Reiko Kato -- Get Real

Sometimes we forget, but the beautiful Reiko Kato (かとうれいこ), one of Japan’s prime pin-ups during the early 90s, also had a singing career. Unfortunately for the girl, according to J-Wiki, even though she really wanted to be acknowledged by the public as a singer, her music didn’t sell as well as her swimsuit photo books.

At first, between 1990 and 1991, when she was marketed as a pin-up singer, some of her songs even had very alluring titles, like “Virgin Heart” (this one is almost a tradition in the aidoru world, to be honest), “Pool side no Sniper” (プールサイドのSniper), “LOVE MOTION” or “Shuumatsu no Adam & Eve” (週末のアダム&イヴ). All of them great pop/eurobeat songs, by the way. However, after a while, Kato was probably very dissatisfied with the fact that her CD covers were basically extensions of her gravure work, since many of them featured her wearing swimsuits, bikinis or sexy dresses that emphasized specific body parts.

As I’ve already commented with J-Canuck in past articles, Kato’s voice was pleasant enough, since she didn’t have that excruciating high pitch many Japanese aidoru singers had (and have) to employ. Even so, her success as a singer was lackluster.

Around 1992, though, she may have convinced the powers that be to change her image from a pin-up aidoru who sang harmless eurobeat songs into an artist or more mature aidoru. After a while, she changed labels and started becoming more involved in her music, even writing lyrics and composing songs. Honestly, I prefer her early output, but she was trying to have more control of her career, which is always remarkable in a way.

Anyway, even though I don’t find this period of her career as interesting as the first two years, it’s still possible to find a couple of nice songs here and there, with “Get Real” being a good example. Included in Kato’s overall 9th album “Tsuki no Uragawa” (月の裏側), which was released in December 1996, I think “Get Real” represents how she was able to embrace her seductive pin-up persona and combine it with the music. The result is this great funky tune with a more mature sound and alluring delivery by Kato.

Lyrics for “Get Real” were written by Reiko Kato herself, while music was composed by Yoshimasa Inoue (井上ヨシマサ). Also, just to put some emphasis on the right info, for some reason, the uploader on YouTube introduced the song as part of Kato’s album “SPECIAL!” (released in 1991), but, as I’ve pointed out before, it was released five years later as part of “Tsuki no Uragawa”.