Midori Utsumi/Keiko Shimazaki/Hiromi Iwasaki -- Omoidasanaide（思い出さないで）

 

When I was thinking up the article for this song, I was reminded of one of the more hilarious scenes from the anime "Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai"（中二病でも恋がしたい）when Yuuta happened to remember how he had confessed his love to one girl through the deathless line "Love you forever...". Yup, he had every right to give himself a massive concussion for remembering that one.

But to the topic at hand. Commenter Jim Laker added a recommendation to my article "Midori Songs" in which I commemorated Greenery Day during Japan's Golden Week holidays by providing a few songs by singers whose given names were Midori. Well, I was given another Midori...actress, singer and TV personality Midori Utsumi（うつみ宮土理）who I used to see quite regularly on her own shows as well as a guest on other programs. She's in one KKP entry via a duet with her husband, the late Kin'ya Aikawa （愛川欽也）, for the 1978 novelty tune "Man Man March"（マン・マン・マーチ）.

Although Utsumi's J-Wiki article doesn't give the occupation of singer to her...just tarento and actress, she did release a number of singles over the decades, and to be honest, she has a pretty nice voice. Anyways, Jim told me about one of her singles which came out in 1977 (it was just before "Man Man March"), and in fact, it was her debut single "Omoidasanaide" (Don't Remember Me). A bittersweet kayo ballad arranged by Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）, the lyrics related a plaintive request about not remembering a past romance since the breakup still hurts like heck. There's something about the song as well that reminds me of Toi et Moi's "Dare mo Inai Umi" (誰もいない海）.

Now, the song was written and composed by Daisaburo Nakayama（中山大三郎）and Utsumi's first foray into recording music was actually a cover of the original by Keiko Shimazaki（島崎恵子）who has no information on J-Wiki or elsewhere, it seems. However, her 1973 single "Omoidasanaide" has an even richer arrangement which has me thinking some of the folk-pop balladry from the United States at the time.

Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎良美）also recorded her own contemporary cover of "Omoidasanaide" as her 29th single in September 1982 with Nozomi Aoki（青木望）acting as arranger (No. 18 ranking). There's not much to say here except that it's another typically wonderful example of Iwasaki balladry. The interesting thing is that the song had been recorded some years earlier when it was included as a track in Iwasaki's March 1979 album of cover songs "Koibito-tachi"（恋人たち...The Lovers） which peaked at No. 14 on Oricon.