I've been a fan of Japanese popular music for 40 years, and have managed to collect a lot of material during that time. So I decided I wanted to talk about Showa Era music with like-minded fans. My particular era is the 70s and 80s (thus the "kayo kyoku"). The plus part includes a number of songs and artists from the last 30 years and also the early kayo. So, let's talk about New Music, aidoru, City Pop and enka.
Credits
I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.
It's nice to hear from 80s aidoru Iyo Matsumoto（松本伊代）after a while. I found her 6th single from March 1983 titled "Chinese Kiss". Starting with some pre-recording banter that probably had the fans hitting their knees in bliss (and the producer slapping his forehead in frustration), it's a typically adorable Iyo tune.
Written by Chinfa Kan（康珍化）, composed by Toshio Kamei（亀井登志夫）and arranged by Shiro Sagisu（鷺巣詩郎）, it's a plucky aidoru song with a hint of Chinese flavor, a soupcon of City Pop, and plenty of whimsy. I'm not sure whether this date is taking place in Hong Kong or Yokohama but wherever the couple is, they are having one happy day interspersed with the titular sign of affection. I especially like the guitar when they make the transition from verse to chorus. "Chinese Kiss" hit No. 12 on Oricon and by the end of 1983, it was the 92nd-ranked single.
First off, I was happy to see 80s aidoru Iyo Matsumoto（松本伊代）on a recent episode of "Uta Con"（うたコン） after she had suffered a fairly serious back injury in a game show stunt gone wrong several months ago.
Well, just returning to her discography in the 1980s, Iyo-chan really did come a long way since her chirpy "Sentimental Journey"（センチメンタル・ジャーニー）debut in 1981 after listening to the opening track of her 10th album, the January 1989 "Private File". "Private file wa Aketa Mama de..."(Leaving My Private File Open...) is the story of a twentysomething in Japan getting her opportunity to be an independent and free-spirited sprite in one of the major cities (I think the Bubble Era was still intact at that point). The pumps are on, the makeup is on and she's in her car possibly flirting with the toll gate attendant.
Good ol' kaz-shin wrote a review on the entirety of "Private File", and it seems that he was quite smitten with the then-24-year-old singer and that folks ought to give her album a second listening. With those characteristic high and nasal vocals tackling a dancing R&B tune, I thought about another singer, Yoko Oginome（荻野目洋子）, handling "Private file wa Aketa Mama de...", although I think Matsumoto acquits herself well on this first track. kaz-shin isn't quite as complimentary about the singing quality but he does say a few sentences later that the aidoru-level attack on this one contrastingly works here. I'll just say that as a casual fan, I'm getting along fine with disco-era Iyo-chan.
The first track was written by Kouiki Kokubu（国分広域）and composed by Tatsuya Nishiwaki（西脇辰弥） who was a member of the AOR/R&B groupPazz. As for the lyricist's name, I couldn't get a confirmed reading of it so once again, if anyone can confirm or correct the proper pronunciation, I would be very happy.
OK, first off...Iyo Matsumoto's（松本伊代）"Shyness Boy" has nothing to do with Anri's（杏里）"Shyness Boy". The latter is one of my very favourite City Pop songs created by Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）for her December 1983"Timely!!" album. Meanwhile, the former is not one of my favourite Matsumoto songs since it rather chaotically stumbles out of the gate although it does settle down quickly into something that perhaps an early-career Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）would tackle.
Actually, "Shyness Boy" is Matsumoto's 12th single from September 1984 and it was written and composed by Ami Ozaki（尾崎亜美）. The arrangement by Shingo Kobayashi（小林信吾）is rather weird with its mix of instruments coming out everywhere from the woodwork to get their words in and then this introspective 80s guitar plucking away from a moody American pop song of that decade. Ozaki's lyrics, however, have some firmer hold as a young lady is absolutely grinding her teeth to a powder in frustration while she's waiting for her male buddy to finally confess his love for her. Still, she loves him deeply enough that she will continue to bide her time.
I know that Robert Altman's"The Player" was still a decade away from being released in theatres, but I couldn't help but think of this Hollywood movie satirizing Hollywood when I first listened to this single by aidoru Iyo Matsumoto（松本伊代）.
Her 3rd one, to be specific, "TV no Kuni kara Kirakira" (Gleaming from the Land of TV) was released in May 1982. It seems as if lyricist Shigesato Itoi（糸井重里）, composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）and arranger Shiro Sagisu（鷺巣詩郎）all decided to concoct a tongue-in-cheek aidoru tune about the whole fantastical mystique surrounding an 80s aidoru while having the lass herself wonder where the line between reality and illusion appears.
Iyo-chan certainly sells it with her puppy-dog happy nasal delivery and Sagisu's arrangement is just as peppy with all of the horns and strings bouncing about. The song fits what the teenybopper entertainers were all about during the Golden Age of the Aidoru: supremely kawaii, bouncy and flouncy. "TV no Kuni kara Kirakira" hit No. 15 on Oricon.
Welcome to another Reminiscings of Youth session. Last Friday, I put up an article on a 1984 duet between one of the best voices in Japanese music Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）and AOR singer-songwriter Bill Champlin titled "Both of Us". Noticing that it sounded somewhat like Earth Wind & Fire's "After the Love Has Gone" (and I wasn't the only one, judging from the YouTube comments), I was reminded of yet another love ballad that had similarities with that EWF classic.
Back in my days as a callow youth of the 1980s, I was taping the heck out of songs off the the various radio stations, and those included the ones that would be considered AOR and Quiet Storm, genre names that I hadn't heard of yet, but I guess that I just had a predilection for the light and mellow. Anyways, one song that I taped but didn't bother with recording the DJ's iteration of the singer's name and the title is the one that you can see above you. Well, thanks to my lack of foresight, I would then take on a multi-year odyssey searching for this mystery tune (along with others, Japanese and non-Japanese).
First off, though, let me say how happy I was when I was finally able to track down the fact that it was Champlin who sang this classy and smooth Perrier-friendly ballad "Tonight, Tonight" and it was from his December 1981 album, "Runaway". When I hear those soft keyboards and the buttery horns and strings, despite the earliness of the release, I get images of hedonistic lifestyles of that decade portrayed through television and movies (there's always dinner on crisp linen and fine china in that penthouse). I wasn't at all surprised that it had been created by the singer, David Foster and Raymond Louis Kennedy.
The search took me around thirty years since I noted in a very early KKP article from 2012 that I had just found Champlin's cover via YouTube. And yes, I have just said cover version because "Tonight, Tonight" is a redux of the original by the aforementioned Ray Kennedy who recorded it for his 1980 "Ray Kennedy" under the title of "My Everlasting Love". Strangely enough, I had heard Kennedy's "My Everlasting Love" through one of those American AOR compilations that I bought in Japan but wasn't sure at the time which was the original and the cover. According to the article for the 1981 "Runaway", Champlin had sung background vocals for Kennedy's original. I liked Kennedy's take but it wasn't quite the Champlin cover that I really wanted.
As it has been for a number of lost songs that I finally found, I had to go through a lot of cheap Canadian Tire tapes, radio listenings, university, and two stints in Japan over three decades to finally know the truth about "Tonight, Tonight". I ended up buying "Runaway" because I had wanted to get my own copy of the ballad. It didn't score too highly on the charts (well, pretty low at No. 178) and one critic disdained the tracks as being a pale version of the band Chicago according to the Wikipedia article. To be honest, I've only given the album just that one listen myself but especially after reading the mediocre reviews, I'm willing to give it another go. I have a thing for underdogs.
Now, what was in the Top 10 of Oricon for December 1981? Well, I have Nos. 7, 8 and 9.
I first heard the news on Twitter yesterday morning and then it was confirmed through a November 26th"Nikkan Sports"（日刊スポーツ）article via her J-Wiki profile, but 80s aidoruand current tarento Iyo Matsumoto（松本伊代）suffered an injury to her back while appearing on the TBS variety game show "Ohkami Shonen"（オオカミ少年...Wolf Boy/Lie or Truth） on the 24th. At the one-minute mark in the above video, the show displays the series of hatches which opens over piles of sponges below for which I'm assuming wrong answers will earn celebrities a quick trip down.
Unfortunately, something apparently didn't work but when Matsumoto fell through the hatch, she ended up seriously injuring her lower back requiring at least three months of treatment. In that J-Wiki article, it is also stated that in 2021, she had suffered the same injury while doing exercise, so what happened a few days ago may have been a complication on that issue. Regardless, I'm hoping that Matsumoto is resting as comfortably as she can and that she will make a swift recovery. The incident has reminded me of an injury that another former aidoru, Momoko Kikuchi（菊池桃子）, had suffered earlier this summer.
Since I am writing about Iyo-chan, why not go into one of her early singles? In fact, let's go into her 4th single from August 1982, "Otona ja nai no" (I'm No Adult). With one of the more raucous intros to an aidoru tune that I've ever heard, the song almost seems perfect as an anime theme as a so-called teenage witch tries to bewitch a high school boy. It could almost be the Japanese version of "Bewitched" for the youth set.
I had initially thought that "Otona ja nai no" was going to be a techno-aidorutune because of that intro, but it quickly became that usual sprightly early 80s teenybopper song with those shimmering strings and horns. And of course, Iyo-chan's vocals are instantly recognizable. Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）was responsible for the melody, while Shigesato Itoi（糸井重里）took care of the lyrics and Shiro Sagisu（鷺巣詩郎）was behind the overall arrangement.
"Otona ja nai no" took in quite a few awards along with that No. 16 peak ranking on Oricon (ended up as the No. 85 single for 1982). It took the silver award at the 12th annual Ginza Music Festival, a silver award at the 9th annual ABC Kayo Shinjin Grand Prix（第9回ABC歌謡新人グランプリ...ABC Kayo Rookie Grand Prix）, yet another silver award at the 15th annual Shinjuku Music Festival, and Best New Artist honours at the 8th annual Zen Nihon Kayo Ongaku Sai（全日本歌謡音楽祭...All Japan Kayo Music Festival）.
I have to say that though the lyrics of eternally being connected to one's love and the title of "Dakishimetai" (Want to Hold Onto You) have probably become so common as to approach cliché, the music for this particular song is pretty gosh-darn delicious.
"Dakishimetai" is 80s aidoru Iyo Matsumoto's（松本伊代）5th single and there's barely anything about this song in J-Wiki aside from the songwriters and the fact that it did exist. Just to get that out of the way, it was released in November 1982 with Chinfa Kan（康珍化）on lyrics, Toshio Kamei（亀井登志夫）on music and Shiro Sagisu（鷺巣詩郎）handling the arrangement. It did well on Oricon by breaking into the Top 10 at No. 9.
However as I mentioned off the top, Kamei's music with Sagisu's arrangement make "Dakishimetai" a cut above the average aidoru tune...at least to me, anyways. I wouldn't categorize it as a technopop tune despite the Asian-flavoured synthesizer and the light gong at the beginning although it did make me wonder when I first heard it whether either Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）or Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）were helping out here as they have so many others during that time. But it isn't just the intro...it's also that mixture of that exotic kayofrom the late 1970s and light Baroque Pop/Fashion Music and specifically, even that guitar which unleashes a sonic launch of sorts whenever Iyo-chan goes into the refrain. It's quite the cute little buffet, musically speaking.
It seems as if those first two singles by 80s aidoru Iyo Matsumoto（松本伊代）were quite happy with "used" song titles from the past. There is, of course, her debut single and arguably her most famous song, "Sentimental Journey"（センチメンタルジャーニー）whose namesake happens to belong to one of the jazz classics from yesteryear.
Then, there is her follow-up single released in February 1982, "Love Me Tender". Of course, there was a 1956 ballad with that very title by the King of Rock and Roll that has become a common selection at the karaoke bars and boxes for decades.
Iyo-chan's"Love Me Tender" is neither rock n' roll nor a ballad, to say the least. It is a cute little aidoru ditty that seems to have incorporated a bit of that Doobie Bounce and a background chorus that had me thinking of the Manhattan Transfer or the Norman Luboff Choir from the 1960s. Written by Reiko Yukawa（湯川れい子）and composed by Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）, it's a fun and smooth teenybopper song that can go with her "Sentimental Journey", which had also been created by the tandem of Yukawa and Tsutsumi. "Love Me Tender" just missed out on another Top 10 ranking by peaking at No. 11 and it finished 1982 as the No. 89 single of the year. According to J-Wiki, it stands as her 3rd-most successful single, selling a little over 160,000 records.
Recently, I’ve found a compilation called “I Love Dance Number [September, 1990]” in a Brazilian online marketplace. Comprised of singles released in 1989 and 1990 by female pop singers signed to Victor Entertainment (ビクターエンタテインメント), most of them aidoru, I knew right away that I had to buy it… and it was cheap, which is always a good thing.
The
artists were quite diverse, ranging from famous aidoru such as Noriko Sakai (酒井法子),
Kyoko Koizumi (小泉今日子) and Yoko Oginome (荻野目洋子), passing
through some middle ground names like Saki Takaoka (高岡早紀), to
a good portion of obscure singers (that’s the fun of these compilations, by the
way). Musically, despite the word ‘dance’ in the title, it also offered a good
variety of genres, from rock, American pop, aidoru-pop, some exotic stuff and
even a more laidback Japanese-style ballad (not enka, but something
middle-of-the-road).
Before talking about some of the songs, here's the complete tracklist:
01) ダイヤモンド☆ブルー (酒井法子)
02) 好きだから (久我陽子)
03) La La La… (小泉今日子)
04) ギャラリー (荻野目洋子)
05) Wet Wet (葉山レイコ)
06) 独立戦争 (鈴木彩子)
07) ボクはパワー (相原勇)
08) フリフリ天国 (高岡早紀)
09) 恋のハレルヤ (渡辺めぐみ)
10) アプローチ (深津絵里)
11) 微笑みを見つけた (酒井法子)
12) 見逃してくれよ! (小泉今日子)
13) 悲しくてやりきれない (松本伊代)
14) イフ・ウィ・ホールド・オン・トゥゲザー (長山洋子)
15) ユア・マイ・ライフ(荻野目洋子)
The compilation starts in a good note with the summery “Diamond Blue” (ダイヤモンド☆ブルー) by Noriko Sakai, a song I could totally see AKB48 recording nowadays, or maybe five years ago. Following, there’s the obscure “Suki Dakara” (好きだから) by Yoko Kuga (久我陽子), which, as a friend pointed out to me earlier, could have been the ending theme to a shoujo/magical girl anime at the time, thanks to its overall dreamy and romantic feeling. Unfortunately, though, the video above only showcases a small bit of the song.
Like I mentioned earlier, besides Noriko Sakai, the other two big stars on this compilation are Kyoko Koizumi and Yoko Oginome. While Nori-P was still a relatively new aidoru in 1990 and, therefore, still seeking her true big break (it would eventually come in the form of her many acting roles in trendy dramas and, musically, “Aoi Usagi” [碧いうさぎ]), Kyon Kyon and Oginome were already past their prime (both girls also branched out into acting, but I think they were bigger as aidoru singers in the 80s). In the case of Yoko Oginome, even if the edgy “Gallery” (ギャラリー) wasn’t something completely fresh or different from her 80s streak of Euro-oriented singles, I think it was still able to showcase a more mature side of her.
One of the things I liked the most in this compilation
was how adventurous a couple of the songs sounded, even if the ending result
came out as a little awkward at times. Like Yoko Kuga’s “Suki Dakara” before,
it’s unfortunate that just some seconds of “Wet Wet” are available on YouTube,
since this song by sexy aidoru Reiko Hayama (葉山レイコ), with its heavy sexual mood, is one of the most
unique songs compiled here (the song begins in the 1:47 mark, by the way). The
other strange song is the lysergic and almost psychedelic “Furifuri Tengoku” (フリフリ天国) by another sexy aidoru, this
time our beloved Saki Takaoka. The link for this song is not available to me
here in Brazil, but maybe it’s open to other countries.
Between
“Wet Wet” and “Furifuri Tengoku”, one can listen to “Dokuritsu Sensou” (独立戦争),
the anthemic arena-rock style debut single released by Saiko Suzuki (鈴木彩子), and,
while I wouldn’t rank it as one of my favorites, it’s nice to have something
like that in the compilation, since those were the days when Pink Sapphire,
Princess Princess (プリンセス・プリンセス) and other all-female rock bands
were booming in Japan.
Like
I said earlier, even though there’s ‘dance’ in the title, the compilation also offers
some slower songs, like Eri Fukatsu’s (深津絵里) beautifully arranged “Approach” (アプローチ) and
Iyo Matsumoto’s (松本伊代) “Kanashikute Yarikirenai” (悲しくてやりきれない),
which could be seem as something close to a more traditional Kayo song (it’s
actually a cover of a song of the same name by The Folk Crusaders [ザ・フォーク・クルセダーズ]).
Regarding Matsumoto, long gone were the “Sentimental Journey” (センチメンタル・ジャーニー)
days, so she was also way past her prime here, and “Kanashikute Yarikirenai”,
one of her final singles, wasn’t even released in 1990, but in the year before,
1989.
“Hohoemi
wo Mitsuketa” (微笑みを見つけた) is Noriko Sakai’s second offer,
and I like how it comes later on the CD, since it goes well with other mellower
songs, like the two mentioned before. Besides Nori P’s cute vocals, I think the
nostalgic arrangement combined with the melody results in this type of warm
song that connects well with the heart. Unfortunately, though, I can’t give
much praise to Kyoko Koizumi’s “Minogashitekure yo!” (見逃してくれよ!),
even if acknowledge its quirkiness and fun style. It’s an okay song, but not
one of favorites here. In fact, Kyon Kyon got the short end of the stick, since
her two featured songs, the other being the slow reggae “La La La…”, were quite
weak, in my opinion.
Our
final song is “You’re My Life” (ユア・マイ・ライフ) by Yoko Oginome, and I think it’s
a good way to end the compilation. Next to Yoko Nagayama’s (長山洋子) “If
We Hold On Together” (a cover of a Diana Ross’ song of the same name), which I
didn’t include, “You’re My Life” is the most direct American-style song here,
and that’s basically because it was composed by an American rock musician
called James Christian. Other than that, it does sound like your typical watered
down FM rock ballad, and while I have nothing against it, it’s funny to see
Oginome pull something like that off. Also, it’s another song that was
originally released in 1989, and not in 1990.
No offense meant at the fans of Iyo Matsumoto（松本伊代）, but when I think of the huge hierarchy of 80s aidoru, Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）and Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）were up at the peak, while aidoru such as Matsumoto occupied the level just below. And Matsumoto was in good company since I think there were other teenage singers on that same echelon such as Yu Hayami（早見優）, Chiemi Hori（堀ちえみ）and Hiroko Mita（三田寛子）who had their own loyal bases of fans and were stars in their own right, but I never quite saw them quite as the superstars although they were also household names.
However, that's OK since now in retrospect, I can go over a lot of those neglected singles and album tracks by the B-team (and for that matter, even those from the C-team) and find some jewels. The Seiko and Akina hits are songs that I've known and become accustomed to for decades...it has been time to make some new and pleasant discoveries.
Case in point: this one by the aforementioned Iyo-chan, "Neverland Hatsu 7 O'Clock" (Neverland Departing at 7 O'Clock) is a track from the Tokyo-born singer's 4th album"Endless Summer" released in June 1983. This aidoru tune is pleasingly peppy and even though it is teenybopper Iyo, "Neverland" has that breezy arrangement filled with that feeling of pop from the West Coast. I think it's downright EPO-esque except that it's Toshikazu Miura（三浦年一）behind the melody while Mayumi Shinozuka（篠塚満由美）handled the lyrics. What got me thinking of EPO was that electric guitar in there.
Goes to show that there is still so much to explore in the Japanese pop of yore.
I've been in a small quandary for the last several days when it has come to the oeuvre of former aidoru-turned-tarento Iyo Matsumoto（松本伊代）. Recently, I was kindly given the works of Ms. Matsumoto so I've just perused the first of four discs summarizing her singles up to 1990. The question that I have is considering all of the big aidorus to come out of the early 1980s such as Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）, Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）, Kyoko Koizumi（小泉今日子）, etc., why is it that I only know Matsumoto for just that one song which happened to be her debut "Sentimental Journey"（センチメンタル・ジャーニー）?
Matsumoto had been a semi-regular presence on the telly during all my time in Japan as a TV personality, especially when it comes to the matter of being a celeb housewife and mother. However, when it comes to her music career, the TV hosts and producers inevitably merely show footage of her teenage self bopping about to "Sentimental Journey".
Listening to CD 1, her songs from the early 1980s aren't too bad as far as aidoru stuff goes. But perhaps any lack of exposure of her other songs may be due to the fact that aside from her debut song, they didn't break into the Top 10 of Oricon (proven wrong with at least her 9th single, "Toki ni Ai wa"). Also, as composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）admitted in the liner notes in that box set for Matsumoto, she didn't particularly have a beautiful voice although he also noted in the same sentence that Iyo-chan's vocals are included in his personal favourite Top 3 voices alongside those of the nasal Hiromi Go（郷ひろみ）and the breathy Miki Hirayama（平山三紀）. Perhaps Iyo-chan appealed to a smaller fan base of a certain taste.
One of the songs on the first disc that pricked up my ears was "Taiyo ga Ippai" (Full of Sunshine), her 7th single from June 1983. Written by Mayumi Shinozuka（篠塚満由美）and composed by Kenji Hasama（羽佐間健二）, I liked the Latin-tinged melody of intrigue and I will always be happy for the presence of spicy horns. I mean, it was good enough so that I was left with the feeling that I should have picked up on this sooner. Well, better late than never.
"Taiyo ga Ippai" managed to peak at No. 14. Nope, not a runaway hit by any means but still quite respectable. Matsumoto has that nasal quality in her singing that she still has in her speaking voice but it's still quite distinctive. I could listen to a song of hers without any prior notice and still identify it as hers easily. So at this point, I'm having a good time exploring her music and will be awaiting what I come across in the other discs.
At the time I wrote about Iyo Matsumoto's（松本伊代）most famous hit, "Sentimental Journey" back in September 2012, my feeling was that it would probably the first and only song that I would ever write about the singer/actress/tarento since that was the only song I knew by her. Of course, as I would come to realize, naivete hits everyone at every age in every project. And since that time, I've come to hear and discover a lot of new songs through this blog while I've written about some of the ones that I've been familiar with for years.
Therefore, I come to this bouncy song by Iyo-chan. And it has one of the longer and more unusual titles I've seen in my musical odyssey, "Tandai Owaru to Mijikai Otona no Yume wo Miru" (When I Finish Junior College, I'll See a Short Adult Dream). It almost sounds like something a wide-eyed teenager in an anime would say.
Still, when I found this song on YouTube and then on music163.com, I was pretty charmed. It was originally on her 11th album from 1989, "Private File", a release that the blogger on the Japanese-language "Music Avenue" was surprised, delighted and ultimately very praising of. And when I read his article, I was pretty impressed by the songwriters who were involved with the album: KAN, Reimy（麗美）, Kunio Muramatsu（村松邦男）, Senri Oe（大江千里）and Yasuharu Konishi (小西康陽 of Pizzicato Five fame) among others.
Listening to "Tandai" a few times, I began to pick up some interesting musical cues here and there. The first several bars sounded like 70s Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）, the cheerfulness of the melody as a whole reminded me of something that either KAN or Reimy would compose (I couldn't find out the songwriters exactly for the song), and there is an electric guitar wailing in occasionally that seems to have come out of the late 70s and early 80s. The nasal vocals are unmistakably Iyo's but "Tandai" is certainly not an aidoru tune and has a nice pop polish to it.
Now, I'm thinking I might make "Private File" my first Iyo album purchase. Until then, I will probably continue to hear it a few more times to see if I can pick out some more insights. And at the very least, I can finally say that I could get a second Iyo-chan entry into the blog.
I have to say that I was quite taken by aidoru Iyo Matsumoto（松本伊代）when I first saw her in the pages of a Japanese junior high school book way back when. She was just a few months older than me, had those smiling eyes and good teeth as she was about to down some ramen. The Tokyo native debuted her aidoru career with her most famous piece, "Sentimental Journey", which was released in October 1981 and made it as high as No. 9 on the Oricon weeklies. Matsumoto won the Newcomer Award the following year at the Japan Record Awards but never made it onto the Kohaku Utagassen.
The song was composed by Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）and written by Reiko Yukawa（湯川れい子）. It struck me as one of the quintessential aidoru songs for the early 80s as the melodies were slowly transitioning from the electric guitar to synthesizers. "Sentimental Journey"kinda shows that slow transfer to me.
Here is an older Matsumoto hoofing it with the zany comedic duo The Tunnels as she performs her signature tune. According to an anecdote from J-Wiki, the production staff discovered that her voice was relatively low for an aidoru although she was still groomed as such. One of them threw her a tape of the American female vocal group The Ronettes and told her to study their vocal style in preparation for her debut.
Since her aidoru days, Matsumoto has also gone the actress/TV personality (tarento) route, mostly in the latter category. But once in a while, she has popped up on stage to perform "Sentimental Journey". Several years ago, she teamed up with other former aidoru-turned-parents Yu Hayami（早見優）and Chiemi Hori（堀ちえみ）to form a "mamadoru (mama aidoru) unit"called Cutey Mommy.
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