Credits

I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.

Saturday, February 29, 2020

Jitterin' Jinn -- Present(プレセント)


The last time that I wrote about the band Jitterin' Jinn(ジッタリンジン)was all the way back in 2013 with "Nichiyoubi"(にちようび).


And yet for all of the Jitterin' Jinn songs that I did cover back then, I had completely forgotten one that I should have remembered as one of their trademark tunes. Once again comes the Gibbs slap. "Present" was the band's 2nd single from Valentine's Day 1990, and I should have remembered it since I did see the original video on MTV Japan back in Gunma, and there were those repetitive lyrics all set to a melody that sounded like the nursery rhyme "Hush Little Baby".

The song, written and composed by JJ guitarist Jinta Hashi(破矢ジンタ, comes across as a spiteful kiss off to a suitor who wasn't all that he had claimed to be. After receiving all sorts of gifts including accessories and various forms of literature, the woman finds out that the heel already had another girlfriend on his arm. To be honest, when I first saw the video, I was starting to get a bit impatient at all of the presents that vocalist Reiko Harukawa(春川玲子)was singing out. Now it feels nostalgic with the recognizable jangly guitar pop that was a characteristic of the Jitterin' Jinn style.

"Present" was the first single by the band to get into the Top 10 by reaching No. 3 and it ended the year as the 41st-ranked single. It's also been included in Jitterin' Jinn's 2nd album "Hi-King" that placed in at No. 2 on the Oricon weeklies and became the 18th-ranked album of the year.

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