Princess Princess -- Sekai de Ichiban Atsui Natsu （世界でいちばん熱い夏）

One of my favourite musical memories of that time in Gunma Prefecture, "Sekai de Ichiban Atsui Natsu"(The Hottest Summer in the World) always fits the Japanese summer, even though the "atsui" in the title refers more to "passion" rather than "heat". One thing that I will never miss about my adoptive country is the season of summer. It is so humid there that I can sprout gills; the air is just so saturated with water that it literally forces the sweat to stay on my skin.

Back to the song, though. "Sekai de Ichiban Atsui Natsu" has that distinctive characteristic of being PuriPuri's 2nd AND 8th single. Written by drummer Kyoko Tomita（富田京子） and composed by lead vocal Kaori Okui（奥居香）, it was originally released in July 1987. But since at that time, Princess Princess hadn't made its breakthrough yet, the song, which was released as a 45 single, didn't chart.

Go forward a couple of years. Princess Princess has made its breakthrough with "Diamonds". And it was decided that "Sekai de Ichiban Atsui Natsu" would get a new lease on life by being released one more time in CD format in July 1989. This time, the song would hit the top spot on Oricon as many listeners discovered it for the first time, and end up being the 2nd-ranked song of the year....just behind "Diamonds". It very nearly broke the million-seller barrier. There are probably a lot of young parents right now in Japan who would swoon on hearing this chestnut again.