Miss M

Not to be confused with Miyuki Nakajima's 1985 album miss M. Side A, the L.A. side, was recorded in Los Angeles with David Foster and Jay Graydon, who had just released an album as Airplay, and TOTO's Steve Lukather, Jeff Porcaro and David Hungate. Side B, the Tokyo side, was recorded in Japan in band format, and she wrote every song on it except "Futari no Vacance". The producers were Shigeki Miyata and Yu Murakami (one fan page gives the latter as Masaru), with Noriyuki Masumoto and Joseph Bogan engineering; we found no studio names or dates. Osamu Hashimoto art directed the cover, with the knitted M sweater, and Alan Levenson took the photograph.

It reached 14 on the Oricon chart and about 73,000 copies sold, less than Love Songs, and Japanese sources see it as a step in her growth as a writer. The first CD came in 1984, and a remaster was released on February 27, 2019 with live bonus tracks from the Mariya Popping Tour at Nakano Sunplaza on August 25, 1981: "Futari no Vacance", "Secret Love", "Sweetest Music" and "Farewell Call". Side A includes "Heart to Heart" (music by Roger Nichols), which is the same melody as the Carpenters' "Now".