Pink Lady -- UFO

 

I may have been a bit hasty when I dubbed Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子） as the Queen Aidoru. Perhaps, it was better to title her as the Queen Aidoru of the 1980s. Or I should leave Seiko-chan as is, and then name late-70s aidoru sensation Pink Lady Empresses Dowager Aidoru. 

Seiko-chan may have had her bouncy moves whenever she sang her songs on TV or stage, but she couldn't compete with Pink Lady choreography. Even in the 21st century, most Japanese, men and women, know at least the first couple of dance moves from Kei and Mie's most commercially successful hit, UFO.

UFO was actually their 6th single, released in December 1977. The legendary Yu Aku （阿久悠）provided the lyrics while Shunichi Tokura （都倉俊一）composed it. It stayed in the No. 1 position for 10 straight weeks, was the No. 1 single for 1978, earned a Japan Record Award, and sold 1.5 million records. Unsurprisingly, Keiko Masuda（増田恵子） and Mitsuyo Nemoto（根本美鶴代） will probably be always remembered for this one tune.

Any other history about the duo I will leave to another man, Jeff Branch of Philadelphia Pennsylvania, who has this temple of a website devoted to Pink Lady called Pink Lady America. And no, it's not the same Jeff who co-starred with the the ladies in that horrible American variety show (my parents made us watch it because it was Japanese....geez).

My personal memories of Pink Lady were through VHS tapes and Japanese elementary school readers...and, of course "Pink Lady & Jeff" (oh, the horror...). But by the time I really got into Japanese music, the girls were already well on their way to disbanding.