The J-Wiki profile on this sextet singing group Poppies（ポピーズ）is fairly sparse, but they formed in 1974 and at the time of their formation, they consisted of Junko "Jun" Yamada（山田順子）, Sayoko "Boku-chan" Nishida（西田さよ子）, Yukiko "Mikki" Katada（片田雪子）, Tomoko "Monroe" Sugiyama（杉山智子）, Akemi "Eve" Sakamoto（坂本明美）and Sachiko "Lark" Matsumoto（松本祥子）*. Poppies debuted in April 1974 with "Koi no Chance"（恋のチャンス...Love Chance） but for this article, I'm featuring their sophomore effort, "Koi wa Kibun" (Love is a Mood).
My impression of "Koi wa Kibun", which was created by veterans Rei Nakanishi（なかにし礼）and Tadao Inoue（井上忠夫） (who would change his name to Daisuke Inoue/井上大輔), is that all involved wanted to put out a rapid-fire tune with old-fashioned 60s girl pop mixed in with a bit of ABBA disco and a soupcon of sex kitten. Think of it as Candies（キャンディーズ）fare with some of that Pink Lady kick-step although both girl groups still had their best days ahead of them when this single was released in September 1974.
After their third single, there were some major changes in the lineup and Poppies went down to being a group of five ladies with only Nishida and Sugiyama remaining from the original team. When their final single was released in 1978, they were down to just four.
*The given name kanji for Ms. Matsumoto can be read in many ways. I've gone with Sachiko for now but if anyone can confirm or correct this reading, that would be greatly appreciated.
A good linguistic mystery! I wonder if there have been any documentaries made about the Poppies? If so or if have some old tv interviews maybe we can hear Ms. Matsumoto being addressed by name.
ReplyDeleteWell, one singer did approach me recently to clarify something about her fellow singer in one article. Hopefully, someone out there knows Ms. Matsumoto so that she confirm or correct her name.
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