Ayumi Ishida -- Nee, Kiite yo Mama（ネエ、聞いてよママ）

 

Since "Kayo Kyoku Plus" began in early 2012, we've had to say goodbye to a lot of singers and other people who've had a major influence on the Japanese music industry, and sad to say, 2025 is now no different. 

Over the past several years, it's been the usual question that has popped up in my family about whatever had happened to actress-singer Ayumi Ishida（いしだあゆみ）. There have been plenty of singers appearing on television to cover her classic "Blue Light Yokohama" （ブルーライト・ヨコハマ）but the woman herself had not shown up as of late....at least, not on the programs that we've been watching. 

This morning, we received a sad and definitive answer on NHK's "News Watch 9" when the anchor reported that Ishida had passed away on March 11th at the age of 76 due to hypothyroidism. Although as an actress with a long filmography, Ishida probably played a huge range of characters, I've always seen her on TV as a very vivacious and classy lady but also as someone who gradually grew frailer over the years. 

Born on March 26th 1948 as Yoshiko Ishida（石田良子）in Sasebo City, Nagasaki Prefecture, she was also raised in Metropolitan Osaka. She entered show business in her mid-teens in the mid-1960s but what I hadn't known was that as a young girl, she was also a figure skater.

1964 was the year that she made her debut on all fronts as an entertainer, and that included her first single from April, "Nee, Kitte yo Mama" (Hey, Mom, Got Something to Tell You). Written by Takakazu Okada（岡田教和）and composed/arranged by Taku Izumi（いずみたく）, on the kayo side of things, I could say that this was a loud and brassy tune with a dondonpa or cha-cha sentiment while on the Western side of things, it comes across as a happy-go-lucky 1960s girl pop tune a la Connie Francis. Ishida was only 16 when she recorded "Nee, Kitte yo Mama" as this proclamation to turn the blood of all mothers cold as she's been greeted with all sorts of offers from the male population and she's not exactly turning them away all that strongly.  The attitude is absolutely teen rebel but even with her first one, I can still hear that plaintive nasal tone in Ishida's vocals that has been a hallmark in hits including "Blue Light Yokohama" and "Anata nara Dou Suru" (あなたならどうする).

My condolences to Ishida's family, friends and many fans. We've lost another kayo kyoku legend.