Yoko Oginome -- Dancing Hero （ダンシング・ヒーロー）

Yoko Oginome （荻野目洋子）turned some heads with her 7th single, "Dancing Hero", whenever she came onto the ranking shows such as "The Best 10"and "The Top 10". She added some fashion flair and dynamic dance into what was the cover of Angie Gold's disco "Eat You Up". Plus, it didn't hurt that she had perkily pretty looks and a cute nasal delivery. "Dancing Hero" was released only as a single in November 1985 (though it has appeared on any of her Best albums) where it went as high as No. 5 on the Oricon charts and became the 12th-ranking song of 1986. It was the most successful hit that Oginome ever had.

I'd completely forgotten that before she became a full-time singer, she had been the voice actress behind the character of Miyuki in the anime of the same name a couple of years before. For that show, folk-pop band H2O provided the ending theme of "Omoide ga Ippai", which has its own entry.

As for the video at the very top, it's actually an excerpt of a video of her trip to Los Angeles that I have somewhere in the recesses of a dusty closet. Despite her costume in the video (that video has been taken down), I don't think Lady Gaga had much influence from her. In fact, this will age Oginome and myself horribly, but Ms. Germanotta was born a mere 5 months after Oginome hit gold with her song.

This is "Eat You Up" by the original singer, Angie Gold. Nope, never heard of her until I started researching for this entry. Eat it up! It was created by Angelina Kyte (which I'm assuming is Gold's real name) and Anthony Baker. For the Japanese lyrics, it was Hitoshi Shinohara (篠原仁志) with Koji Makaino (馬飼野康二) handling the arrangements.