Mariya Takeuchi -- Dream of You (ドリーム・オブ・ユー）

The full title of Mariya Takeuchi's(竹内まりや）2nd single is "Dream of You: Lemon-Lime no Aoi Kaze"(レモンライムの青い風）with the last three characters meaning "blue wind". An appropriate title for a breezy song with a hint of Connie Francis' 50s/60s pop and the West Coast sound of the 70s. The first few years of her career going into the early 80s were characterized by this retro sound which reminds me of the aforementioned Francis, Shelley Fabares ("Johnny Angel") and even early Olivia Newton-John. Tunes of candy-cotton fluffy love...perfect for a young Japanese girl or boy.

The single itself didn't go much higher than No. 30 on the Oricon charts, although the album that it later came on, "University Street", went up to No. 17 on the album charts, pretty respectable for a sophomore effort. In fact, it seems that her albums have been getting more of the love than the individual singles; case in point, Takeuchi had to wait until her 20th anniversary in the business in 1998 to finally get that No. 1 single, "Camouflage", although "Single Again" came pretty darn close a decade previously.

Not quite sure where the retro sound originated from, although I am curious. Was it from her parents' collection of old American LPs? Or could it have been from her 1-year stay in Illinois as a high school student?