Seiko Matsuda -- Hadashi no Kisetsu （裸足の季節）

It was all down to the dimples....

More on that later. When it came to my listening of Seiko Matsuda's（松田聖子）discography, I've always treated "Aoi Sangousho"（青い珊瑚礁）, which was her 2nd single, as the beginning. It was after all the breakthrough song for her when it came out in July 1980, and it was also one of the first songs that I ever heard by her via "Sounds of Japan" on the radio.

However, as I just said, "Aoi Sangousho" was the second single. Therefore, there was the debut single, "Hadashi no Kisetsu" (Barefoot Season) that had come out about three months before in April. It is a song that I have heard before by Seiko but hadn't realized until just a few years ago that it was Single No. 1 for The Eternal Aidoru.

Yoshiko Miura and Yuuichiro Oda（三浦徳子・小田裕一郎）were responsible for creating both singles. "Aoi Sangousho" always struck me as that summery soaring (thanks to the violins and the release date) song, and "Hadashi no Kisetsu" also had a similar freshness to it, but it also seemed more girl-next-door with the flute giving the strings even more softness. Just listening to the full song again gave me that nostalgic aidoru giddiness from my high school days.

"Hadashi no Kisetsu" went all the way up to No. 11 on Oricon and would end up as the 50th-ranked single for 1980.  It was also a track on Matsuda's debut album, "Squall" which came out in August of that year, hitting the No. 2 spot.

Ah, I did mention "dimples" at the top, didn't I? Well, there's a story to that. Seiko-chan had auditioned to appear in a commercial for a Shiseido product known as Ekubo Face-Cleansing Foam. "Ekubo" is defined as dimples and during the audition, the teenaged future superstar tried to smile and couldn't show any....dimples, that is. The staff just said "NEXT...." and perhaps Seiko left dejected. However, though she couldn't be the face of the commercial, it was decided that she would be the singing voice, and was told to be able to sing the jingle that would represent the product. Recording was to take place at the end of February 1980 which didn't leave a lot of time, so things apparently went at flank speed with the clothes that Seiko was to wear on the jacket cover found in nearby Shinjuku and the photography for the jacket itself taking all of 10 minutes. When the recording was being done, Seiko found herself surrounded by a number of folks including representatives from Shiseido which got so overwhelming for the lass that she started crying up a storm. Ahhh....the pressures of potential fame.

In any case, a young high school graduate (and future actress and tarento) who had just come up to Tokyo at the time by the name of Yukiko Yamada（山田由紀子）was scouted and became the face of that face-cleansing foam commercial....I did check the above video, and yep, she had the dimples. But it was Seiko's song playing there, although at the time, a lot of people mistook Yamada for the singer. In addition, at a campaign event for Ekubo, both Yamada and Matsuda appeared for an autograph session with the former getting the lion's share of the signature seekers. 

Well, as they say, from such humble beginnings...

Still, it would've been interesting what would have happened if Matsuda had actually been able to show those dimples.

Much obliged, J-Wiki.