Yoko Katori -- LIBRA

Didn't make any articles yesterday since I was out all day enjoying some off time with friends. I caught "Ant-Man & The Wasp" which I thought was even better than the first "Ant-Man"...but man, that mid-credits scene! It's about as cliffhanger as one can get in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Getting to the issue at hand, though, I first heard Yoko Katori's（鹿取洋子）"Goin' Back to China" from 1980 on one of the "Good Times Diva" series, and it's this short but quite exciting disco tune with some really bouncing bass. It does seem to pack a lot of travel and intrigue in its less-than-3-minute time. Quite the whirlwind romance.

At first, I had thought the Japanese version of "Goin' Back to China" was its own original creation, but then I read on J-Wiki that it was actually a cover version of a song by Dutch pop/rock band Diesel which was released in 1979. Their "Goin' Back to China" surprised me in that it was a slower-paced number more in the rock vein. Plus, the lyrics in the original version are sadder in that it sounds as if Annie had gotten the love-em-and-leave-em treatment by a cad. The Japanese lyrics for Katori's cover were provided by Fumiko Okada（岡田冨美子）. Diesel's song peaked at No. 34 in the Netherlands but only got as high as No. 105 in the US.

Katori was born Hisae Yasui（安井久恵）in 1961 in Aichi Prefecture. Her "Goin' Back to China" was her debut single which peaked at No. 42 on Oricon. Both the J-Wiki article and one other site mentioned it, so I will mention it here as well; she debuted alongside Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）, Naoko Kawai（河合奈保子）, Yoshimi Iwasaki（岩崎良美）and others.

Now, I decided to put the title of her debut and only album "LIBRA" instead of that of her most famous song up on top since I also wanted to feature one other track from her 1980 release. The final track is "Savannah Sunset"（サバンナ サンセット）, a dreamy City Pop/AOR piece that seems to match the titular time of day. Rei Nakanishi（なかにし礼）handled the lyrics while Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）took care of music and arrangement and guitar. The song doesn't quite go anywhere but I think it is pleasant enough as something to listen to while lying on the sofa in air-conditioned comfort.