Dreams Come True -- Anata ni Aitakutte (あなたに会いたくて)

This was before I saw them on that fateful Music Station episode, before Miwa Yoshida（吉田美和）with that wide-as-the-Mississippi smile launched into "Ureshihazukashi Asagaeri" (うれしはずかし朝帰り) when I first started out on the JET Programme.

Believe it or not, Dreams Come True did have two prior singles before "Ureshihazukashi Asagaeri" started the band on their way to super success way into the 90s. Their debut single was "Anata ni Aitakutte" (Wanting To Meet You) which came out in March 1989, and listening to it, I don't think I would put it among their most popular hits (and it didn't get into the rankings) but the ingredients of DCT were there: Yoshida's boomer voice, that synth sound that seemed to come in from another country, and, even watching her performing the song, that neck jive.

"Anata ni Aitakutte" was also on their debut album "Dreams Come True" which was released on the same day as the single. That release got as high as No. 27 on Oricon and actually ended up as the 88th-ranked album for the year 1993! Talk about late bloomers! From an original output of 8000 albums, by June 1994, that first album sold 900,000 copies, going Double Platinum.

From such humble beginnings, dreams came true for Dreams Come True.