Hiromi Ohta -- Shitsuren Majutsushi（失恋魔術師）

 

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One of the longest running series of commercials I've known is the one for Maytag appliances in which the late actor Jesse White portrayed the first Maytag repairman, a man who's known as Ol' Lonely because he is never called into service due to the fact that Maytag products are so dependable and solid. It must be great to be never wanted. 

The commercial was something that slipped into my mind again after so long once I listened to this single by 70s aidoru Hiromi Ohta（太田裕美）. "Shitsuren Majutsushi" (Magician of Broken Hearts) is a slightly tongue-in-cheek and cheerful song about a woman who resolutely refuses to acknowledge the titular warlock of woe and therefore cave into the fact that she has no significant other. It's a typically breezy Ohta single, her 11th to be exact, that was written by Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）and composed by folk singer Takuro Yoshida（吉田拓郎）with arrangement by Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）.

And sure enough, the boyfriend does show up so there's no need for the magician's help, and with a saucy wave of the hand, the lass dismisses the Magician of Broken Hearts since his services will not be needed after all. "Shitsuren Majutsushi" was released in March 1978 and peaked at No. 22 on Oricon. It was also the first track on her 7th studio album "Senaka Awase no Rendezvous"（背中あわせのランデブー...Back-to-Back Rendezvous） which had come out a bit earlier in February and hit No. 3 on the charts. The album version has a fairly different arrangement by Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂）.