Hiromi Go -- Magic

Perennial guest Hiromi Go（郷ひろみ）was on this past week's episode of "Uta Kon"（うたコン）, and I had to make sure with J-Wiki that this former aidoru was actually 63 years old! He's got some sort of fountain of youth thing going on.

This title track from his 1980 album "Magic" caught my ears some time ago due to the perky and catchy keyboard work. I think even at this point going into the new decade, he was still considered to be an aidoru (albeit one well into his 20s) but he was embracing his inner City Pop quite well with "Magic". Some nice and light disco magic happening here.

Actually, Go was doing a cover of the original "Magic" by Dick St. Nicklaus who recorded it in 1979 for his debut album, and yes, it was also the title track. I couldn't find out much about him (nothing about St. Nicklaus on Wikipedia) but the West Coast music site "Blue Desert" relayed that he and his album became really big in Osaka since apparently the population over there were on the hunt for something new in terms of music. Instead of that funky keyboard in Go's version, the original has some horns providing the oomph. St. Nicklaus recorded at least two albums, "Magic" and then "Sweet and Dandy" in 1980.