On September 6, 1963, record label Nippon Crown became independent from the Nippon Columbia. Saburō Kitajima was its member. Hibari Misora presented a song titled "Kanto Harusame Kasa" when the record label was established. Kitajima took part in the Kōhaku Uta Gassen for the first time on December 31, 1963. The audience share of the 14th Kōhaku Uta Gassen reached 81.4% in 1963. In 1964, Haruo Minami released his cover version of song , composed by Masao Koga. In 1965, Kitajima released a string of hits such as , and . "Kaerokana" was composed by Hachidai Nakamura. Koga composed Hibari's song "Yawara", which won the grand prix award at the Japan Record Award in 1965. Koga was also an original composer of Hibari's 1966 cover song . His music, called "Koga melody", became a base of modern "enka" and he became known as "the father of modern "enka"".