Hiromi Go -- Hadaka no Venus （裸のビーナス）

Now, the YouTube video above is a karaoke version but I just had to import it because of that picture of Hiromi Go's（郷ひろみ）cover for his 5th single, "Hadaka no Venus" (Nude Venus). Being a Trekkie and all, I recall seeing one of the episodes from the 1st season of Classic Trek titled "Arena" when a bloodied and beaten Captain Kirk had a final meeting with a god-like alien called a Metron. We never got a particularly close-up look of the fellow but if we did, he would like Go above.

I saw Go on a recent episode of "Kayo Concert" in which he introduced his latest 100th single (!), and he was still looking very much like the J-Lothario at the age of 59. It's hard to imagine that he was ever a kid, but indeed he was when he first sang "Hadaka no Venus" at the tender age of 17. The music by Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）was real nostalgic 70s although with its energy, it sounded like something that Pink Lady would've been happy to tackle. Tokiko Iwatani's（岩谷時子）lyrics had the innocent-looking Go slavering away at this girl who he compared to that titular woman on the half-shell in the ocean. I think he's polished his approach a whole lot more since then.

"Hadaka no Venus" peaked at No. 2 on Oricon after its release in June 1973 and ended up as the 16th-ranked single of the year. It was also a track on his 3rd album released in January 1974, "Hiromi no Heya"（ひろみの部屋...Hiromi's Room）.