Rumiko Koyanagi -- Ohisashiburi ne (お久しぶりね）

My first two entries of Rumiko Koyanagi（小柳ルミ子）were her two beautiful ballads of the early 1970s. "Ohisashiburi ne" （It's Been A Long Time) was definitely far more uptempo and showed the Takarazuka-trained Koyanagi in feisty form. It's one of my favourites of the 1980s and I don't think I'm going too far out on the limb when I say it's probably one of the last great kayo kyoku pop hits.

Written and composed by singer-songwriter Masato Sugimoto（杉本真人）, "Ohisashiburi ne" has the instrumental tropes of a typical enka tune but aside from the classy piano intro, it just has this relentless energy which doesn't have time to stop off at an izakaya or watch a cargo ship leaving the pier. It's as if Koyanagi was declaring, "Enough of the 70s good girl stuff! I wanna paint this town red!"

And here is the lady several years after its July 1983 release performing "Ohisashiburi ne". Long time, no see indeed! Whenever I hear this song, I will always envision her TV appearances when she performed it on stage as she is whooping it up with her younger male dancers.

But it took the song half a year for it to finally gain access into the Oricon Top 10. Although it didn't finally break through until January 1984, the song's popularity otherwise got her the invitation for the 1983 Kohaku. It got as high as No. 8, her first Top 10 single in several years and her very last one up to this date, and would eventually become the 24th-ranked song of 1984.

Koyanagi must've been in a great mood when she recorded this tune. She even got her manager to do the backup vocals!