Miyoko Yagi -- Secret Love（シークレット・ラブ）

 

Going into October, things are feeling cooler now. Maybe it's time for more of that apple cider and perhaps apple anything...heated up, too.🍎

In any case, I've encountered another one of those obscure aidoru of the 1980s. Rather than being at the apex of the pyramid, she was one of the many bricks in the lower part of the structure, never to really make a break into the big time.

Miyoko Yagi（八木美代子）is someone that I had never heard of before and her career was fairly brief in terms of records although maybe she could have continued on for a while as a tarento or actress. Her debut single, namely the topic of this article, is "Secret Love" which was released in April 1981. Just from listening to this sweet tune alone, though, I thought she had a fighting chance to make it big because I think her voice is pretty good here.

Plus, the melody by Kunihiko Suzuki（鈴木邦彦）with arrangement by Kei Wakakusa（若草恵）is actually quite appealing with the twinkly keyboards and the shimmering violins. Daisaburo Nakayama（中山大三郎）provided the lyrics. As you can see from the cover for "Secret Love", Yagi had that appearance of the typical aidoru from the early 1980s with that hairstyle and that slightly frilly white shirt. In fact, I would say that the entire song just has that quintessentially nostalgic aidoru feeling.

I don't know how her singles did and the only other information that I could get about Yagi comes from her profile on Idol.ne.jp which shows that she released only four more singles up to 1983. As well, she was born in 1963 in Miyazaki Prefecture with her real name possibly being Mizuyo Yanase（柳瀬瑞代）...both the given and family names have a variety of readings. Once again, I leave it to those in the know about Ms. Yagi to confirm or correct me.