Southern All Stars' 31st single, "Namida no Kiss"(A Tearful Kiss), released in July 1992, was an interesting choice for an opening theme song for a TV drama. The show, "Zutto Anata ga Suki datta"(ずっとあなたが好きだった....I've Always Loved You) was the dark story of a young woman marrying a creep, Fuyuhiko, with a huge Mother Complex. The drama hadn't been supposed to do very much ratings-wise, but the terrifying performances of the actors portraying Fuyuhiko and Mother Dearest did quite the opposite. In fact, "Fuyuhiko" and "Mazakon"became two of the biggest buzzwords of 1992 in buzzword-happy Japan. Just imagine inviting Norman Bates and his Mom to your home on a permanent basis.
"Namida no Kiss" was just a happy-go-lucky song to be enjoyed while swinging on that hammock by the shore, so it just seemed to be a counter-intuitive choice, but then Keisuke Kuwata（桑田佳介）, who had written and composed it, was always a pretty tongue-in-cheek guy. The song also scored some firsts as well. It was SAS' first tie-up with a TV drama, and it was the first million-seller for the band, as surprising as that may sound. "Namida no Kiss"was also released on the same day as SAS' 32nd single, "Shulaba-La-Bamba". On the weekly Oricon charts, both songs did a 1-2 punch respectively at the top; Southern All Stars was the 3rd act to achieve that feat after Keiko Fuji (Hikaru Utada's mother) and Seiko Matsuda.
The song would stay at the top spot for 7 weeks and eventually become the 5th-ranked single for 1992 ("Shulaba-La-Bamba"was ranked at No. 13), selling over 1.5 million copies.
Enjoy this brief but effective video of the wonders of Fuyuhiko, as played by Shiro Sano（佐野史郎）. It may not quite rival Hannibal Lecter's chilling air-sucking after his love for human liver/fava beans/a Chianti, but hey, Fuyuhiko has his charms as well.
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| Southern All Stars -- Namida no Kiss |
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