Hibari Misora -- Murasaki no Yoake（むらさきの夜明け）

As much as my image of the late legendary Hibari Misora（美空ひばり）has been that of the grande dame of kayo, alternately wearing a kimono or a sparkly jazzy dress, I was surprised to find out that she did have her time of "getting down", so to speak. And I think that was in the late 1960s when she started getting hep with mini-skirts and go-go boots in her performance of "Makkana Taiyo"（真赤な太陽）. It was quite the eye-opener seeing her perform this one on TV via YouTube.

Well, it looks like she wanted to keep the good times (rock n') rollin' since the year following that massive hit "Makkana Taiyo", Misora retained the same two songwriters, lyricist Osamu Yoshioka（吉岡治）and composer/jazz tenor sax player Nobuo Hara（原信夫）, to create "Murasaki no Yoake" (Purple Sunrise) in January 1968.

With a mix of kayo and a beat similar to the one used by Group Sounds bands, "Murasaki no Yoake" has quite the similarity with "Makkana Taiyo". Not sure how it did on the embryonic Oricon charts; maybe not as well as the first song since of that similarity but it's still intriguing to watch the Queen of Kayo Kyoku shimmy.