Tamaki Sawa -- Bed de Tabako wo Suwanai de（ベッドで煙草を吸わないで）

 

It's almost become cliché that Japanese celebrities have often decided to go the political route and run for public office. For example, singer-actress Junko Mihara（三原じゅん子）, former SPEED member Eriko Imai（今井絵理子）and the late Antonio Enoki（アントニオ猪木）have all had their time in the House of Councillors within the Japanese Diet. Another singer-actress who also did the same thing was Tamaki Sawa（沢たまき）.

Born in Kawasaki City in 1937 as Masako Yamamoto（山本昌子）, she made her debut in 1956 as a jazz singer (maybe the name change to Tamaki Sawa occurred then), but then made a switch in record labels to widen her musical opportunities. Her first song with the new label, Victor, was "Bed de Tabako wo Suwanai de" (Don't Smoke In Bed) in April 1966. No pun intended, but she has some wonderfully smoky vocals to match the setting of a woman coquettishly asking her bedmate to quit lighting up and start snuggling up. Good advice from her to avoid a very dangerous situation...well, one anyways.🔥

Written by Tokiko Iwatani（岩谷時子）and composed by Taku Izumi（いずみたく）, "Bed de Tabako wo Suwanai de" has a very comforting atmospheric Latin arrangement, and I could easily see Sawa having performed this in an intimate setting of a tropical bar while some fellow in a white tuxedo is making a sort of mai tai. Although the song was actually the B-side for the single "Oshiete Choudai"（教えて頂だい...Tell Me）, it actually became the huge hit of the record and so adjustments were made for the album cover in later releases. At least initially though, NHK had refused to air the song because Iwatani's lyrics included the line "...the sweet scent of Chanel..."; apparently, the national broadcaster hadn't wanted to give any corporation an unfair advantage, but all was well and good when the line was altered to just "...the sweet scent...".

Sawa had been invited twice onto NHK's Kohaku Utagassen in 1958 and 1960 during her jazz singer era, but I gather that it has been "Bed de Tabako wo Suwanai de" that got her the largest fame. From the J-Wiki article, the song has been covered by at least 34 singers according to the JASRAC database as of 2018. 

The singer released over twenty singles and several albums up to the late 1990s with most of them being released in the late 1960s and 1970s (she was also prolific in her acting career, too). In 1995, Sawa was encouraged by one of the movers and shakers in politics, Ichiro Ozawa（小沢一郎）, to make a run for a seat in the House of Representatives' 1996 general election but lost out to another celebrity. However, in the 1998 House of Councillors' election, she was able to win a seat and had positions in panels such as the Welfare Labour Relations Board. Tragically though during her term in 2003, she suffered heart failure and passed away at the age of 66.