Hidemi Ishikawa -- Mezame（めざめ）

It's been a while since I've put up anything by 80s aidoru Hidemi Ishikawa（石川秀美）and I did find something nice and boppy earlier today.

So that I can say that it isn't only Momoko Kikuchi（菊池桃子）who cornered the City Pop/AOR market as an aidoru, Ishikawa also had her dalliance in the mellow and urban genres. And so I found "Mezame" (Awakening) which was her 9th single from February 1984.

The melody by the late Yuuichiro Oda（小田裕一郎）is pretty mellow in itself but having those snazzy horns in "Mezame" kinda brings the song onto the dividing line between AOR and City Pop. Jun Kuroe（クロエジュン）and SHOW provided the lyrics about a girl falling in love with a boy who may not be seen as the warmest lad in the school. Judging by the arrangement, though, the lass is probably aspiring for that date in swanky Aoyama.

None of Ishikawa's Oricon rankings have managed to get onto J-Wiki, but luckily I was able to track down a page here which was kind enough to provide them. "Mezame" got up to No. 8 on the singles charts which up to that point had been her best showing, although her most popular single ended up as her 13th single "Motto Sekkin Shimasho"（もっと接近しましょ...Let's Get A Little Closer）almost a year later when it got up to No. 4. "Mezame" sold a little over 117,000 records.

Looks like the song also got the Future Funk treatment a little over a couple of years ago by Mikazuki BIG WAVE（ミカヅキbigwave）.

Incidentally, you can also take a gander at Ishikawa's "Shadow Summer" which came out in 1986 and has more of an Omega Tribe（オメガトライブ）beat. That went as high as No. 18 on Oricon.