Hiroyuki Okita -- Singer-Songwriter（シンガーソングライター）

 

For those who know the late former 80s aidoru Hiroyuki Okita（沖田浩之）, it would be due to his March 1981 debut single "E-Kimochi"（Ｅ気持ち）. But perhaps he may have been ahead of Momoko Kikuchi（菊池桃子）by a few years when it comes to mixing in the City Pop with the teenybopper stuff, although Yoshimi Iwasaki（岩崎良美）might have beat him to the punch by several months with her "Aka to Kuro"（赤と黒）.

No matter, though. I discovered his "Singer-Songwriter" on one of the City Pop radios on YouTube recently. This was a track on his first of four original albums, "HIRO", which was released in April 1981, and of course, "E-Kimochi" is the lead track there. For "Singer-Songwriter", it was the same songwriting duo, lyricist Yoko Aki（阿木燿子）and composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）, from that debut single who also took care of this one. There's some pleasant tropical disco with the City Pop rhythm and I find Okita's vocal style somewhat similar to Iyo Matsumoto's（松本伊代）way of singing in that nasally way.