Miki Imai -- JOHNNY CAN'T PLAY GUITAR

(cover version)

As mentioned before, my main interest in utahime Miki Imai（今井美樹）centres around her late 80s and very early 90s period when she was singing that comfortable cafe-friendly pop. However, I did continue buying her albums into the 21st century although I haven't really put those later discs into as high a rotation as I have with her earlier releases.

Still a few songs have stood out from those later albums, including one from her 13th album, "Aqua", which came out in August 2001. I can't really say that Imai has become a slinky jazz chanteuse but her "JOHNNY CAN'T PLAY GUITAR" is a pretty polished affair. It was written, composed and arranged by her husband, Tomoyasu Hotei（布袋寅泰）, and it has that laconic downtown feeling that probably would make it ideal to be covered by Osaka group Ego-Wrappin'. In fact, I would love to hear how vocalist Yoshie Nakano（中納良恵）would interpret this tune since I think her chops are richer than Imai's when it comes to the genre.