Eiichi Ohtaki/Rie Kugimiya/Junichi Inagaki/Miku Hatsune -- Kanariya Shoto ni te （カナリア諸島にて）

Well, it took A LONG TIME to get "A LONG VACATION" but I finally got it. I recall back in August 2012 when I wrote about Eiichi Ohtaki's（大瀧詠一）amazing 1981 album that I would have to get my own copy within a few months. Actually...it was more like a few years.

Still, the important thing is that it is finally in the collection now. I popped it into the player tonight and listened to it while I was plowing through some translation work, and it made for a fine aural companion as "Kimi wa Tennen Shoku"（君は天然色.）, "Pap-Pi-Doo-Bi-Doo-Ba Story" （Pap-Pi-Doo-Bi-Doo-Ba物語）and all of the other tracks were smoothly going brainward. 

One of the songs that I did not highlight on that original article on "A Long Vacation" was one that I actually did hear on "Sounds of Japan", "Kanariya Shoto ni te" (On The Canary Islands). It's more relaxing than the two other tracks I've already mentioned but it still has that distinctive Ohtaki sound as Takashi Matsumoto's（松本隆）lyrics talk about having that fine vacation on those islands of note. However, according to a J-Wave interview, Matsumoto had never actually visited the Canary Islands and was just going with his imagination which was probably more along the lines of Hawaii or Okinawa. He finally got to travel there in 1999 to listen to a performance by conductor Carlos Kleiber...only to find out that the islands were a lot rockier and much less sandier and resort-like than he had thought (he wasn't the only one associated with a geographically-based song who was provided with a different impression of that place). Still, what he and the late Ohtaki created from that ultimately fantastical impression was good enough for me. The piano and strings helped in transporting me to a much less stressful time and place with plenty of sangria for all.

"Kanariya" was the B-side to Ohtaki's 7th single of "Kimi wa Tennen Shoku" released in March 1981 which peaked at No. 7 on Oricon.

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm12255567

The song has been covered by quite a few singers over the years. One version is by seiyuu Rie Kugimiya（釘宮理恵）under her Idolmaster guise of Iori Minase（水瀬伊織）. Her nice and easy cover comes from the 2008 album, "THE IDOLM@STER Vacation for you!", and it's actually nice to hear her sing very sweetly (her Xmas song is also adorable) considering her many anime roles as a tsundere. Then again, perhaps after she left the studio, she may have kicked a few guys in the canaries on her way home.

Several years earlier, crooner Junichi Inagaki（稲垣潤一）sang his own cover of "Kanariya" for his 2001 album, "endless chain". His version seems to swing among bossa nova, another genre of Latin and perhaps French but, hey, it's still that rock steady voice there.

Going back to the album itself, "A Long Vacation" has still being getting its accolades over the decades. The original issue was the 2nd-ranked album of 1981 (it was still hanging there at No. 26 in 1982) with its 10th-anniversary re-issue getting as high as No. 56 on the weekly rankings in 1991. Then the 20th-anniversary release soared up to No. 13 and the 30th-anniversary issue was ranked at No. 19 on those same weekly rankings.