Kosetsu Minami -- Natsu no Shojo（夏の少女）

 

It was quite the banner episode of "Uta Con"（うたコン）tonight. At NHK's Shibuya Hall, enka singer Sayuri Ishikawa（石川さゆり）turned her jazz on once more to sing the torch song "Whiskey ga O-Suki deshou?" (ウィスキーが、お好きでしょ）in front of a mighty fine Big Band orchestra with leather-lunged veteran Akira Fuse（布施明）singing his rendition of Paul Anka's "My Way". Hiroya Ozaki（尾崎裕哉）also gave tribute to his father, Yutaka Ozaki（尾崎豊）, with a performance of "I Love You" which was quite reminiscent of his father's original recording. 

As well, the show gave a shoutout to the Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall in Hibiya Park, Tokyo which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. It has hosted plenty of acts ranging from rock-n'-roll band Carol to high-kicking aidoru duo Pink Lady to chanteuse Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）. Tonight, I got to hear from Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里）her classic "My Revolution" there.

But what I'm most chuffed about regards the other performance of the night at the Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall. Kosetsu Minami（南こうせつ）is someone that I've known for years as the proverbial folk artist in Japan, but tonight he sang something that had once been one of those lost songs in my mind for literally decades. I've mentioned them occasionally in articles, but for whatever reason, there have been examples of kayo kyoku that I've heard on "Sounds of Japan" or borrowed audiotapes which ended up disappearing with only wisps of memory to keep them alive in my mind since I never got to find out who sang them or what the titles of the songs were.

Well, I can now cross one of those songs (and there are still quite a few from both sides of the Pacific) off the list. I heard this one on a "Sounds of Japan" episode without getting the singer or the title, and it turns out that I can give thanks to Minami's performance on "Uta Con" tonight. He sang the cheerful "Natsu no Shojo" (Summer Girl), his 3rd single from June 1977.

Refreshing as a splash of cold water on a hot day, "Natsu no Shojo" which was written and composed by Minami and arranged by Kimio Mizutani（水谷公生）, has been categorized as a folk tune on J-Wiki but I think that there is also a good dollop of that Margaritaville feeling and maybe even some country twang in Mizutani's arrangement. So, I can also throw in the New Music and Country labels, too. However the genres go, it's a wonderful song to be reacquainted with. 

"Natsu no Shojo" topped out at No. 32 on Oricon and it's available on Minami's 3rd original album "Ima Kokoro no Mama ni"（今こころのままに...Now In My Heart） which also came out in June 1977. It hit the top spot on the album charts and eventually became the 20th-ranked album of the year. One interesting piece of trivia that I got from J-Wiki is that Kosetsu modeled the summer girl of the song on 70s aidoru Ikue Sakakibara（榊原郁恵）who had debuted a year previously. She herself would come out with a summery tune of her own in 1978.