Daiji Man Brothers Band -- Sore ga Daiji （それが大事）

I'll have to admit that figure skating doesn't come high up on my list of winter sports to be watched. For me, ice hockey and luge have more appeal. However, my parents do watch figure skating, and in Japan, where figure skaters can have the same kind of fame and popularity that rock bands and A-list thespians possess, names like Yuko Ando, Mao Asada and Yuzuru Hanyu are regularly heard here at home.

Speaking of that last skater, Hanyu has been going through a small rough patch of late after that injury from a collision during practice a few weeks ago and then not having the greatest performance (so far) this weekend for the NHK Trophy in Osaka.

I have seen the lad psyching himself up in the arena hallway while listening to some sort of song (if someone knows the singer and title, please let me know). However, although he certainly doesn't need my assistance (he's already got another Toronto resident for that...Brian Orser), if he could use a bit of cheering up, I can advise listening to the above song, "Sore ga Daiji" (That Is Important) by Daiji Man Brothers Band.

This song was released back in August 1991. I just barely missed hearing about this group since I went back to Canada after my JET tour of duty the month before, and only heard "Sore ga Daiji" through a mix tape that I got from one of my friends several months afterwards. It was quite the 2 years for me in terms of happy energizing music....I remember it for Bakufu Slump's（爆風スランプ）"RUNNER" and Noriyuki Makihara's（槇原敬之）"Donna Toki mo"（どんなときも）as a couple of examples. And I think the Brothers' most famous hit can be included. It has that sort of beat which would make one want to join them in a march down Chuo Dori in Tokyo, and I wouldn't be surprised if it has been used at weddings and sports events.

Daiji Man Brothers Band first formed in 1990 with Toshiyuki Tachikawa（立川俊之）as its vocalist, and then came their 3rd single, "Sore ga Daiji". It was initially used as the ending theme for a TV Asahi program, "Sports Frontier", After entering the charts at No. 17, it flew up to No. 2 the following week before hitting the top spot at the very end of 1991. Fuji-TV's popular comedy-variety show, "Kuni-chan no Yamada Katsutenai Terebi"（邦ちゃんのやまだかつてないテレビ...Kuni's Yamada Unprecedented TV）, then adopted it as its own new ending theme from January 1992. By the end of that year, it was the No. 4 song on the annual charts, having sold close to 2 million copies. That is indeed important. Before their breakup in 1996, they released 14 singles and 7 original albums.