Iyo Matsumoto -- Neverland Hatsu 7 O'Clock（ネバーランド発 7:00 p.m.）

No offense meant at the fans of Iyo Matsumoto（松本伊代）, but when I think of the huge hierarchy of 80s aidoru, Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）and Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）were up at the peak, while aidoru such as Matsumoto occupied the level just below. And Matsumoto was in good company since I think there were other teenage singers on that same echelon such as Yu Hayami（早見優）, Chiemi Hori（堀ちえみ）and Hiroko Mita（三田寛子）who had their own loyal bases of fans and were stars in their own right, but I never quite saw them quite as the superstars although they were also household names.

However, that's OK since now in retrospect, I can go over a lot of those neglected singles and album tracks by the B-team (and for that matter, even those from the C-team) and find some jewels. The Seiko and Akina hits are songs that I've known and become accustomed to for decades...it has been time to make some new and pleasant discoveries.

Case in point: this one by the aforementioned Iyo-chan, "Neverland Hatsu 7 O'Clock" (Neverland Departing at 7 O'Clock) is a track from the Tokyo-born singer's 4th album "Endless Summer" released in June 1983. This aidoru tune is pleasingly peppy and even though it is teenybopper Iyo, "Neverland" has that breezy arrangement filled with that feeling of pop from the West Coast. I think it's downright EPO-esque except that it's Toshikazu Miura（三浦年一）behind the melody while Mayumi Shinozuka（篠塚満由美）handled the lyrics. What got me thinking of EPO was that electric guitar in there.

Goes to show that there is still so much to explore in the Japanese pop of yore.