Lisa Ono -- Ano Hi ni Kaeritai （あの日に帰りたい）

Must be a good night for soothing music...this considering I've got another rousing NHL playoff game going on behind me on the TV.

As it has been intimated in previous articles and beyond, legendary singer-songwriter Yuming（ユーミン）has been much talked about, especially on the topic of when her best days were. I've pointed out that the 1970s and 1980s and a tad into the 1990s had her best stuff, although others have remarked that her best time was in a much shorter time frame...basically those years when she was known as Yumi Arai（荒井由実）in the early 1970s, before she got married and took on the name Matsutoya（松任谷由実）. Then there are others who believe that the 80s were the time for her. Everyone has got an opinion.

Still, there is no doubt that Yuming created some wonderful classics during her early years when she first became known as the Queen of New Music. "Ano Hi ni Kaeritai"（あの日にかえりたい...I Wanna Return to Those Days）is one of those songs for me and so not surprisingly it was one of the first Yuming songs I covered in the blog. There was that nice touch of sunset bossa nova in there with Junko Yamamoto（山本潤子）from Hi-Fi Set（ハイ・ファイ・セット）providing those lovely background vocals.

Well, many years later, someone came up with the bright idea of producing a tribute album to Yuming called "Queen's Fellows - Yuming 30th anniversary Cover Album" which was released in December 2002. Some of the popular artists from the past and present at the time joined in to give their own covers within the Great Yuming Songbook. Lisa Ono（小野リサ）did her bit and gave her lusciously mellow spin on "Ano Hi ni Kaeritai". Of course, she would be the one to cover it. Get the sherry out! The album itself managed to peak at No. 7 on Oricon.