Miwa Kawagoe -- Jane Birkin no you ni Nakeba Ii（ジェーン・バーキンのように泣けばいい）

I was listening to singer-songwriter Mioko Yamaguchi's（山口未央子）latest album "Floma", and the last three tracks happened to be her own covers of songs that she had provided to other singers. One such cover was for "Owari no Kehai"（終わりの気配）originally sung by 80s aidoru Yuki Saito（斉藤由貴）.

The other was "Jane Birkin no you ni Nakeba Ii" (Cry Like Jane Birkin) which was first recorded by late 80s and 90s aidoru Miwa Kawagoe（川越美和）. Marcos V. recently provided an article for her 1989 4th single, "Yume Dake Miteru"（夢だけ見てる）so have a look at that one when you can.

"Jane Birkin" was the title track for her 3rd and final original album released in March 1992, and in addition to Yamaguchi's input, the lyrics were provided by Goro Matsui（松井五郎）. That arrangement of the original song had me thinking the City Pop of the early part of that decade and it's all very posh as I envisage the late Kawagoe heading out for a classy night out on the town. Her vocals even take on a slightly more whispery quality as if she were trying to emulate a kittenish French pop singer of the 1960s (the refrain also goes a bit French as well). As Marcos had pointed out in his article, it is sad to know that her career couldn't extend that much further since I think her singing ability was pretty solid, and indeed it was even sadder to discover that her life had been tragically cut short.

Miwa Kawagoe -- Yume Dake Miteru (夢だけ見てる)

This week, while updating some of my 80s aidoru files, and doing some research on the internet, I discovered that aidoru Miwa Kawagoe (川越美和) died in 2008, but it wasn’t until 2017 that it became public. Well, I’ve never been the biggest of her fans, and only knew some songs through the years, yet it was a sad surprise to discover that her death at a young age, more than a decade ago, was unknown to the public until very recently. It made me even sadder to know that, apparently, she was impoverished and with problems ranging from drinking to eating disorders at the time of her death. Anyway, after hearing such awful news, the one song from her that got stuck on my mind was “Yume Dake Miteru”.

Released in September 1989 as her fourth single, “Yume Dake Miteru” is a sad tune with a very timeless and down to earth arrangement, almost sounding like a folk song at times. Alongside the beautiful melody, Miwa did an excellent job here with her vocals, showcasing the vulnerability that is required from every aidoru when singing these types of ballads. I think this style truly suited her, and that’s probably why, according to generasia, she won the “Rookie of the Year” award at the “31st Annual Nihon Record Taishou” with this song.

Despite winning an award, “Yume Dake Miteru” wasn’t a big hit, reaching only #29 on the Oricon charts. It ended being the highest charting single in Kawagoe’s career, but not near a true hit, if you ask me. Lyrics were written by Kei Ogura (小椋佳), while music was composed by Koji Tamaki (玉置浩二). As for the arrangement, Katsu Hoshi (星勝) was the responsible.

In the past, I’ve written about her second single, “Tenshi to Yu-Waku” (天使とYu-Waku), while J-Canuck also took care of “Namida-kun Sayonara” (涙くんさよなら).

As a side note, I was lucky enough to buy one of her compilations, called “MIWA Best Selection” (1991), for a fair price here in Brazil last December. That was quite a find, since Kawagoe was never one of Japan’s major aidoru singers.

Marcos V.'s short selection of 80s B-rated female aidoru singers

One of my new hobbies is Japanese literature, with a very special focus on Yukio Mishima (三島由紀夫) – who quickly became my favorite writer ever, right next to Marquis de Sade –, Kafu Nagai (永井荷風) and, right now, Ryu Murakami (村上龍) – also known in the West as “the other Murakami”. From the latter, I’m reading a collection of short stories called “Tokyo Decadence” (2016), and the first two parts of the book, comprised of seven short stories selected from “Run, Takahashi!” and “Topaz”, were published during Japan's bubble years (1986 and 1988, respectively). So, with the word decadence in mind, Murakami introduces a lot of intriguing characters and plots, such as in the lovely and very interesting story about a truck driver who discovers a new life as a host in a gay bar after passing through a divorce and losing his job, or the creepy story about a young man with mental disorder who ends up killing almost everyone in a family (man and two kids), with the exception of the woman, after stalking this same woman for a while, and some stories revolving around call girls specialized in sadomasochism. Yes, the content can be a bit crude (like in the call girls’ stories), and sometimes creepy (the young man with mental disorder who ends up becoming a killer), but that’s why I became interested in Ryu Murakami in the first place.

Since these stories were written by Murakami during the bubble years, and they seem to take place in that time frame, I like to read them thinking about my favorite Japanese cultural phenomenon from the 80s, aka female aidoru singers, which can also be related to the era's overall decandent feeling. And with that in mind, I decided to talk about five songs, recorded by not-so-famous aidoru singers, ranging from the late 80s to the early 90s – well, I'm aware that's not a new topic coming from me, but whatever.

Starting off, here’s “Black Velvet” (ブラック・ベルベット), one of my favorite songs recorded by sexy aidoru Aya Sugimoto (杉本彩). Originally released in 1988 as a song from her second album, “Mizu no Naka no Chiisana Taiyou” (水の中の小さな太陽), it became one of her concert staples, and I’m not complaining, since I love its funky synthpop sound that was so common during the first Eurobeat era. And really, when I think about decadence, Aya Sugimoto always pops on my mind... but I do like her a lot, which can be kind of surprising. About the video, I have three or four different live performances of “Black Velvet” stored, but Aya is particularly bouncy in this one. Vocals are always bad, so that doesn’t matter.

Risa Tachibana (立花理佐) is another aidoru who I like a lot. At first, I thought about writing about her most unique song, the over the top “Risa no Yousei Densetsu” (リサの妖精伝説), but I couldn’t resist posting the ridiculously catchy “Do You Do You?” here (I keep singing the “do you do you remember me?” part on and on). Like Aya Sugimoto’s “Black Velvet”, and also the following songs in this list, the late 80s/early 90s Eurobeat sound is predominant here, even though the song is quite rooted in a traditional pop style. It was released as a single in 1989.

Kind of similar in sound to “Do You Do You?”, here’s Miwa Kawagoe (川越美和) with her second single, “Tenshi to Yu-Waku” (天使とYu-Waku), which was also released in 1989. I particularly like the wild cascade of synths in the background during some sections of the song. Besides that very particular detail in the arrangement, it’s a generic lost tune from its time. Well, no song in this list is very memorable, but that’s the fun of listening to B-rated aidoru singers in the first place.

In general, I dislike a lot of 80s aidoru’s debut songs, basically because they all sound similar to each other, but also very tame, especially if compared to the aidoru’s following outputs. That’s not the case with Eri Aikawa’s (相川恵里) “Junai Countdown” (純愛カウントダウン), my favorite of her singles, which, unlike a traditional aidoru debut song, is not a mid-tempo ballad, nor a pure ‘fifteen years old girl’ type of song. Released in the 1988, it makes sense that the arrangement is quite heavy on the horns, synths and bouncy bass line. Besides appearing in her first album “Kiiroi Kirin” (黄色い麒麟), it was later remixed for her second album, “O.TO.NA”, turning into an even more explosive song.

To finish the post, here’s “See Through” (シースルー) by Akiho Sendo (千堂あきほ), which happens to be the lone child of the 90s in this list, being released as a single in 1991. This one also features a heavy – and melodic – synth sound, but this time with a little rock twist, so common during the beginning of the 90s. It still sounds like an 80s tune, but with a pretty nice edge. In my opinion, it’s one of Akiho Sendo’s best songs (the other being “Glass no ECSTASY” [硝子のECSTASY]).

Kyu Sakamoto/Johnny Tillotson/Johnny's/Mahina Stars/Miwa Kawagoe -- Namida-kun Sayonara （涙くんさよなら）

Indeed, spring has come. And if I'm not mistaken, there is a long weekend in Japan because of that fact. Not as lucky over here in Toronto but the weather was pretty decent though not quite spring-like. And true to Toronto weather, we are due for 5 cm of the white stuff on Wednesday. So as I've mentioned before, I will not be ready to declare a true spring until we are all well into April or even May. If you have lived in T.O. (or the Six, as folks are now nicknaming my hometown), you will understand.

The night before, commenter May Lily asked me about a song that I had never heard before under the title of "Namida-kun Sayonara" (Goodbye Mr. Tears) since she heard it while doing some transcription work for the old J-Drama "Hitotsu Yane no Shita 2" (I hope you have been enjoying the job, May). Well, I was able to find quite a bit of information on this tune, fortunately.

"Namida-kun Sayonara" is one of those old kayo from the 1960s which suddenly had a bunch of singers climb on the bandwagon when it was written and composed by Kuranosuke Hamaguchi（浜口庫之助）. First up was the late legendary Kyu Sakamoto（坂本九）who tackled it for release in May 1965. It wasn't such a big hit for him but it still has that wonderful Kyu vocal style. Listening to this first version, the intro had me imagining a kayo folk tune but then the singer and the strings soared into a flourish that had me thinking of Rodgers & Hammerstein musicals such as "The King and I". I'm merely wildly speculating here but I wonder whether it was this abrupt change that had listeners initially not too enthused about the song. The lyrics were quite cheerful although on first listen they might seem as if Kyu was saying goodbye to another love. Actually he was giving his farewells (albeit temporarily by his own happy admission) to the tears themselves since he was able to find another young lady to spend time with.

Then, later that year into September, American singer Johnny Tillotson did his take on the Hamaguchi song in both Japanese and English. The style of this "Namida-kun Sayonara" was a more straightforward happy pop melody that proved to be a big hit for Tillotson, at least in Japan. According to his Wikipedia article, the song was never released as an official single in the United States although it may have gotten onto one of his albums.

May Lily was correct in her guess that the first Johnny's group had also covered "Namida-kun Sayonara". Johnny's（ジャニーズ）gave their own version in April 1966 as the B-side to their 7th single which was perhaps a slightly sweeter take than the Tillotson cover.

Hiroshi Wada and Mahina Stars（和田弘とマヒナスターズ）were a little less Hawaiian Mood Kayo and more the happy-go-lucky version of "Namida-kun Sayonara" but there is no mistaking the choral style of the group's approach. Their cover was released in December 1965.

What surprised me was that over the decades, the song has been covered by plenty of other folks ranging from 70s aidoru Mari Amachi（天地真理）to another Johnny's Entertainment group, TOKIO. However, I came across this version by a singer that I have also not heard about until yesterday called Miwa Kawagoe（川越美和）. This former actress and aidoru from Kagoshima Prefecture debuted in 1988, and her version of "Namida-kun Sayonara" was her 7th single from February 1991. It stood out since it had this rather Eurobeat-y touch of the times that had me thinking of Wink, Mi-ke and Chisato Moritaka（森高千里）. I guess for the singer, the song was the gift that kept on giving since later versions were released as her 11th-13th singles. Her version was also used as the theme song for a long-running TBS drama titled "Ten made Todoke"（天までとどけ...Reach for Heaven）.

Well, May, this is probably the longest answer I've given to you on a song here. I hope the information was what you had wanted. :)