Mariya Takeuchi -- Jun'ai Rhapsody （純愛ラプソディ）

(cover version)

In all honesty, "Jun'ai Rhapsody" (Pure Love Rhapsody) doesn't enter my Top 10 favourite Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）songs. There are a number of her tunes that have existed before and after her 24th single from May 1994 which have a closer existence to my heart.

Still, it's an alright song with a cutesy melody by Takeuchi although her lyrics deal about an illicit affair with an office lady. I first heard it as the theme song for an NTV drama "Deatta Koro no Kimi de Ite"（出逢った頃の君でいて...Stay The Way You Were When I First Met You）starring Takanori Jinnai and Noriko Sakai（陣内孝則・酒井法子）, and since then it has become Takeuchi's most successful single in terms of sales although "Camouflage" in 1998 was to be her very first No. 1 song. "Jun'ai Rhapsody" actually got as high as No. 5 on Oricon and eventually became the 23rd-ranked song for 1994. And it has ended up on at least a couple of her BEST compilations, "Impressions" and "Expressions".

Hmmm...since I did mention it, perhaps I should think about a BEST 10 list of Mariya Takeuchi songs before the end of the year.