.
Yurika commented in The Sapphires: A Love Story that their image was consciously developed:
"It was largely chance that we became famous in the psychedelic era. Our music was definitely on the softer end of it, which made it ideal for people scared of harder psychedelia, but it was undoubtedly psychedelic. Therefore, we thought it would be interesting if we embodied the opposite of psychedelia. We were just two courteous girls nobody could find fault in, and yet here we are singing these trippy little songs. That contrast made us more interesting — made people remember us."
Carmen Dell'Orefice wrote in The Travelling Companion that the Sapphires "presented themselves from the beginning as precociously elegant and wise beyond their years, and subsequently aged with a grace that would turn Colette green with envy." Radix similarly observed that in their heyday, the Sapphires managed to balance "innocence" and "experience" like their contemporaries France Gall and Alike Demetriou, and they "fetishised their 'innocence' with tongue-in-cheek", since this was always limited to simply abstaining from alcohol, smoking, or drugs, while they recorded easy-going yet frank songs about sexuality.
Perhaps more so than their music, the Sapphires became famous for their successful marriage. At first mainly captured in their on-screen chemistry in Magical Mystery Tour and televised performances, and later in their self-written material, the Sapphires provided a model of marriage that was admired for its realism. Ritsuko comments in Rasa's documentary:
"There wasn't anything fairytale in our story, really. We met, we fell in love gradually, we realised we loved each other's company, and we married. Frankly, that's what I'm proud we could represent to Gylias. Marriage doesn't have to be about big gestures. It's really like tending a fire. For us, at the end of the day, it's about comfort, commitment, and communication. It's great that we didn't just get fan mail about our music, but also from people saying how much they admired our intimacy and tried to take lessons from us for their relationships."
Legacy
The Sapphires were one of the most successful Gylian acts of the 1960s. Their work with Charlotte Böttcher was critically acclaimed and successful in distribution, and brought them praise from contemporaries and music journalists as two of Gylias' greatest vocalists. Their oeuvre has been influential on many Gylian acts, and remains a touchstone for Neo-Gylian Sound and other genres based on reverence for classic 1960s popcraft, such as psychedelia, jangle pop and power pop.
They were one of the first Gylian acts to de-emphasise concerts and rely more on televised performances and interviews for promotion. They were part of the Gylian Invasion, where their deliberately "softer" music and "respectable" image allowed them to reach audiences that did not warm to the Beaties, Watts, or similarly "vanguard" acts, although they didn't match the commercial success of Susan Shelley.
The Sapphires' image and relationship aroused enduring public admiration in Gylias. Besides their part in normalising LGBT marriages, the respect they gained as an archetypal successful marriage, regardless of gender or sexuality, contributed to the transformation of the "gender revolution".
While seemingly aloof from the Golden Revolution and Groovy Gylias, the Sapphires' non-judgemental and respectful image gained them public esteem, and produced the novelty of a pop duo who were admired or fetishised for refusing to indulge in alcohol, smoking, or drugs, mainly because they respected others' choices and thus came to be seen as levelheaded and mature, whether they were "wise beyond their years" in their youth or musical "elder stateswomen" in later years.
Members
- Yurika Shimizu (Miranian: 百合香 清水; Gylic transcription: Iúrika Şimizu) — vocals, guitar, keyboards
- Born 20 February 1944, as Yurika Fukahori (Miranian: 百合香 深堀; Gylic transcription: Iúrika Fukahori)
- Ritsuko Shimizu (Miranian: 律子 清水; Gylic transcription: Riţyko Şimizu) — vocals, guitar, keyboards
- Born 12 April 1945, as Ritsuko Mukae (Miranian: 律子 迎; Gylic transcription: Riţyko Mukaé)
Discography
| Year | Title | Format | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1965 | "Milk and Honey" "Too Young to Marry" |
Single | |
| 1966 | Magic Time | Studio album | Released as "The Ballroom". |
| 1967 | "Sunshine Today" | Single | Released as "The Ballroom". |
| 1967 | Let's Go to California | Studio album | Released as "The Flower Children". |
| 1967 | "Believe You" "I'm Not Living Here" |
Single | Released as "The Ballroom". |
| 1967 | Sapphires | Studio album | |
| 1968 | Present Tense | Studio album | Released as "Sagittarius". |
| 1968 | Begin | Studio album | Released as "The Millennium". |
| 1969 | The Blue Marble | Studio album | Released as "Sagittarius". |
| 1969 | Peace Album | Studio album | Released as "The Flower Children". |
| 1970 | "Cecily" "I Touched the Sun" |
Single | |
| 1970 | Past Imperfect | Studio album | Released as "The Flower Children". Final Confectionery Records release. |
| 1972 | Young Adult | Studio album | |
| 1975 | Quietly | Studio album | |
| 1978 | Politely | Studio album | |
| 1983 | Utahime | Studio album | Sung entirely in Miranian. |
| 1986 | Quiet Country Café | Studio album | |
| 1989 | Peaceful | Studio album | |
| 1994 | Citywise | Studio album | Released on Readymade Records. |
| 1995 | Listen to the Flowers Grow | Box set | Compilation of Charlotte Böttcher's work in 1965–1970. |
| 1997 | Nightlife | Studio album | Released on Readymade Records. |
| 2000 | Love Feels Nice | Studio album | Released on Readymade Records. |
| 2004 | Your Local | Studio album | Released on Readymade Records. |
| 2009 | Recent Songs | Studio album | |
| 2014 | Sensei | Studio album | |
| 2020 | Family | Studio album |