Kyoko Koizumi -- Fade Out

 

As I mentioned in a brief postscript in yesterday's article for Kaela Kimura's（木村カエラ）"Rirura Riruha"（リルラ リルハ）, I had compared Kimura and 80s aidoru Kyoko Koizumi（小泉今日子）in terms of their cute and cheeky natures only to find out a few hours later that the two of them appeared together on the NHK morning show "Asaichi"（あさイチ）. Kyon-Kyon was the main guest and the hosts invited viewers to send in their favourite songs by the singer-actress. It didn't take long for comedian-actor Takashi Fujii （藤井隆）to fax over his own request: a song called "Fade Out".

I'd never heard of "Fade Out" before but checking Koizumi's discography on J-Wiki, I discovered that it had been her 27th single from May 1989, released half a year before her rendition of the Finger 5 hit "Gakuen Tengoku" (学園天国）which was actually the very first single that I had ever bought of the singer. Her cover of the song kept me thinking of her old aidoru image.

So it was a tad surprising when I first heard "Fade Out" yesterday which was definitely not within my usual comfort zone of Kyon-Kyon aidoru-dom. Apparently, the song was produced when through mutual friends and acquaintances, the singer and off-the-beaten-path musician/producer Haruo Chikada (近田春夫) had met up at a Harajuku café with the former confessing an admiration for his compositions including those for the band Juicy Fruits. She asked him whether he could make a song for her and his reply was "Well, I'm only interested in 4/4 house right now, so if that's okay with you, then I'll do it". She said in turn "DONE!"👍

And so "Fade Out" rushed in with a kayo kyoku-esque melody given the acid house treatment. The song was written, composed and arranged by Chikada, and hearing it was interesting, realizing that this dance-clubby tune had come before the karaoke-friendly and Kyon-Kyon-esque "Gakuen Tengoku". I was half-expecting Bobby Brown's or even Whitney Houston's backing dancers to assist Koizumi. Also, what distinguished "Fade Out" from some of her other hits was that the singer's delivery was more mature and sultrier compared to the usual chirpiness that I'd heard before.

Not sure where the music video was filmed but I'm guessing Hong Kong. The Koizumi/Chikada collaboration was a successful one because "Fade Out" reached No. 2 on Oricon and later became the 91st-ranked single of the year. In fact, both Koizumi and Chikada extended their cooperation to the former's 14th album "Koizumi in the House", also from May 1989, and it truly was an album devoted to Koizumi and house music. It went up to No. 9.