J-Canuck's 5 Leap Songs

Indeed it is February 29th 2016, Leap Day. In my view, we're in the midst of some rather unusual activities: we just had the Oscars handed out last night, tomorrow will be Super Tuesday in the United States, and today is the National Hockey League's Trade Deadline Day! For that last one, this has become such a quintessentially Canadian tradition that it should be made into a national holiday.

So, we've covered the cinematic, political and athletic. So why not go musical as well here?

These are my 5 choices for Leap Day since they all have something to do with jumping, flying and other synonyms within the title or the lyrics. The songs are not in any particular order.

1. Yoshie Kashiwabara（柏原芳恵） - Koibito tachi no Café Terrace（恋人たちのキャフェテラス）

This is the only entry on the list that has not had its own article on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" so I gather that I will be giving the largest paragraph here. The biggest thing I remember about the song is that lyricist Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）provided the phrase "Hop, skip, jump" for a ditty about a girl who just can't seem to raise the gumption to meet up with a guy she likes at a café despite her ardent feelings for him. This was Yoshie's 8th single from February 1982 composed by Masami Koizumi（小泉まさみ）, and it has that folky bouncy flavour that I often associated with the aidoru's earlier releases. It peaked at No. 9 on the Oricon weeklies scoring over 190,000 sold and was the 72nd-ranked song for 1982. "Koibito tachi no Café Terrace" (Lovers' Café Terrace) was also a track on her 6th album "Summer Sensation" from June of that year.

2. Mayo Shouno（庄野真代） - Tonde Istanbul（飛んでイスタンブール）

Part of the exotic climes kayo that was popular back in the late 70s, Shouno's most famous song has certainly got the right verb in the title. At the time, tourists were probably hankering to fly over to those amazing far-off places.

3. Hiroshi Madoka（円広志） - Musoubana（夢想花）

This was the song that sparked my idea to put up a Leap Song list in the first place. When you have that epic repeated lyric of tonde in there, it was pretty much fait accompli. 

4. Mariko Takahashi（高橋真梨子） - Anata no Sora wo Tobitai（あなたの空を翔びたい）

One of the classic Mariko Takahashi songs that has become rather rare to find on YouTube, so we've got enka singer Sayuri Ishikawa（石川さゆり）pitching in as a guest singer of the blissful soaring song.

5. Machiko Watanabe（渡辺真知子） - Kamome wa Tonda Hi（かもめが翔んだ日）

This is another song that quickly came to mind when I thought about the verb tobu. A bit of a sad ballad despite the flight of seagulls.

Happy February 29th, everyone!