Happy End (band)

Happy End (band)

Happy End (はっぴいえんど?) was a Japanese folk rock band, which existed from 1970 to 1972. The band's pioneering avant-garde sound is highly revered, and they are considered to be one of the most influential bands in Japanese music. Being ranked by HMV Japan in 2003 as number 4 on their list of the 100 most important Japanese pop acts. In September 2007, Rolling Stone Japan named Kazemachi Roman the greatest Japanese rock album of all time.

The members were Haruomi Hosono, Takashi Matsumoto, Eiichi Ohtaki and Shigeru Suzuki. Haruomi Hosono and Takashi Matsumoto (using the given name Reiji) were previously in the short-lived but influential psychedelic rock band Apryl Fool. When Happy End disbanded, Hosono and Suzuki formed Tin Pan Alley with Masataka Matsutoya, Hosono then formed the Yellow Magic Orchestra while Suzuki continued work as a guitarist and solo musician. Matsumoto became a successful lyricist and Ohtaki worked as a songwriter and solo artist, releasing one of Japan's best selling albums, A Long Vacation in 1981. In 2003, their song "Kaze wo Atsumete" appeared in the American movie Lost In Translation and on its soundtrack.