Yuri Kunizane -- Soba ni Ite Kudasai（そばにいて下さい）

 

Finally got out of my lunch-induced drowsiness state after watching (or trying to watch) two periods of the Pittsburgh Penguins-Tampa Bay Lightning afternoon game so that I can put up a couple of articles for KKP Saturday. Of course, the first one I'm tackling is going to be one that may put me back to sleep.

This is not to say that turn-of-the-decade aidoru Yuri Kurizane's（国実百合）song "Soba ni Ite Kudasai" (Please Stay With Me) is a bad one, but the arrangement is such that it pretty much resembles a Xmas lullaby with what sounds like a toy piano or music box in the background. It is one of four songs on Kurizane's 8th single from February 1990, "Kitakaze to Taiyou"（北風と太陽...The North Wind and the Sun）, and this one was written by former aidoru Kumiko Aimoto（相本久美子）and composed by Kingo Hamada（浜田金吾）. What's winning for it is the slightly doo-wop nature of "Soba ni Ite Kudasai" thanks to that background chorus but it is a late 80s/early 90s aidoru tune with those synths powering away there.

If you wish, you can try one of her more orange-juice-sparking songs "Midori no Express"（緑のエクスプレス）from 1989.

Kumiko Kondo (Kumiko Aimoto) -- Chiisana Teikou（小さな抵抗）

The first couple of articles that I've written on aidoru Kumiko Aimoto（相本久美子）regarded tracks from her 1981 second album "Yume Nanoni I Love You"（夢☆なのにI LOVE YOU）: the synthpop "Mayonaka no Heroine"（真夜中のヒロイン）and the City Pop "Itsutsu no Douka"（5つの銅貨）. And in "Mayonaka no Heroine", I mentioned that Aimoto started her aidoru life in 1974 under the name Kumiko Kondo（近藤久美子）.

Well, here is that debut single by Kondo, "Chiisana Teikou" (A Little Resistance) released in September 1974. Written by Kazuya Senke（千家和也）and composed by Koichi Morita（森田公一）, I'd say that it is the conventionally cute aidoru tune of the 1970s with the sunny strings and a bass harmonica that mysteriously reminds me of some of the soundtrack from that old American sitcom "Green Acres". Despite the adorable delivery of the lass, the lyrics make the heroine of the number into a slightly impish and naughty girl who has quite the reputation in the school.

Unfortunately, from what I've read in the J-Wiki article for the aidoru, Kondo/Aimoto never landed that Top 10 single. In fact, the highest that she scored on the Oricon charts was a No. 59 for her 4th release, "Shoka Keshiki"（初夏景色...Early Summer Scene）. Still, her acting career has been plenty long with roles being performed right into the 2010s. In addition, Aimoto got her time in the sun during her long co-hosting stint on the NTV Sunday afternoon variety show "TV Jockey"（TVジョッキー）.

Kumiko Aimoto -- Itsutsu no Douka（5つの銅貨）

Back in June 2019, I wrote about aidoru Kumiko Aimoto's（相本久美子）"Mayonaka no Heroine"（真夜中のヒロイン）, an interesting synthpop concoction that was a part of her 1981 album "Yume Nanoni I Love You"（夢☆なのにI LOVE YOU...Even If It's A Dream, I Love You）. That 2nd album would mark the end of her recording career aside from her 2015 single "Dearest For You".

Well, I've got another track from "Yume Nanoni", "Itsutsu no Douka" (Five Copper Coins) and it's quite a different animal in terms of arrangement. In contrast with the synthpop of "Mayonaka no Heroine", "Itsutsu no Douka" has got a lot more of that downtown City Pop feeling going for it. It's a pretty active song with those cutting strings and bass, and it sounds slightly like the type of music that Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）had been singing in the latter half of her career, with perhaps a feeling of Junko Yagami（八神純子）.

For such a peppy song, the setting is a telephone booth around midnight in which a young lady has to face that romantic breakup by phone (lyrically, I guess this wouldn't be a Momoe song since she wouldn't wait til midnight to break things off and I think she wouldn't waste her time even bothering to call the lout). At first, I was wondering what the lass was doing with five pennies, and I realized that I was being too Canadian since our own defunct 1-cent piece was copper in colour. Copper coins in Japan actually represent 10 yen each which are good enough for those public telephones. Fifty yen, huh? Must have been a pretty intense call.

"Itsutsu no Douka" was written by Kenji Kadoya（門谷憲二）who has provided lyrics for singers that have represented the more languid Fashion Music state of things such as Ruiko Kurahashi（倉橋ルイ子）and Mieko Nishijima（西島三重子）. Meanwhile, the funky music was created by Tsunehiro Izumi（和泉常寛）, a composer who has backed up folks such as Omega Tribe.

Kumiko Aimoto -- Mayonaka no Heroine（真夜中のヒロイン）

Another one of those aidoru that I had never known about, Tokyo-born Kumiko Aimoto（相本久美子）had actually started her career back in 1974, although for the first couple of years, it was under the stage name of Kumiko Kondo（近藤久美子）. She released 14 singles and 2 albums between that first year and 1981 with another single released in September 2015.

I came across this track from that second album from July 1981, "Yume Nanoni I Love You"（夢☆なのにI LOVE YOU...Even If It's A Dream, I Love You）. Titled "Mayonaka no Heroine" (Midnight Heroine), it has that certain synthesizer plowing the way which perhaps takes things into the techno aidoru kayo direction. It was written by Aimoto and composed by Yusuke Hoguchi（穂口雄右）with "Mayonaka no Heroine" having a pleasant and laidback beat. The end is a bit abrupt but the song is such that I would be pretty interested in hearing what the rest of that album sounds like.

With her final single in the summer of 1981 (aside from that 2015 release), Aimoto decided to go into acting.