Mari Amachi -- Koi suru Natsu no Hi (恋する夏の日）

This is the way that I will always remember Mari Amachi（天地真理）....not as the slightly loopy middle-aged lady selling infomercial stuff a few years ago, but as the adorably cute fresh-faced ever-smiling aidoru of the 70s that I see in this video. When my mother was buying me those Japanese kindergarten manga tomes at the Furuya Japanese supermarket deep in ol' downtown Chinatown 40 years ago, Amachi's face was usually plastered on the cover and in the first few pages.

In 1972, Amachi had her biggest hit with "Hitori janai no"（ひとりじゃないの...You're Not Alone), her 3rd single. In July 1973, her 7th single was also a huge hit and has become another Amachi classic. "Koi suru Natsu no Hi"(Summer Day in Love) was another happy-go-lucky song of romance on the tennis courts. It would be her final No. 1 song during her career and would stay there for 6 straight weeks. It ended up becoming the 8th-ranked song of the year. Michio Yamagami and Koichi Morita（山上路夫・森田公一）were the brains behind this one.

For a guy like me who was weaned in his early kayo kyoku career on the 80s aidoru such as Seiko, Akina and Naoko, it was really nice watching Mari Amachi a decade earlier performing this song in that high-pitched voice of hers. Plus, I think her aidoru moves were a great primer for future karaoke singers.