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redfreesias03 · 5 years ago

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17sai (“17 Years Old”)

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“I love you and that’s why I’m alive right now.”

OR: The very first summer idol single.

dare mo inai umi futari no ai wo tashikametakute anata no ude wo surinukete mita no hashiru mizube no mabushisa iki mo dekinai kurai hayaku tsuyoku tsukamae ni kite suki nanda mono watashi wa ima ikiteiru

At a beach with no one else in sight Wanting to confirm our love I tried slipping out of your arms I run by the radiance of the waterside So hard I’m out of breath Come quickly, powerfully, and catch me I love you and that’s why I’m alive right now¹

aoi sora no shita futari no ai wo dakishimetakute hikari no naka e tokekonde mita no futari kamome ni naru no yo kaze wa ooki keredo ugokanaide onegai dakara suki nanda mono watashi wa ima ikiteiru

Wanting to embrace Our love under the blue sky, I tried to merge into the light We’re becoming a pair of seagulls The wind is huge, but Don’t move from where you are, please I love you and that’s why I’m alive right now

atsui inochi ni makasete sotto KISU shite ii sora mo umi mo mitsumeru naka de suki nanda mono watashi wa ima ikiteiru watashi wa ima ikiteiru

Abandon yourself to the ardor of life Go ahead and kiss me softly As we gaze at the sea and sky I love you and that’s why I’m alive right now I’m alive right now

watashi wa ima ikiteiru watashi wa ima ikiteiru

I’m alive right now I’m alive right now

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¹ I’m not sure if the line is all that ambiguous, but this is very much a “I love you and that’s what makes my heart pound and lets me know I’m alive” and definitely not “I love you and you’re my only reason for living.” I feel like it’s obvious, but never hurts to err on the side of caution!

So I literally can't believe I never realized this until I read the wiki entry, but 17sai was directly modeled off Lynn Anderson's Rose Garden, since it was Minami Saori (aka Cynthia)'s favorite song. (The Japanese wiki entry is slightly more hilarious: it explains Cynthia entered the entertainment industry as a TV show assistant and got scouted by Sony based off photos alone. When composer Tsutsumi Kyouhei was tasked with making a song for Cynthia, he asked her what songs she could sing, to which she replied "I can only sing Rose Garden"...and thus 17sai was born.) Cynthia went on to record Rose Garden herself later, but I can’t find it online.

At any rate, this song is iconic, partly because there's a strong argument to be made that Minami Saori was the very first "real" idol (her only real challenger to that role goes to fellow "Shin Sannin Musume" Koyanagi Rumiko who debuted a little over a month prior with a much more traditional ditty ) thus making 17sai the first real idol song (certainly first idol summer bop) and forever cementing 17 as the magical age of youth and a staple song topic in idoldom (why 17? Because Cynthia was 17 when she debuted. Name a more iconic–albeit apparently unintentional–legacy.)

The other reason this song is iconic is due to Moritaka Chisato's extremely Shouwa cover, released in 1989 and remixed to be somehow even more catchy as heck. Her version is the one cemented in public consciousness, so expect most "covers" to be remixed similarly.

At any rate, as can be expected, there are loads of recorded covers and remixes of this song, including an acoustic rock and R&B arrangement by Moritaka Chisato, a tv performance by 80s idol Kawai Noriko, a tribute cover by Kikkawa You, a Morning Musume Reina-Koharu duet, and a recording by Tsubaki Factory. On the non-idol side, this song has been sung by enka singer Tagawa Toshimi, has an English version by Norwegian Eurobeat singer Bambee, a rock version by singer-songwriter Katsuo Shinko, and was released as a single featuring two drastically different punk rock takes by Ging Nang BOYZ.

(Also, let's take a moment to appreciate the lyricist in particular: Arima Mieko was 40 when she wrote this song, and yet she wrote in the youthful feeling so WELL.)

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