Kiyotaka Sugiyama & Omega Tribe -- Futari no Natsu Monogatari （ふたりの夏物語）

We had our first heat alert of the year in Toronto today....a Humidex of 37 degrees C and sunny. It brought back drippy memories of Tokyo in July and August, although having lived a lot of summers in Japan, I don't think it was all that humid in my hometown. But walking in the concrete jungle of the largest cities in my home country and adopted country is not what this song is all about. It's beach time, baby!

Kiyotaka Sugiyama（杉山清貴）and Omega Tribe brought this smooth and spirited number in March 1985. "Futari no Natsu Monogatari"(A Summer Tale for Two) is also known for its subtitle, "Never Ending Summer", and was the band's 5th single, written and composed by Chinfa Kan（康珍化） and Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）who also helped out on some of their other hits as well. I've known Omega Tribe for a lot of their summery ballads, so it was always nice when they came out with some fun uptempo tunes.

"Futari no Natsu Monogatari"became the band's most successful single, peaking at No. 5 on Oricon and becoming the 15th-ranked song for 1985, selling 380,000 records. It is also included on their 4th studio album, "Another Summer", released in July of that year and hitting the top spot on the album charts. Japan Air Lines knew a good song when they heard one, and so they adopted this tune for their JALPAK '85 campaign.