Princess Princess -- KISS

In one of those "nostalgia from my JET days" moments, I'm putting up this article about Princess Princess'（プリンセス プリンセス）11th single from May 1991, "KISS". First hearing this through the commercial of a Suntory drink, I ended up getting the CD single. Plus I did find the CD cover of the band members looking like they were modeling all of the female hairstyles of the early 90s rather intriguing.

When it comes to Princess Princess songs, I tend to classify them into two types: their happy-go-lucky pop material such as their mega hit "Diamonds" and their pop-rock-it-to-the-wall stuff such as "Oh Yeah!". "KISS" definitely falls into the former category. The song has a pleasant melody line with a fairly lush piano-and-strings riff in the middle followed immediately by a nice guitar solo. My compliments go to vocalist Kaori Okui（奥居香）, guitarist Kanako Nakayama（中山加奈子）and drummer Kyoko Tomita（富田京子）who created this No. 1 hit. In fact, "KISS" has ended up being their final No. 1 hit to date with the song becoming the 26th-ranked single of the year. It didn't get onto an original album but is included on their special album of singles "SINGLES 1987-1992" from July 1992. The Princess Princess brand was still high up there since it stayed at No. 1 for 5 straight weeks and became a million-seller.