Naoko Kawai -- Love letter (ラブレター)

I never really cared for Naoko Kawai (河合奈保子). Besides her gorgeous bikini pictures, which were enhanced by her busty figure, I didn't pay attention to her or her music. This scenary changed after “Love letter” started playing in her “NAOKO ’86 Stardust Paradise in EAST” concert.

“Love Letter” was that awkward moment of the concert when the audience got really pumped up and started singing catchy lines from the song, such as “tamerai rai rai rabu retaa” (ためらい ライライ ラブレター) and “suki desu ienaikedo” (好きです 言えないけど), along with Naoko-chan. The song itself is great, mainly because it showcases very well the fusion of a typical aidoru melody with a tame disco beat, something that wasn’t rare in aidoru pop during the first half of the 80s. Naoko, as a truly experienced aidoru from the "Golden 80s", was ridiculously charming while singing it, even though her energetic movements on stage made her a little out of breath. Nothing that would stop an aidoru fan like me from ejoying the concert. As I said earlier, I never payed any attention to her, but that’s a shame as the girl was quite talented. Right now, I’m in the process of discovering her gems.

As I could testify after watching a couple of other Naoko’s concerts, “Love Letter” became somewhat a concert staple, thanks to the audience’s lively participation. One interesting point is that the audience was mostly comprised of very excited young guys that were certainly in love with Ms. Kawai’s cuteness and charms. I could see myself shouting lines and jumping like crazy while she bounced on stage and smiled with her adorable snaggletooth (yaeba).

To finish, here’s a live performance of “Love Letter”. It’s probably going down soon, but we always have the link posted at the beginning for, at least, listen to the song.

The single, which was released during the first years of the 80s aidoru era, in December 1981, reached #11 on the Oricon charts, selling 212,000 copies. Lyrics were written by Machiko Ryu (竜真知子), while music was composed by Koji Makaino (馬飼野康二). As for the lovely arrangement, it was done by Megumi Wakakusa (若草恵).