Spitz -- Cherry

Y'know....this is the first time I ever heard of any band getting their name from a member's love of an English consonant cluster. Spitz（スピッツ） was one of the bands I started hearing a lot about during my early years in my long Ichikawa sojourn. And their vocalist, Masamune Kusano（草野正宗）, had a long love since his high school years for the letters "sp" in words like "crispy" and "special"(I've got a feeling that he may have hung out a lot at KFC after school)....this info I did get from both Japanese and English versions of Wikipedia, by the way. Then, when he came across the word "spitz", he discovered that in German, it had the meaning of "sharp and pointy"or "cranky", and apparently that sealed the deal for the name.

In the Japanese Wikipedia, Spitz is classified as a rock/alternative/power pop band. Perhaps in their very early years playing in the cool-and-youthful Tokyo neighbourhood of Shimo-Kitazawa, they may have been rock, but I've always thought of them as just a good ol' guitar-based pop group, post-Band Boom. They'd been around since the mid-80s but it wasn't until the mid-90s that they hit the limelight with hits like "Robinson", the first song I heard from them.

But for me, my favourite tune by Spitz is "Cherry". Written and composed by Kusano, it's a skipworthy song on a nice Sunday afternoon, and I think their music video kinda reflects that happy, breezy feeling. And I enjoy that little ragtime jazz riff near the end. I read that Spitz got some of their musical influence from Scottish singer Donavan who had some jazz and pop in his songs. The lyrics seem to express a man's gratitude toward a former love for their time together before optimistically moving on.

Apparently, the title for their 13th single has an interesting backstory. Originally, the title was to have been "Biwa"(a fruit in Japan), but Spitz decided to go with "Cherry" since their  release month of April 1996 was also Cherry Blossom season in the country, and so it could also be seen as a launch point on a new journey (the information came from that month's issue of "Rockin' On Japan"). In addition, 5 days before the official release of the song on a broadcast of TV Asahi's "Music Station", Kusano remarked, probably when he was asked about the origins of the title, "Well, since all of us are cherry boys..."(i.e. virgins). I can only imagine the conversation among the band members after the show was pretty interesting; perhaps it started with phrases like "Well, maybe YOU are, Masa...."

Whatever the origins, "Cherry" was another home run out of the park as it hit the No. 1 spot on Oricon and became the 4th-ranked song of 1996.