Hiromi Iwasaki -- Kiss Again

 

As a friend once said in his own amazing way: This cooks! But then again, we are talking about wunderkind aidoru-turned-chanteuse Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）. From her August 1980 album "Wish", I give you "Kiss Again", which is I guess one of her more City Pop-oriented releases, not surprising considering the times back then. 

"Kiss Again" was written by Chinfa Kan（康珍化）, composed by Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）and arranged by Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）. Iwasaki really had a time in her City Pop period going from the late 1970s into the 1980s before she opted to become a dramatic balladeer for the next several years for the most part, but before I digress too far off the main road, let me say that this song is quite the hidden City Pop gem as she sings about a date that one woman insists not end. As she lightly purrs, "Kiss again, kiss again, hold me tight". I wonder what they will have for breakfast?😎

It's quite the funky piece with the romantic disco strings as Iwasaki sings some very seductive vocals. Some interesting chord changes in the underlying melody too near the end. "Kiss Again" was never a single or even a B-side...just a track on "Wish" so I probably wouldn't have ever seen it performed on one of the television music shows, but I am left wondering whether Iwasaki would have been allowed to perform something this sultry on air (I haven't come across any such footage on YouTube; maybe OK at concerts?). Yeah, I know...it's far from an X-rated song but the singer was on the borderline between teenager and adult at the time, and knowing a bit about the conservatism of prime-time TV in Japan (late-night TV was a whole different ball of wax), maybe it would have too much for a young lady to sing about dragging a guy to bed with her.