Well, I noticed that the previous article was No. 9699 so I figure that I ought to finish off tonight's slate of articles with No. 9700.
And I've got an oldie-but-a-goodie by veteran singer-TV personality Akiko Wada（和田アキ子）. I remember hearing "Waratte Yurushite" (Forgive Me with a Smile) on various shows but it was good to be reminded of it once more. This was actually Wada's 4th single from March 1970 when she was just a month shy of her 20th birthday.
Written by the legendary Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composed by Ryochi Wada（和田良知）...no relation to the singer...under the pseudonym Takekuni Haneda*（羽根田武邦）with arrangement by Shunichi Makaino（馬飼野俊一）, the memorable parts of "Waratte Yurushite" are the coquettish way that Wada sings the title and that persistently tinkling piano (reminds me a bit of the "Perry Mason" theme). It's a brassy kayo about a woman who's in her innocent "little ol' me" mode as she asks for forgiveness for some sort of romantic malfeasance.
"Waratte Yurushite" just missed out on the Top 10 by placing in at No. 11 on Oricon. The song sold 200,000 records and won the Best Arranger prize at the Japan Record Awards that year. Even more importantly, Wada was invited at the end of the year to NHK's Kohaku Utagassen for the very first time to sing this song, something that she would do again in 1973 and then in 2010 and 2015. The singer came onto the New Year's Eve special a total of 39 times with the 2015 edition being her final appearance to date.
*Not totally sure about the pronunciation of that pseudonym.
Wada Akiko used to be on a lot of different tv shows but I haven't seen much of her recently.
ReplyDeleteHello, Brian. When I was living there, she was a fairly common presence on the telly, but I figure that at the age of 73 now, Wada is probably taking things a little more leisurely away from the camera.
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