Some years later when I was settled into my home in Ichikawa and doing the English teacher life, my usual morning news show on Fuji-TV, "Mezamashi Terebi"（めざましテレビ）, selected the new theme song for the year which would become Moritaka's 29th single from June 1996. "La-La-Sunshine" is this happy-go-lucky early Beatlesque song that would greet me each morning for most of 1996 and into 1997. The synths may no longer be there but the high energy is still intact. It was a nice glass of audio orange juice, especially when one has to wake up in the wee hours.
With lyrics by Moritaka and melody by Hiromasa Ijichi (伊秩弘将...who was behind all those SPEED hits as well), watching the music video was pretty interesting as well. It had been a while since I saw Moritaka performing (never watched her concert videos/LDs). Her hair was shorter and the Sgt. Pepper's uniform showing off her gams was gone; apparently, she looked more like an employee on a Hawaiian cruise liner. Still, that distinctive voice was there.
"La-La-Sunshine" peaked at No. 5 on Oricon and got her an invitation to the 1996 Kohaku Utagassen whose performance you can see above. It also became a track on her album on her 11th album, "TAIYO".
Ah, and if you wanna look at the translation for her lyrics, you can take a look here.
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| Chisato Moritaka -- La-La-Sunshine (Aloha!) |
Honestly, I don't quite like Moritaka's post-eurobeat career. I understand that she had to change in order to be successful in the 90s, but I still find most of her stuff of that time kind of bland. "La La Sunshine", unfortunately, is no exception. I can tolerate it sometimes in the "1997 Peachberry Show" DVD, as it's one of the first songs of the concert, but I tend to skip these types songs and move into her "old singles medley".
ReplyDeleteLove the Kohaku performance you posted, though. Her looks were kind of an update of her old glittery clothes.
As a side note, Moritaka was the vocalist in a brand new song released by tofubeats. The name of the song is "Don't Stop The Music" and is quite nice. Check the official video below (the only flaw is that Moritaka is not featured in the video).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUkFaNCAUHw