Misato Watanabe -- Oh! Darling （Oh! ダーリン）

Misato Watanabe's（渡辺美里） "Oh! Darling" is one of the last tracks on her 1990 album, "Tokyo", and it's in the form of one of her blow-out-the-windows barnburners. With her booming voice and a horn section as the stars, Misato, who also wrote and composed the song, happily implores her beau to come and dance with her while they very cheerfully celebrate Christmas. Methinks the singer probably dragged the poor fellow at warp speed down Tokyo's Omotesando Avenue on Xmas Eve. And she drops a lot of big names in the lyrics....listen if you can hear them through the sung katakana.

When I first heard "Oh! Darling" on the album, I thought Misato was going for a bit of "Day Tripper" but then the disco pop came roaring in on a steady stream of strings and the chorus started chanting in, and the musical dash commenced. However, there was a small musical Yuletide respite from the typical Watanabe happy boisterousness before the singer and band went for the big finish which included a couple of shout-outs to Xmas songs of years past.

I'm not sure if the singer ever held concerts during the Holidays....usually summer was her domain back when the album came out....but if she ever did perform around December, "Oh! Darling" would definitely be one on the list.