Hiromi Iwasaki -- Ieji (家路）

"Ieji"(The Road Home) is another favourite 80s song by Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）. Exploding with a majestic electric guitar intro, Iwasaki softly sings with an ennui-laden melody. Every time I hear this one, I'm always reminded of the Tuesday Night Suspense Drama on NTV since this was another ending theme that she did for the programme. In a way, I think the song fits it to a T since the melody seems to parallel the solemn mission that the middle-aged intrepid detective has to perform to get his man by the time the guitar starts wailing. Stylistically, "Ieji" is a sister to the other ending theme that Iwasaki sang for the show, "Madonna-tachi no Lullaby"（聖母たちのララバイ....Madonnas' Lullaby）the year before. No surprise there, since the composer and lyricist for both songs were Toshiyuki Kimori and Keisuke Yamakawa(木森敏之・山川啓介）. However, the only difference is that Kimori didn't have to handle a copyright battle with "Ieji" like he'd had to on the other song.

Released in August 1983, it peaked at No. 4 on the Oricon weeklies and was the 36th-ranked song of the year. It also got the Gold Prize at the Japan Record Awards and sold more than 300,000 records. However, it would also prove to be Iwasaki's final Top 10 single in her career as of 2012. Not that it has stopped me.....she was still putting out some very nice tunes well after that year.