Seiko Matsuda -- Natsu no Tobira （夏の扉）

Ah, memories of Seiko-chan! Back to high school, and all that. I remember first hearing Seiko Matsuda's（松田聖子）5th single as a jingle for Suntory Vitamin Water, and the lyric, "Fresh, fresh, fresh!" when I saw the commercial on video tape. The super-bouncy "Natsu no Tobira"(The Gates of Summer) debuted on the Oricon single charts in late April 1981 at No. 16, rocketed up to No. 2 by the next week in May and was No. 1 throughout June...a very timely title for a song indeed. It ended up being the 14th most popular song of the year. The lyrics were by Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）, the same lyricist behind "Aoi Sangosho"（青い珊瑚礁） and the composer was by Kazuo Zaitsu（財津和夫）, the lead singer for the band Tulip（チューリップ）.

I later saw Seiko perform it at the 1981 Red & White Song Festival (aka Kohaku Utagassen--紅白歌合戦）which was the first of the long-running televised event to have been shown in Canada. That show further opened up my eyes and ears to kayo kyoku. If I'm not mistaken, Seiko was just bopping about in a yellow dress, and I think by that time, she'd gone away from her Seiko-chan cut to shorter curls.