The Peanuts/Candies/Wink -- Furimukanaide （ふりむかないで）

"Furimukanaide" (Don't Turn Away) is another evergreen kayo kyoku tune by The Peanuts. I've heard it a number of times over the decades by various singers, male and female, and apparently The Peanuts' version is not the original one but it is the first version to become a hit. Written by Tokiko Iwatani（岩谷時子） and composed by Hiroshi Miyagawa（宮川泰）, this version was released as the duo's 21st single in March 1962. The song is written in the style of what American pop sounded like in the early 60s, and it strikes me as being a bit Del Shannon. And I kinda wonder if Yumi Arai（荒井由実） had taken some inspiration from the song for one of her own early hits in the 1970s, "Rouge no Dengon" （ルージュの伝言...A Message in Rouge) (already profiled).

15 years later, aidoru group Candies, gave a straight-on cover of "Furimukanaide" with a very similar arrangement to the original. It was never released as a single but was a track on the trio's 9th album, "Candy Label" released in September 1977. For those who may be interested in acquiring it, that's the front cover right there.

I gotta say that if I had been a card-carrying member of Wink's fan club right now, I would've had to hand in the card in shame, since I hadn't been aware that the duo had even done a cover to "Furimukanaide". This was Wink's 15th single released in July 1992, and it was given a Eurobeat sheen. At the same time, I wonder if Stock, Aitken or Waterman dropped in on Tokyo and given the producers a few tips for this one. Wink's take on the classic was probably not too surprising since in the early 90s, there was a small boom in updating some of the old 60s kayo kyoku classics. In any case, the song peaked at No. 7 on Oricon and was also a track on Wink's 9th album, "Nocturne" which was released in November and got as high as No. 19.