Man, was this a heavy rotation video on TV way back when! It was definitely the heyday of Morning Musume（モーニング娘。）, and by extension, the Hello Project. "Love Machine" was just ripping through the charts and the karaoke boxes at the end of the century, and I guess the base group of MM was getting so big (size and fame) that it just had to undergo mitosis.
So, these splinter groups were formed...one of them being Petitmoni（プッチモニ）. The first incarnation had the trio of Kei Yasuda, Sayaka Ichii and Maki Goto（保田圭・市井紗耶香・後藤真希）, and their first song ended up becoming their most successful, "Chokotto Love" (A Wee Bit of Love). Hello Project's den father, Tsunku（つんく♂）, once again took care of words and music, but unlike the 1970s disco of "Love Machine", I think "Chokotto Love" had a wee bit of 1960s US game show/sitcom DeVol-inspired twinkle music mixed into the caffeinated proceedings.
As I said, the official music video was a constant presence on the music shows and video channels, especially with Yasuda, Ichii and Goto kickstepping all over the CG stage. Strangely enough, I didn't see the whole video until tonight so I was caught a bit off-guard during the first several seconds; I had thought the uploader accidentally put up "Love Machine" instead. Also, the other thing that stuck in my mind during those months of the song's fame was the "maru, maru, maru, maru" lyric.
"Chokotto Love" became a million-seller after its November 1999 release and hit the No. 1 mark on Oricon for 2 consecutive weeks. It would become the 9th-ranked song of 2000.
Not too long after, Swedish bubblegum group, Smile.dk, did their own cover of the song under the title of "Petit Love".
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