Hideki Saijo -- Blue Sky Blue（ブルースカイブルー）

Saturday night was the 50th annual presentation of NHK's "Omoide no Melody"（思い出のメロディー...Melodies of Memories）, the show that's been called the Kohaku Utagassen of the summer with the focus on the oldies. Aside from the fact that the special celebrated its half-century, this year's "Omoide no Melody" was notable in that a couple of stars had left this mortal coil earlier in 2018, 70s aidoru star Hideki Saijo（西城秀樹）and actress-singer Yukiji Asaoka（朝丘雪路）. However, the proceedings didn't take on a somber tone at all, by my estimation; it was quite celebratory.

Arguably, the highlight of this year's "Omoide no Melody" was the performance of Saijo's 26th single "Blue Sky Blue" with a joint performance between his contemporary and friend Goro Noguchi（野口五郎）and Saijo's voice. The performance left singer Kiyoshi Hikawa（氷川きよし）and actress Yoshino Kimura（木村佳乃）, who were co-hosting the show, bubbling over in tears.

Up to that performance, there was a short presentation on the creation of the song which was composed by Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）. The lyrics were created by the late Yu Aku（阿久悠）, and one clip of that presentation had both Aku and Saijo appearing on an interview program from years ago where the legendary lyricist stated that he had declared to the singer that he would write a song for him that would signal, at least in terms of Saijo's career (Saijo was already 23 at the time), his transition from teen aidoru to a man.

"Blue Sky Blue" has that tone of someone finally coming out of that dark tunnel triumphantly. In a way, it reminds me of Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water", as Saijo sings about remembering that day when a romantic relationship came to its end, although there is no sadness or bitterness but perhaps the appreciation of what had gone before and what is to come. There is that anthemic feeling to "Blue Sky Blue" that has now taken on a proud elegiac layer because of Saijo's passing and now Noguchi's tribute last Saturday.

Released almost 40 years ago, in August 1978, it reached as high as No. 3 on the Oricon weeklies and won a Gold Prize at the 20th Japan Record Awards that year. On that same night that Saijo won that prize on New Year's Eve, he got to appear on the Kohaku Utagassen for the 5th time in a row to sing the song. "Blue Sky Blue" would end the year as the 51st-ranked single. The song was also a part of his live album "Eien no Ai Nana-shou"（永遠の愛7章...Eternal Love, Chapter 7）which was released in February 1979.