Yoshiko Ohtsu -- Tokyo Anna （東京アンナ）

Tonight's episode of "Kayo Concert"（歌謡コンサート）was about having a boisterous time at the bars of which there are many all over Japan. And to go along with them, there is plenty of Mood Kayo. There were quite a few of them Noelle and I have already written about, but then I came across this one that I hadn't heard before.

Kaori Mizumori（水森かおり）did the cover of "Tokyo Anna", a rumba dance of a Mood Kayo which was originally released as the 2nd single for then-17-year-old Yoshiko Ohtsu（大津美子）from Aichi Prefecture. It was quite the heady start for the singer who had just released her debut single of "Chidori no Blues"（千鳥のブルース...Plover Blues） just a couple of months before in July 1955. It became a huge hit which led to Ohtsu getting onto the 1956 Kohaku Utagassen for the first of 7 times.

"Tokyo Anna" was written by Tetsuro Fujima（藤間哲郎）and composed by Masanobu Tokuchi （渡久地政信）who acted as Ohtsu's mentor from 1953. As for the lyrics...well, the title says it all. It's about this legendary lady hitting the establishments of Ginza with the guys probably begging for a dance with her. In a way, the melody sounds somewhat like what would have been customary for a tokusatsu program. Considering that this was a song in the mid-50s, it made me wonder about what the most expensive neighbourhood of Tokyo (if not Japan) was like back then. The metropolis was still just a decade after World War II but I gather that Ginza had already become quite the happening place even then.

Here is Mizumori's rendition but on a different show and with the vocal group Junretsu（純烈）.