etta jones - exactly like you (1976)

real funky arrangement of a jazz standard most famously done by ella fitzgerald (here's a large list of renditions!)

trio los panchos & estela raval - martha (1971)

a wildly romantic love ballad sung by three men and a lady to a lady named martha. they compare her to a flower (of course), then claim that they are jealous of the water, the sun and the air that surrounds her (yowza!). lovely little bolero. (the lady singer, incidentally, is a legendary argentinean singer, collaborating here with a famous mexican trio.)

haruomi hosono - bara to yajyu (rose & beast) (1973)

when i woke up this morning, i had this song playing in my head. the up-and-down bass riff was haunting me. it felt like i had either dreamed it up, or it was a song that my brain was pulling up from a long long time ago, something formative that had been wedged in my subconscious and dredged up during the night.

then i remembered that i had been listening to haruomi hosono yesterday, and went through my listening history to see if the track could be found. i pressed play on this one and there it was -- the song! the dream vision!

miharu koshi - love step (1978)

this performance is so great! this was miharu koshi's debut single that started a long career. more info on her here:

http://kayokyokuplus.blogspot.com/2013/01/miharu-koshi-love-step.html

EDIT: video is down :( here's another video of miharu, in her spunky new wave phase: