Minako Yoshida/Miho Yonemitsu -- Koi wa Ryuusei (恋は流星）

Man, was I impressed when I bought Minako Yoshida's（吉田美奈子）"Light'n Up" (1982), and heard some of the wonderful tracks on that album, including the gorgeous "Hoho ni Yoru no Akari"（頬に夜の灯）. This lady has soul!

Then I came across this earlier masterpiece, her 3rd single, that was part of her 7th album, "Twilight Zone". Both single and album were released on the same day in March 1977. Listening to it, I couldn't help but start shifting my shoulders and bobbing my head like a deranged pigeon. I only wondered if she and "Koi no Ryuusei"(Shooting Star of Love) had ever made it to Don Cornelius' "Soul Train". Yoshida wrote and composed the song in 2 parts. Part 1 is above with Yoshida wailing away at the night....perfect time to listen to this song.

(6:46)

Part 2 is the instrumental jam session of the song with Yoshida riffing a bit at the beginning before she lets the band go to do their thing. And according to the writeup on J-Wiki for the song, she probably had to reserve at least an entire izakaya for the wrap party. Strings, trombones, saxes, bass, electric guitar....they're all in there. Old buddies Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）and Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）are in there helping, too. And Yoshida anchors everything with those cool piano chords.

Wouldn't mind getting my own copy of the single someday.

October 10 2013: And I finally did....in fact, I got all of "Twilight Zone". Too bad, it didn't come with Part 2, though.

I also want to add to this update by showing you a lovely cover of "Koi wa Ryuusei" by former Tokyo Performance Doll member, Miho Yonemitsu（米光美保）. She gives a light and clear-as-a-bell delivery in this clubbier version of the City Pop classic. It wasn't released as an official single, but it is on her 3rd album, "Forever" which was released in October 1995.