Being a huge Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美） fan, there is still a tendency of me to think that as the songstress went into the 1980s, she just became the go-to person for melancholy ending theme songs for suspense dramas. I wondered if she just ended up sitting by a rainy window and sighed deeply at the ennui of it all between single releases. Of course, that wasn't the case at all. I have a number of her albums from that decade, and she was perfectly capable of putting out some pretty cheery tunes as well.
One of them is "Kesshin" (Resolution) which was released in April 1985. Her 36th single is a spritely and sparkly uptempo with a touch of class as she sings about going off on that whirlwind romance with a guy she meets at a swanky party. Together they fling any pretensions into the night air and head off for the beach in his car. Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）was responsible for the lyrics and Keiichi Oku（奥慶一） took care of the music here. Oku's melody makes me think that Iwasaki's little romantic fling took place along the Mediterranean or on the Aegean. It also reminds me of that time at the end of the 70s in Japanese music history when there was an influx of these kayo kyoku with a hint of foreign travel such as Saki Kubota's "Ihojin" or Judy Ongg's "Miserarete".
It's not a diamond commercial but hey, it's nice to see Hiromi-chan in an ad!
A recommendation and a request. First the recommendation.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wRxJqQyVUI
This is a video of a concert held in Hibiya Field in Tokyo in 1981. I can recognise MacArthur Park (a staple of hers at that time) and Hot Stuff, both by Donna Summer, but I don't recognise the others, and any ID would be welcomed. However, it's the last song in the clip that I want to point out, the one where she's singing in a white dress. It's called 今夜だけは, translated as Just Tonight, and it's from her 1981 album Salvia. It's a lovely song, with its refrains of "Dance with me".
And now the request.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiiSpXLcdTI
This is the medley from her 1982 Recital concert. The part I'd like IDed is the first intro. The song list says Hatachi Mae (or Nijuu Samae, I don't know how it reads), but it's not the intro to Hatachi Mae. I'm wondering what it's from.
Hello, there.
DeleteThanks for the videos. I've given both of them a look. As for your request for that intro song at the beginning of the 2nd video, I tried to search for the first two lines in the liner notes of the Iwasaki albums I do have but couldn't come up with the song. It's possible that it may have been something just written up for the concert itself but I'll have to listen to the albums again to make sure. That will also have to be the case with the songs from the first video. And yes, the hit song that comes right after that intro is pronounced "Hatachi Mae". Sorry I couldn't be of more help here.