I've been a fan of Japanese popular music for 40 years, and have managed to collect a lot of material during that time. So I decided I wanted to talk about Showa Era music with like-minded fans. My particular era is the 70s and 80s (thus the "kayo kyoku"). The plus part includes a number of songs and artists from the last 30 years and also the early kayo. So, let's talk about New Music, aidoru, City Pop and enka.
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.
Well, first off, I should recognize the fact that 80s aidoru and actress Kyoko Koizumi（小泉今日子）celebrated her 60th birthday earlier this year. Hopefully, her kanreki has gone well.
Less than a month ago, I featured Kyon-Kyon in techno dance mode through her 1989 song "Micro Wave"（マイクロWAVE）. Today, I'm heading back to her early days as an aidoru with her third single "Hitori Machikado"(Alone on the Corner) which was released in September 1982. I'd been accustomed to hearing Koizumi as this rather sassy-sounding teenybopper so hearing "Hitori Machikado", a song of being alone once again with only a seashell brooch as the final symbol of a former relationship, was interesting because the lass sounds less sass and more conventional high-falutin' aidoru.
Written by Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）and composed by Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）, I'm never going to turn down a disco beat in an aidoru tune and it's got those fleet-footed strings that occupied many of such a tune. "Hitori Machikado" peaked at No. 13 on Oricon. Another piece of trivia is that this single was Koizumi's first truly original song since the first two singles including her debut"Watashi no 16-sai"(私の16才）were actually cover songs of previously recorded tunes by other singers.
According to the J-Wiki article on the song, it picked up a number of awards including a Gold Prize at the Shinjuku Music Festival for that year. During the finale of that festival though, Koizumi was pelted with a raw egg which hit her on the head by some disgruntled person in the audience. Apparently, Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）, who had been the runner-up for the Gold, immediately came to her assistance.
Wow! Those were the days back in the late 1980s and early 1990s when the Bubble Era was about to burst like an overripe grape. Yet, the good times were still rolling on Japanese TV with all sorts of fluffy trendy dramas showing young beautiful folks celebrating the good life but not quite hitting the mark in the romance department.
I don't know which trendy drama was being played in the above video although I can recognize at least early 80s aidoru Iyo Matsumoto（松本伊代）. And at the same time, I'm wondering whether this Mariko Nagai（永井真理子）song "Kanashi ma nai de" (Don't Be Sad) was the theme song. I hadn't done this one before although as soon as I heard the playful piano tinkling in the intro, I could recognize it as a Nagai tune, and Nagai was quite the sassy and brassy lass during that turn of the decade.
"Kanashi ma nai de" was the coupling song to Nagai's April 1989 single"Ready Steady Go!" I have yet to hear or re-recognize "Ready Steady Go!", but "Kanashi ma nai de" is the perfect Nagai vehicle for its stupendously upbeat arrangement involving a friend helping another friend out of the blues. Listening to this a few times will probably get anyone in a funk doing a jig on the floor. Lyrics were by Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）under her pseudonym Airin（亜伊林）and the melody was by Mamoru Taniguchi（谷口守）. The single itself went up to No. 32, and it was only some months away before Nagai got her first Top 10 hit in "Miracle Girl"（ミラクル・ガール）.
Geez...looking at the Toshihiko Tahara（田原俊彦）file, the lad's been showing up on a lot of ROY articles over the past year or so but his last bona fide article was back in February 2025 for his "Shower na Kibun"（シャワーな気分）.
Well, Toshi-chan's back on board today. Here he is with his January 1982 8th single "Kimi ni Barabara...to Iu Kanji" which is another one of those punny titles which can mean "It's Like...a Ton of Roses for You" or "I'm Falling to Pieces Over You". Yep, it's pretty far-reaching.
As soon as I heard this one, I felt like this was kinda special in the arrangement, and sure enough, it was arranged by Motoki Funayama（船山基紀）with Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）responsible for the original melody. In fact, this was Tsutsumi's first Toshi-chan assignment, and the master composer came up with this strut-worthy and snazzy tune for walking on the concrete as Toshi thinks about what to do with this girl he's gone gaga over. "Kimi ni Barabara...to Iu Kanji" reached No. 3 on Oricon and finished the year as the 27th-ranked single. Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）was the lyricist here.
Another new face to add to the files of "Kayo Kyoku Plus", Yoshimi Yokosuka（横須賀昌美）has been recognized on J-Wiki as a model and an actress from Ishikawa Prefecture who began her career in 1980 as a Shiseido commercial model. However, she also branched out into music starting in 1981 with only four singles up to 1988.
Her third single was "Breathless" which was released in May 1988. Written by Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）, composed by Kisaburo Suzuki（鈴木キサブロー）and arranged by Kazuo Otani（大谷和夫）, it's quite the dance-pop-friendly sort of song, and I'm not sure, but would this also be considered to be part of Eurobeat? I'll have to find out from commenters. In any case, for someone who seems to have been considered as a thespian and model, her vocals weren't too shabby.
When it comes to those B-sides, they are often decent enough songs by the artists but of course, when the A-side is a huge hit, those songs on the other side disappear within a huge shadow. Can you imagine Miki Matsubara's（松原みき）monster single "Mayonaka no Door ~ Stay With Me"（真夜中のドアー）when it first got out in November 1979? I can wonder why another song would be placed on the flip side.
But then again, that B-side isn't too bad at all, and it feels as if the songwriters were paying a bit of tribute to the intro of Peaches & Herb's"Reunited" which had been released several months earlier that year. "Soushite Watashi ga" (And Then I) is a musical musing regarding a lady pining over a guy who hasn't quite noticed her yet. The lass wishes she could be a bird or a flower so that she can surreptitiously look over the fellow and hope that he can do the same.
Written by the same duo behind the more famous A-side, lyricist Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）and composer/arranger Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）have created a creamy and soulful City Pop ballad to contrast with the perky "Stay With Me", complete with those silky strings, keyboards and horns. Listeners can decide which of the two songs are the more poignant.
Well, going into the first full week of February 2026, we're not that far away from the next big celebration on the calendar which is Valentine's Day at the end of next week.
It's been over three years since putting up my most recent article regarding singer and future AMAZONS member Yuko Ohtaki（大滝裕子）. In the time that I've known about this lady from Yamanashi Prefecture during her relatively brief solo career in the 1980s, she's delved into a few genres such as country and City Pop.
Ohtaki's fifth and final single to date, "Isei" (The Opposite Sex), was released in March 1981, and it's a song that heartily bounces about with a feeling similar to The Beatles' "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da", although I don't consider "Isei" a ska tune the way The Beatles' classic has been classified. Created by some big guns in the Japanese songwriting industry: lyricist Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）, composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）and arranger Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）, it's also one of those happy tunes that basically maintains a pop line although at certain points, I did wonder whether it was trying to poke a little bit into country and City Pop.
Lyrically, it deals with a teenage girl dealing with her feelings for a guy and secretly relishing the fact that one rival for his affections has lost the chase. As I said, Valentine's Day is around the corner, and the lass is on the verge of making those homemade chocolates for the fellow.
This song was something that I discovered through the usual browsing on YouTube some time ago. When I checked to see if I could find some information surrounding it, I came across something pretty interesting.
On Hiroshi Sugai's（スガイヒロシ）blog, there was a small article regarding "Kibun wa Red Shower" (It Feels Like a Red Hot Shower), an obscure song by actress Yuuko Funakura（舟倉由佑子）, or as she was known back in 1980, Tamaki Funakura（舟倉たまき）. With lyrics by Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）, the song was composed/arranged by Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）, the maker of some of the great City Pop tunes, and apparently Hayashi felt that he had a triumvirate of City Pop songs of which the latest release was "Kibun wa Red Shower" while the first two were from 1979: Mariya Takeuchi's（竹内まりや）"September" (although personally I treat it as a pop tune) and Miki Matsubara's（松原みき）"Mayonaka no Door"（真夜中のドアー）.
Indeed, those two are considered among the primo of Hayashi songs but "Kibun wa Red Shower" is not all that well known. And yet, when I listen to it, I can hear elements from the other two songs especially through the rhythm and the chorus, so it's not that surprising that Hayashi would consider them a trio. However, out of the three, I think "Kibun wa Red Shower" seems to veer away from City Pop over to kayo kyoku. The song was used for a body soap commercial although I'm not sure what a red hot shower is. Considering that I had just been watching some of the finale of "Alien: Earth", I don't really want to know anymore.
From 3:44 of the above video is the B-side, "Yes, I Do" which was also taken care of by Miura and Hayashi. This one is a straight pop tune, quite aidoru...short and sweet. As for Funakura, she was born in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture but was raised in Nishinomiya City, Hyogo Prefecture. She was a naturally talented athlete so there were thoughts that she would become a gym teacher, much like another singer who happened to start her singing career in that same year of 1980. But in her sophomore year of high school in 1977, she was scouted at Osaka's Umeda Station by an employee of Toei Company and made her debut on film in 1978. The singing part of her career would only consist of two singles, the aforementioned 1980 "Kibun wa Red Shower" and the second one coming out in 1984 under her current stage name of Yuuko Funakura.
Recently, when I hear the words "cat's eye", my short-term memories tend to dig up one notorious scene from "Alien: Earth". Therefore, especially for lovers of the feline, I consider the above video to be viewers' discretion advised.
However, in a far less gory example, I'm happy to hear that an anime remake of the original 1983 anime of "Cat's Eye" has been made and is now showing as of this month via Disney Plus. So, fans can once more marvel and gawk at the Sisters Kisugi: Hitomi, Rui and Ai as they pull off their derring-do art heists.
Of course, that also means we gotta have the original theme song "Cat's Eye" along for the ride. Used as the ending theme for the current incarnation of the series, I remember the song as the first Anri（杏里）tune that I had ever heard and that was on her appearance on the 1983 Kohaku Utagassen. Didn't know what the song's significance was at the time; I only knew it as one dynamic performance by the tropical looking Eiko Kawashima（川嶋栄子）.
This time around, "Cat's Eye" has been recorded by another female professional mononymed singer whose name starts with the letter "A". Ado, who was first brought aboard KKP by Joana, has been quite the cat's meow for the past few years due to her huge vocal range and her mysterious countenance, and perhaps that is why she was asked to perform this anison classic. The new version has a bit more sophistication thanks to those strings and some more oomph due to the rock guitar. But it's obviously still Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）and Yuuichiro Oda（小田祐一郎）behind words and music respectively.
With that title and the uplifting arrangement, I wonder whether this song by the late great Junko Ohashi（大橋純子）, a non-City Pop"Fantastic Woman", had ever been used for some commercial featuring cosmetics or the like.
In any case, "Fantastic Woman" was Ohashi's 17th single from August 1981. Written by Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）and composed by Kisaburo Suzuki（鈴木キサブロー）, it's got that wailing electric guitar that was a Suzuki trope although the shimmering strings are absent. However, it's got an interesting arrangement with a 1970s-like harmonica intro followed up with a 1960s jangly pop rhythm. Miura's lyrics describe a woman reminiscing about the man who got away earlier in life because, gosh darn it, she wasn't quite ready. But the intimation is that, boy, she's ready now...only...where the heck is he?
I didn't realize how poignant this song by Atsuko Nina（二名敦子）would be. The reason I say this is that the towns of Kaimū and Kalapana on the Big Island of Hawaii were destroyed by a lava flow erupting from the Kīlauea volcano in 1990. The towns are buried under 50 ft. of lava and a new black sand beach has formed over the old one which was once seen as one of the most beautiful examples of its type in the world. From what I've read, the new beach is really only good for volcanologists now.
Going back to Nina's song, "Kalapana Black Sand Beach" is the opening track from her May 1984 album "Loco Island". Written by Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）and composed by Masayoshi Takanaka（高中正義）, the way Nina sings this jolly and laidback song, the beach, pre-volcano, was one heck of a place to get together and get surfing. A little bit of that jazzy piano goes a long way, too. Hopefully, the area will return to its former glory.
Anri（杏里）has got another birthday coming up at the end of this month so I would like to wish her Happy Birthday in advance.
I've always believed that Anri was very photogenic right from the get-go in those late 1970s but just around the turn of the decade, those photographers really knew how to get the right shots for those covers of albums and singles. Anyways, I'll try and stop panting (but it is really hot inside and out today, y'know) and provide another B-side from her early singles.
Anri's third single"Namida wo Umi ni Kaeshitai"（涙を海に返したい）was an elegant but pretty powerful heartbreak tune that was released in April 1979. The B-side is no slouch either. "Umibe kara"(From the Seashore) is another song about the aftermath of a lost relationship but it's more laidback and grounded with an arrangement by Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂）of Anri's own melody and Yoshiko Miura's（三浦徳子）lyrics that is reminiscent of some of those love songs by artists such as Carole King and Carly Simon. But with Anri's vocals, "Umibe kara" has some more innocence imbued. Of course, she was still seventeen when she recorded the single.
"Namida wo Umi ni Kaeshitai" was one song that never got placed onto an original album by Anri although it eventually did get put onto her "MY FAVORITE SONGS" compilation in 1988. "Umibe kara" finally got onto an album which was the 1986 CD version of "Feelin'", the singer's 2nd album from June 1979.
Toshi-chan! You rascal, you! Gotta be more demure about affairs of the heart.
Mind you, by the time Toshihiko Tahara's（田原俊彦）14th single was released in May 1983, he was in his early 20s (although still an aidoru), so if he wanted to get all hot and bothered in the recording room, that's his business. I am talking about his "Shower na Kibun" (Feel Like a Shower) in which the fellow doesn't hesitate to express the fact that he has fallen in lust for a young lady...right up to the point where he's more than ready to invite her to take a shower with him. Perhaps I could have posted this one up yesterday on Valentine's Day but maybe it was simply too lusty for a special time when a lighter form of romanticism was de rigueur.
Written by Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）, composed by Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）and arranged by Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）, there was also a battery of other fine professionals backing Toshi-chan up. Masaki Matsubara（松原正樹）was on electric guitar, YMO member Hideki Matsutake（松武秀樹） was programming the synths, Shin Kazuhara（数原晋）and Jake H. Concepcion were on the horns and EVE was the backing chorus. It hit No. 1 on Oricon and ended up as the 43rd-ranking single for 1983.
I'm not quite sure how the audiences took to "Shower na Kibun". Maybe certain members were more than happy to oblige, especially when all the grunting arrived. Anyways, although the above footage on "Let's Go Young" has Toshi showing off his usual footwork, there had been something special planned for his "Shower na Kibun" performance on TBS'"The Best 10" where a real shower was supposed to fall upon him and his dancers, according to the J-Wiki article on the song. The rehearsals beforehand hadn't been going well but Toshi-chan, being the master of showmanship felt that the show had to go on, and went through with the gimmick, making that spin, throwing off his soaked jacket, and then grabbing that microphone that he'd tossed into the air, all in one move. It became watercooler talk the day after!
Incredibly enough, after nearly thirteen years of doing "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I still don't think I have covered all of Junko Yagami's（八神純子）singles going into the early 1980s, and this is considering that the Nagoya singer-songwriter has been one of my favourites in the City Pop field.
Case in point: Yagami's 14th single from October 1982, "Touch you, tonight". I've been seeing this title for years but never quite got around to posting it until today. Written by Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）and composed by the singer herself, this is just one of a number of successful collaborations between the two which include "Mizuiro no Ame" (みずいろの雨）and "Purpletown"(パープルタウン）, although the latter would eventually include a few more people in the songwriting credits.
"Touch you, tonight" weaves a story of some titillating skinmanship between a couple (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) with Ichizo Seo（瀬尾一三）incorporating some harder New Wave instrumentation into the City Pop arrangement (there's still that wailing electric guitar though). Speaking of arrangement, Yagami's especially breathy and kittenish delivery at points has reminded me a bit of Minnie Ripperton.
Meanwhile, the B-side of "Miss Plumeria", which was wholly concocted by Yagami, rides on a Doobie Brothers rhythm as she sings about the titular young lady bewitching interested fellows on the beach. It's a pleasant summertime AOR tune that has a rather weirdly bracing bit in the middle before that electric guitar solo reassures listeners once more. The single reached No. 45 on Oricon.
Actress Kaori Momoi（桃井かおり）isn't known too much for her time behind the microphone in the recording booth, but up to now, she has had four entries here on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", including her duet with singer-songwriter Takao Kisugi（来生たかお）for their ballad "Nejireta Heart de"(ねじれたハートで）from 1982.
Well, earlier in August 1981, Momoi self-produced her own single titled "Make Ni-juu-san Byou"(Make-Up in 23 Seconds) with the help of lyricist Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）and composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）. A saucy pop number which kinda reflects the nature of the actress herself, Momoi sultrily sings about a lady who can keep her youthful looks day after day with some of those wonderful Shiseido products even with the demands of a paramour. And yep, if this does sound like the premise for a commercial, that's because "Make Ni-juu-san Byou" was used in a Shiseido ad...with special guest R2-D2! Of course, the average droid knows where it's at!
On Christmas Eve Eve (and that's not a spelling error...just being cute), I wrote about jazz chanteuse Mami Horie's（堀江マミ）take on "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" and was reminded that a few decades previously, she had also tackled City Pop.
In fact, my first ever article on Horie was her 1979 debut single"Loving You", a City Pop tune that begins with some smoking jazz balladry before the rhythm jumps into a jaunty metropolitan beat. Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）was the fellow behind the melody there. Well, this time around, there is another famous singer-songwriter who took care of the B-side, "Camouflage", and it's none other than Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由実）under her pen name of Karuho Kureta（呉田軽穂）with Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）on lyrics.
Whereas "Loving You" feels like a morning brunch-happy City Pop tune, "Camouflage" sounds like something to sip an evening cocktail to in the style of Junko Yagami（八神純子）. The piano takes us rolling downtown with a bit of Latin feeling while the electric guitar and saxophone arrive to transport us up to the hotel rooftop bar. I can even imagine Horie herself in the bar playing this song itself.
Perhaps the above byline is a little longer and odder than usual but in my defense, I have to explain that all the way back in January, I had jumped the mighty gun and already spoke on singer-songwriter Junk Fujiyama's（ジャンクフジヤマ）most recent album, the album of covers known as "Shoukei Toshi ~ City Pop Covers"(City of Aspirations), several weeks before it was even officially released in March. I was too taken by the tasting menu of Junk's covers of "Telephone Number" by the late great Junko Ohashi（大橋純子）and then "Windy Summer" by Anri（杏里）that were already up on YouTube.
Generally speaking, I don't usually go for albums of cover versions since I'm always going to think that the originals will be far better, but cuing ahead several months, I finally pulled the trigger and bought my copy of "Shoukei Toshi" a couple of weeks ago just on Fujiyama's reputation and his takes on "Telephone Number" and "Windy Summer". Besides, considering how I've wondered how Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）would have handled some of those other City Pop songs outside his own contributions, "Shoukei Toshi" was my best chance to find out.
The cover of "Futari no Natsu Monogatari"（ふたりの夏物語）is another winning one by Junk. Retaining the dashing pace of the 1985 original by Kiyotaka Sugiyama & Omega Tribe, there are fewer bells and whistles in the arrangement but it's still got summer right here. In a way, it's perhaps more reflective of the times now when compared to the craziness of the Bubble Era years of those high-flying 80s (although I don't think stingrays were flying over Tokyo back then).
Up to this time, there probably have been more covers of "Mayonaka no Door 〜 Stay With Me"（真夜中のドアー）than there are shooting stars in the sky, but if one is doing an album of City Pop covers, this song by the late Miki Matsubara（松原みき）obviously has to be in here. In fact, there are two versions including this one that is the final track of "Shoukei Toshi". This version of "Stay With Me" though is done as a duet between Junk and singer-songwriter/keyboardist biki from Saitama Prefecture. It has a bit more keyboard groove and key changes, and the dynamics between the two singers bring some more excitement to the proceedings.
But it isn't just the City Pop from the 1970s and 1980s that's been covered by Fujiyama. He also tackles benzo's 1998 light and funky "Mahiru"（真昼）which I first discovered on one of my "Light Mellow" albums. Aside from the timbre of the vocals, there isn't all that is much different between the original and the cover, although of course, both are fine songs.
The cover that deviates the most from the original among the tracks on the album is the 1983 "Tasogare no Bay City"（黄昏のBay City）, one of Junko Yagami's（八神純子）big hits and a City Pop pillar. Not quite sure how to describe it, except that the funky disco has been replaced by a certain spacey atmosphere. No, I have to admit that this isn't my favourite track; I miss the horns.
I'll finish up here with his cover of Yumi Arai's（荒井由実）"Ame no Station"（雨のステイション）which was originally from Yuming's 3rd album"Cobalt Hour" (1975). This track is still a few away from the last one but it feels like a final song for the album since Junk takes the New Music ballad and makes it even more anthemic, though it still holds to that somewhat downbeat and reserved tone of the original.
For me, these are the highlights of "Shoukei Toshi" although I will at least cover one of the remaining tracks on its own because I hadn't even heard the original version by Original Love.
Yes, I do realize that Urban Contemporary Friday was yesterday but I just can't help but put this one up tonight. After the Blogger technical kerfuffle earlier this afternoon, I think I want to post up something especially fun.
It looks like one of the premium City Pop songs to be absolutely adored and devoured by a lot of people inside and outside of Japan, Miki Matsubara's（松原みき）"Mayonaka no Door"（真夜中のドアー）, aka "Stay With Me", has become the gift that has kept on giving. The list of cover versions on the J-Wiki article for the 1979 hit is beginning to appear like an annual Kohaku Utagassen lineup. A few years ago, I even wrote on Yuko Imai's（今井優子）funk n' groove n' sophisticated poptake on the song which she released as part of her 2016 album"Sweetest Voice", a few years before "Stay With Me" exploded onto the international scene.
A couple of slaps on the head later earlier this month made me realize that Tokimeki Records isn't a recording company. It is the name of a music unit which started up in 2019 that specializes in cover songs originally done by singers from the 1980s and 1990s. The group immediately sprinted out of the gate with their cover of that other City Pop hit "Plastic Love" in August 2019. But then a few years later, in June 2021, Tokimeki Records brought singer Hikari (one of a number of singers who have contributed to the unit's projects) on board to record their version of "Stay With Me". And it's another barn burning banger of a cover with a bit more of a dance club flavour infused into the original arrangement by Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）.
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.
I can imagine then-aidoru Fumiko Sawada（沢田富美子）and her father having THE talk about her career in entertainment. Pere Sawada would have sat his daughter down and told her that the geinokai is fraught with uncertainty and there's no telling how long or how short her career as a singer would be. Finally, he encouraged her to have some sort of backup plan. Then Fumiko would say at the age of 19 that she's been investing in real estate and that she would end up owning multiple buildings in the tonier districts of Tokyo. He would then conclude everything by saying "Uh...never mind".
But none of us are here to discuss Fumiko Sawada the property mogul. We're here to check out Sawada the aidoru, as brief a career as it was. The way that I found out about the mogul part was when I wrote up her 1986 single, the cover version of WHAM!'s smoky "Where Did Your Heart Go?", under the stage name of Maria Sakurai（桜井真里亜）. And up until today, that was all I had on Sawada but then I found this early single by the Nagoya native which had been posted onto YouTube very recently.
"Chotto Harukaze"(A Little Spring Breeze) was her 2nd EP from April 1981. Listening to this appropriately breezy and cheerful ditty and knowing the year of release, I kinda figured out pretty quickly who the songwriters were. They were lyricist Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）, composer Yuuichiro Oda（小田裕一郎）and arranger Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）, all folks who had worked together less than a year earlier on the similarly breezy "Aoi Sangoshou"（青い珊瑚礁）for Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）. I think that the three even added in a bit of Olivia Newton-John's"Xanadu" for good measure. I think the song is a perfectly delightful aidoru tune but I don't know how strongly it did on Oricon although the fact that her discography had only lasted from 1979 to 1982 (eight records) with a four-year break before her cover of the WHAM! song probably meant that the singing part of her variegated career (she was also acting, modeling and DJ'ing) wasn't the most predominant.
The Mayumi Hara（原真祐美）file on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" has four songs including this one, but the previous two entries are for songs that she wrote up for other singers. So, in actual fact, the last song where she's featured on the byline is the first song that I ever wrote up about her back in September 2017.
That was for "Bye, Bye, September", her third single. Well, this is for her follow-up, "Yuugure wa Love Song"(Twilight is a Love Song) which was released in January 1984. There was quite the heavy-hitting team behind the creation of "Yuugure wa Love Song" with Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）providing the lyrics while City Pop maestro Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）created the melody with future "Evangelion" music master Shiro Sagisu（鷺巣詩郎）arranging everything. And again, although Hara's vocals were never the strongest, she's uplifted by the bouncy melody. It's not a City Pop tune but Hayashi and Sagisu did make something quite appealing with that wailing guitar in the intro which also sounds like the theme for some 1980s American hourlong TV adventure...well, some of it anyways.
"Yuugure wa Love Song" only made it as high as No. 93 on Oricon. A month after the release of that 4th single, the song was also on Hara's 2nd album"Vert Clair"（ベール・クレール）.
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