NUTS -- Sweet Summer Special

This afternoon was fairly arduous...not because of work because I didn't have any. Instead we had to go to a doctor's appointment on the far end of the city with all of the horrible Toronto traffic, go through a battery of tests before heading back to our end through some really heavy cloudbursts. Plus, our first choice of fast food restaurant had a power outage although luckily there was a Wendy's nearby. All in all, I'm happy that I'm home.

Nope, it definitely didn't feel like summer outside and not many would argue with me when I say that it was barely spring. So allow me to bring in "Sweet Summer Special" as something from the 1990s for you and as a bit of a tonic for me following much wind and precipitation today.

"Sweet Summer Special" was the 7th and final single released in June 1996 by the duo NUTS. I have written about them once before through their 1995 5th single "Kaze wo Kanjite ~ my precious time"（風を感じて）, and the two singles are quite different. Whereas the earlier single is reminiscent of the breezy mid-tempo pop songs from the earlier part of the decade, "Sweet Summer Special" is much more uptempo in a 90s groovy disco way. Written by the duo of vocalist Tomomi Saito（斎藤友美）and keyboardist Akihiko Hirama（平間あきひこ）along with Haruka Kayama*（夏山遥）, and composed by Hirama, I just thought that this was something along the lines of Kohmi Hirose（広瀬香美）or Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）. The latter person I mention since there is even a rapper of sorts in the song that sounds suspiciously like DJ Koo from 1990s unit TRF.

Apparently, "Sweet Summer Special" was the theme song for a movie titled "XⅡ-1118 PROMISE THE MOON" and also a commercial song for some anti-inflammatory lotion.

*There are a lot of readings for the kanji for that last name so I just picked Kayama but if someone needs to correct me, please do so.