Rumiko Tenma -- Oshiete Kudasai, Kamisama（教えてください、神様）

 

I have a few observations about aidoru Rumiko Tenma's（天馬ルミ子）debut single in January 1978, "Oshiete Kudasai Kamisama" (Please Tell Me, God). One is that considering the Kawasaki-born lass was born in May 1964, her vocals on this song were remarkably solid and self-assured for someone who was still thirteen years of age. They were light and dainty but not really high-pitched like my impressions of most aidoru in the 70s and 80s; they seemed to skip with aplomb despite the tempo of "Oshiete Kudasai Kamisama".

The song was written by Masami Sugiyama（杉山政美）and composed by Shunichi Tokura（都倉俊一）, and for the most part, its rapid pace and breezy arrangement had me thinking that this could be a tune that a singer or duo such as Pink Lady could handle. And of course, Tokura did provide that kick-stepping pair with a number of their hits at around the same time. One other observation is that not only does a certain part of Tokura's melody remind me of the ol' Yuletide classic "Here Comes Santa Claus", the pre-chorus containing the title takes a sudden but temporary right turn into a musical passage that sounds like a romantic fantasy in Disneyland, but again as mentioned, Tenma raced through it just fine as an elementary school Grade 6 student.

Born Rumiko Tenmadate（天間舘）, she studied Japanese dance and piano from a young age and then when she was in Grade 4, she entered the Masaaki Hirao（平尾昌晃）Music School before making her debut a couple of years later. Tenma was also a regular on television variety shows. During her time with what would eventually become the record company Tokuma Japan Communications, she released four singles between 1978 and 1979, including her debut. There was one more record that came out in 1984 under the CBS/Sony banner before she got married in 1992.