Friday, September 29, 2023

Reiko Itsuki -- Ai no Tsubasa(愛のつばさ)

 

Looks like today is featuring the rare stuff on Urban Contemporary Friday, and Article No. 4 for September 29th 2023 involves model/actress Reiko Itsuki(樹れい子). The cover for her one-and-only single "Ai no Tsubasa" (Fly Me on the Wings of Love) from February 1979 along with the moaning which begins this disco tune reflects a lot of the sex appeal she displayed during her relatively short career. Kazuko Kobayashi(小林和子)provided the Japanese lyrics for this cover of a Celi Bee song that had originally been written and composed by Pepe Luis Soto

Itsuki was born as Shomei Hou(賀小美)in Aichi Prefecture as the daughter of an Italian-American father and a Chinese mother. In 1972 when she was a teenager, she was scouted in her hometown to become a model, and in her senior year of high school the following year, she entered the Miss International beauty pageant and won the title on behalf of Japan. However, because she didn't have Japanese citizenship at the time, she had to relinquish the crown. According to an article in the "Shukan Shincho"(週刊新潮)journal cited in her J-Wiki profile, her modeling career continued and she was in a number of TV and movie roles up to 1980, although it was all brought to an unfortunate end when she was associated with a guy who had swindled a ton of money from an insurance company that year. I don't know what happened to her after that.

Incidentally, she received her Japanese citizenship in 1985. Below you'll see and hear the very long Celi Bee original.

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