Yukari Ito -- Gigolo（情夫）

 

Last night, I wrote up an Off-Course（オフコース）article on an atypical song by them whose lyrics relate the story of a couple having a really good time one night. Well, the lusty number below takes things to an even larger level.

Yukari Ito（伊東ゆかり）started off as one of the cute 1960s teenage aidoru covering tunes such as Connie Francis' "Where The Boys Are", the ultimate in innocent pining songs. Well, twenty years later, Ito has definitely grown up if this song, "Gigolo", is of any indication. Incidentally, the kanji actually reads as "Joufu" which translates as "male lover".

That cover of the October 1981 album where "Gigolo" resides, "Aisuru Uso wo Shittemasuka. Onna ni Kansuru 10-shou"（愛する嘘を知ってますか。女に関する10章...Know Any Loving Lies? Ten Chapters About Women）(which is one progressive rock-level length of a title), seems to be the perfect backdrop for this song. There is a woozy intro with Ito's vocals to match as if one half of a couple is just rousing up from a deep satisfying sleep and admiring her partner still in slumberland. Of course, that part has got to end with a sexy saxophone before the melody suddenly rushes into a bass-driven City Pop beat, and then we return to bed...shampoo, rinse and repeat. Finally, Ito goes into some major moaning and groaning, and no, it isn't because she's fed up. Yoko Yamaguchi（山口洋子）was in charge of the lyrics while Nobuo Kurata（倉田信雄）provided the smoking hot melody. 

If the rest of the album is anything like "Gigolo" and if you can get your hands on it, make sure they are wearing oven gloves.