Kyoko Yoshizawa -- Suttobe Seishun（すっ跳べ青春）

I gather that it must have been a thing in the 1960s going into the 1970s that a lot of kayo seemed to have been arranged so that they sounded like a boisterous march. There are a number of examples that come to mind, including Kazuo Funaki's（舟木一夫）"Koukou Sannen-sei" （高校三年生）and of course, Kiyoko Suizenji's（水前寺清子）"Sanbyaku Rokujuu Go Ho no March" (三百六十五歩のマーチ）. Maybe it was just one of those things to get the populace roused up and ready to tackle on the day.

That was what I was thinking about as I listened to "Suttobe Seishun" (Take Off, Youth), the 2nd single for then-16-year-old actress Kyoko Yoshizawa（吉沢京子）from August 1970, and the theme song for one of her first movies "Batsugun Joshi Koukousei Juu-roku-sai Kanjichau"（バツグン女子高校生 16才は感じちゃう...Outstanding High School Girl Senses Being 16）. Her singing career lasted just four years while her filmography is considerably longer, and frankly, although her delivery of "Suttobe Seishun" isn't all that polished, I think that was the point of her singing the tune...a callow young girl-next-door making her journey of trepidation through the teen years and her voice reflects that...as would many aidoru in the decades to come.

But perhaps to lyricist Tokiko Iwatani（岩谷時子）and composer Hiroshi Miyagawa（宮川泰）, Yoshizawa could do this over a horn-enhanced melody that could have everybody in the town marching proudly in the schoolyard during an annual Sports Day festival.