Mika Yuuki -- Mint Iro no Koi（ミント色の恋）

 

Perhaps I should save a day during the week which I can devote to those mysterious one-and-done singers, especially in the 1980s. My impression over all these decades of listening to Japanese pop acts is that it was during that decade when a lot of aidoru or other types of singers made their debut and simply skedaddled or put out a few singles before disappearing from the limelight. I mean, it also happened in the 1970s, but it was the following decade that this phenomenon seemed to be at its peak. Speculating is the only thing that I'm doing here, but maybe with the surging money that was flowing through Japan's economy at the time, studios were simply flooding their recording booths with lots of wannabes to see which tiny nuggets of gold might be discovered among the sand grains.

Of course, I've found some in the past that have gotten onto "Kayo Kyoku Plus", and once again, here is a lady who was literally one and done...at least, according to the good folks at "idol.ne.jp". The only information that I could find about Mika Yuuki（優木美佳）was that she was born in Fukuoka Prefecture, won the Fukuoka Music Festival's Big Contest and was once a vocalist for a rock band in high school.

I may get some pushback on my opinion here which is fine, but it's for that last fact that I haven't pegged her as an 80s aidoru since I have yet to know any rock-singing vocalist who would head straight into teenybopper territory. Plus, she released her one-and-only single in December 1982, "N･U･S･U･T･T･O", at the age of 19 which strikes me as being rather late for debuting as an aidoru singer. But for today, I'm looking at the B-side, "Mint Iro no Koi" (Mint-Coloured Love). One more argument against her being an aidoru is that I think that her vocals for the tune were pretty smooth and refined as they flew daintily but confidently in the higher range while occasionally dipping into the lower depths. Just judging from this song alone, which I enjoy for those warm horns, it seems too bad that she merely released that one 45" record.

Mirai or Miku Minegishi（嶺岸未来）wrote the lyrics for "Mint Iro no Koi" while Shunichi Tokura（都倉俊一）, who had come up with those hits for Pink Lady（ピンクレディー）in the previous decade, was responsible for melody and arrangement.