Candies were an idol trio who had a spectacular, if short-lived, career.  The trio of Ran Ito, Yoshiko “Sue” Tanaka and Miki Fujimura was formed in 1973. Their debut on Sony, “Anata Ni Muchu” (Crazy For You) featured Sue as the main vocalist, and did well enough to chart at #36 in Oricon.  Like many of their singles it had a “young love” theme.  The group’s fifth single, “Toshishita No Otokonoko” (Younger Boy), released...

 Candies were an idol trio who had a spectacular, if short-lived, career.  The trio of Ran Ito, Yoshiko “Sue” Tanaka and Miki Fujimura was formed in 1973. Their debut on Sony, “Anata Ni Muchu” (Crazy For You) featured Sue as the main vocalist, and did well enough to chart at #36 in Oricon.  Like many of their singles it had a “young love” theme.  The group’s fifth single, “Toshishita No Otokonoko” (Younger Boy), released in February 1975 with Ran as the main vocalist, went to #9.  The song was a breakthrough of sorts, as it was the first to exceed the chart position of their debut, although all of their songs to date had at least charted. It featured a dance routine which somewhat recalled the Andrew Sisters in style, and their TV appearances helped make the song popular. Their ninth single was released in March 1976, entitled “Haru Ichiban” (Spring’s First Wind), and went to #3, becoming one of their signature tunes. It predictably was followed by “Natsu Ga Kita” (Summer Is Here), which was also a major hit.   1976 also brought Pink Lady, a new more sexily styled group with cleverly choreographed disco-inspired dance moves and their debut smash “Pepper Keibu”.   The Candies continued to chart well with their next couple of singles, and then in March 1977 had another major smash, “Yasashii Akuma” (My Sweet Devil), which included a fun dance routine where the girls made devil’s horns with their hands. The style of the dance appeared to be a reaction to the more flashy style of Pink Lady, who were then exploding into superstars. Candies and Pink Lady thus became rivals of sorts, but were also friendly enough to appear a number of times together on TV, and sometimes performed each others' songs or sang together.  Candies also performed a cover version of the Association's hit “Never My Love”, singing in English and using Blue Swede uptempo arrangement, as well as a version of the Connie Francis hit “Stupid Cupid” using a mixture of English and Japanese.  THeir next three singles, “Shochu Omimamai”, “Un, Deux, Trois”, and “Wana” (with Miki as main vocalist) were all top ten hits, and then in February 1978 they released the #1 smash “Hohoemi Gaeshi” (Return A Smile).  They chose this time to announced their “retirement”, stating “futsu no onnanoko ni modoritai” (we want to return to being ordinary girls), a quote that remains well-known to this day.  The group left in grand style with a sayonara show at Korakuen Stadium on April 4, 1978, which was filmed and later released on video.  Sue later returned to do fairly well as an actress, appearing in many TV shows, and in the films “Godzilla vs. Biolante” and “Black Rain”. Ran also got into acting, appearing in over 20 TV shows, and also dabbling in films and theater. Miki came back briefly as a singer, but then married and settled into family life.