Shoko Minami -- Nakimane （泣きまね）

I was digging through the vaults that are the dusty cabinets under my CD shelves when I discovered another one of my old "Sounds of Japan" tapes. Took a listen and re-discovered an old song that I'd completely forgotten about.

"Nakimane" (Crocodile Tears) was written and composed by singer-songwriter Akiko Kosaka（小阪明子）and sung by Shoko Minami/南翔子 (real name: Harumi Watanabe/渡辺春美) as her 5th single in February 1986. Minami may be well-known amongst the fans of the anime "Urusei Yatsura"（うる星やつら） for providing a couple of theme songs. "Nakimane" is as relaxing as a cup of chamomile tea, and Minami was one of a group of female singers and singer-songwriters who seemed to create these wistful pop ballads that came about in the mid to late 1980s...I'm thinking about Akiko Kobayashi（小林明子）, Miki Imai（今井美樹）and Megumi Shiina（椎名恵） who covered Charlene's "I've Never Been To Me" under the title of "Love Is All" also in 1986.

Minami comes from quite a musical family. Not only was her grandfather a pianist and her mother a singer as well, but a couple of her brothers were in bands. Her elder brother, Shigeki Watanabe（渡辺茂樹） was a member of the Group Sounds band, The Wild Ones, while another brother, Naoki（渡辺直樹）, was the vocal and bassist for a Japanese fusion band called Spectrum.