Yoshiyuki Osawa -- Tenshi ga Kieta Yoru（天使が消えた夜）

The question that I had initially was "Has Masayuki Suzuki（鈴木雅之）ever released a Christmas song?" I'm a big fan of his and wouldn't it be nice to add a bit of soul to the J-Xmas song list?

The wonderful thing about answering this sort of question via "Kayo Kyoku Plus" has been the search and what other wonderful songs can be discovered along the way. And this time is no different. Now I did find an adorable classic done by Martin himself but I will leave that until tomorrow on Xmas Eve perhaps. Instead, I bring you this marvelous soulful ballad by singer-songwriter Yoshiyuki Osawa（大澤誉志幸）, someone who has often worked with Suzuki.

Titled "Tenshi ga Kieta Yoru" (The Night The Angels Left), this was a coupling song on Osawa's 29th single "Setsunai Toki wa Boku ga Iru~Subarashii Sekai...I'll Be Here During the Tough Times~A Wonderful World~"（せつない時は僕がいる〜素晴らしい世界〜）from December 1995. Man, is this soulful! Osawa composed the melody and Takeshi Yokoyama（横山武）wrote the words about a man promising to provide solace to a woman going through a rough time. From that sexy sax to Osawa's caressing vocals to Yokoyama's lyrics, perhaps it's good that the angels left considering what this might lead to.😁

Although there is no direct reference to Christmas, the release date and the mention of angels and snow are good enough for me to make this into an urban J-Xmas tune. Plus, isn't it to nice have such a song that doesn't deal with heartbreak every Christmas Eve in Japan? In any case, I would love to have Suzuki cover it if he hasn't done so already.