Jelly Beans -- Uso mo Honki de Pure na Heart de（嘘も本気でピュアなハートで）

 

It was just about five years when I posted the article for "BLUE" by the duo Jelly Beans. However, the duo here wasn't any run-of-the-mill singing act; the pair actually consisted of some A-list actresses Yuko Asano and Misako Tanaka（浅野ゆう子・田中美佐子）. Mind you, Asano at least had started her career out as a 1970s aidoru.

"BLUE" was a groovy disco tune which was the coupling song for the first of two singles that Jelly Beans released. That first single, and the subject of this article, was "Uso mo Honki de Pure na Heart de" （With True Lies and Pure Hearts） which came out in February 1997. Just like with "BLUE", there are some groovy 1990s dance beats involved here although without the disco. As well, both songs were created by lyricist Jun Amemiya（雨宮純）and composer Ryo Ogura（小倉良）. Not sure how Asano and Tanaka ever decided to join up for some musical merrymaking but though I have yet to check out that second and final single, "Day to Day", later that year, their collaboration for "Uso mo Honki de Pure na Heart de" was a pretty good one.

Misako Tanaka -- Spain e Ikitai（スペインへ行きたい）

From writing about Jelly Beans' "BLUE" yesterday and finding out that veteran actress Misako Tanaka（田中美佐子）also had her brief time in the recording booth, I found on the right side of YouTube that she had been parlaying her singing even before the late 1990s.

According to her J-Wiki profile, Tanaka released exactly one single and one album in late 1983. "Spain e Ikitai" (I Want to Go to Spain) was the single written by Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composed by Spectrum（スペクトラム）keyboardist Keiichi Oku（奥慶一）. The amazing thing is not just the fact that Tanaka acquits herself fairly well through this fast-paced song of adventure and intrigue but to my ears, she also sounds quite similar to Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）and Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）. In fact, "Spain e Ikitai" sounds just like a tune that early 80s aidoru Akina would have tackled.

I don't know how "Spain e Ikitai" fared on Oricon. Maybe listeners pooh-poohed it in 1983 as someone just copying Miss Nakamori, but for me, it's quite fascinating as an Akina tune that Akina didn't actually record.

Jelly Beans -- BLUE

Actresses Yuko Asano and Misako Tanaka（浅野ゆう子・田中美佐子）have been veterans on the small screen for years and years. Plus, they had their own comedy-drama together titled "Mama Chari Keiji"（ママチャリ刑事...Mommy Bike Detectives） in 1999 with a happy theme song "Takaramono"（宝物）sung by Mayo Okamoto（岡本真夜）.

As much as I came to realize that Asano had started out as an early 1970s aidoru slowly making that transition into City Pop in the late 70s and early 80s, I didn't know that both she and Tanaka got together a couple of years before "Mama Chari Keiji" to form the duo Jelly Beans. The duo would record two singles with the first single titled "Uso mo Honki de Pure na Heart de"（嘘も本気でピュアなハートで...With True Lies and Pure Hearts） from February 1997.

The coupling song to that first single is "BLUE". I only came across it by accident one night and recognizing Asano and Tanaka, decided to give it a spin. I was delightfully surprised that the actresses were pretty good as singers, too. With some nice groove and a very obvious tribute to that disco classic "The Hustle", "BLUE" probably didn't get too close to achieving a Japan Record Award but it is nice to chase away some of those blues away. Jun Amemiya（雨宮純）and Ryo Ogura（小倉良）were the songwriters here.