After answering that inquiry on what aspiring singer-turned-teen aidoru Yukiko Okada（岡田有希子）sang in the audition phase of her career, I felt that I couldn't really let things go until I added another official Okada article onto the blog.
"Little Princess" was Okada's 2nd single from July 1984, and like her debut single "First Date"（ファースト・デイト）from a few months earlier, it too was written and composed by Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）. As would be the case for a Mariya-penned song, the melody is gently swinging away as if Okada were riding it like a playground swing with that hint of old-style American pop. Watching the video above and listening to "Little Princess", I can understand why Okada had been referred to as the "post-Seiko Matsuda"; there was something about the way she looked and sang that reminded me of the Seiko-chan of 1980, and as I've probably mentioned before, she seemed to have that It quality which may have resulted in a number of the big songwriters such as Takeuchi being attracted to her.
The song managed to peak at No. 14 on Oricon. The song earned her a couple of awards as well in the Best New Artist category at the 10th Annual Nippon Television Music Festival and the 3rd Metropolis Kayo Festival. For all those Yukko fans, considering the importance of April 8th, perhaps you can also take a gander at my own BEST article for her as well as JTM's "Premium Best" article.
Good evening J-C and thanks for remembering - I took out my "Golden Idol" Best collection to listen. They did a beautiful job remastering; it sounds like a different person and stood out how mature her voice was for her age. Most of the idols sounded like teenagers; they had the high treble but the lower register would only eventually come with age (if they kept the singing up). She had it already.
ReplyDeleteWhen walking around Shinjuku last November I noticed I was passing through Yotsuya. Found myself hoping against hope I would NOT cross the Sun Music location; turns out I was a few blocks over. Much better to remember the music ...
Hi, T-cat.
DeleteWell, to give credit where credit is due, I think we have to thank the person who sent me that e-mail via the Contact Form asking me about Yukko. Otherwise, I probably would have forgotten about the day.
I think the scouts and any other powers-that-be in the music industry probably also picked out that special quality in her voice. It makes all of her fans wonder what could have been given time.