[Sunny & Swinging]
No.231 "Cotton Candy" by Marina Watanabe
Hi. The song we would like to introduce to you today is, "Cotton Candy" by "Marina Watanabe".
"Cotton Candy" is a sunny & swinging "idol pop song" released by a popular idol star "Marina Watanabe" in 1988 as one of the song in her 3rd album "Sunny Side".
When we call a song "Idol Pops", it primarily means the song is performed by an idol star, naturally.
But "Idol Pops" usually has distinctive two features, such as,
- Catchy twinkling sound.
- Innocent, and artless vocal.
Then, when we use the word "Idol Pops", the song generally has such factors.
In this sense, today's song "Cotton Candy" is a very well made "Idol Pops".
If you like, please listen to.
Links to the music shops, offering song samples, are located on the bottom of this page.
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Cover art today
Song data
| Title | Cotton Candy |
|---|---|
| Artist | Marina Watanabe |
| Album Title | Sunny side |
| Catalog Number | 8H-5037 |
| Track No. | 7 |
| Duration | 4:16 |
| Released | 1988 |
| Publisher | Epic |
| Lyricist | Chihiro Sawa |
| Composer | MAYUMI (Mayumi Horikawa) |
| Arranger | Satoshi Takebe |
About the creators
Chihiro Sawa Lyricist
"Chihiro Sawa" was a popular song lyricist active since mid '80s to 2016.
For more details on "Chihiro Sawa", please have a look at the references linked below.
MAYUMI (Mayumi Horikawa) Composer
"MAYUMI (Mayumi Horikawa)" is a singer, songwriter, radio personality, and used to be a popular beauty model called "Clarion Girl".
She is also known as an elder sister of "Reimy", also a popular Pop singer & songwriter.
For more details on "MAYUMI (Mayumi Horikawa)", please have a look at the references linked below.
Satoshi Takebe Arranger
"Satoshi Takebe" is a composer, arranger, music producer, Music director, a president of an entertainment agency, and a keyboardist of a rock band "kōkua" active since the late '70s.
For more details on "Satoshi Takebe", please have a look at the references linked below.
-
(Ref: www.htmg.com,
profile)🇯🇵
Song image & Lyrics
Open
Link to the lyrics
Some notes on the lyrics link
Sound impression
Sunny & bouncy
This is a sunny and refreshing swinging pop song with a medium tempo.
Swinging
The drum, bass, harpsichord (synth?), piano, electric guitar, and percussions begin a sunny & swinging introduction, and the main part starts.
In the main part, a beautiful chorus also join, and smartly support the main vocal.
The members of chorus team are "Junko Hirotani", "Kiyoshi Hiyama", and "Yasuhiro Kido" like singers, who are all well-known expert of backing vocals.
The main vocal performed by "Marina Watanabe" is simple & artless, but it is a typical feature of idol pops.
In fact, for the fans of idol pops, non-flawless vocal of those idol stars is an important charm quite often.
Reference
About Google translate
About the artist
Marina WatanabeA member of O-nyanko
"Marina Watanabe" is a singer, idol star, TV charactor, MC, radio personality, and a former member of a popular idol group "O-nyanko club" in the '80s.
"Watanabe" is still pretty popular as an MC, or commentator on TV variety shows. because of her comical, but witty talk.
She is also a radio personality particularly preferred by middle-aged generation, and appearing regularly on a music variety program.
Marina Watanabe debuted in 1986 with a single, "Shin-Kokyū shite" (Take a deep breath). Since then, 16 singles, and 7 full (and 2 mini) original albums, and 5 best albums have been released until now.
(Ref: Wikipedia-jp, Marina Watanabe)
Early times
According to some references, "Marina Watanabe" was born to a family in Tokyo in 1970, and was grown up in there.
She was just an ordinary child dreaming to be a nursery teacher, and had no particular wish to be a star.
In 1984, the elder sister of Watanabe sent an application form for a popular model & talent audition called "Miss Seventeen contest" instead of her, when Watanabe was fourteen.
Actually, "Miss Seventeen" was one of the most prestigious model contest among young women, since it had been hosted by biggest selling weekly magazine "Seventeen" for high-teen girls.
In fact, some 184 thousands+ (!) contestants were participated in on 1984 audition, and they say that was the highest number in its history.
"Watanabe" fared better in the contest. But she could not advanced to the finals. However, quite luckily, she was scouted by a record company in the process of the contest.
And she started her entertainment career from this point of time as a trainee of an idol star.
In 1986, "Watanabe" participated in a in-program talent scout audition on a TV variety show called "Yū-yake Nyan Nyan".
Her cute looks and sunny character attracted not only audience but also MCs.
"Watanabe" get a passing score like a champ. And instantly qualified as a new regular member of a popular idol group, "O-nyanko club".
And soon, she began to participate actively as a new idol star on the program from March 1986.
Debut as a solo singer
"O-nyanko club" was primarily an almost exclusive cast member at an evening TV variety show "Yū-yake Nyan Nyan" for teenagers.
More than 20 cuties, mostly middle-high teen girls, were appearing on the program regularly as members of "O-nyanko club".
In the program, "O-nyanko club" was performing their original song almost daily. And whenever the group release a new song, four members were randomly(*) selected as lead vocals, but the rest of members also dance and sing together with them on the same stage.
And fortunately, our "Marina Watanabe" was also chosen as a lead vocal on their 5th single "Osaki-ni shiturei" (Pardon me for going before you) already in the debuting year 1986.
We can say that was pretty early, and a bit of a promotion.
In October 1986, "Marina Watanabe" debuted also as a solo singer at last, by releasing her first single, "Shin-Kokyū shite" (Take a deep breath).
Surprisingly, her debut single "O-nyanko clubShin-Kokyū shite", debuted at number one on the "O-nyanko clubOricon" (Japan's oldest hit chart) chart in 1986.
Actually, it was the youngest record of that kind (15 years and 11 months), and had not been broken for 15 years until 2001.
For real, "O-nyanko club" was causing a phenomenon in the year 1985 and 1986, then all the "O-nyanko" related Pop songs were dominating the chart at that time.
Even considering those, this accomplishment is still great and outstanding, and proving her talent as an idol star.
Light & mellow Pops
Since debut, "Marina Watanabe" released 16 singles, 7 original albums, and two mini albums until 1996, when she tentatively halted her music activity to focus more on the job as TV character or MC.
(Indeed, her performance as an MC in TV variety show was excellent, since she controlled notorious too eloquent commentators amazingly well, then people began to call "Watanabe" a "beast tamer".)
One notable, and preferable feature of her albums is the fact that any one of her albums contains a few of nice light & mellow tracks in good arrangement.
We suppose it is rare among the albums released by the artist started their career as an idol star.
If you look at the related pages at discogs.com, you might soon notice the names of the ace creators of Light & mellow Pops, like "Etsuko Yamakawa", "Akira Inoue", "Mioko Yamaguchi", "Nobuyuki Shimizu", "Chika Ueda" etc.
This might explain why her albums are in such good taste.
"Marina Watanabe" was talking in an interview that her favourite musician was "Ei-ichi Ohtaki".
So, it seems "Watanabe" might have been following the music like him on her albums.
As a singer, her singing is one of the typical style as an idol star.
And we assume you might soon get accustomed to her natural and artless singing.
As a solo
After the brake-up of "O-nyanko Club" in 1987, "Marina Watanabe" started a solo career as a singer, actor, and TV character.
Particularly on TV variety shows, her quick-wittedness and humour during talking was highly appreciated by the creative staff of TV stations.
And "Watanabe" quickly became a familiar face to TV viewers.
As a singer, she has released 16 singles, 7 original albums, and two mini albums until 1996.
In addition to that, five best albums has been released until today, and some of them are still selling.
This is more than satisfactory, and successful result as a Pop singer.
And since around 2000, "Watanabe" began to publish books or essays on travel (Particularly Taiwan), fashion, or health.
And after started child rearing, she set to write drafts for a picture book series.
In this way, she is widening her arena.
Private
In 2005, "Watanabe" married with a popular comedian, after they met each other as cast members of TV drama.
The couple was blessed with two children.
And they are in the midst of child raising. (The busiest phase might have been gone through though.)
Recent
In 2017, for celebrating her 30 years anniversary as an idol star, "Watanabe" released her 5th best album "My Favourite Pop".
The album contains 30 songs in two CDs. Today's song "Cotton Candy" is also included.
Coincidently in the same year, "Watanabe" was invited to the recording of "Maki Nomiya"'s new album "Wonderful Summer" to duet with Nomiya.
Since one of the track, which was going to be included in the album, was a song which "Watanabe sang originally in 1990.
"Watanabe" reflected the days she was singing, and wished to sing in front of the audience by taking this opportunity.
But it was not possible at that timing.
However in 2018, "Watanabe" was suddenly invited as the main vocalist of a special band "Marina Watanabe with Takeshi Kiuchi & Chan Marinars" formed by her younger colleagues in her entertainment office. (SMA=Sony Music Artists).
And finally in September 2018, a special music event "SHINKIBA JUNCTION 2018" was held, and "Marina Watanabe" sang at the live stage for the first time in 20 years.
Indeed, her appearance delighted old & new fans of her.
And to create an opportunity for missed fans, the special band planned billboard live in Tokyo, and Osaka, and actually performed in 2019.
So, "Watanabe" is still quite active like this way.
References
For more details about "Marina Watanabe", please have a look at the references linked below.
-
(Ref: marina-watanabe.com,
profile)🇯🇵
Video clip
You can find some music video of today's song by searching for them on the site like Youtube, with keywords like "Marina Watanabe" "Cotton Candy".
But due to copyright concerns, we would like to hold back providing links to them on this page.
Instead of that, we would like to introduce a music clip of "O-nyanko Club", which "Marina Watanabe" used to belonged to, for you.
The song title is "Pop-corn batake-de tsukamaete" (Catch me in the Popcorn field).
It is contained in the 4th album of "O-nyanko Club", namely "SIDE LINE".
On this song, "Marina Watanabe" is taking the lead vocal together with two other members.
(First appearing vocal is Watanabe.)
The melody was written and arranged by "Etsuko Yamakawa".
So, this song has similar smooth taste with the tracks in "Watanabe"'s albums.'
If you like, please listen to.
Music Samples
7
(試聴する)
AD: Listening samples (Free)
Amazon JP(en)
recochoku.jp
music.apple.com (Track No.7)
Japanese Letters
| Song Title | Cotton Candy |
|---|---|
| Artist | 渡辺満里奈(Marina Watanabe) |
| Album Title | Sunny side |
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