Hideki Saijo -- Chigireta Ai（ちぎれた愛）

 

I was looking around for kayo for the earlier Elton John-based ROY article today and discovered that I had yet to cover this particular song by the late Hideki Saijo（西城秀樹）.

For folks who didn't know Saijo all that well, the usual song that will come to mind is his anthemic cover of "YMCA" from 1979, but earlier in his career, he was also an aidoru who belted out tunes with a red and bloody heart on his sleeve; sorry, I don't mean to make that sound like a horror movie, though. What I'm saying is that Hideki did have his moment of singing ardent and anguished love songs when he first started out in the early 1970s. 

"Chigireta Ai" (Tattered Love) was most likely the first of those songs. Released in September 1973, it was written by Kazumi Yasui（安井かずみ）and composed/arranged by Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）as a story passionately recorded by Saijo about a couple very much in love with each other but also up against a cruel world together. Listening to Hideki sing his heart out, it reminded me of his later hits, "Kizudarake no Lola"（傷だらけのローラ）and "Hageshii Koi" (激しい恋). 

The singer's 6th single scored a number of firsts: it was his first No. 1 hit on Oricon, staying at the top for four weeks straight, it was the first hit for the combo of Yasui and Makaino, and it earned Saijo his first Best Performance prize at the Japan Record Awards that year. However, it would be another dozen months before he got onto the Kohaku Utagassen for the first time. "Chigereta Ai" ended the year as the 15th-ranked single for 1973 and is one of the two title tracks on his October 1973 album "Exciting Hideki ~ Chigireta Ai/Jounetsu no Arashi"（エキサイティング秀樹 - ちぎれた愛/情熱の嵐）.