Yumi Matsutoya -- Niji no Shita no Doshaburi de （虹の下のどしゃ降りで）

For me, this was the final Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由実）single that struck a chord with me, although there had been several years beforehand where I didn't pay much attention to the Queen of New Music. Basically, my finest memories of Yuming were way back in the 70s and 80s for the most part.

Then one night, I started seeing this ad for the Suica commuter pass in Tokyo starring actress Yukie Nakama and a penguin (after all, this was a Japanese commercial). Of course, I instantly recognized the voice doing the jingle, and much to my surprise, even the little bit she sang stood out to me. 

Yuming's "Niji no Shita no Doshaburi de" (In A Downpour Under A Rainbow) was her 38th single from February 2006, and naturally it sounded different from her New Music days of the 70s and her synthesizer-heavy days of the late 80s and early 90s. However, there was something about the song that was newly refreshing but also reminiscent of the old times. Although it was the singer behind the music and lyrics, with her husband, Masataka Matsutoya（松任谷正隆）doing the arrangement, I thought there was also a hint of the cool groove of Tomita Lab in there, and since I enjoyed a lot of the tracks on his 2003 album "Shipbuilding" which had Yuming as a guest performer, I think that was what did the trick for me and got me to buy her 34th album, "A Girl In Summer" from May 2006 which contained the single.

As for the single, "Niji no Shita no Doshaburi de" managed to peak at No. 22 on the charts.