m-flo loves BoA -- the Love Bug

Spoke about "Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2" in my last article and one of the big guest stars in there was Kurt Russell as Ego, The Living Planet.

However, I first knew about Russell when he was acting in all those crazy Disney comedy movies of the 1970s...titles like "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes" and "The Strongest Man in the World".

Speaking of Walt Disney, another oft-seen movie series from the Mouse House on Sunday nights on TV was the "Love Bug" series starring Dean Jones with a seemingly sentient Volkswagen Beetle called Herbie. I enjoyed plenty of hilarity as a little kid watching all these movies on NBC.

So you can imagine several decades later my surprise when I heard that there was a song with that title "the Love Bug" by m-flo and BoA. Not sure whether VERBAL and company had been giving a shout out to the Disney character but then again, the guys did pay some tribute to another American TV chestnut "Star Trek".

As part of the "m-flo loves..." series, this was released in March 2004 although no VW Beetles were involved. I've featured some of the other songs from the series such as "Summer Time Love" with Emi Hinouchi and Ryohei, and they all follow the similar formula of a pretty upbeat arrangement with the guest singers putting in their part while VERBAL floats in and out like a takekoputa (inside joke) plus provides some mid-song rap. "the Love Bug" is apparently the second in the series and I remember it best for BoA giving her "hip hop" patter.

The song was m-flo's 16th single which went Gold as it peaked at No. 8 on Oricon. It also appeared on the group's 3rd album "ASTROMANTIC" from May 2004. That album hit No. 2 and ended up as the 42nd-ranked release of the year, going Double Platinum.