Yasuhiro Abe -- Cafe Flamingo

At first, when I came across the title of singer-songwriter Yasuhiro Abe's（安部恭弘） 2nd single from February 1983, "Café Flamingo", I got the impression that this was gonna be along the same lines as WHAM!'s "Club Tropicana" (where the drinks are free). However, it actually turned out to be more of a "daylight" tune by Abe, compared to the more nighttime songs that I've already written about. In fact, I think "Café Flamingo" has more akin to the uptempo stuff by folks like AOR singers Christopher Cross and Jackson Browne.

Although the song probably was included on his debut album, "Hold Me Tight", I first heard it on the BEST album I got. I've compared it to Cross and Browne but if I were going along Japanese City Pop lines, I would also compare it as similar to the songs of Abe's contemporary, Junichi Inagaki（稲垣潤一） who was also just starting his long career. As with Inagaki, his upbeat stuff goes nicely with that drive along the beach on either side of the Pacific.