Credits

I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.
Showing posts with label Satomi Tezuka. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Satomi Tezuka. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 22, 2022

Satomi Tezuka -- Killer Angel

 

Just around four years ago, I wrote about the 2nd single of then-aidoru Satomi Tezuka(手塚理美 or 手塚さとみ), "Bobby ni Kataomoi"(ボビーに片想い)released in April 1979. That was basically it for the Tokyo native's singing career after which she focused on acting. Well, perhaps the more accurate thing to say is that the singing was more of a brief diversion for a few years in the 1970s since she had started out as a child model in the early part of the decade.

Well, I'm closing the circle, so to speak, regarding this 45" since I have here the B-side to "Bobby ni Kataomoi", "Killer Angel". The same songwriters and arranger on the A-side were back to work on the flip side: lyricist Takashi Matsumoto(松本隆), composer Yumi Matsutoya(松任谷由実)and arranger Ichizo Seo(瀬尾一三). But unlike the 50s love balladry of "Bobby ni Kataomoi", everyone involved opted for a much more livelier tune that actually brings to mind the uptempo material of Pink Lady and Candies. Plus, there is an interesting touch with the country music riff at the beginning of the verses.

Matsumoto's lyrics paint a picture of what seems to be the story of a romance wrecker in the form of a high school girl, although the bouncy music perhaps puts the entire situation in a lighter vein of puppy love gone wrong as would happen in a typical slice-of-life anime comedy. Tezuka's innocently off-tune vocals emphasize the pouty view from someone who was most likely the latest victim of the titular figure.

In the last four years since I first wrote about Tezuka, I've read on her J-Wiki profile that she had won a Best Supporting Actress award in a TV drama and that she recently appeared in a main role for the 2021 movie "Made in Heaven"(メイド・イン・ヘヴン)directed by Masato Tanno(丹野雅仁). Another piece of information is that Tezuka had been married to actor Hiroyuki Sanada(真田広之), who was in "The Last Samurai" and a couple of Marvel movies, between 1990 and 1997. 

Sunday, November 11, 2018

Satomi Tezuka -- Bobby ni Kataomoi(ボビーに片想い)


"I think the amateurishness fits this song perfectly."


This comment that I saw under the video for "Bobby ni Kataomoi" (Having a Crush on Bobby) by actress/aidoru Satomi Tezuka(手塚理美)is a good one, and most likely fits many an aidoru tune. Teenage love expressed by Japanese teenagers in a giddy way? Yup, a prime example is here. Nope, the singing isn't on Hiromi Iwasaki's(岩崎宏美)level at all but that's fine here since it's the story of a callow young girl's expression of one-way love in her own voice, something that a lot of listeners can relate to.

Moreover, the theory of not-so-great singers being elevated by some great songwriters can come into play here. "Bobby ni Kataomoi" was written by Takashi Matsumoto(松本隆)and composed by Yumi Matsutoya(松任谷由実), and as soon as I heard the melody through the arrangement by Ichizo Seo(瀬尾一三), I could peg it as a Yuming-penned number. There is that New Music flavour of the 1950s/1960s teenage idol pop with images of young Satomi surrounded by pink hearts while she savors a photo of this fellow Bobby in her bedroom.

"Bobby ni Kataomoi" was the second of two singles by Tezuka, released in April 1979. Only one album was released by her in 1976, "Juu-go-sai no Shouzou"(15才の肖像...Portrait of a 15-Year-Old). Although her aidoru career fizzled away quickly, she has had a much longer career as an actress, including a role in one of the more famous trendy dramas of the 1980s, "Danjo Shichi-nin Aki Monogatari"(男女7人秋物語...The Autumn Story of 7 Men and Women). 

Her B-side is "Killer Angel" which can be found right here.