Mariko Takahashi -- Sincerely

When I think of the fine chanteuse Mariko Takahashi（高橋真梨子）, I've usually gravitated to her early 80s period and her even earlier stint with the band Pedro and Capricious. So it stands out when I think of this song from June 1993, her 21st single as a solo artist, "Sincerely". However, instead of the lone single, I bought it as part of her 19th album, "Verse", released in September of that year.

"Sincerely" is a sparkly and classy J-AOR number...kinda like a glass of champagne served in an al fresco restaurant on a main street. Takahashi, who had written the lyrics, wistfully sings about a long-lost love whom she may or may not still have feelings for. Makoto Mitsui（三井誠）came up with the music; not too long before this song, Mitsui had also been responsible for one of Jun'ichi Inagaki's（稲垣潤一） biggest hits and one of the most popular J-Xmas songs, "Christmas Carol no Koro ni wa" （クリスマスキャロルの頃には).

One of the reasons that this song resonates with me is that I got "Verse" during my first visit to The Big Apple almost 20 years ago in October 1993. My fellow contributor, nikala, had written about her time in New York City for her profile of the amazing Motoharu Sano（佐野元春） album, "Visitors", which naturally reminded me of my few days in Manhattan. I remember I was feeling rather terrified about going down with my friend to visit our other friend who had recently taken up residence in the Upper East Side since I was burdened with all those stories about NYC being The Most Dangerous City in the World. However, Mayor Giuliani had taken over and things had been changing there. Even back then, it was starting to feel more like the New York of "You've Got Mail" (with Tom Hanks & Meg Ryan) than the New York of "The French Connection". Mind you, that drug dealer making "a sales pitch" at us on the outskirts of Central Park one morning kinda harshed my buzz a bit.

In any case, I went to Kinokuniya Bookstore right by Rockefeller Center and was delighted to see that there was a small CD section near the front of the shop. For a guy who had been away from J-Pop shop shelves for about 2 years and who was forced to get his music from mail order (Wah Yueh had gone the way of the dodo in my absence), seeing compact discs of Japanese popular music arranged together again was manna from heaven.

I picked up a Reimy（麗美） disc and "Verse" most appropriately. Takahashi seems to have had a major love for The Big Apple during her career. She's done concerts at Carnegie Hall, and I've come across a couple of songs by her at least that give tribute to New York. So to pick up one of her albums right beside one of the city's most famous landmarks was perhaps a form of kismet. In any case, after we returned from our trip, I put in the disc into the player and heard the bright-lights-big-city tone of "Sincerely", and it's embedded itself into that part of my memories dealing with the city ever since.

Mariko Takahashi -- Verse