Tomomi Sawa -- Blue Morning Blues（ブルーモーニングブルース）

Just checked Google right now to discover that the Japanese entry in the 2018 World Cup has been defeated 3-2 after getting the lead 2-0 in the second half. Ouch! I hadn't expected the Blue Samurai to win but, man, it was too bad to see how the team lost. I took a look at the YouTube live stream camera overlooking the gigantic Shibuya intersection right now, and there is no sign of folks crowding up the area despite the presence of police...just folks making an early commute with perhaps some fans going through some blue morning blues.

Well, this is just the segue I need to introduce my first article of the week, "Blue Morning Blues" by Tomomi Sawa（沢知美）. Sawa was another singer who came and went through the 1960s going into the 1970s getting her 15 minutes of fame but not much more than that. No J-Wiki article for her but I did find an article on her at "Ongaku no Aru Mura"（音楽のある村）.

Sawa was born Miwako Nakano（中野美和子）in 1947 in Tokyo and made her debut in 1967 as a chanteuse with "Watashi ni Iwasete"（私にいわせて...Let Me Say It）although she had already made some appearances in movies. "Blue Morning Blues" was apparently released as a single in November 1971 although it had also been a track on her 1969 album "Hito no Ki mo Shiranai de"（人の気も知らないで...Not Knowing Him）.

I couldn't find out who the songwriters were, but "Blue Morning Blues" is quite the rousing pop number from those times. What has attracted me to it is the funky bass, the horns and Sawa's husky and come-hither voice. Everything helps to keep a pretty brisk urban pace. There were a few more singles in her recording career but none of her songs ever became hits, and in 1972, she retired from show business before getting married to a nightclub manager in 1975.