Akira Adachi -- Shiokaze wo Matsu Shojo（潮風を待つ少女）

 

I found another disciple of legendary composer Minoru Endo（遠藤実）after writing up the article for Shuuji Kano's（叶修二）"Suteki na Yatsu"（素敵なやつ）back on Monday.

Akira Adachi（安達明）was born Haruo Osada/Nagata（長田晴夫）in Kita-Kyushu City in Fukuoka Prefecture in 1948 and after being taken under Endo's wing, he made his debut with "Shiokaze wo Matsu Shojo" (The Girl Waiting for the Sea Breeze) in May 1964. Endo composed the song with Rumi Matsuda and Osamu Yoshioka（松田ルミ・吉岡治）sharing lyric-writing duties. It's an old-fashioned love kayo pining for that titular girl on the shore.

What I think adds to its likeable folksiness is the mandolin and the oboe along with the orchestra trumpet while Adachi sings with a certain oaken quality in his voice (despite the fact that he was only 15 at the time). In a way, his voice reminds me a little of how a young Shinichi Mori（森進一）started out. Considering the video above with the cute innocent high school (Sayuri Yoshinaga, perhaps?), I had assumed that the song was so popular that a movie was made around it like so many other songs during the 50s and 60s, but apparently this was more of the uploader's imagination at play here since I couldn't find any evidence of a film titled "Shiokaze wo Matsu Shojo".

With this song and his follow-up, "Jogakusei"（女学生...Schoolgirls）, Adachi had a couple of big hits and he became an idol to a lot of the university co-ed set according to his J-Wiki article. However by 1967, the singer decided to retire from show business but even after leaving, he apparently was still making appearances in the Ginza drinking establishments and on TV. He passed away in May 2020 at the age of 62.