Rats & Star

Rats & Star, formerly called Chanels, is a male J-pop group which specializes in doo-wop-influenced music. They performed at the reputed night club Whisky A Go-Go of Los Angeles for two years in a row. A leader of the group is a lead singer Masayuki Suzuki.

History

In 1975, Masayuki Suzuki, who likes doo-wop, Masashi Tashiro and Nobuyoshi Kuwano, joined together to form a band called Chanels. The band debuted in 1980 with their first single "Runaway" selling over a million copies and becoming a huge hit. In 1983, the band changed its name to Rats & Star due to complaints from the French fashion giant Chanel. The name change seemed to make no difference in sales, as their first single as Rats & Star, "Me-Gumi no Hito," sold over 800,000 copies. Five of the members were married at Tokyo's Hie Shrine at the same time during 1985, generating a lot of publicity for the group. Rats & Star released a duet with Masayuki's older sister Kiyomi Suzuki called "Lonely Chaplain" in 1986, which also became a huge hit. Although leader Masayuki Suzuki launched a solo career and Rats & Star's activity thus essentially stopped. Afterward, Tashiro and Kuwano played an active part and were so popular not as musical artists, as TV performers. they formed Rats & Star again in the limitation of half a year and released the single "Yume de Aetara" in 1996, which was popular enough to encourage the group to go on a final nationwide tour. The same year, they made their first appearance on Kouhaku to perform that song.

Related Topics:
1975 - 1980 - 1983 - Chanel - Tokyo - Hie Shrine - 1985 - Duet - Kiyomi Suzuki - 1986 - 1996 - Kouhaku

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The group's name is a palindrome, reading the same both backwards and forwards. The name's true meaning, however, is that "rats" raised in the less affluent parts of town could, by singing doo-wop music, reverse their fortunes and collectively become a "star".

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