Yuko Ohtaki -- No Thank You Breakfast, Mama（ノー・サンキュー・ブレックファースト、ママ）

 

Last week at the most recent Kohaku Utagassen, there was the return of Anzen Chitai（安全地帯）to sing a couple of their old tunes, and I noticed in the credits on screen that vocal group Amazons was backing up the band. I'm not sure but I believe that Yuko Ohtaki（大滝裕子）was among the group.

Hopefully, that was indeed the case, but let's go back to her early solo career as a singer. I've already written a number of her tunes back then. A few of them have also been included on the reissued one-and-only Ohtaki album from 1980, "Million Kiss" as bonus tracks: the most City Pop song for a yogurt drink commercial, "Koi no Warming Up" （恋のウォーミング アップ）, and "Yokohama Ni-juu-yo-ji" （YOKOHAMA 24時）and "Yokohama Headlight"（YOKOHAMA・ヘッドライト）.

Now, here is another track from "Million Kiss" that was part of the original 1980 LP. "No Thank You Breakfast, Mama" starts off sounding like City Pop but then the rest of the song comes off as a congenial country crossover, thanks to Shigeru Suzuki's（鈴木茂）arrangement of Yoshitaka Minami's（南佳孝）melody. I'm not sure exactly what's up with Chinfa Kan's（康珍化）lyrics for this song which probably has one of the longest katakana titles that I've ever encountered, but perhaps it might involve a lass who's skipping brekkie to head out for an early date with her beloved. Mama may have something to worry about. And for the record, I will never skip breakfast.👍