It was more the concrete sidewalks of youth rather than the hills of youth when I was a teen going to school, but I think that the hills have a more romantic tone, I guess.
I've seen the name Nana Okada（岡田奈々）before but never heard any of her music. Most likely, any lingering knowledge of her must have been through TV retrospectives of the day. Okada was born Hiroko Yai（矢井弘子）in 1959 in Gifu Prefecture. Becoming the second champion on the talent show "Anata wo Star ni!"（あなたをスターに!...You're A Star!）as a mid-teen in the mid-1970s, she made her debut as an aidoru in May 1975 with "Hitorigoto"（ひとりごと...Monologue）.
However, her biggest hit came with her March 1976 4th single "Seishun no Sakamichi" (Hills of Youth) whose genesis came about from a contest via Myojo magazine in which people were invited to send in any lyrics for a potential song. Aiko Nakaji（中司愛子）was the winner apparently and professional lyricist Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）shaped them into the official words for "Seishun no Sakamichi", a jaunty tune created by Koichi Morita（森田公一）and arranged by Ichizo Seo（瀬尾一三）.
The song was also used in an episode of an NTV drama that had Okada in the cast, "Ore-tachi no Tabi"（俺たちの旅...Our Travels）. "Seishun no Sakamichi" became the singer/actress' signature song (according to the Wikipedia article on Okada) as it peaked at No. 23, and it became a part of her 3rd album "Akushu Shiyouyo"（握手しようよ...Let's Shake Hands）which was released in August 1976.
While Okada's singing career tapered off in the mid-1980s, she has continued acting right to the present day.
I saw the episode where she won, competing under her birth name which I've forgotten, and maybe a year or so later she returned to sing under her stage name. While I never found her a good singer, she had a presence which might be why acting became a natural transition.
ReplyDeleteHi, Owl Chick.
DeleteYeah, considering the lengths of her histories in singing and acting, it's probably not too much of a surprise that one is a lot longer than the other.:)