Tomoyo Harada -- Romance （ロマンス）

Y'know, I knew a little about Tomoyo Harada's（原田知世） time as an 80s aidoru, and somewhere in my ancient tape collection, there are about 4 or 5 songs by her. But, by and large, as the years passed, I only got to know her more as a pitchperson on commercials, especially for instant coffee (Blendy, if you wanna know) and to a smaller extent, as a tarento on some of the variety shows.

But then, I heard this song, "Romance" by her, which was about as far away from anything aidoru she did as those teenage days themselves. It was a 1997 cover of a song by Swedish singer Ulf Turesson who composed the song, with Harada providing the lyrics for the Japanese version. And the arrangement was by Tore Johansson who has produced bands such as The Cardigans, New Order, Franz Ferdinand, and also a number of other Japanese artists like Bonnie Pink, Mimori Yusa, and Ayano Tsuji.

"Romance" has this Swinging 60s sound which reminded me of some of the music that The Style Council did in the 80s, and the eternal Tom Jones sang when I was but a very wee lad. When the song hit the charts after its release in January 1997, I was pretty delighted at hearing a Japanese singer trilling away at this summery, devil-may-care tune....especially in the dead of winter. To be honest, the Shibuya-kei label I gave is just from me, but listening to "Romance", I just felt that it could be something that Pizzicato Five or Flipper's Guitar could have tackled. Shibuya-kei has been a genre which strikes me as being a musical calling card to travel to Europe, and this song can be considered to be an invitation. By the way, it managed to peak at No. 39.

And the above is the Ulf Turesson original.

Tomoyo Harada -- Romance