Akemi Ishii - JOY

"JOY" is Akemi Ishii's（石井明美） 4th single released in July 1987 as a theme song for a Fuji-TV romantic drama. And it also happens to be her first single that doesn't have that Latin touch...it's a straight mid-tempo pop song. Written by Tetsuya Chiaki（ちあき哲也） and composed by Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）, despite the uplifting title and the happy melody, the lyrics take things into Charlie Brown-ville once more as Ishii sings about a wistfully resigned person affected by that familiar trope of kataomoi (unrequited love). To her, it's OK to have everything remain a dream, to just remain friends, just to have that occasional drink, and to cry alone. AAUGH! That Little Red-Haired Girl (or Boy) must seem even farther away now.

"JOY" was also the title of Ishii's 2nd album which was released in August of that year. I came across it in the mail-order section of an old issue of "Eye-Ai", and hearing her first few singles, I decided to draft one of my first money drafts and get the CD. Ahhhh....those early pre-Amazon years; I actually wrote on a slip of paper to buy a Japanese disc.

Thanks again to j-lyric.net.