Japanese pop mastermind Mariya Takeuchi was born on March 20, 1955, in Taisha,
Shimane (now the city of Izumo) in Japan and has enjoyed a fruitful
four-decades-long career as a singer and songwriter. During the late 1970s and
early 1980s, she recorded five albums and a variety of singles, including "Heart
to Heart", which was co-written by Roger Nichols and featured on her 1980 album
Miss M. An English version of the track, retitled as "Now", was recorded by the
Carpenters and released in 1983. In 1982, Takeuchi married fellow musician
Tatsuro Yamashita, and the pair began a prol...