Asami Kobayashi -- Hatsukoi no Melody （初恋のメロディー）

Basically all those years that I've known about model/actress/singer Asami Kobayashi（小林麻美）mainly revolves around her 1984 cover of Gazebo's "I Love Chopin" given the title of "Ame Oto wa Chopin no Shirabe"（雨音はショパンの調べ）in Japan. It was an introspective ballad delivered with a sense of ennui by Kobayashi which rather matched her lovely looks. And frankly, I had thought that her music career started from there.

So, imagine my surprise some time ago when I discovered that she had actually been singing since the early 1970s. "Hatsukoi no Melody" (First Love Melody) was Kobayashi's debut song as an aidoru from August 1972 which was written by Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）and composed by ever-prolific Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）. Tsutsumi's melody absolutely fits the times for a young pop singer with the gentle guitar and horns in the background (the breadth of what the fellow has been able to weave over his decades-long career is evident especially considering another Tsutsumi song that I wrote about last night).

But according to the J-Wiki article on Kobayashi, despite the above picture of the record cover, she would often have a dour countenance (the first emo aidoru?) in contrast to the usual fresh-faced and smiling image of the aidoru. It took another 4 years and 6 more singles but her initial singing career did the slow fadeout. As it was, though, Kobayashi's 1st single peaked at No. 18.