Mariko Fuji -- Halloween Kai Jiken（ハロウィーン怪事件）

Since Halloween this year falls on a Thursday next week, I guess that the parties have been in full swing since last night. I checked the Shibuya live stream camera on YouTube and yep, it was busy in the main intersection with the costumed folks but it was much less chaotic than in previous years. Looks like the cops really clamped down on the raucousness this time around.

Never let it be said that "Kayo Kyoku Plus" lets an opportunity to celebrate a festival go by. I saved this one for this weekend due to its seasonal title. Titled "Halloween Kai Jiken" (The Halloween Mystery Incident), that opening groove sounded suspiciously like the beginning of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean". Even before that, I had been wondering whether this would be the third kayo kyoku that was emulating the style of "Please Take Good Care of My Heart" by Whitney Houston and Jermaine Jackson after "Eien no Morning Moon" (永遠のモーニング・ムーン）and "Lonely Chaplin" (ロンリー・チャプリン）.

However, as it turns out, "Halloween Kai Jiken" most likely gets off scot-free since it was a track on Mariko Fuji's（藤真利子）final album to date, "Glass no Shokubutsu-en"（ガラスの植物園...The Glass Botanical Garden） released in August 1984, and the Houston and Jackson duet didn't appear until the former's debut album came out in 1985. Still, I can't blame whoever the songwriters and arranger were for using that opening riff since it sounds so cool. To be honest, though, it's not the most reassured delivery by Fuji, sounding almost child-like but maybe that was the point considering that it is Halloween. The other interesting thing is that the arrangement of the groove and synthesizers reminds me of how Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由実）and her husband would later create for their pop tunes. But actually, the song is a cover of the original by a French singer named Lio.