Listening to Ayase Haruka's cover of "Momen No Handkerchief" made me want to listen to Ota Hiromi's original, and so I've been playing my 70's J-pop tunes in my car for the past few days. And as usual, listening to Hiromi sing Momen No Handkerchief (as well as her other hits like Akai High Heel) made me want to watch her performance on a 1970's J-pop Flashback Special I rented oh so many years ago.
In 1997 (or so), I was heavily immersed in my j-pop music with groups like CoCo, Ribbon. Moritaka Chisato and Princess Princess and Zard, not to mention the great artists at the time like Matsuda Seiko, Mr. Children, Dreams Come True and Amuro Namie, but it wasn't until I got this 70's Special that I finally got to see some of the more "classic" j-pop artists: Yamaguchi Momoe, Pink Lady, Candies, Teresa Teng and even Arai Yumi- WOW, this was really an eye-opener for someone fully into j-pop!!
Along on the show they'd invited a handful of 70's performers to appear, and so I got to see artists like Amachi Mari, Agnes Chan, and Iwasaki Hiromi sing their classic hits like "Hitori Janai No", "Hinageshi Na Hana" and "Romance"... All the songs were expertly performed with a live Big Band, and all of the ladies looked very pretty and refined (man, especially Iwasaki Hiromi...DAMN!) but out of them all, the one that REALLY blew me away was a sweet li'l tune by the name of "Momen No Handkerchief" sung by a pretty lady named Ota Hiromi! The song was 100% j-pop perfection with its violin intro and score with the bright guitar chiming throughout, but even more than that- something about the way Ota Hiromi gestured and sang- I was TOTALLY CAPTIVATED!
Needless to say, the very next day, I ran out and picked up her songs as well as a ton of other 1970's collections- From there my love of 70's j-pop only grew and I eventually expanded to collections from Pink Lady, Candies, Minami Saori and of course the mighty Momoe-san, but there will always be a special place in my heart for Ota Hiromi's MOMEN NO HANDKERCHIEF!!!
