Junichi Inagaki -- Stay With Me

Y'know...it could be 30 years ago that I first heard the dreamy late summer pop ballad "Natsu no Claxon"（夏のクラクション）from 1983 by City Pop/AOR balladeer Junichi Inagaki（稲 垣 潤 一）, thanks to that late night/early morning music video show on Fuji-TV. It was the song that got me hooked on one of the Japanese princes of urban contemporary music.

Well, I found this Inagaki song recently that came out as a track on an album released by him in that same year of 1989. This is "Stay With Me" from "Heart & Soul", his 9th studio album, and before anyone gets any ideas, this isn't a cover of the Miki Matsubara（松原みき）classic. Instead, Inagaki's "Stay With Me" is a mellow strut dominated by synthesizer and some nice vocal breeze, thanks to the chorus. As usual, images of taking a walk along the beach in the summer come to mind here.

"Stay With Me" was written by Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）and composed by guitarist Junichi Kawauchi（河内淳一）with arrangement by Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光男）. It's also nice to point out that Inagaki recently celebrated his 66th birthday last month.