Yuki Saito & Takao Kisugi -- ORACION - Inori （ORACION -祈り-）

I think with the recent article I did on the various works of the sibling songwriting duo Etsuko and Takao Kisugi（来生えつこ・来生たかお）, there is one song by them that has kept nagging at me over the past few days, but I held off on including that one in that article since I did want to feature it solo for its duet nature.

"ORACION - Inori" (ORACION - Prayer) was the official singles for both Takao Kisugi and Yuki Saito（斉藤由貴）which I first came across in one of the former's BEST compilation way back when. Just for the record, it was Kisugi's 23rd single and Saito's 11th single released in June 1988, a month before the movie "Yuushun ORACION"（優駿 ORACION...Fine Horse ORACION）was released with the song as the official theme. Not surprisingly, Saito was the heroine of the flick as Kumiko Wagu, the daughter of a captain of industry who was given a racehorse, Oracion, which eventually ran in The Japanese Derby. I vaguely remember seeing some scenes from the movie.

Usually when I think of these horse movies, titles like "International Velvet" and "Black Beauty" come to mind, and all of these heroic songs with horns and low strings come riding in as fast and as urgently as the steeds themselves. However, Kisugi and Saito bring far more cuddly sweetness into "ORACION" as if the title horse were still that just-born colt wobbling about on his legs. You just wanna take that CD and hug it.

As mentioned, the Kisugi siblings created the song which got as high as No. 4 on Oricon.