Credits

I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.

Friday, April 15, 2016

Dreams Come True -- Sayonara wo Matteru (さよならを待ってる)


Back in my Gunma days and in the early days of Dreams Come True, I used to think the original triumvirate of Miwa Yoshida, Masato Nakamura and Takahiro Nishikawa(吉田美和・中村正人・西川隆宏)was the Japanese equivalent of the UK's Swingout Sister with bombastic jangling synths. Probably one of the more evident examples was their 7th single from September 1990, "Sayonara wo Matteru" (Waiting for Goodbye).

Created by Yoshida and Nakamura, it's a plaintive song with Yoshida demanding that the soon-to-be-erstwhile boyfriend just not beat around the bush anymore and just plain tell her that the relationship is finito. I remember seeing the original music video on "MTV Japan" and being impressed by the shot of the saxophone player in the middle of the street during the instrumental bridge. That's why we have crane shots, people! Also, watching the video above, I was reminded of Miwa-chan's famous move in the form of her neck strut.


"Sayonara wo Matteru" struck No. 4 on Oricon and was the 91st-ranked song for 1990. It is also a track on their 3rd album, "Wonder 3" which was released in November of that year. That album hit No. 1 and despite the late release in the year, it became the 22nd-best selling release and even went higher a year later as the 14th-ranked album for 1991. Not surprisingly, it was a million-seller.

Apparently, Midori Karashima(辛島美登里)has done a cover version as a single which came out in January 2001 but unfortunately, I couldn't find that one online.

2 comments:

  1. Totally agree with you on the Swing Out Sister comparison. The voices of Miwa Yoshida and Corinne Drewery just get better with age. The stuff DCT did on Sony is some of their best.

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    Replies
    1. Indeed, those were the days. Did love that sophisti-pop!

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