Mayumi Dan -- Say You Love Me/Hatsukoi Epilogue（初恋エピローグ）

 

I chose this single because I had never heard of Mayumi Dan（壇まゆみ）before and the arrangement of Side A grabbed my ears. Her J-Wiki profile has her listed as a former actress who had been born Mayumi Mitome（三留真由美）in Fukuoka City in 1962. She wanted to become a thespian and started out her entertainment career as a campaign girl for a local bank while in high school. Then her first foray into acting came about from an appearance on a NHK historical drama in 1980.

Her dip into singing was just that...a mere dip. She only released two singles; her debut single in 1981 was a cover of The Four Saints'（フォー・セインツ）"Chiisana Nikki"（小さな日記...A Little Diary）. Then later on in the year, her second and final single, "Say You Love Me" was released. Considering how short her singing career was, I probably wouldn't put her in the aidoru category even though her singing ability had me tempted me to do so. As well, "Say You Love Me" which was written by Akira Mitake（見岳章）and composed/arranged by Akira Inoue（井上鑑）has that sing-songy aidoru feeling although as I mentioned off the top, the arrangement with that country-sounding guitar and the way that the intro and outro go were enough for me to get my attention. At 4:15 is the B-side "Hatsukoi Epilogue" (First Love Epilogue) which was also handled by the Double Akira. Slightly sprightly and tropical, Dan's vocals fairly fly lightly over the ocean.

Dan retired from show business in 1989 and afterwards, she's been very busy by first starting out designing children's products with one company and then setting up her own. She's also gotten into corporate training, counseling and being a representative of the local Kyushu Actors' Club. As of now, her name has been Eri Ishimaru（石丸愛梨）.