Credits

I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Yukiko Ehara -- Chotto Dake (ちょっとだけ)


I first heard this song, "Chotto Dake" (Just A Little) on one of the "Good Times Diva" series of female vocalist compilation CDs, and it was a pleasant enough cute little aidoru tune, but the voice sounded eerily familiar. So I took a look at the liner notes and realized the singer was none other than YOU! No, not "you" as in "2nd-person pronoun", but the veteran comic actress and tarento YOU....she of the Betty Boop voice and occasional sharp tongue on the variety shows. The song was written by Yasushi Akimoto(秋元康) and composed by Kisaburo Suzuki(鈴木キサブロ) for release as the then-Yukiko Ehara's(江原由希子) debut single in February 1985. Her change of name to YOU took place in 1988.


For my long stint in Japan, I used to see YOU as a panelist in those variety shows, but I remember seeing her as one of the regular zanies on Fuji-TV's Sunday night comedy program "Gottsu Ee Kanji"ごっつええ感じ...Downtown's Feelin' Good) with the comedic duo Downtown.


However, the very first time I saw her at all was back in my 2 years in Gunma Prefecture in a commercial for a Suntory Tea Liquor commercial (tea and liquor...man, I don't know about that) when she was the lead vocal for the pop group Fairchild. I just see this cute face in a polar bear outfit stumbling across the snow-covered hills to get some of that caffeinated booze....I guess afternoons in some houses in the early 90s must've been pretty wild. Gottsu ee kanji, indeed.

3 comments:

  1. Thanks J-Canuck for this great post on 江原由希子 AKA YOU/ゆう's 「ちょっとだけ」. Very cute pop song and just another great example of how surprisingly good some of these お笑い芸人 and タレント are as singers. Other examples are 山田邦子, 内村光良/千秋/ウド鈴木 AKA ポケットビスケッツ, 南原清隆/天野ひろゆき/ビビアン・スー AKA ブラックビスケッツ, ゴリエ, and 所ジョージ to name a few. In fact you could go back to the 70s where you had some interesting singers like Professional Wrestlers ジャッキー佐藤 & マキ上田 singing as the duo ビューティ・ペア.

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  2. I've grown to love YOU through Terrace House - I just love her sense of humour and her "Betty Boop voice", she sounds so unique. You have a really cool blog here, thanks for providing a little insight into her earlier career!

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    1. Hello there.

      One of the other first times that I saw her was when she appeared as the lead singer of Fairchild through an NHK Xmas special around 1990. She wasn't nearly as talkative as she is now...just giggled a lot. From such humble beginnings, eh?:)

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