Sayuri Ishikawa/The Gospellers -- Whiskey ga O-Suki deshou? (ウィスキーが、お好きでしょ）

One of my favourite commercial jingles, "Whiskey ga O-Suki Deshou?"(You Like Whiskey, Don't You?) was this sultry torch song written by Shun Taguchi（田口俊）and composed by singer-songwriter Masamichi Sugi（杉真理）for Suntory Whiskey in 1990.

I'm always delighted when a singer usually firmly esconced in one genre gives a great performance in another. Sayuri Ishikawa（石川さゆり） is famous for giving powerful renditions of enka, but she gives this tenderhearted and flirtatious jazz ballad, styled a la Nelson Riddle with shimmering strings. I can imagine Linda Ronstadt during her "What's New?"phase tackling this one.

The song was brought back again for another series of Suntory Whiskey commercials starting from 2007 onwards.

With the return of the song, two different versions were also added. From 2009, vocal group The Gospellers gave their own appealing acapella version replacing the Ishikawa original for the whiskey ads.

Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや） gave her own version starting from 2010 with the commercial take being below. If that fetching bartender looks familiar, she's actor/model Koyuki（小雪）who appeared in "The Last Samurai" with Tom Cruise and Ken Watanabe. 

For me, though, the Sayuri Ishikawa version wins hands down.

(May 17 2020: There's now a Clammbon version.)