Miyoko Asada -- Akai Fuusen（赤い風船）

 

It was just a couple of months ago that the NHK morning serial drama "Anpan"（あんぱん）wrapped up its 6-month run. I don't usually watch these dramas but "Anpan" was quite good and as is often the case for many of them, it spanned decades. Although she doesn't show up in the above trailer, veteran actress and TV personality Miyoko Asada（浅田美代子）appeared as the kindly elderly grandmother.

But a little over half a century previously, Asada had started out as an adorable 1970s aidoru, and she made her debut in April 1973 with the single "Akai Fuusen" (Red Balloon). To be honest, I had assumed that I already posted an Asada song so I was surprised that there was no such entry. Therefore, I am redeeming myself here with what is probably her most famous tune. Written by Kazumi Yasui（安井かずみ）and composed/arranged by Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）, it's as sweet as sweet can be with the lyrics depicting some wistful romantic dreaming. I can imagine some boy bringing back a red balloon to his crush; not surprisingly, the lass also has feelings for the lad.

Looks like the listening public fell under the charms of "Akai Fuusen" and Asada herself since it reached No. 1 and stayed there for the better part of a month. It also ended up as the 10th-ranked single of 1973, selling around 800,000 records. In fact, according to the J-Wiki article for the song, the song had debuted at No. 2 on the 5-year-old Oricon charts, and reached No. 1 the following week which was the highest initial ranking for a debut song until December 1980, when Masahiko Kondo's（近藤真彦）"Sneaker Blues" (スニーカーぶるーす）debuted at the top spot. "Sneaker Blues" also happened to have been composed by the legendary Tsutsumi.

The somewhat big surprise for me was that despite Asada getting Best New Artist honours at the Japan Record Awards (televised on TBS) on New Year's Eve for "Akai Fuusen" and the other accolades as cited above, she never got the invitation to NHK's Kohaku Utagassen which followed pretty much immediately after the awards ceremony back in the day. Along with the fact that Asada had sung "Akai Fuusen" on the TBS show that she'd been starring in, "Jikan desu yo"（時間ですよ...It's Time）, I'm wondering if there had been some unwritten rule about "Thou shalt not invite a rival network's song onto thine show".