Mai Arai -- Wild Lady（ワイルド・レディー）

 

There is one famous scene from the anime "Sailor Moon" in which Usagi drank the wrong drink and, well, she got a little more excitable than she usually is. Strangely enough, I was in a similar situation when one of my students at a party got a little more than she bargained for after imbibing a little too much of the good stuff and she started rattling things off in both Japanese and English. By the end, she was speaking in tongues.

That was what Mai Arai's（あらい舞）"Wild Lady" reminded me of when I first heard it last night. This was the debut single for the then-19-year-old singer-songwriter from Kyoto when she released it in November 1978. Written, composed and arranged by Arai, it does sound a bit like Pink Lady with the dynamic melody touched by a bit of disco and rock-n-roll. 

Now, for KKP readers, if the name Mai Arai sounds familiar to you, then you must have thoroughly read the details in the article for Mikako Hashimoto's（橋本美加子）"Heart Byoyomi"（ハート秒読み）which was one of Arai's creations for the 80s aidoru. I was intrigued enough by the presence of this songwriter when I wrote up the Hashimoto post that I decided to take a deeper look. As it turned out, she gained her ambitions for the music industry when she was a senior in junior high school. Not long after, she got into the industry although her singles came out quite slowly with her seventh single being released in 2005. Her debut album wouldn't hit the shelves until 1990 although by that point, she'd gone with the new stage name of hideko. In 1982, she went on a national tour with fellow singer-songwriter Eigo Kawashima（河島英五）, and she's provided singers such as Yoko Oginome（荻野目洋子）, Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）and GWINKO with her tunes.