Shinichi Mori/Keiko Fuji -- Hatoba Onna no Blues（波止場女のブルース）

 

A couple of weeks ago, I posted my usual Thursday Reminiscings of Youth article, that time on The Carpenters' "We've Only Just Begun" and noted that I couldn't put up the Top 3 on Oricon as the usual comparison kayo kyoku because I hadn't ever covered any of those three. So, I started remedying that by posting No. 1 from Oricon's August 3rd 1970 Top 10 list which turned out to be Hide & Rosanna's（ヒデとロザンナ） "Ai wa Kizutsukiyasuku"（愛は傷つきやすく）.

Well, No. 3 on that list was Shinichi Mori's（森進一）"Hatoba Onna no Blues" (Woman on the Wharf Blues), his No. 16 single from June 1970. Written by Rei Nakanishi（なかにし礼）and composed by Charlie Ishiguro（チャーリー石黒）under his songwriting pseudonym Miyoshi Shiro*（城美好）, I guess this is one of those songs that could straddle the Mood Kayo and enka line.

On J-Wiki, it's been categorized as an enka and Mori's characteristic gravelly voice sure does retain a whole lot of emotion, apropos for a song of that genre. However, the arrangement by Kenichiro Morioka（森岡賢一郎）strikes me as being Mood Kayo with that bluesy saxophone and that insistent beat. In any event, a poor lady is left bereft without her significant other at her side anymore. This is the type of tune that I could see Mori performing on an episode of "Enka no Hanamichi" (演歌の花道) because the show loved to have their musical guests sometimes standing on a pier contemplating the future before breaking into song.

"Hatoba Onna no Blues" reached No. 2 on Oricon and became the No. 17 single of the year. It also earned Mori a Japan Record Award in Best Performance. There have been covers of the song including one by Keiko Fuji（藤圭子）in 1973.

*That last name of 「城」can be read in many different ways according to my usual site, and I couldn't find the proper way to pronounce it. If anyone can confirm or correct what I put down, I will be thankful for it.