Momoe Yamaguchi -- Yokosuka Story （横須賀ストーリー）

My favourite song by Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）will always be "Ii Hi Tabidachi"（いい日旅立ち）but I've always liked the catchy lyrical chorus sung by her in "Yokosuka Story": korekkiri, korekkiri mou korekkiri desu ka (これっきり、これっきり、もうこれっきりですか。）. I think that opening phrase made "Yokosuka Story" instantly recognizable, and the song in general with Momoe's husky delivery, backup orchestra and voices makes this a classic kayo kyoku. It may have been a personal classic for the singer as well, since she grew up in Yokosuka.

Apparently, her fans thought so, too, since after being released in June 1976, it cracked the Top 20 in Oricon within a week and then rocketed straight up to No. 1 the following week where it stayed for 7 weeks. The amazing fact for that year musically up to August was that a mere 3 songs held the No. 1 position up to that point during 1976, according to J-Wiki. Masato Shimon（子門真人） held No. 1 at the beginning with "Oyoge! Taiyaki-kun!"（およげ！たいやきくん....Swim! Little Tai-yaki) for 11 weeks, followed by Pat Boone's "Beautiful Sunday" for the next 15 weeks, before Yamaguchi had her time in the rankings sun.

The song ended up becoming the 8th-ranked song of 1976 and is the best-selling single of Yamaguchi's career. And it was the first of many hits that the husband-wife team of Ryudo Uzaki （宇崎竜童）and Yoko Aki（阿木耀子） had created for Yamaguchi. It was a track on the eponymous album released in August which went as high as No. 3 on the album charts.