globe -- Joy to the love

Man, the powers-that-be really updated those characters from "Cyborg: 009"! I was also wondering why they were placed in the thumbnail for a video (unfortunately the video has been taken down) for a globe song when I found out that Tetsuya Komuro's（小室哲哉）trio had provided some music for one entry of the "Cyborg: 009" franchise.

But this isn't the song. Actually, "Joy to the love" was the 2nd single by globe so it had been released some years before the band's relationship with the anime. In fact, I remember hearing it in commercials selling the song and the album "globe". The single itself was released in September 1995 with Komuro providing words and music. It went all the way to the top of the charts and ended up as the 47th-ranked single for the year, going Platinum.

"Joy to the love" isn't up on my list of most favourite globe tunes which would explain why it took so long to finally put it up, but on hearing it again, it's indeed recognizable in a nostalgic way. No, that last phrase isn't exactly redeeming for the tune but it is what it is. 😕

According to the May 1996 issue of SONY magazine "WHAT's IN?" via J-Wiki, Komuro utilized a Jungle loop in the melody while the piano phrasing is bossa nova in nature. More interesting is the true trial and tribulation that the songwriter had to endure in getting this and one other song created.

From an issue of "Pia" magazine, "Joy to the love" was going to be used as the campaign song for the Toyota Cynos and for the shooting of the ad itself, he went over to New York City. The first spanner in the works was thrown when the sponsor apparently demanded that the song be changed which necessitated Komuro to head all the way back to Japan to a studio in Yamanashi Prefecture to whip up a new song at warp speed without the bothersome essentials of sleep and rest. And then, Toyota catapulted the second spanner by having a change of heart and ordering that "Joy to the love" be used after all. Obviously, I wasn't anywhere near Komuro when all this was falling out, but I'm fairly sure that the words joy and love weren't in his heart. He did get into that commercial in The Big Apple, and I hope that he earned a really juicy steak there.

For all that kerfuffle, what was the second song? Well, it turned out to become Tomomi Kahala's（華原朋美）2nd single "I Believe".