Eri Hayakawa (Atsuko Nina) -- Sasowarete Natsu（誘われて夏）

To begin, the song of this article is titled "Sasowarete Natsu" (Tempt Me, Summer). For the past several days, Toronto has been in a heat wave and it's very possible that this will continue for at least another week, though there looks to be some rain coming during the weekend. Therefore at this point, I'm more than willing to say "Don't Tempt Me, Summer", although admittedly, Tokyo summers are still far more fiery.

However, on a more musically pleasant note, this "Sasowarete Natsu" is the first single by Eri Hayakawa（早川英梨）from 1979. As explained in her first article on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" nearly a year ago, the originally named Atsuko Iwai（岩井敦子）from Osaka took on the stage name of Eri Hayakawa for a couple of years and then went to a new moniker, Atsuko Nina（二名敦子）.

In the J-Wiki article for Nina, it's pointed out that Hayakawa's "Sasowarete Natsu" doesn't really follow the City Pop rhythms that she would later adopt from her first album "City" in 1981. But I will respectfully disagree with that statement since I think the bossa nova involved in Yuji Ohno's（大野雄二）melody was an ingredient (along with jazz, R&B, disco, etc.) in what made City Pop what it was in the late 70s and early 80s. Machiko Ryu（竜真知子）provided Hayakawa with the lyrics for this debut of hers that reminds me of the first stage of Miharu Koshi's（越美晴）career when she debuted at around the same time with "Love Step", and was also going along the City Pop line. In any case, I'll have that tall glass of caipirinha right now.🍹

"Sasowarete Natsu" is available on a recent re-release of Hayakawa's "City" album as a bonus track. The singer had released a second single under her first stage name, "Kiri no Liverpool"（霧のリバプール...Foggy Liverpool） before that album came out.