Sugar Babe -- Kyou wa Nandaka（今日はなんだか）

Well, I'm keeping part of my promise to cover individually some of those songs that influenced one of City Pop's greatest figures when he was a kid via the first part of the two-article series of "Who Influenced Toshiki Kadomatsu?"

The first one is "Kyou wa Nandaka" (Today, Somehow) by New Music band Sugar Babe（シュガーベイブ）which had members who would become stars on their own: Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）, Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）and Ginji Ito（伊藤銀次） among others. One of the tracks on their lone 1975 album "SONGS", "Kyou wa Nandaka" is as joyful to hear as it is to read. The lyrics by Yamashita and Ito read off a very happy man's realization that love is about to come around; it's only a matter of time.

May I also add that Tats' music is sublime with that clarion call piano in the intro and the end along with the free jazz at the end as well? "Kyou wa Nandaka" is the melodic equivalent of a fun and rollicking car ride with the top down anywhere in the big city, and there is that riffing guitar that pops up a few times in the song that reminds me of a motor revving up. Plus, there are those sweet and warm horns accompanying Yamashita's vocals. The music seems to be enjoying life as much as the protagonist is and may even be illustrating the vibrancy of the metropolis itself.

Enjoy aiko's own sunny cover of "Kyou wa Nandaka".