Momoe Yamaguchi began a career in show business while she was still a student in junior high school. At the end of 1972, at the age of 13, Yamaguchi, along with many of her schoolmates, applied by postcard to appear on the idol talent search television show Star Tanjo!. After a series of successful preliminary auditions, she appeared on the show covering a hit song “Kaiten Mokuba”, by Yumi Makiba earlier that year. Though she finished second, Yamaguchi received offers from several music producers, and signed with Hori Productions. Her family moved to Tokyo. Yamaguchi transferred to Shinagawa Joshi Gakuin, and then attended Hinode Joshi Gakuin High School, a school which allows its students to carry on careers in show business.
Initially she was promoted together with two other singers, Junko Sakurada and Masako Mori, as the Hana no Chūsan Torio (meaning “The lovely trio of third-year middle school students”) since they were all in the third year of middle school. Her first single, “Toshigoro”, coupled with her first movie of the same title, did not fare well in the charts, peaking at 37 on the Oricon singles chart. But her second single “Aoi Kajitsu” peaked at number 9. Japanese pop culture historians have credited its success to its suggestive lyrics. The chorus goes “You can do what ever you want with me; it’s OK if rumours spread that I’m a bad girl”.
Her early songs were written for her by the Hori Productions songwriting team of composer Shunichi Tokura and lyricist Kazuya Senge. One of her biggest hits was her 5th single “Hito natsu no Keiken” (“an experience one summer”), which includes lyrics like “I’ll give you the most precious thing a girl has”. and “Everyone experiences it at least once, the sweet trap of seduction”. The suggestive lyrics attracted widespread press interest. The young singer was frequently asked salacious questions such as “What do you think a girl’s most precious thing is?”, to which she replied magokoro (“her devotion”)
By the end of 1974, her phenomenal popularity was demonstrated by her being invited to be the opening female singer for the 25th Kohaku Uta Gassen, Japan’s most popular musical show, with the song Hito Natsu No Keiken. She would continue to appear in this show every year until her retirement. With her increasing popularity, Yamaguchi gained more control over her career and was able to select her own songwriters. One of her choices was Ryudo Uzaki. She chose him because she liked his song “Secret Love”. Their first collaboration resulted in the single “Yokosuka Story” in 1976, written by Uzaki with lyrics by his wife, Yoko Aki. Aki was inspired to write the song because both she and Yamaguchi, whom she had never met when the song was originally ordered, had both lived in Yokosuka. “Yokosuka Story” was Yamaguchi’s biggest hit, selling more than 600,000 copies, and peaked at number one on the charts. This was the beginning of a collaboration with the husband and wife songwriting team which only ended with Yamaguchi’s retirement. Songs were also written for her by writers such as masashi Sada, who wrote one of her most popular hits, “Cosmos”.
Her popularity as a singer was paralleled by rising success in a series of films and television programs. Her second film, Izu no Odoriko, paired her with actor Tomokazu Miura, chosen because he had previously done a commercial with her. Although Yamaguchi was 15 while Miura was 22, they had great screen chemistry, and became known as the Momoe-Tomokazu “golden combi”. They starred together in a total of 14 of her 17 movies, one every winter and summer. By the end of her career, Yamaguchi’s music became more sophisticated. Her 12th and 18th albums, Golden Flight and L.A. Blue, were recorded in London and Los Angeles respectively, using local musicians and production staff. Her 21st album, Phoenix Densetsu, was written as a rock opera. Because she wanted to make a rock song before she ended her career, Uzaki and Aki wrote “Rock ‘n Roll Widow” for her, which was included on the concept album Moebius’s Game.
With the on-screen romances between Yamaguchi and Tomokazu Miura, an off-screen romance grew. During a trip to Hawaii in early 1979, Miura proposed to Yamaguchi. She accepted, and she also said that she would retire from entertainment to marry him. Yamaguchi announced their relationship at a concert in October 1979, and the announcement about their marriage date and her retirement was made in March 1980. In her autobiographical book, Aoi Toki, she said that she disliked repeatedly singing the same songs. She also stated that she wanted to stop working to devote all her time to the wellbeing of her husband. She also said in an interview at the time of retirement that she did not want to continue working as a singer or an actress. In October 1980, Yamaguchi officially retired from show business, and in November 1980, the pair were married.
