Noriko Sakai -- GUANBARE

Y'know...I've seen this title for Noriko Sakai's（酒井法子）5th single, "GUANBARE" for a number of years now, but I couldn't really remember the song. Then when I finally heard it, I realized that I did hear it before. It just so happened that I was watching an episode of "The Best 10", and Nori-P was performing this very song on some elaborate set of a house. As she was traipsing through the living room toward the front door, crazy cut-up tall Takaaki Ishibashi（石橋貴明）of comedy duo Tunnels（とんねるず）was lying in wait right by the door, so when the lass stepped outside, he gave her his famous insane leer right in the middle of the song which threw her off. She could only scream and yell "Iya~da~!" in immensely cute fashion, and in all likelihood, that set off tons of hearts to flutter like butterfly wings. Hijinks aside, basically, this is probably the very first song by her that I had ever heard.

"GUANBARE" (Cheer Up) was released in February 1988 with Yukinojo Mori（森雪之丞）and Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）taking care of words and music respectively. There isn't any J-Wiki article for the song so I can't find out why the title, which would usually be spelled ganbare（がんばれ）, has that extra U. Perhaps it's an affectation for Nori-P's way of pronouncing words.

As for the lyrics, Sakai is singing about standing up from the ground and getting back onto that horse following the end of a romance. There are always plenty of other fish, she's saying. And I'm sure that there were plenty of fans who would have lined up to take the cad's place. Strangely enough, this most Nori-P of aidoru singles "only" got up to No. 7 after her three previous singles peaked at No. 4, but "GUANBARE" will still remain a dear Noriko Sakai song in my heart. ❤