Hibari Misora -- Futari de O-sake wo（二人でお酒を）

 

I'd been ready to treat this song by the late great Hibari Misora（美空ひばり）as one of her originals, but thanks to some checking back within the archives, I've realized that this is actually a cover by the Queen of Kayo Kyoku. Good to do that from time to time.

Jazz was one of Misora's go-to genres during her long career as a singer so it was natural for me to assume that "Futari de O-sake wo" (Let's Have a Drink Together) was one of her own as she cheerfully fronts all of that Dixieland jazz. However, the fact is that she was giving her rendition of the original by Michiyo Azusa（梓みちよ）which was released all the way back in March 1974, and listening to the original again, it was definitely more in the swinging kayo vein. 

I couldn't find out when Misora had recorded her "Futari de O-sake wo" although it was a track on her 2007 "Cover Song Collection"（カバーソング コレクション）, coming out some eighteen years following her untimely death. The songwriters are of course the same: lyricist Michio Yamagami（山上路夫）and composer Masaaki Hirao（平尾昌晃）.