Mikako Hashimoto -- Heart Byoyomi（ハート秒読み）

 

Welcome to another KKP weekend! As I was telling a friend of mine this morning, it doesn't really feel like spring here in Toronto quite yet, but at least, the snow is largely gone and I can actually walk the sidewalks like a normal human being again. I'll be happy to take the little steps toward the green season.

Anyways, out of the Mikako Hashimoto（橋本美加子）songs I've covered thus far on KKP, this single has struck me as being the grooviest thus far. This is her 5th single from June 1986, "Heart Byoyomi", which seems to translate directly as "Heart Countdown", although I'm wondering if it's more accurate to say "Reading Your Heartbeat" in terms of the usual trials and tribulations of love encountered in these aidoru tunes. In any case, Mai Arai（あらい舞）was responsible for both words and music and as for the latter, I love the wailing electric guitar and the horns. Kei Wakakusa（若草恵）took care of the snazzy arrangement.

Mikako Hashimoto -- Aoi Tokimeki（蒼いときめき）

 

The file for aidoru Mikako Hashimoto（橋本美加子）is still a small one but I remember when Marcos V. launched it back in 2018 with her Eurobeat "Touch My Heart" from 1987. A few more songs were added including "Mellow Season"（メロウ・シーズン）which was her debut single from March 1985. 

A new addition is here in the form of Hashimoto's 2nd single "Aoi Tokimeki" (A Blue Thrill) which was released in June 1985, and like "Mellow Season", it follows the conventional 1980s aidoru line. Written by SHOW and composed by Seishiro Kusunose（楠瀬誠志郎）, I'm still a sucker for those twinkling synths and the smooth strings. "Aoi Tokimeki" did rather modestly by scoring a No. 47 ranking at its peak and it was used for a Ban antiperspirant commercial.

Mikako Hashimoto -- Mellow Season（メロウ・シーズン）

 

The modest file we have on 80s aidoru Mikako Hashimoto（橋本美加子）has been created by me and Marcos V. with Marcos introducing her to us with her Eurobeat "Touch My Heart" from 1987 and then I came along a few years later with her "Juu-go no Melancholy"（15のメランコリー）from December 1985 which also had an AOR rock beat.

Today, we go right back to the beginning with Hashimoto's debut single from March 1985, "Mellow Season". It's also a rather dynamic song but it's back to the conventional summer aidoru pattern thanks to lyricist Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）and composer Yuuichiro Oda（小田裕一郎）who had also come up with Seiko Matsuda's（松田聖子）big hit "Aoi Sangoshou"（青い珊瑚礁）in 1980. To make it even more memorable, the single was released right on Hashimoto's birthday that year. The somewhat bizarre catchphrase attached to it though was "If you see little Miss Eyebrows, please give her my regards"! I don't think they're quite that bushy.

"Mellow Season" managed to peak at No. 37 on Oricon. Of course, it came with a cute music video although at times, I wondered whether parts of it were being used as a visual psych evaluation on little Miss Eyebrows. Do love seeing the nostalgic 80s fashion in there.

Mikako Hashimoto -- Juu-go no Melancholy（15のメランコリー）

 

Welcome to the Easter Weekend segment of "Kayo Kyoku Plus". Hopefully, everyone and their families are getting together and tucking into some fine dinner whether it be roast ham or chicken or the like. Some of the usual Easter chocolate wouldn't be bad either.

Marcos V. introduced 1980s-1990s aidoru Mikako Hashimoto（橋本美加子）a few years ago when she did a cover of the Eurobeat "Touch My Heart" in 1987. Well, I'm going back a little more in her career to show something more conventionally aidoru. In December 1985, she released her 4th single "Chotto Kokuhaku"（ちょっと告白...A Little Confession） but I'm covering the B-side today, "Juu-go no Melancholy" (Melancholy at 15), a song with a slight AOR rock beat. Not too bad a voice and the slight huskiness in her vocals matches the melody by Yoshio Tatano（多々納好夫）. Kazuo Shiina（椎名和夫）provided the arrangements (including that ghostly synthesizer which immediately brought nostalgia waves) while singer-songwriter Hiromi Kanda（神田広美）brought the lyrics under her pseudonym of Saiko or Ayako Kishida（岸田采子）.

Hashimoto was born in Osaka as Ayumi Sugimoto（杉本亜由美）and through the then-Warner Pioneer-sponsored audition called "The Scout '83", the future aidoru won the audition through her performance of Akina Nakamori's（中森明菜）"Twilight - Yugure Dayori" （トワイライト -夕暮れ便り-）. She made her debut in March 1985 with "Mellow Season"（メロウ・シーズン）. In her school days, she had belonged to the swim and tea ceremony clubs and also practiced Japanese dance. She's also said to be a huge fan of TUBE's vocalist Nobuteru Maeda（前田亘輝）.

Mikako Hashimoto -- Touch My Heart

Source: https://www.amazon.com/COMPLETE-BLOSSOM-2CD-MIKAKO-HASHIMOTO/dp/B000PDZGQ0

Here’s one my old favorites, and also another good example of curious J-Eurobeat covers from the 80s. Just like Paul Lekakis’ iconic “Boom Boom (Let’s Go Back To My Room)” and Sabrina Salerno’s infamous “Boys (Summertime Love)”, polish erotic model Danuta Lato released, in 1987, an Italo Disco single called “Touch My Heart” that was later covered in Japan. Apparently, though, and unlike the other two, she didn’t record the song, serving only as the image/model for it. The real singer behind the track is called Patty Ryan, and this type of thing was quite common in Europe during the 70s (Boney M., for example) and 80s disco scenes.

While “Boom Boom” and “Boys” are fun and trashy, “Touch My Heart” sounds a little more decadent to my ears, in the sense that I imagine it playing in an underground bar or club with lots of cheap booze, tobacco and the sweetest and most exotic incense (don’t ask me why). Danuta’s “live” performances are the reason why I feel this way, since she acts like a true B-grade porn star. I also like to imagine she was quite the famous Hollywood actress that eventually became overshadowed by others and started a new career in the erotic/porn industry. Pure imagination, of course, but that's probably thanks to her somewhat classic female beauty.

Other than that, the song is your typical Italo Disco affair, with little to no special feature, and its sole purpose was to sell some copies based on Danuta’s sexy image. Meanwhile, though, someone in Japan decided that aidoru Mikako Hashimoto (橋本美加子) should record her own version of the song, which actually happened later, in November 1987. Since the poor girl wasn’t selling too much doing the traditional aidoru thing, producers and powers-that-be probably wanted to shake things a little bit giving her this little Euro tune to cover.

Hashimoto was no Danuta Lato, physically speaking, so she couldn’t rely on the sexy image (well, she did some nude photo shootings later in her career, but let’s just focus on her pure/innocent aidoru days), and the song, while being okay and catchy in its own way, was far from what a hit single sounded in Japan back then. Maybe it was a minor hit in clubs, but I dunno, since they probably played the original version a lot more. In the end, Hashimoto only released one more single after “Touch My Heart”, just confirming that her career was really going downhill at the time. At least they tried something different with this Italo Disco song before the girl vanished into aidoru obscurity.

To finish, as a random bonus, here’s the gorgeous Angela Cavagna, another sexy European singer (this time from Italy), but one that, as far as I know, didn’t have any of her songs covered in Japan. She’s easily my favorite sexy singer from Europe (I even bought her album), and her main single is called “Easy Life”. Please enjoy!