Seiko Matsuda/Asako Toki -- Komugi Iro no Mermaid (小麦色のマーメイド）

After first hearing and seeing Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子） on the 1981 Kohaku perform "Natsu no Tobira"（夏の扉....The Gates of Summer), I asked my brother when he went on his Japanese school class' graduation trip to Japan during July 1982 to get a Seiko record of some sort, a 45" single or a cassette tape (quaint reading words like "45 single" and "cassette tape", isn't it?). So, it was basically a month-long wait before he came back to Toronto and brought me my very first Seiko-chan piece of vinyl.

I had been expecting a bouncy number a la "Natsu no Tobira", but "Komugi Iro no Mermaid"(Tan-Coloured Mermaid) was something different....it was a slower, swaying tune with Seiko sounding a little more relaxed as if she were that mermaid resting on that rock in the ocean (no doubt an image that many a boy in Japan...and Canada....had while listening). I recall that I was slightly (and mistakenly) disappointed when I first heard it in light of my initial exposure to the Queen of 80s Aidoru and other starlets like Naoko Kawai(河合奈保子）and Hitomi Ishikawa（石川ひとみ）, but of course as I started getting further into Japanese pop music, my appreciation for the song grew. "Komugi" may have been sung by an aidoru, but it didn't quite sound like the typical aidoru song.

Of course at the time, I hadn't known the credentials behind the production of the tune, but it turned out that Seiko's 10th single had been written by Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆） and composed by Karuho Kureta（呉田軽穂）...which was the pseudonym of Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由実）. A couple of singles and six months earlier, the duo had created one of Seiko's biggest hits, "Akai Sweet Pea"（赤いスイートピー...Red Sweet Pea). That was the New Musician's first time composing a song for Seiko under her fake moniker, and for a lady who had once declared that she would never make tunes for aidoru, she ended up making a few more for Seiko....and with very good results, might I add. "Komugi"entered the Oricon charts at No. 2, so hitting the top spot was a no-brainer. It became the 15th-ranked song for 1982, just three spots down from "Akai Sweet Pea".

Singer Asako Toki（土岐麻子） is someone that I came across just in the last few years of my time in Japan. She is an artist who seems to concentrate on her own brand of light pop, often inflected with some Latin and jazz influences. I'd say that her music would be perfect in a trendy cafe/bar...of which Tokyo has tons. Toki also has a penchant for doing covers of 80s Japanese pop, and so here is her version of "Komugi Iro no Mermaid".

Overall, the interesting thing about this song (that my brother must've bought just a few days after it had been released on July 21) is that it may have been penned by Yuming, but it sounds custom fit for Seiko....and yet it showed the aidoru in a new, more mature light.

Ah, by the way, Seiko's original also came out as a track on a special Christmas album, "Kin Iro no Ribbon"(金色のリボン...Gold Ribbon) in December 1982. Meanwhile, Asako Toki's version is on her album, "Summerin'", which was released in 2008.