Shigeru Suzuki -- Lady Pink Panther

https://www.flickr.com/photos/studiomondo/6151675005/
by StudioMONDO

Along with "The Flintstones" and all of those Warner Bros. and Walt Disney cartoons, the one other animated character that accompanied me through my early childhood was the Pink Panther. I used to watch the cartoon series with the somewhat more accident-prone version of the panther and the animated version of Inspector Clouseau. Of course, there was the famous Henry Mancini theme song that accompanied each and every episode, but it was the whole version of the song by the snazzy jazz orchestra which was played for one episode only and for each of the original movies that brought glory to my ears.

Now the above doesn't really have anything to do with the song of this article aside from the title. I was merely rather intrigued at the choice of title for Shigeru Suzuki's（鈴木茂）first track, "Lady Pink Panther" for his 1976 album "Lagoon". Plus, most of the articles under his label have him listed as a songwriter so it's kinda nice if I can have him at the fore, so to speak, occasionally.

"Lady Pink Panther" isn't a jazz number but it still does take me to nice climes with the Resort Pop bossa nova, and with the album title of "Lagoon", I think it was fairly important for Suzuki to set the right tone which this song does appropriately. Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）, Suzuki's old band mate from Happy End, provided the lyrics to Suzuki's caipirinha-friendly melody. Apparently another colleague from the old days, Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）, also participated in the album.