After so many years of focusing on City Pop in all its iterations spanning a few decades, I confess that I still have a soft spot for the late 1970s' brand of sophisticated pop in perhaps still smoggy Tokyo while savoring cocktails in the high-up hotel bars.
Mind you, "Tokimeki no Toki" (A Time of Excitement) by singer-songwriter Machiko Watanabe（渡辺真知子）begins with a phrase that literally sounds like the typical riff that sets off viewers' minds a reeling when a TV suspense program goes to commercial. But then, the quintessential strings, piano and horns all assemble like The Avengers to provide a scene of high class but also one of, yes, suspense. As written and composed by Watanabe with Motoki Funayama（船山基紀）handling the arrangement, the romance involved here is appropriately ardent but though the woman is willing to give her whole heart now and forever, she feels that her partner only appreciates her current self and perhaps may change his mind with any evolution. Perhaps it's time for that suspense riff to come in here one more time.
Regardless, "Tokimeki no Toki" is in the middle of Watanabe's fourth studio album "Memories" which was released in December 1979. According to the J-Wiki article for the album, there were some big names among the studio musicians including trumpeter Shin Kazuhara（数原晋）, Eiji Arai（新井英治）on trombone and Masaki Matsubara（松原正樹）on electric guitar.
This song does kind of sound like a the kind of closing theme song that might be use for Meitantei Conan or maybe another detective drama.
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