Akemi Ishii -- Cha-Cha-Cha

"Baby, get on my Cadillac."
"Oh, no. I wanna dance my cha-cha."

Somewhere, Shakespeare is probably hanging his head in his hands. But for Akemi Ishii（石井明美） from Chiba Prefecture, these were the lyrics that instantly thrust her into the limelight. "Cha-Cha-Cha" was released in August 1986 as Ishii's debut, and in less than 6 months, the song ended up as the top-selling single of the year, edging out even Akina Nakamori's（中森明菜） mega hit, "Desire" by a few hundred thousand copies.

As I was borrowing my "The Best 10" videos from "Nippon Video" in Toronto, I kept seeing Akemi Ishii popping up as virtually a regular on the show. The song was just tearing up the charts like wildfire. But like Yoko Oginome（荻野目洋子）and her biggest hit, "Dancing Hero", Ishii can give thanks to the Italian music industry. "Cha-Cha-Cha" was originally written and composed by Bruno Rossellini, one-half of the disco duo Finzy Contini. Translator and perhaps just one-time singer Yuji Konno（今野雄二）provided the Japanese lyrics for Ishii.

Ishii's "Cha-Cha-Cha" was also used as the theme song for one of the more popular trendy drama serials of the 80s in Japan, "Danjo Shichi-nin no Natsu Monogatari"(男女7人の夏物語....The Summer Story of 7 Men and Women).

I can probably say that the J-Pop industry of the time can thank Italy for a number of their hits during the mid-to-late 80s. It seemed that famous Eurobeat synth sound of the time was just the most popular effect.