Gosanke: Fun House Ladies' Vocal

 

This article took a bit of thinking and re-thinking before becoming this final result. I had been under the assumption that the Gosanke（御三家）file was done after Noelle's and my contributions over a number of months including my latest on November 26th for the enka-based Ikemen 3（イケメン3）. However with the Xmas season once again upon us and me hitting the J-Christmas tunes, I realized that there was another kinda one-off agglomeration of singers. 

I'm talking about singer-songwriters Akiko Kobayashi（小林明子）, Mariko Nagai（永井真理子）, Midori Karashima（辛島美登里）and Reimy（麗美）who at one point in the late 1980s were under the Fun House label. The four of them got together and came up with their own Xmas album in November 1989 titled "Merry Christmas to You", and I came up with a posting for the title track way back on Christmas Eve 2012. As far as I know, it was just for that one album but I figured that if I could classify Ikemen 3 as a Gosanke for simply one song, I can do the same for Fun House Ladies' Vocal for an entire album of their group and individual efforts. Nagai is already part of the Gosanke club as one of my own imagined groups.

But then, I wondered whether I could post something on the four's harmonious rendition of Mel Tormé's classic "The Christmas Song". I'd even already written it down on the byline at the top but then looking at the article for "Merry Christmas to You", I realized that I'd already written about it in the article. So, it was back...finally...to the original idea of mentioning the fact that Kobayashi, Nagai, Karashima and Reimy were this Yuletide yonin known very casually as the Fun House Ladies' Vocal although their individual names were much more front and centre.

Akiko Kobayashi -- My Precious Friend

Mariko Nagai -- Miracle Girl（ミラクル・ガール）

Midori Karashima -- Hoshizora no Christmas Party （星空のクリスマス・パーティー）

Reimy -- Angel