Credits

I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.

Friday, June 26, 2020

Reiko Takahashi -- Sunset Road(サンセット・ロード)


Managed to find one of the rarest of the rare, I believe. Virtually the only information that I could find about the Tokyo-born Reiko Takahashi(高橋玲子)was at Idol.ne.jp, and that was only to list the mere two singles that she'd released in 1986 and 1987. I wasn't even sure whether she was an aidoru since I've seen other singers at that site, and they were definitely not teenybopper singers. I could only get some confirmation by going through three pages of Yahoo.jp and discovering that she had been included on a 1988 aidoru calendar that was being sold at Rakuten, and that's now sold out so I couldn't see what the calendar looked like.



Anyways, now that I've finished my harangue of sorts, I can introduce that second single by Takahashi, "Sunset Road" which came out in July 1987. Written by Junko Sato(佐藤純子), composed by City Pop prince Kingo Hamada(浜田金吾)and arranged by Keiichi Oku(奥慶一)from the band Spectrum, "Sunset Road" is pretty perky as if it were introducing the weather segment on a weekend news broadcast. But as an aidoru tune, it's got some pleasant AOR feelings and Takahashi's vocals are fine to the extent that I think it is a pity that she never got her full due in more singles or a single album.


Strangely enough, the first version of "Sunset Road" which I heard was one that had been mysteriously sped up, but perhaps there was method behind the madness since it actually sounds rather nice here, too. Maybe the uploader had some Vaporwave ambitions. It actually took me a couple of listens to realize that Takahashi sounded a little too Minnie Mouse to be normal.

7 comments:

  1. heard sunset road and thought it was great! really disappointed to find out she doesn't have any full albums.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, it was too bad about that. She had one of the shortest careers that I had ever known for an aidoru at just 2 singles.

      Delete
  2. That's crazy! Sunset Road is sooo good, I was looking for other songs of her, so sad she couldn't keep her artistic career!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Agreed here, but that's how the aidoru business went: a few superstars, a handful of stars and a few minutes of exposure for the rest.

      Delete
  3. i love sunset road, shame she has no other songs. check out tatsuro yamashita too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, it's too bad...all too brief career.

      Delete
    2. Aun asi tiene en total 4 canciones.
      Estan en YouTube.

      Delete

Feel free to provide any comments (pro or con). Just be civil about it.