Mami Koyama -- SUGAR DADDY

 

Back on City Pop Friday, I mentioned about veteran actress and the voice behind delicious superhero Anpanman（アンパンマン）, Keiko Toda（戸田恵子）, and her dalliance into pop music. Well, although for Ms. Toda, I've put up her first two articles in the past few days, yet another veteran seiyuu/singer/actress Mami Koyama（小山茉美）has had representation on the blog for a few years, and she was the voice behind the cute but naughty android Arale-chan（アラレちゃん）from "Dr. Slump"（ドクタースランプ）.

The Koyama file here on KKP isn't a long one. However, aside from her contribution in character to a theme song from "Dr. Slump", I've found that she's done her fair share of pop, City Pop and New Wave during the 1980s. In fact, some months ago I discovered that she also performed this unusual tune called "SUGAR DADDY".

I actually had to refer to Koyama's own music library on her website to get anywhere near a complete discography (her discography on J-Wiki only lists her character songs), and from there and the YouTube video, I found out that "SUGAR DADDY" was originally from her 1984 live album "Mami A La Mode". Written by Kayoko Fuyumori（冬杜花代子）and composed by guitarist Masahiro Ikumi（幾見雅博）, it's a weird combination of bright and happy City Pop and some odd New Wave. Strangely enough, that New Wave part has Koyama doing a lower-voiced stomp which reminds me a little of what Nina Hagen did with "Smack Jack" (OK, I'm probably stretching a little there but that is what it reminds me of). Anyways, although I don't know whether a recorded version made it onto one of her 1980s studio albums, it apparently did make it onto a recent BEST compilation titled "Rencontre～Histoire de Mami～" from June 2006.