Yoko Nakamura -- Natsu Iro My Heart（夏色マイハート）

 

Well over a year ago, I introduced a brief-career aidoru by the name of Yoko Nakamura（中村容子）via her 1984 debut single "Teenage Soldier"（ティーンエイジ・ソルジャー）. I also compared her slightly with 90s singing star Kohmi Hirose（広瀬香美）due to those high and clear bell-like tones.

Now, allow me to take you to her fourth and final single "Natsu Iro My Heart" (Summer Color My Heart) which was released in June 1985. Written by Hiromi Fukunaga（福永ひろみ）, composed by Hideya Nakazaki（中崎英也）and arranged by Shiro Sagisu（鷺巣詩郎）, she doesn't quite sound like Hirose here as her vocals are somewhat more reserved but still girlish. There's something also kinda Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）as well when Nakamura sings those verses along with Sagisu's arrangements and the wailing electric guitar and those gliding strings giving a certain refinement to everything. 

Yoko Nakamura -- Teenage Soldier（ティーンエイジ・ソルジャー）

 

Usually when I hear the term "teenage soldier", I get some ominous images such as Kurt Russell's "Soldier" from 1998. 

However, I get much more of a benign impression with Yoko Nakamura's（中村容子）debut single "Teenage Soldier" which saw the light of day in March 1984. Her high tones and appearance had me musing an 80s version of Kohmi Hirose（広瀬香美）although of course, her voice doesn't quite hit the same level of stratosphere although her delivery is slightly similar. The song was written by Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）who also acted as her mentor, composed by singer-songwriter Kantaro Yamamoto（山本寛太郎）and arranged by the prolific Motoki Funayama（船山基紀）.

Raised in Saitama Prefecture, she got into show business when her then-boyfriend in junior high school had her photo published in a magazine which got her a number of offers to star in commercials. But Nakamura also became an actress and TV personality which lasted into the early 1990s, although her singing career lasted only four singles and one album up to the middle of 1985. She left show business in 1992.