trf -- Samui Yoru Dakara （寒い夜だから）

Not sure if this is considered to be more of a general Winter song than a Xmas song, but I've played it a lot before December 25. I think it basically insinuated itself into the Christmas part of my brain after having heard it nearly nightly as the closing theme of a late-night show in 1994 and 1995.

"Samui Yoru Dakara" (Because It's a Cold Night) was another Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉） concoction which became trf's 5th single....just before the singing-&-dancing unit truly hit the heights of popularity the following year. Released in December 1993, the title popped up in Komuro's head one night when he was bicycling over from his home to the studio....merely a 5-minute ride. Feeling the chill in his bones, once the title arrived, it apparently took him the remainder of his commute to come up with the whole song. A bit of a Galileo moment, I see.

The single peaked at No. 8 on Oricon and was included as a track in trf's 3rd album, "World Groove" which was released in February 1994. The album became a million-seller and hit the top spot before becoming the 9th-ranked release in the charts for the year.