Last night, I got into a story about comparing theme songs from nightly news broadcasts from America and Japan to introduce a Bread & Butter（ブレッド&バター）ballad which was the soothing theme for the late-night news show "NNN Kyo no Dekigoto". Well, I was able to find another relaxing song which became the ending theme for the 1991 version of the show.
And it just happens to be by one of my favourite singers, Ruiko Kurahashi（倉橋ルイ子）. She may have been most well known during the 1980s but her "Itsuka Dokoka de" (Sometime, Somewhere) was recorded in November 1991. With a slightly more zippy urban contemporary arrangement, the song is still perfectly relaxing Ruiko, and as I mentioned for that Bread & Butter song, this is the type of tune that I would want to hear after hearing several minutes of depressing headlines.
The saxophone and keyboards are particularly welcome with Kurahashi's lovely vocals. The singer herself wrote the lyrics while Gou Suzuki（鈴木豪）came up with the melody.
This single also had the coupling song of "HOME" which has got that nice American country music feeling. Kurahashi is one of those few Japanese singers who has had the tendency to tackle that genre of music during her career; another singer I often think about is Mariko Takahashi（高橋真梨子）. Richard Leigh wrote and composed this ballad with Kurahashi writing the translated version. Listening to it, I have got this hankering for sourdough bread and barley soup.
Both songs also ended up her 1991 album "Aozora no Shita de"（青空の下で...Under The Blue Sky）which I was fortunate enough to get in the used CD department of Tsutaya right across from Shibuya Station. It's not easy to find a Kurahashi album these days so it took me all of a millisecond to make the decision.
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