Ayumi Ishida & Tin Pan Alley Family -- Roppongi Lullaby（六本木ララバイ）

Well, welcome to February! Amazing how fast January went but that's simply the case for us older folks.

I found out about this one from Van Paugam's City Pop radio several days ago, and it turns out to be another track from the album "Our Connection"（アワー・コネクション）, the collaboration between Ayumi Ishida（いしだあゆみ）and Tin Pan Alley（ティン・パン・アレー）released in April 1977. Almost a year ago, I wrote my last article on Ishida because of the first track from this distinctive LP, "Watashi Jishin"（私自身）, a cool and funky City Pop number of its time.

Now, I've fallen for Track 3 which is "Roppongi Lullaby". For those kayo fans in the know, no, it's not the classic one first sung by Yasuko Naito（内藤やす子）in the early 1980s. It's a totally different animal created by Jun Hashimoto and Kyohei Tsutsumi（橋本淳・筒美京平）, and has this Latin and old-style kayo combined together in a then-contemporary manner. In fact, Ishida's velvety vocals remind me of her time behind the mike for her most famous song "Blue Light Yokohama"（ブルーライト・ヨコハマ）back in 1968. Not surprisingly, it was both Hashimoto and Tsutsumi who were behind that 60s hit as well.