Happy Monday! Didn't think that I would find, let alone, hear another song by the 1980s pop trio, Sugar. The trio of lead vocalist/keyboardist Miki Kasamatsu（笠松美樹）, leader/bassist Kimiko Mohri（毛利公子）and guitarist Kumiko Nagasawa（長沢久美子）were famous for the sweet-sounding but bile-filled hit "Wedding Bell" which got them their lone shot on the 1982 Kohaku Utagassen. After that, though, my impression was that Sugar was more of the one-hit wonder.
Still, I was happy to discover that one of their later songs got onto the "Drive" entry in the "Light Mellow" album series of City Pop/AOR. Titled "Ijiwaru Shine" (Nasty Shine), this was written and composed by the late Mohri as a plenty mellow urban contemporary number about keeping the good summery times going. Originally, it was a part of their third album "Sugar Bean" from May 1983. Very pleasant combination of those familiar City Pop instruments including a flugelhorn (I think) and the harmonies of Sugar that I remember from "Wedding Bell".
In Mohri's lyrics, there was mention of drinking back a ginger ale, probably between puffs of that cigarette. Considering that I've heard the drink even being included in a City Pop song title, I'm kinda wondering whether Canada Dry was the official non-alcoholic libation of the genre everywhere.
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