Mayumi Asaka -- My Endless Scene

 

I never heard of the actress and singer Mayumi Asaka（朝加真由美）but she has shown up on a couple of television jidai geki, "Abarenbo Shogun"（暴れん坊将軍）and "Mito Komon"（水戸黄門）among her many roles. She's also done her fair share of cheesecake photos, and the above brief commercial excerpt gives a quick taste of her sultriness. Born Hiroko/Masako Takeuchi（竹内容子）in 1955, she hails from Hokkaido and made her debut in show business through a soap commercial in 1971.

The music side of her career lasted between 1973 and 1981 with 7 singles and 1 album resulting from it. From that lone album "Yasashii Kankei ~ Mayumi I"（優しい関係...A Gentle Relationship） in October 1981 comes the track "My Endless Scene", which was written by Asaka and composed by Masanori Sasaji（笹路正徳）. As befitting that album title, the song is a laidback tune in the City Pop vein for sunrise or sunset or even an especially lazy afternoon. Asaka doesn't have the most expressive vocals but there is some nice smoke in them, and perhaps the song in general is a bit reminiscent of what Takako Mamiya（間宮貴子）would sing the following year.

But I do have to say that the cover for "Yasashii Kankei", as sexy as it may look, also makes me wonder whether Asaka while looking out the window was saying something like "Did that kid actually take off with my bike?!".