Chie Kobayashi -- Hotel Osaka（ホテルOSAKA）

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by Zairon

 

The above is a shot of the Hotel Monterey Osaka. I've never heard of it let alone been there but it's quite close to JR Osaka Station. The website certainly depicts it as one of the more luxurious accommodations in Osaka.

It was just last week when I posted my Author's Pick on hotel-titled kayo, and perhaps if I had remembered that this song was in the backlog, I would have included it in the list. But as it is, this is Chie Kobayashi's（小林千絵）7th single "Hotel Osaka" from May 1985. Last week's list showed that a number of genres can be used to reflect those hotel tunes but this time, "Hotel Osaka" has more of a bouncy folksy nature in its pop...not really Mood Kayo or City Pop at all. Written by Toshihiro Ito（伊藤敏博）, composed by Yukio Sasaki（佐々木幸男）and arranged by Tatsushi Umegaki（梅垣達志）, the hotel in question (and this isn't to say that the Monterey was the site of trysting here) is in all likelihood the final stop in a relationship that has to come to its end much to the lady's chagrin.

With the common first name of Chie and common family name of Kobayashi in there, I'd assumed that Chie Kobayashi was a regular part of KKP. However as it turns out, this is the first time for this singer, actress and TV personality to appear on the blog. Many welcomes to her then! Hailing from Osaka itself, the celebrity's path to an entertainment career apparently began when she won a championship on a TV show specializing in celebrity impressions; her winning stint was one of doing a Junko Sakurada（桜田淳子）song. According to her J-Wiki profile, the singing part of her geinokai career was the one that got things started for her professionally when she debuted in 1983 with the single "Itsumo Kataomoi"（いつも片想い...Always One-Sided Love）.