DEBBIE'S ALLY -- Yoake no Dreaming（夜明けのドリーミング）

 

Completely new discovery for me, there is a translated blurb underneath the YouTube video (courtesy of Ultra-Vybe) for this short-lived group. I've also seen the source text at Tower Records and it was Mr. Light Mellow himself, music journalist Toshikazu Kanazawa（金澤寿和）who wrote it (I've made some punctuation changes and other alterations where needed):

Around 1980, a female singer Debbie from Okinawa, who was a member of (Hiro Tsunoda's) Jap's Gap's, and Debbie's friends who later joined PIPER and other bands, formed a super band DEBBIE'S ALLY. This is the only self-produced album by the super band DEBBIE'S ALLY, a group of excellent studio musicians who later joined Debbie and PIPER. The album is a masterpiece that is sold at a high price in the current used vinyl market because of its outstanding quality and rarity due to the extremely small number of pressings at that time. The emotional and mysterious voice of Debbie echoing over the crossover style of Rock, AOR, Soul, Disco and other various elements is full of charm that will captivate listeners' hearts.

I've got some more information on Debbie but let's tackle the title track from the 1980 "Yoake no Dreaming" (Daybreak Dreaming). Written by Debbie and composed by band keyboardist Takashi Shimamura（嶋村隆）, there is some nice laidback cocktail-sipping disco here adorned by some of that Perrier keyboard sounds. As well, Debbie's whispery vocals are appealingly sultry and inviting for some of that final disco dancing. Perhaps Debbie is just leaving the dance emporium early in the morning with shoes in her hands.

Speaking of Debbie, she's actually Itsuko Kodama（児玉伊津子）and I was able to get a lot more information on her at the HMV website. Debbie started her singing career during her university days in the early 1970s in Japan's southernmost prefecture and was dubbed "Okinawa's first female rock singer" as she toured the military bases and nightclubs in Naha among other places. She made her way up to Tokyo in 1974 and performed in the big discos and other similar facilities there while making friends with a lot of musicians. Through recommendations, she participated in a recording session in London by musician-producer Kunihiko Kase（加瀬邦彦）in 1976. She even took a year off in 1978 to study and work in the United States before returning to the disco scene in Tokyo where she met singer-guitarist Akio Yabe（矢部昭夫）and bassist Hiroshi Oshima（大島宏）which eventually led to the formation of DEBBIE'S ALLY.