Sachiko Kumagai -- Hikari no Bell wo Narase（光の鐘（ベル）を鳴らせ）

Commenter Pocari cottoned me onto this song by Sachiko Kumagai（熊谷幸子）a few days ago.

I've already got one other Kumagai song on the blog, her 2nd single "Mirai wa Kimi no Mono"（未来はきみのもの）and my impression from my first experience with this 90s pop singer is that she was into some very cheerful material. My opinion has been further strengthened by her 4th single from November 1993, "Hikari no Bell wo Narase" (Ring The Bell of Light).

Recently, I've been noticing that some of the songs that I've covered in the past couple of weeks have borrowed certain musical phrases from other tunes by Western artists. Well, "Hikari no Bell wo Narase" starts off with this rock guitar riff before I hear this keyboard sounding something quite familiar. Being a Billy Joel fan from way back, I identified it as the intro to his 1980 "You May Be Right" which is what I believe is Joel's impersonation of Mick Jagger.

However, that's where the similarity ends. It's back to the happy-go-lucky nature of her music especially when the refrain comes in. "Hikari" has its major chords flying up into the clear blue sky as Maika Project's（マイカプロジェクト）lyrics talk of a woman who suddenly realizes with shock and maybe delight that her good buddy may actually be turning into the love of her life. Kumagai composed the music with she and Masataka Matsutoya（松任谷正隆）arranging everything. It's a fun little tune of the decade.

Hey, you can listen to "You May Be Right" for comparison. I may be right!