Jun & Nene -- Taiyou no Wasuremono (太陽の忘れもの)

(Dec. 24 2013--Unfortunately, I've discovered that the lone video for this song has been taken down. Hopefully, a replacement will be found soon.)

Did I already mention that I miss summer? Perhaps I'm not the only one. Yesterday evening I went skating to the local outdoor rink to find only a few people still enjoying the sport. About a month ago the place used to be so crowded on Saturday evenings that I could barely move around, but since then, one-by-one, people withdrew to their homes to await the coming of warm weather. So here's a pleasant little bossa nova tune by the 60's~early 70's duo Jun & Nene (じゅん&ネネ) to wrap you in comforting sun rays and vocal harmonies until spring arrives.

Jun & Nene are fresh faces to me, but I managed to find some basic info on them within the past two weeks I've known them for. The picture above is the cover of their 1968 album Aisuru tte Kowai/Jun & Nene no Sekai (愛するってこわい／じゅん＆ネネの世界). The girl with short hair is Jun (full name: Jun Chiaki), and the other one is Nene (Nene Sanae). Following the example of The Peanuts, the two debuted in 1964 as Cookies (クッキーズ) and even had their first single titled Kawaii Hana (可愛い花) (cover here), though J-Wiki notes that the tune itself was different from The Peanuts' debut. In 1968 they changed their name to Jun & Nene along with getting a fashion makeover. The move paid off, and the girls scored their first hit that year with "Aisuru tte Kowai", following it up with "Mizuiro no Sekai" and "Oki ni Mesu Mama" in 1969, which also fared well on Oricon, but their popularity faded soon after that. They eventually broke up in 1972 to pursue their own paths. They did reunite, however, in 2003 for another shot on stage and even released another batch of singles before 2010.

"Taiyou no Wasuremono" (太陽の忘れもの.....Lost in the Sun) was one of the top results to pop up on Youtube for the duo, though I had to do some extra searching to track down it source. It was never included on any of the material released under their name, but according this page, it did appear on a various artists compilation from 1970 titled Soft Rock Drivin' ~Koi no 246 (ソフトロック・ドライヴィン ～恋の246). The song was composed by Yuko Nakamura (中村裕子) with lyrics provided by Chiwa Usami (宇佐見千和). Though released in 1970, it still carries that pure and fuzzy feel of late-60's kayo kyoku. The bossa nova arrangement then adds some extra warmth to it. And finally there's the girls' voices flowing wonderfully in that classic harmony. Sunshine all around.

Source: Jennifer Louise from
Picable