Shonentai -- Diamond Eyes（ダイヤモンド・アイズ）

For the Shonentai（少年隊）file on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I believe I have covered all of the songs that I knew about from their discography, so the following is rather new to me.

I have to admit that their 3rd single "Diamond Eyes" from July 1986 has got a pretty catchy melody by bassist/composer Hiro Nagasawa（長沢ヒロ）with lyrics from Tamaki Kawada（川田多摩喜）and Emi Kanda（神田エミ）snappily delivered by Nikki, Kacchan and Higashi. Kanda, incidentally, is just an alias for the late lyricist Tsuzuru Nakasato（中里綴）.

Not to say that current Johnny's groups such as SMAP and Arashi（嵐）have been slumming on their dancing, but man, that Shonentai was really kicking things up into high gear as far as their choreography went. Anyways, "Diamond Eyes" has got that breathless beat accompanied with some tight horns as the boys sing about trying as hard as they can to get the attention of a certain hard-to-get lady with a pair of really flinty eyes. Perhaps I'm thinking of a Clintonia Eastwood. However, I think the girls in the audience were all armed with more puppy-dog eyes.

"Diamond Eyes" was their 2nd No. 1 after their hit debut of "Kamen Butokai"（仮面舞踏会）in the previous year, and it ended up as the 79th-ranked single for 1986.