Mizue Takada -- Glass no Hana （ガラスの花）

"Glass no Hana" (Glass Flowers) was another song by Mizue Takada（高田みづえ） that I enjoyed listening to when I first caught it as her contribution to the 1982 Kohaku Utagassen. Written and composed by Shinji Tanimura（谷村新司） for release as her 17th single in September 1982, it was a minor hit for Takada which peaked at No. 34 on Oricon. It has that slightly mysterious intro which had me wondering initially if the song were entering Mood Kayo territory, but then it actually quickly veered into a more folk-like rhythm. Tanimura is also helping out on backup during the refrain.

For the first couple of years of my full-blown interest in kayo kyoku, I was listening to Takada's big hits pretty heavily. But when my family got its first VCR in the form of a top-loading Panasonic, one of the go-to videos was for the TBS Saturday night comedy hour "Hachiji da yo! Zen'in Shuugo!" （８時だよ！全員集合！...It's 8 O'clock! Get Together Everyone!), otherwise known as the big show of the comedic group The Drifters. There, I discovered that Takada was a frequent guest which usually meant that she was there as a victim or as a corpser for the guys.