Kazumasa Oda -- Oh! Yeah! (Follow-Up)

Admittedly, this is a bit of a strange follow-up to the original article on Kazumasa Oda's（小田和正） "Oh! Yeah!" album from 1991, but since I've been able to find a site that has the original songs as opposed to the karaoke contributions that were put up, I decided to come up with this supplementary post. All of the information for "Oh! Yeah!" is over at the original article, so I'll go straight to my favourite tracks.

(karaoke version)

"Yoru no Yukue" （夜の行方...The Way of the Night）is just one of my favourite urban contemporary J-Pop tunes, period. It just sounds so cool to me listening to this while walking the streets of Tokyo at night. In fact, the song can smoke its own cigarette. I could imagine Oda himself using this as his nighttime theme tune....that is, if he can still walk in public considering how famous he is now. I was initially disappointed when I couldn't find any presence of it on the Net when I made up the original article, so I'm quite happy now about posting this one up especially. The late Jeff Porcaro from TOTO was on the drums here.

(cover version)

"Little Tokyo" may be the coolest tie-up song for a Nescafe coffee commercial that I have ever heard. I only wish I could find the actual video for that ad. Apparently, having Oda actually show up in the commercial itself sipping a cuppa had everyone talking considering how reluctant he was making television appearances. In any case, this was also the singer's 3rd single as a solo artist which came out in October 1989. It peaked at No. 3 on Oricon. Oda's lyrics talk about that unrequited love from afar....which could describe anyone from a lovelorn colleague at a company, to a private detective or to a stalker. I think the highlight is where Oda declares near the end that no matter what the season, he will always be by her side while the synths reach their climax.

(karaoke version)

"Harukaze ni Midarete"（春風に乱れて....Shaken Up by the Spring Winds）is another track with a great synth riff and a rollicking pace about the usual trials and tribulations with love in the big city. Chikuzen Sato（佐藤竹善） of Sing Like Talking and Yasuhiro Abe（安部恭弘） are two of the big names backing Oda here. I don't think it would've been out of place if this song had also been included in the drama "Tokyo Love Story" along with that famous theme.

(cover version)

"Far East Club Band Song" is, as I said in the original article, a barnburner of a song that would probably get everyone in the stadium off their duffs at an Oda concert.  Once again Yasuhiro Abe backs him up here. I still love the instrument solos.

Of course, to finish it all off, I just had to put in that theme song, "Love Story wa Totsuzen ni"（ラブ・ストーリーは突然に...Suddenly, A Love Story）. As for the title track itself, I've got it listed in my Top 10 Nighttime List, so you can take a look there.