Tomoko Ishizaka -- Digital Night Lullaby（デジタル・ナイト・ララバイ）

 

Welcome to another Ides of March! However, I have to admit that despite first hearing this in high school English, I had to look it up at Wikipedia once more to find out what it was all about. Apparently, it was not only the day of several religious observances, but the day that Julius Caesar had been assassinated, a figure that I had also read about in high school English and barely remember (basically just the line "Et tu, Brutus").

Anyways, this week's round of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" goodness starts off with another 80s aidoru who basically came and went like a breeze, much like the vast majority of teenage girls with stars in their eyes. When I first saw the face of Tomoko Ishizaka（石坂智子）, I'd immediately thought of the popular aidoru Mako Ishino（石野真子）who had made her name in the late 1970s, and, according to J-Wiki, it seems as if I wasn't the only one to notice the uncanny resemblance between the Ishikawa Prefecture-born Ishizaka and Ishino.

Ishizaka, who was actually born Tomoko Kobayashi（小林智子）, won the inaugural Toshiba Talent Scout Caravan in 1979, and in the following year in June, she made her debut in the recording booth with "Arigato"（ありがとう...Thank You）. This would be her one and only hit that was used as the first theme for a Fuji-TV drama titled "Tadaima, Hokago"（ただいま放課後...I'm Back, After School） starring the Tanokin Trio（たのきんトリオ）of Masahiko Kondo（近藤真彦）, Toshihiko Tahara（田原俊彦） and Yoshio Nomura（野村義男）.

Her 2nd single, released in September 1980, was "Digital Night Lullaby" that took on a more mature theme of a young woman in the city who has been sadly treated as just another temporary plaything for a playboy before being tossed away. With that first word in the title and the opening sparkling synthesizer, I had assumed that "Digital Night Lullaby" would be a techno kayo but instead it goes more for an appealing mixture of disco and a late-career Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）song of fire.

Words and music were by Kaoru Ito（伊藤薫）and Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）arranged "Digital Night Lullaby". The song only climbed as high as No. 61 on Oricon and sold around 50,000 records. Ishizaka would release only three more singles, two albums and one BEST compilation going up to December 1981 but despite being praised for having a good promising voice, the strong competition among aidoru at that time with Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）, Naoko Kawai（河合奈保子）and Yoshie Kashiwabara（柏原芳恵）making their own debuts at the same time meant that by the end of 1981, Ishizaka would leave show business at the age of 18.