When I first heard the name of this Dreams Come True side project involving vocalist Miwa Yoshida（吉田美和）and singer Rinko Urashima（浦嶋りんこ）, I think I did a figurative spit take...since I heard something else at first. I do like my peanuts, after all. My first thought was how in the world did those guys come up with FUNK THE PEANUTS? J-Wiki was not that much help in clarifying matters. Supposedly, whenever Yoshida and Urashima shared the mike during specific tunes in a DCT concert, the duo was simply called FUNK THE PEANUTS.
The duo (who went by the names of MIWA and RIN under FTP or FUN P1 and FUN P2 respectively) debuted in July 1995 with "Koi no Wana Shikakemasho!"（恋の罠しかけましょ...Let's Set A Love Trap!）which was made the theme song for FUNK THE PEANUTS. To be honest, I'm gonna have to re-acquaint myself with the four singles that Yoshida and Urashima had released, although on hearing their 3rd single from January 1997, "Hai! Hai! Hai! Hai!" (Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!), my memory was once again jiggled to remember. It was quite the popular song on one particular Saturday-night karaoke show.
For FUNK THE PEANUTS, the schtick was for Yoshida to whip up songs that came off like comical banter between two girl friends. And with "Hai! Hai! Hai! Hai!", the song sounded like a telephone call between Yoshida and Urashima over the latest romantic failure with one being the sufferer while the other one acted as the shoulder to cry upon/the eye-rolling buddy who has to absorb the moaning and groaning (thus the title). However the refrain lets it be known that any cynicism is trumped by love and support for getting out of the doldrums. Yoshida is credited for composing this one although she went under the pseudonym of Sumire Kannonzaki（観音崎すみれ）when she wrote the lyrics.
The music goes for some good ol' R&B and with the crisp delivery of the "Hai!" by the singers as well as their refrain-ending "HA!"(must be some primal therapy involved), I can only imagine that Yoshida was also inspired by a bit of Akiko Wada（和田アキ子）. "Hai! Hai! Hai! Hai!" peaked at No. 6 on Oricon. It was also used for a Suntory beer commercial.
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