31/08/2026
Casey David Rankin (July 10th 1946 - January 2nd 2009)
Born in the United States Casey has been living in Japan since 1971.
After beginning a distinguished career as a songwriter, studio bassist and recording/touring artist with 'TRUK' in New York at abc/dunhill (Buddah records) Releasing "Plastic People" to much acclaim in 1967, then moving to California in 1970 to work with the capital records team, Casey decided a short sabbatical was in order and came to Japan in 1971 where he began a one year intensive program of zen in a temple located in Yokohama.
In 1976, he recorded and released his first album in Japan with a band called [SHORT HOPE] the first project ever locally produced by an all non-Japanese band in the domestic market in Japan. The album was released by Polydor / Kitty Records label. In 1978, Casey joined forces with Yoshino Fujimaru and started a band called [SH**UN]. Casey's song and Sh**uns first single '"Otokotachi-no-melody"sold well over 1,000,000 copies. The Sh**un album went on to win the best album award and was voted the best group. Casey received a number of awards as a writer and continued to be as prolific and productive to the end.
Casey received a number of awards as a writer has released 34 albums in Japan, 8 of which have gone gold and 1 going platinum. Sh**uns appearance on "American Bandstand" which was broadcast via satellite live to Japan and subsequent tour with the ‘Beach Boys’ created a sensation in Japan and as such Sh**un became the first band ever to perform in baseball stadiums. Since Sh**uns semi-retirement Casey's range of writing became more varied. He spent quite a bit of time writing soundtracks for feature films, animation films and T.V. commercial music as well as writing music for and producing a number of Japanese recording artists, as well as accumulating over 25 solo albums.
Casey continued to tour Japan and spent approximately 4 - 6 months a year touring & recording in Japan as well as the US and Europe. Many of Casey's commercial songs have become very popular throughout Japan. In particular, "I Believe in You" (All Nippon Air Lines TV CM theme), "Live is the Feeling" (Asahi Beer TV CM theme), "Met People" (Kirin Mets TV CM theme) "Wonda" (Asahi Can Coffee TV CM theme with tiger woods) and "Bad City" which is a '''Sapporo''' Can Coffee "JACK" TV commercial as well as theme songs for famous TV dramas and feature films featuring ‘Matsuda Yusaku’, are all well known and can be found, along with many of his songs on most Karaoke systems in Japan. His opening and ending theme 'Sky Hurricane' and 'Gypsy' from the album 'Life in the Sky' for [Orguss] is still popular amongst the anime lovers. Casey's song "Has Everyone Gone Blind”from the self-produced album "The Reality Of Dreams" became the theme song for the 'International War & Peace Foundation', a sub-committee within the United Nations. The promotion video for "Has Everyone Gone Blind" was introduced to much acclaim during the United Nations Nuclear Proliferation Conference in September of 1998.
''Live your life - like a wild beast, fly - like a bird. Set no boundaries - to confine you.
Swell - like an ocean, Always and Forever.''
