Nanatsuboshi -- Juu-ni-gatsu no Tokubetsu na Yoru（12月の特別な夜）

 

Merry Christmas to everyone out there. Hopefully, folks are waking up to happy family, friends, good food and a joyous occasion...the occasional turkey leg and hot chocolate are welcome too. Perhaps many Japanese families have enjoyed their Kentucky Fried Chicken and Fujiya shortcake in the last several hours. 

Being December 25th and all, this is the final day for the J-Xmas season on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" so I would like to bring out the remaining seasonal songs beginning with Nanatsuboshi's（ななつ星）"Juu-ni-gatsu no Tokubetsu na Yoru" (A Special Night in December). Now, back on December 1st, I mentioned about this mystery merging of aidoru trio Lip's, another aidoru trio called Rakutenshi（楽天使...Happy Angels） and aidoru Rumi Shishido（宍戸留美）to form this unit Nanatsuboshi（ななつ星...Seven Stars） which not only eschewed any media exposure but even a few members of this septet admitted that they hadn't even come together for recording. In fact, the article where I mentioned Nanatsuboshi doesn't even have Nanatsuboshi on the byline; it's actually just Lip's who provided an Xmas tune, "Splendid Love (in December)" for the December 1990 Nanatsuboshi album "Seiya Nanatsuboshi"（聖夜七つ星...Holy Night Seven Stars）.

OK, deep breath here. 😤 A month before the album's release, there was a one-and-only single by Nanatsuboshi titled "Ribbon Musubi no Waku Waku"（リボン結びのWAKU WAKU...Ribbon-Tying Excitement） that actually had all seven aidoru participating if not at the same time and place. The coupling song is what I wanted to start off the Christmas Day edition of KKP, "Juu-ni-gatsu no Tokubetsu na Yoru". Written by Chiroru Yaho（谷穂ちろる）, composed by Tsukasa and arranged by Nobuyuki Shimizu（清水信之）, the song is a lightly soulful and mellow number tenderly delivered by all involved. As the title would suggest, it emphasizes the second Valentine's Day aspect of a Christmas in Japan with much love a-plenty. I figure this couple is probably aiming for something higher than the usual KFC and Fujiya.

Lip's -- Splendid Love (in December)

 

Earlier today, I'd chatted with Scott from "Holly Jolly X'masu" and said that most likely, I wouldn't be putting up anything to do with Christmas today since I wanted to space out the Yuletide stuff over the coming 25 days. Well, that thought went out the window pretty quickly after hearing the following. Ah, by the way, say hello to Kayo above again.

A couple of years back, I posted an article involving the song "Ai no Maryoku"（愛の魔力）, the debut single by the early 1990s aidoru group Lip's which had its time between 1990 and 1993 and was one of the last such groups before the years of the Aidoru Winter took hold in the middle of the decade. 

Well, for some reason, in that same year of 1990, a decision was made to superficially merge Lip's and another aidoru trio called Rakutenshi（楽天使...Happy Angels） along with the aidoru Rumi Shishido（宍戸留美）to form the unit Nanatsuboshi（ななつ星...Seven Stars）. With the catchphrase for them being "The idol invasion strategy is to brighten up the world with fun songs and cute smiles" (which doesn't strike me as being particularly innovative considering the nature of aidoru), Nanatsuboshi never appeared on TV, radio or any events and even with one single by the larger group "Ribbon Musubi no Waku Waku"（リボン結びのWAKU WAKU...Ribbon-Tying Excitement） being released in November, at least a couple of the members have stated that they never recalled the entire group of seven assembling together during recording, so the individual units did their parts separately and then let the magic of music editing take place. The only time they all got together was for photography of the jacket cover. I'm just speculating here, but perhaps the higher-ups for Rakutenshi, Lip's and Shishido backed out of the deal in whole or in part but kept up pretenses for the minimum time and maximum face needed.

Regardless, right after the single "Ribbon Musubi no Waku Waku", an Xmas-themed album was released in December 1990 titled "Seiya Nanatsuboshi"（聖夜七つ星...Holy Night Seven Stars）. It was an album whose tracks were sung by the individual groups and Shishido, and even individual members, except for "Ribbon Musubi no Waku Waku" which was included as the final track. 

However, one track that got my attention was "Splendid Love in December" which was performed by Lip's. It had some big names behind the production: lyricist Yumi Yoshimoto（吉本由美）, composer Masayuki Kishi（岸正之）and arranger Nobuyuki Shimizu（清水信之）. The attention-getting part was this aidoru track which brings together the feeling of the sophisticated pop of Swingout Sister and even some House dance beats for a tune about celebrating the Yuletide. It wasn't only caviar and champagne but also about hitting the nightclub floor. 

The thing is that "Splendid Love in December" is a self-cover of sorts of Lip's' 2nd single simply titled "Splendid Love" which came out in June 1990.

Lip's -- Ai no Maryoku（愛の魔力）

 

I still don't know all that much of what was the tapering end of that part of the aidoru boom from the 1980s into the 1990s, but I have heard of the groups ribbon and CoCo and then single acts such as Wakako Shimazaki（島崎和歌子）and Eriko Tamura（田村英里子）.

However, this is one aidoru trio that I had never heard of before. Lip's, which consisted of Takako Kato（加藤貴子）, Natsue Yoshimura（吉村夏枝）and Kyoko Yamamoto（山本京子）, existed between 1990 and 1993. They formed in 1990 from their association as participants in the 1989 UCC Coffee Miss Contest Grand Prix, and during their relatively brief time together, Lip's released four singles and one album.

Their debut single from March 1990 was "Ai no Maryoku" (The Magical Power of Love) which dealt with the intoxicating power of that emotion of romance that takes hold of one lass. It's a cute aidoru tune with the brassiness of 90s J-Pop and a touch of 60s pop that was written by Mitsuko Shiramine（白峰美津子）and composed by Chika Ueda（上田知華）with arrangement by Hiroshi Shinkawa（新川博）. According to the Wikipedia article on Lip's, the single peaked at No. 43 and was their best-selling song. Not surprisingly, "Ai no Maryoku" was used for a UCC Coffee commercial.

Once Lip's disbanded, Kato, Yoshimura and Yamamoto all went on their separate paths in the entertainment industry through acting, modeling and music.