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.

Friday, August 10, 2012

Megumi Asaoka -- Watashi no Kare wa Hidarikiki (わたしの彼は左きき)




To be honest, I first came across this song when it was used in a parodic way for a curry rice commercial several years ago. I've heard and seen the middle-aged Megumi Asaoka(麻丘めぐみ) on TV as an actress and a personality, but never made the connection between her and this song until I watched one of those Showa-era music retrospectives, and a young Asaoka showed up to sing "Watashi no Kare wa Hidarikiki"(My Boyfriend is a Lefty).

Written by Kazuya Senke(千家和也) and composed by Kyohei Tsutsumi(筒美京平), it was released as Asaoka's 5th single in July 1973. This would be one of the Osaka-raised aidoru's most successful songs, peaking at No. 1 on the Oricon charts, and earning the Popularity Award at the Japan Record Awards. The song was also a track on her 4th album, "Megumi to Wakai Nakama Tachi" (めぐみと若い仲間たち....Megumi and Her Young Friends) which peaked at No. 13.




The then-18-year-old also earned her spot on the 1973 Kohaku Utagassen . What also helped her was her cute princess-style haircut (as has been described on J-Wiki) and the choreography involving her left hand. But of course, the song itself was infectiously bouncy and bubbly enough as well.....which explains why it was re-made into a commercial jingle decades later.

As for the significance of the title, I think it rather ironic since even now there is a feeling amongst a lot of Japanese families that any child born left-handed should be "trained" to change to a proper right-handed ability. It seems that Senke's song hints in the second verse that even if that boyfriend remains left-handed, his girl will still love him all the same. Awwww...

1 comment:

  1. An evergreen cornestone of the J-Pop.
    *Mon-san* (J-Music Generation,Japan Universe - on facebook)

    ReplyDelete

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