Gosanke: Spark Sannin Musume（スパーク3人娘）

 

Strangely enough, this trio isn't listed at "idol.ne.jp" which has had that page with the long scroll of Gosanke（御三家...The Big Three） and Sannin Musume（三人娘...The Three Girls）. And yet, the Spark Sannin Musume (The 3 Spark Girls) kinda bridged the gap with 1960s female aidoru Yukari Ito（伊東ゆかり）, Mie Nakao（中尾ミエ）and Mari Sono（園まり）between the Ganso Sannin Musume（元祖三人娘）of the 1950s and the Shin Sannin Musume（新三人娘）of the 1970s. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that the newspapers and magazines didn't come up with the name but the show that starred the ladies.

For about 18 months between 1962 and 1963, Fuji-TV featured a Sunday afternoon music-variety show called "Morinaga Spark Show"（森永スパーク・ショー）with the Spark referring to the sponsor, confectionary company Morinaga & Company's own brand of cola. Initially, the star was rockabilly singer/actor Takashi Fujiki（藤木孝）but midway through the show's run, he left not only the program but singing altogether which meant that the spotlight was trained onto the other co-stars: Ito, Nakao and Sono who then became known as the Spark Sannin Musume.

Yukari Ito -- Koyubi no Omoide （小指の思い出）

Mie Nakao -- Kawaii Baby (可愛いベイビー）

Mari Sono -- Aitakute, Aitakute （逢いたくて逢いたくて）