Masaki Ueda/Daisuke Inoue -- Takako

Being raised in the K-Tel record commercial era, I was privy to a lot of songs that were titled with single names, usually because they were the target of love for the singer. There were of course "Sherry", "Johnny Angel" and "Laura". But the same was true in kayo kyoku. We've had "Sachiko", "Junko" and even "David".

Now, allow me to introduce the soulful "Takako", a lovely sunset song sung by the just-as-soulful Masaki Ueda（上田正樹）. Written by Chinfa Kan（康珍化）and composed by the late Daisuke Inoue（井上大輔）, this ballad simply soars into the early evening sky and I would think that any young lady with that name would feel properly complimented.

The arrangement by Katsu Hoshi（星勝）has a lot of talent involved with folks like Yuji Toriyama and Makoto Matsushita（鳥山雄司・松下誠）on guitar, the chorus group EVE, and the Joe Strings. It's epic and soothing at the same time, and it's no wonder that "Takako" won an award for arrangement at the Japan Record Awards that year. The ballad was a May 1984 single for Ueda.

Inoue himself covered "Takako" in his 1989 album "Sapphire Blue". His version sounds slightly more pensive and elegiac, and even has a bit more of the "lonesome cowboy" feeling to it. I think both the Ueda original and the Inoue cover even have a hint of Righteous Brothers in the verses. But in the end, I have to go with Ueda's "Takako" since I get so much feeling from its arrangement and the vocals.