Tatsuro Yamashita/Mariya Takeuchi -- Your Eyes

This is an unabashed love ballad that still sends shivers up my spine whenever I hear it. I'd wondered if Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）had always made this song for singer-songwriter Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）whom he had married in 1982. It turned out that he did make the song for her....to sing. However, for some reason, the deal fell through, so he took on the singing duties. Yamashita actually took care of the composing while American singer-songwriter Alan O'Day wrote the lyrics. O'Day had his own No. 1 Stateside back in 1977 with "Undercover Angel", a song that I could imagine Yamashita handling easily.

It was one of the first songs by Yamashita that I'd heard....what an impression. It's one of those soaring summery tunes that wears its heart on its sleeve. I think he just nails it here, right down to those "I love ya"s at the fade-out, and the lovely sax solo in the middle. "Your Eyes" was the final track for his 1982 album, "For You", which also contains his cover of his wife's "Morning Glory" and "Amaku Kiken na Kaori"（あまく危険な香り.... Sweet Dangerous Scent), great AOR songs both of them (and already profiled under his name). The album, released in January 1982, hit No. 1.

Well, an update of sorts from January 11, 2014. I just caught the pilot episode from what has probably got to be the most bizarre effort of Takuya Kimura's long career in dramas: "Ando Roid", （安堂ロイド）which came out just last Fall on TBS. Basically, I'm thinking "Terminator", "The Matrix" and your average sci-fi anime with this one. But within all of the special effects, Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや） came up with a cover of her husband's classic ballad. So, she finally got to sing it after all. It got a limited release as a single in October 2013.

By the way, this is Alan O'Day's "Undercover Angel".