Hitomi Aki -- Tegami（手紙）

For all those kayo kyoku lovers, Saori Yuki's（由紀さおり）"Tegami" (The Letter) is a breezy classic that first hit record store shelves and ears back in 1970. And Saori is still performing it on kayo programs such as "Uta Con"（うたコン）.

Well, what I hadn't known was that aidoru Hitomi Aki（秋ひとみ）, who had a relatively brief career in the limelight between 1976 and 1982, had her own cover version of "Tegami" in her second and final album "Omoi"（想い...Memories） from 1980. Although I've only featured a few of her songs on the blog, my impression is that Aki and the people around her thought that she could handle some of the more urban contemporary stuff with a Latin tinge as was the case with her "Summer Melancholy"（サマー・メランコリー）from 1979.

"Tegami" definitely takes the deep dive into the samba-influenced sector of City Pop through the original melody by Makoto Kawaguchi（川口真）and Rei Nakanishi's（なかにし礼）lyrics. It is recognizably "Tegami" by Yuki but with a good amount of 1980s Shinjuku disco oomph. Love the saxophone!