All those years in the 1980s and all those Friday nights at Kuri had imprinted on my memories that Checkers（チェッカーズ）would always be that group of guys singing 50s doo-wop. Therefore, listening to their 25th single from September 1991, "Mrs. Mermaid" was more atypical for me. I'd already gotten back from my first tour of duty in Japan, so I managed to see the song being performed on the old videotapes again, and of course, the Kohaku later that year.
For one thing, the song struck me as being more Adult Contemporary in beat. I'm not quite sure if it went as far as City Pop but it was definitely different from what I had been accustomed to hearing from Fumiya Fujii（藤井郁弥）and the rest of the Checkers. It was almost as if they decided to walk the path of Rats & Star, another group of cool former doo-woppers under their old name of Chanels.
In any case, it was a pretty cool song. Fujii came up with the lyrics while side vocalist Masaharu Tsuruku（鶴久政治）composed the tune. "Mrs. Mermaid" may have conjured up images of painting a night in late 20th-century Tokyo more than it did bobbysoxers and tail-finned Cadillacs, but I think Fujii's words were still in the Checkers vein of pining for that desirable woman in a nice summer setting. Despite the relatively late entry, Checkers got onto the Kohaku Utagassen of 1991 for their 8th appearance in a row. And the song broke into the Top 10 by peaking at No. 4 and ending the year as the 77th-ranked song.
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