Mieko Hirota -- Kawaii Uso（可愛い嘘）

 

I'm not a Mieko Hirota（弘田三枝子）super fan or expert by any means but when I found this single by her, I began to wonder about the different voices that the late singer possessed in her singing arsenal. The last few times I've written about her, they've involved her early prodigy-level teen jazz scatting in songs such as "Comin' Home Baby" from 1965 and then her Cleo Laine approach with her City Pop "Body Talk"（ボディー・トーク）in 1980.

And in between those two songs, and yep, I realize that there are a good 15 years between them, there was also her 42nd single "Kawaii Uso" (Pretty Lies) which was released in September 1968. Created by the golden songwriting duo of lyricist Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）and composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）, the J-Wiki article for the song noted that the team had basically gone for a Motown kayo kyoku based on The Temptations' "My Girl". At the same time, we also got another new voice from Hirota: that of the velvety and purring sex kitten surreptitiously twirling her beau around her pinkie while at the same time admitting that she really does have feelings for the guy.