Mie Nakao/Akina Nakamori -- Kataomoi（片思い）

 

Procol Harum, much?

I couldn't help but hear the British band's baroque pop classic "Whiter Shade of Pale" when I first listened to Mie Nakao's（中尾ミエ）"Kataomoi" (One-Sided Love), her November 1971 single, which was actually a cover of Michiru Maki's（槇みちる）B-side to her November 1969 "Suzu no Oto ga Kikoeru"（鈴の音がきこえる...I Can Hear the Sound of the Bells）. That introductory organ made me wonder if it were indeed a Hammond M102 being played here as was the case with "Whiter Shade of Pale". For that matter, I could also hear something along the lines of The Jackson 5's "I'll Be There" within the melancholy "Kataomoi" which was written by Kazumi Yasui（安井かずみ）and composed by Makoto Kawaguchi（川口真）. Certainly, through Nakao's vocals, it doesn't sound like the woman's ardent love for that man will be reflected back soon, if ever. 

According to J-Wiki's article on "Kataomoi", when it was first released, the single didn't do much of anything despite the singer and the songwriters. However, when it was played again several years later in 1977 on cable radio in Sapporo, its popularity suddenly launched into the sky which prompted Japan Victor, the original record company for the single, to re-release it in June. This time, "Kataomoi" reached a respectable No. 28 on Oricon and became the 99th-ranked single for that year. It just goes to show that sometimes a song needs time and re-discovery to become that belated hit. Just look at Tatsuro Yamashita's（山下達郎）"Christmas Eve".

Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）, along with a few other singers, did record a cover of "Kataomoi" as part of her single "Aibu"（愛撫）released in March 1994 (peaked at No. 17). Instead of that baroque pop sound, though, Nakamori's cover sounds as if it had been meant as the grand theme song for a four-handkerchief romantic tragedy made in the 1960s. Her vocals are quite similar to those of Nakao's when she first recorded the song. "Kataomoi" also made it onto Nakamori's first album of covers that came out in the same month as "Aibu", "Utahime"（歌姫）which hit No. 5 on the charts.