Kai Band -- Hero

Well, my hometown Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League just won the championship Grey Cup game last night. For anyone who has lived in Canada's largest city, they know that sports championships have been awfully hard to come by of late, and so the Argos' win over Calgary is definitely one to savour. In tribute to them, I give you "Hero" by the Kai Band（甲斐バンド）.

Formed in 1974 in Fukuoka, the band is led by Yoshihiro Kai（甲斐よしひろ), and initially lasted until its breakup in 1986. About a decade later, it reformed for a limited time and since then has come in and out of action a number of times. Their 11th single, "Hero" was the biggest hit of their career. With the subtitle of "Hero ni Naru Toki, Sore wa Ima" （ヒーローになる時、それは今...The Time to Become a Hero is Now), the song was released in December 1978 and hit the top spot on Oricon. It eventually became the 13th-ranked song for 1979.

It was also one of those songs that got a lot of airplay at the karaoke bars and boxes that I visited on both sides of the Pacific.

Now, if only our other teams can become heroes as well....