Masayuki Suzuki -- MARTINI

Exactly two months ago, I did a BEST article on Masayuki Suzuki's（鈴木雅之）"MARTINI II", a compilation of the soul crooner's hits of the early 1990s. Well, I'm going backwards here since I will now be taking care of Martin's very first BEST album, "MARTINI" which was released in June 1991. Allow me to show the lineup along with that cocktail.

1. Introduction ~Wakare no Machi~（別れの街）
2. First Love
3. Tatoe Kimi ga Doko ni Ikou to（たとえきみがどこにいこうと）
4. Misty Mauve (1991 Re-mix version)
5. Guilty (1991 Re-mix version)
6. Glass Goshi ni Kieta Natsu （ガラス越しに消えた夏）
7. Oyasumi Rosie ~ Angel Baby e no Homage（おやすみロージー〜Angel Babyへのオマージュ〜）
8. Private Hotel（プライベートホテル）
9. Dry Dry
10. Our Love Is Special
11. Kuu na（くーな）
12. Bayside Serenade（ベイサイド・セレナーデ）
13. Watashi no Onegai（私のお願い）
14. Wakare no Machi（別れの街）

Now, if you compare this article here with the one that I wrote for "MARTINI II" back in February, you'll notice that there are more links for the above playlist since I've already talked about a lot of these tunes. I simply couldn't keep a good man's songs down all these years.

"Tatoe Kimi ga Doko ni Ikou to" (Suppose If I Ask You Where You're Going) is one of those few singles that I had yet to cover, and to be honest, it isn't among my Top 5 favourite Martin songs. However, it IS a Martin song with plenty of soul and strut, and I still can't deny its cool factor. Released as his 11th single in February 1991, it was written by Saeko Nishio（西尾佐栄子）and composed by Hideya Nakazaki（中崎英也）with its first album appearance being right here. The lyricist relates the urban story about a fellow who has feelings for a woman but is struggling the right way to approach her. It managed to get as high as No. 38 on the charts.

Although it already has its own article, I couldn't resist but put up "Misty Mauve" again. This song IS in my Top 5 Martin singles, and after all, it was created by the killer tandem of Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）and Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）. Just that horn section in the bridge would be worth the price of admission but of course, we get the whole package including Martin's golden vocals.

"Dry Dry" was Martin's 3rd single from March 1988 and it's some dynamic funk that was written by Nishio and composed by Suzuki himself. If I'm not mistaken, the song is about a woman who's really playing hard-to-get. Rising to No. 36 on Oricon, it was originally placed on the singer's 2nd album "Radio Days" which came out the following month that year. James Brown may approve.

And once again, I'm gonna be putting up another song that I've already parsed about since it was the first Masayuki Suzuki song that I fell for all the way back in my Gunma days between the 1980s and 1990s. As I mentioned in that article, "Wakare no Machi" was the campaign tune for Camellia Diamonds, a company whose TV commercials invited some pretty cool tunes. Damn fine sax and trumpet solos. Plus, of course, this was all whipped up by Kazumasa Oda（小田和正）.

"MARTINI" peaked at No. 6 on Oricon. So, for all of those who have gotten onto the "Love Dramatic"（ラブ・ドラマティック）craze, this album provides some more of the good stuff from the so-called King of Love Songs.