EPO -- Taiyo ni PUMP!PUMP!（太陽にPUMP!PUMP!）

For those folks who were growing up in the 80s in North America like myself, perhaps some of you might have seen "20-Minute Workout" in the afternoons. Being allergic to exercise (a chronic condition, I assure you), I saw excerpts of it here on the Buffalo affiliate WUTV when I came home from school. Good ol' Bess (who later played the doomed roommate of Sarah Connor in "The Terminator") and Arlaine in their pastel headbands and legwarmers bopped about like crazy and showed that gosh darn super cheerful attitude: "Three more...two more....one more!" It was enough for me to jump as well...over to the table to grab that bag of potato chips.

Whenever I hear EPO's "Taiyo ni PUMP!PUMP!" (Pump Pump in the Sun), I always think of "20-Minute Workout". Part of it is that jumpy melody that seems to demand that people go into a calisthenics routine, and again, I start hearing "Three more...two more...one more!" thrumming in my brain. And of course, half of that title are fitness words. I had wondered if it had been used for some fitness center commercial way back when...it's not a huge leap since "Flashdance" had a big effect in Japan as well.

EPO's 12th single in June 1986 also has that beat (she took care of both words and melody) that gets me thinking of high school-based musicals such as "Grease" and "Glee". I don't think there was ever an official music video, but hearing "Taiyo ni PUMP!PUMP!" would get me presuming that if Ms. Sato had ever produced one, it would involve tons of dancers with really shiny teeth.

In the same month that the single was released, the song also became a track on her 8th album, "PUMP!PUMP!" Obviously with her writing and composing the song, it is an EPO tune, but I think it is truly an EPO-only tune...I couldn't see anyone else covering this. "Taiyo ni PUMP!PUMP!" has that certain boppiness that only EPO can handle....or Bess, if she had ever become a Japanese pop singer.

Actually, instead of a fitness center, the song was used for a Coke commercial (yep, I could see that) although the lyrics were somewhat tortuously changed to reflect the product. Ah, the trials and tribulations of a tie-up.

Not exactly PUMP!PUMP! here