"Anata no Kiss wo Kazoemashou ~ You Were Mine" (Let Me Count Your Kisses) by J-Pop diva Yuki Koyanagi（小柳ゆき）seemed to take up permanent residency on the Countdown TV rankings. It just looked like the image of the lanky Koyanagi standing up against that wall in the official video was always making a weekly presence for months. And sure enough, on the Oricon charts, the song stayed there for 45 weeks and just kept on selling way past a year.
Not too bad at all for a 17-year-old releasing her debut single. Yuki Koyanagi was born and raised in Saitama Prefecture, and thanks to her older sister, gained an interest in music from the age of 5. According to J-Wiki, she started out singing the ol' kayo kyoku but then gained a love for the songs of Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey, and certainly that influence really showed in "Anata no Kiss".
Single No. 1 was released in September 1999, and was composed by Hideya Nakazaki（中崎英也）and written by Ren Takayanagi（高柳恋）. It sold more than 700,000 copies and earned Koyanagi a berth in the Kohaku Utagassen for 2000. When I saw the excerpt from the music video, I had thought that "Anata no Kiss" was a theme song for one of those romantic J-dramas, but it actually served two masters, neither of which was a drama. It was the ending theme for an NTV variety show, "Yamitsuki"（ヤミツキ）starring singer/bon vivant Hiromi Go（郷ひろみ）, and it was the main theme for an anime, "Alexander Senki"（アレクサンダー戦記...The Military History of Alexander The Great） also known overseas as "Reign: The Conqueror".
The song peaked at No. 7 on Oricon and eventually became the 30th-ranked song for 2000. I ended up buying one CD by Koyanagi, although "Anata no Kiss" wasn't it. It was actually "Koyanagi The Disco" from 2003 since she covered some of my favourites from my childhood. However, I did have a friend who used to live in Toronto for about a year who was a humongous fan of hers. Whenever I visited him at his apartment, he usually had a concert video of hers running on the telly to help him get through the long winter.
Dear C-J, I read your comment on Noelle Tham's song "Hana Yome Toge". I think best enka song features the parent's point of view when it comes to a wedding is Ikuzo Yoshi [Gil Ikuzo or Yoshihito Kamata] song "My Daughter". He first sang it as a solo but later on duet with Shimazu Aya. I heard he has a one daughter and he wrote it just before her wedding day. It is so emotional song even Ikuzo cannot hide his tears while singing. As a father of a daughter, I also feel the same way. If you have time please do a column about that song and it is worth for it. One "genn itsuki" forward that clip to U Tube. Thanks looking forward your column.
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