ALFEE -- Kaze Youbi, Kimi wo Tsurete （風曜日、君をつれて）

I am most definitely awake now....and quite exhilarated. I haven't heard this one by ALFEE（アルフィー） in years, but it's located on one of my old Chinatown compilation tapes at the end of Side A. "Kaze Youbi, Kimi wo Tsurete" (Wind Day, Taking You There) is a pretty unusual title but the band's 22nd single from March 1986 was actually used for All Nippon Airways' campaign for summer in Okinawa that year, and it does soar like a jet. As for the "Kaze Youbi" reference, according to J-Wiki, it was most likely meant to be Friday. And why not?

Although frequent lead vocal Toshihiko Takamizawa（高見沢俊彦） wrote and composed the song, it's Masaru Sakurai（桜井賢） in the dark sunglasses that's behind the mike this time. Listening to "Kaze Youbi" after so long was a thrill ride on electric guitar and vocals that probably could take us all to Okinawa from Tokyo even sooner than that ANA jet. It peaked at No. 2 on Oricon and can also be found on Alfee's 8th BEST album "ALFEE A-Side Collection Special" which went as high as No. 18 on the album charts.