Kyosuke Kusunoki -- Come To Me Again

Another wonderful track from the "Highway" compilation of the "Light Mellow" series to go along with Miki Asakura's（麻倉未稀）"Forum" which I wrote about a few days ago, Kyosuke Kusunoki's（楠木恭介）"Come To Me Again" is another creamily enticing mid-tempo song.

(29:37)

Originally from Kusunoki's debut solo album "Just Tonight" from 1985, "Come To Me Again" was mentioned in the liner notes in "Highway" as being very Bobby Caldwell, and I can certainly agree with that assessment. However, I would also like to add that Kusunoki's vocals remind me a bit of the voice of Michael McDonald from the Doobie Brothers.

The arrangement does indeed remind me of Caldwell's most famous hit "What You Won't Do for Love" to some extent, especially when the mild horns come in. I wish that it were a longer song but I guess "Come To Me Again" must have followed that entertainer's edict of leaving the audience wanting more. Kusunoki composed the song with Kyoko Utsumi（内海鏡子...hope that first name is correct）providing the lyrics and Hiroshi Narumi（鳴海寛）arranging everything in a way that would probably have had David Foster, Quincy Jones and Rod Temperton giving a collective thumbs-up.

As for Kusunoki, he was the lead vocalist in the band The Wood which started out originally as rocker George Yanagi's（柳ジョージ）backup group Rainy Wood（レイニーウッド）in the mid-1970s.