Unfortunately, the above photo is a poor one (especially since it was taken in 2019) to illustrate the fact that this autumn has been seen to have one of the more vibrant outputs of colour in recent years. Scientists have placed credit on a seeming perfect storm of meteorological factors. So, I gather for all of those Torontonian photographers, get those shots of trees and leaves when you can since I'm pretty certain that by Halloween, a lot of the flaming foliage will be on the ground...perhaps under some snow.
On last night's episode of "Uta Con"（うたコン）, the show did place a bit of emphasis on the fall-themed kayo. And I got to be acquainted with a Saori Minami（南沙織）song that I hadn't heard before or at least hadn't heard in a very long time. "Irozuku Machi" (The Colourful Streets) was featured, and this was the 70s aidoru's 9th single from August 1973.
Written by Mieko Arima（有馬三恵子）and composed/arranged by Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）, it's a light and fairly frisky aidoru tune of the times by Minami who sings about a young girl whose heart is filled with regret after a romantic breakup. Well, autumn is the time for such things, at least according to all of those kayo songwriters. In terms of Tsutsumi's arrangement, I'm gathering that along with the Fender Rhodes of City Pop, the growling electric guitar of contemporary enka and the bluesy saxophone of Mood Kayo, those plucky strings in "Irozuku Machi" have been rather emblematic of those 70s aidoru songs or pop tunes in general during the early part of that decade. Moreover, if I am going to be specific about instrumentation here, then I also have to mention that electric organ and bass in Minami's original song since they lend a certain French swing.
"Irozuku Machi" hit No. 4 on Oricon and ended up as the 37th-ranked single of 1973. It also got Minami to appear on NHK's Kohaku Utagassen for her third of eight appearances on the New Year's Eve special. Her eighth and final appearance in 1991, which was her first time on the program in fourteen years, had her sing that same song. It was also a track on Minami's 7th album "Hatachi Mae"（20才まえ...Before Turning 20）from September 1973 which peaked at No. 5 on the album charts.
The J-Wiki article for the song mentioned that it has become a kayo classic throughout the decades with everyone from newbie aidoru to veteran singers covering it. One of the earliest examples of this was via Megumi Asaoka's（麻丘めぐみ）cover in 1974 via her album "Golden Deluxe"（ゴールデン・デラックス）. The arrangement doesn't seem to be all that different from Minami's original version.
However, I did find a very dramatically different cover by smoky-voiced chanteuse Mariko Takahashi（高橋真梨子）through her 1989 album of covers, "Sha"（紗...Silky Gauze）. This time, "Irozuku Machi" has been taken off the autumn streets of Tokyo and whisked off to the romantic settings of Rio as the song is given a bossa jazz treatment. My compliments to the arranger.
Also from the J-Wiki article for "Irozuku Machi", it was learned on a 2000 episode of the NTV newsmagazine series "Super Terebi Jouhou Saizensen"（スーパーテレビ情報最前線...Super TV Information Cutting Edge） that teenager Noriko Kamachi（蒲池法子）had recorded at least some of Minami's trademark tune on a demo tape, just before she made her debut as aidoru Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）. I can only speculate that the year commemorated Seiko-chan's 20th anniversary in show business, thus the revelation. Unfortunately, the video has been taken down.
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