Reimy/Yumi Matsutoya -- Seishun no Regret （青春のリグレット）

My audio relationship with Reimy（麗美） started when she had already been well into the singer-songwriting phase of her career in the late 80s and early 90s, so it was a revelation to find out that she had started out in the mid-80s singing somewhat more aidoru-ish songs. I think the distinction between the two phases was sharp enough that at this point, I have a couple of BEST albums by the Okinawan singer representing those two different eras.

In any case, "Seishun no Regret" (Teenage Regrets) is Reimy's 2nd single from that early era, released in May 1984. I may have mentioned in one of the early articles on her that she seemed to have had some career grooming by the Matsutoyas, including a stint as one of the backup chorus during Yuming's （ユーミン）concerts. And so it was pretty natural that the Queen of New Music created this song for Reimy. Since I had become acquainted with Yuming's cover of the song first, it was interesting to hear the original ballad arrangement with that somewhat gloppy techno beat holding things down. And watching the official music video above, early Reimy was quite different in the looks department, compared to the short haircut and the zippier fashion that she was sporting at the end of the decade. And her voice was more akin to that of Hiroko Yakushimaru（薬師丸ひろ子） back in those days.

As I said, the first version of "Seishun no Regret" that I had heard was Yumi Matsutoya's（松任谷由実）cover which got onto her 1985 17th album, "Da-Di-Da", although my first time with it was via her BEST album, "Neue Musik" from 1998. Yuming's version is quite a bit more fun-loving and would probably be figuratively better translated as "Teenage Celebration". My image whenever this song plays is of some high school girls on the weekend taking off in a convertible for the beach. Not sure on the lyrical level, but the song certainly sounds joyful.

And in a bit of a cameo, Miki Imai（今井美樹） gives her own take on "Seishun no Regret" via her latest album, "Dialogue" which is a tribute to Yuming's music.