Mariko Tone -- Just A Moment

(excerpt only)

I'd been ignoring Mariko Tone（刀根麻理子）for a long time...something that I now regret. I've come across her name over the years through the Net and during my forays into the music stores of Tokyo but never gave her a shot.

During those 2 weeks in Japan, another disc I bought during my mad rush through those same old stores was my 2nd purchase of the "Light and Mellow" series of City Pop/J-AOR tunes (this disc being called "Moment"). And after listening to it for the first time earlier this afternoon, I discovered Tone's "Just A Moment", which is indeed a light and mellow ballad reminiscent of a lot of those David Foster and Rod Temperton pop songs from the 80s. Man, if there are any more of these tunes in her career, I will have to extend my Xmas wish list in the next couple of months. "Just A Moment" came from her 4th album from May 1987, "Just My Tone" (clever). It was written by Tone along with Gary Stockdale (who also composed it) and Dave DeLuca.

Going through her J-Wiki and Wiki entries, I found out that the Kawasaki-born Tone debuted back in 1984 with "Derringer" which was the second theme song for the anime "Cat's Eye" following the more famous titular song by Anri（杏里）. Listening to that one as well and thinking about "Just A Moment", there seems to be a certain parallel in their sound when it comes to the two singers. But hey, it's all good for me.