Midori Satsuki -- Ohima nara Kite ne（おひまなら来てね）

I don't think that it's everyday when a budding singer suddenly has a breakthrough hit with their debut single, and that was certainly the case with enka singer Midori Satsuki（五月みどり）. The Tokyo-born singer and tarento debuted at the end of 1958 with "Ozashiki Rock"（お座敷ロック...Tatami Room Rock） but it didn't spark all that much interest.

A few more singles and a few more years passed without any spike of success in her career. But in 1961, famed composer/arranger Minoru Endo（遠藤実）approached Satsuki and told her that he's made a song that was just perfect for her, according to a 2019 article in the weekly magazine "Shuukan Gendai"（週刊現代）via J-Wiki. Endo sang some part of the song for her which got a rise from the singer who then begged to be allowed to sing it. 

The single was released in May of that year and it's titled "Ohima nara Kite ne" (Come If You Have Time). This song was actually sharing 45" single space with another singer's work...specifically, Ichiro Kanbe's（神戸一郎）"Seto no Koiuta"（瀬戸の恋唄...Seto Love Song）. While Endo composed this enka ballad, it was Jinichiro Kareno（枯野迅一郎）behind the lyrics involving a woman entreating a lover to come and visit her in person with the hint that perhaps he hasn't been over in quite a while. Perhaps the lady is a hostess at a nightclub although the arrangement and Satsuki's very historically traditional appearance could mean that the setting is perhaps centuries earlier.

Well, Endo delivered on what he had promised. "Ohima nara Kite ne" was the breakthrough song that Satsuki had been hoping for due to "...her adorably charming beauty paired with her fine vibrato" (translated from the J-Wiki article for the song). Approximately 18 months later, the singer would find herself performing the song on her first NHK Kohaku Utagassen appearance on New Year's Eve 1962, and it has become one of her trademark tunes.