Hanako Asada -- Sayonara, DANCE（さよなら、ＤＡＮＣＥ）

 

Encountering this song title here has had me remembering a 2003 book called "Eats, Shoots & Leaves" by Lynne Truss who was not very happy about how punctuation was being mistreated. 

This isn't to say that Hanako Asada's（麻田華子）"Sayonara, DANCE" is the punctuation grenade that Truss was warning about, but I initially wondered what the title was saying. Was it a goodbye to character actor Charles Dance? Was it meant to be a farewell to dancing or was it a goodbye two-step with the comma mistakenly placed in between the two words?

OK, enough with the snarkiness. From the lyrics by Kazuko Kobayashi（小林和子）, "Sayonara, DANCE" was most likely meant to be a short two-item list describing an unhappy lass' night with her saying goodbye to a now erstwhile boyfriend and then hitting the nearest disco to get rid of her negative feelings with little success. Mind you, the melody by Hideya Nakazaki（中崎英也）and arrangement by Nobuyuki Shimizu（清水信之）are plenty aidoru perky and reflective of the time period. "Sayonara, DANCE" was released as Asada's 4th single in February 1989. The song failed to score anywhere on the Oricon Top 100 and didn't appear on either of her two original albums but it finally showed up on her February 2004 BEST compilation "Asada Hanako Collection"（麻田華子 コレクション）. 

As I mentioned in my first article regarding Asada, "Doubt!", she just had the five singles and two albums before calling it a singing career.

Hanako Asada -- Doubt!

As much as I talk about the iceberg for kayo kyoku in general, I also have to say that there is a smaller iceberg out there representing all those 1980s aidoru with the 10% above water being the superstars or the pretty successful teenybopper singers. My impression has been that there were hundreds of young teenage girls representing the underwater 90% who were groomed for the big stage but only had a brush with that spotlight for a few years.

Perhaps one of them was Hanako Asada（麻田華子）, nee Hanako Manabe（真鍋華子）, from Tokyo's Fuchu City. Winning the grand prize at the 2nd Annual Touhato All Raisin Princess Contest back in 1987, aidoru Asada debuted with the single "Suki♡Kirai"（好き♡嫌い...Love/Hate）in February 1988 at the age of 13.

A few months later, Asada came out with her 2nd single "Doubt!", a high-tempo and super-cheerful tune that should have been pulled over for speeding. Written by Masumi Kawamura（川村真澄）, who knows something about writing for high-energy singers, and composed by Takashi Tsushimi（都志見隆）, "Doubt!" is doubtlessly a catchy tune thanks to the rollicking beat and Asada's chirpy vocals, especially that "WoooOOOooo!" that she adorably uses to good effect. In the song, Asada sings gleefully about how much girls can really be trusted.

Asada's short career as an aidoru lasted until the summer of 1989 with a total of 5 singles and 2 original albums. However, about a decade and a few name changes later, she became part of a singing and dancing trio called Trinity with 7 singles and 1 album under their belt. Currently, Asada is retired after getting married.