Mari Sono/The Peanuts -- Hoho ni Kakaru Namida（ほほにかかる涙）

 

A couple of nights ago, I wrote about a kayo titled "Hoho ni Kakaru Namida"（ほほにかかる涙）by Eva（エバ）, a former member of the aidoru group Golden Half（ゴールデン・ハーフ）, back in 1975. I'd forgotten then that when I first discovered this particular song that I also came across another different song with the exact title.

Indeed, there was an earlier "Hoho ni Kakaru Namida" but this had nothing to do with the dream kayo songwriting team of lyricist Jun Hashimoto and composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（橋本淳・筒美京平）and certainly the latter guy hadn't even made his debut on the songwriting scene as of yet. Point of fact, this song was actually a cover of "Una lacrima sul viso" by Italian singer and actor Bobby Solo (nee Roberto Satti) that had been first released in February 1964 according to Wikipedia. It was a huge hit for Solo, staying atop the Italian music charts for 9 weeks straight and selling 3 million records all over the world.

The original version had been created by songwriters Lunero and Mogul, but in May of that same year, Kazumi Yasui（安井かずみ）, under the name Kazumi Minami（みナみカズみ）, provided Japanese lyrics and a single was recorded and released as "Hoho ni Kakaru Namida" by Mari Sono（園まり）. It's an interesting cover since the arrangement by Osamu Shoji（東海林修）makes it sound more like a plaintive Connie Francis love ballad.

A few more cover versions were made including one by duo The Peanuts（ザ・ピーナッツ）in 1964 as well. This "Hoho ni Kakaru Namida" has more of a feeling of a performance by a group such as The Platters with that sharp horn and the backup chorus. Unfortunately, I'm unaware of how well the Sono and Peanuts covers did in the pre-Oricon age.