DOUBLE -- Shake

Generally speaking, my love for Japanese popular music was probably not shared between me and my fellow teachers. At least, I had no real idea about who they really liked in J-Pop at all, although the head teacher at one of my schools sent me onto the right path when he lent me his copy of Donald Fagen's "The Nightfly". Still, although I'm sure that names like Namie Amuro（安室奈美恵 ）, SMAP and Morning Musume（モーニング娘。）were used as pop cultural references in lessons, the teachers' room was pretty much devoid of chatter when it came to any admissions of affinity for them and their music.

It is for that reason that this particular memory that I have will always stand out. For a few years, some of us teachers had been regularly assigned to a government bank in downtown Tokyo a couple of days a week to instruct some of the younger staffers. And during lunch break one day in 1999, the three of us in one of the classrooms got onto the shocking news about the passing of a young singer who had been part of a duo which was on the rise in the music industry. We hadn't known at the time that any of us had any interest in Japanese music, let alone this sister act, but we actually spoke about DOUBLE.

Back in the 1970s, the three Hirasawa（平沢）sisters of Niigata Prefecture loved to sing. The eldest sister, Noriko, then went to study in the United States and when she returned home, she brought over some music videos featuring American R&B artists such as Mary J. Blige and Janet Jackson which garnered great interest from the two younger sisters. Sachiko（平沢幸子）and Takako（平沢貴子）then started indulging in singing which led to some gigs in the Niigata area. After passing an audition with For Life Music Entertainment in 1995, they made their way to Tokyo and started doing periodic concerts at Yokota Air Base, and a few years later, DOUBLE made their major debut in February 1998 with "To Me".

However, it was with their 4th single in March 1999 that proved to be their breakthrough. "Shake" is catchy with that "Shake it, shake it, shake it..." chorus and the music video is something that had a regular rotation on TV for many months. Written by DOUBLE and rapper MC Ryu and composed by Ryosuke Imai（今井了介）, "Shake" became another welcome addition of Japanese R&B in my mind along with the music of bird and Misia at the time. The groove is as smooth, sexy and slinky as the lyrics and the ladies in the video themselves, and DOUBLE themselves are more than happy to announce their sisterhood.

Selling more than 100,000 copies and peaking at No. 21 on the charts, "Shake" became DOUBLE's biggest hit when they were a duo, and it's also available on their prologue album "Crystal" which came out in June 1999. It went as high as No. 2 on the album charts and sold more than 600,000 copies.

Tragically, about a couple of months after "Shake" made its splash, in May 1999 and just a day before a concert in their hometown, the elder sister Sachiko suddenly passed away at the age of 25 from a subarachnoid hemorrhage in the brain. However, after a period of mourning, Takako resumed a solo career under the name DOUBLE. Releasing 18 CD singles up to 2009 (and 2 digital singles later on), her most successful hit has been "Driving All Night/You Got To" released in June 2002 and it peaked at No. 6. In addition to "Crystal", five more original albums were released up to 2011 with a number of remix and BEST compilations.