The perfect summer aidoru song of the 80s. Every time I hear that phrase above sung by Seiko-chan, I just feel like giving her a pat on the head and offering her a gumdrop. Of course, if I actually did that, I would most likely have been thrown through a couple of walls by her security. But I digress.
"Tengoku no Kiss"(Heaven's Kiss) is an aidoru song that seems to be just imbued with summery joy through the arrangement. Created by former Happy End members Takashi Matsumoto and Haruomi Hosono（松本隆・細野晴臣）, it's one of my favourite songs by Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）. And sure enough, it was another No. 1 for her which was released in April 1983. I could just see young Seiko skipping across the beach, playfully trying to avoid the surf from washing over her feet.
During the heyday of Yellow Magic Orchestra, the members often helped out in writing and composing for other singers, and a number of times, the YMO sound seeped into the arrangements. However, Hosono's arrangement for "Tengoku no Kiss" was about as far from a synthesizer as a toy xylophone. It seemed to fit the Seiko aura to a T. Ironically for Hosono, who had been really rallying for YMO's "Kimi ni Mune Kyun"（君に、胸キュン） (which had been released a month earlier) to hit the top spot on Oricon, it would be his composition for Seiko, his first one for her, that would beat the band's 7th single to the No. 1 position. It also became the 16th-ranked song of the year.
The single was also part of Seiko's 7th album, "Utopia", which was released in June 1983, and also hit the top spot on Oricon. It also became the theme song for her second movie, "Plumeria no Densetsu"(プルメリアの伝説...Plumeria Legend).
The above wasn't the one, but the first time I came across "Tengoku no Kiss" was on an episode of the Fuji-TV music show "Yoru no Hit Studio"（夜のヒットスタジオ）. While I was watching her sashay across the screen and sing that sweet melody, I just thought that this was about as Seiko as Seiko could get.
Also, take a look at the single's B-side, "Wagamama no Kataomoi"（わがままな片想い）.
Thanks J-Canuck for this great post on 松田聖子's 「天国のキッス」. I remember watching 「プルメリアの伝説」 during one of my Summer visits to Japan (my older cousin actually forced me to watch it at the theatre with her). While I didn't particularly liked the film I do remember thinking this song was pretty nice. This film was doubled-billed strangely enough with 武田鉄矢's 『刑事物語2 りんごの詩』 which I enjoyed a lot more.
ReplyDeleteYeah, while I was reading the J-Wiki writeup on the song, I came across something about Tetsuya Takeda there which I couldn't quite understand. Thanks for clearing that up.
DeleteWhenever I dropped in on Wah Yueh, I saw some sort of soundtrack album whose movie starred Seiko. The title was in Spanish, I think. Didn't have quite the incentive to buy it, though.
In the Video, Haruomi has the LinnDrum, Roland MC8, and a Sequential Prophet 5 (the same Synth Ryuichi is using ).
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