Who da thunk it? I heard and knew about this down-home and adorable jingle for a type of Toyota Corolla on TV for years but didn't realize that this would be singer-songwriter Kenji Ozawa's（小沢健二）greatest hit thus far.
And yet, Ozawa's only apparent involvement with "Corolla II ni Notte", his 6th single from New Year's Day 1995, was behind the microphone in the recording booth. Creative designer Masahiko Sato（佐藤雅彦）was behind the lyrics along with Masumi Uchino（内野真澄）and Atsuko Matsudaira（松平敦子）, and Uchino came up with the melody. Veteran guitarist and singer-songwriter Chuei Yoshikawa（吉川忠英）arranged everything.
Considering the Corolla's image as the car for the middle-class masses, "Corolla II ni Notte" (Get On The Corolla II) is note-perfect as the reassuring music and lyrics describe the Corolla II being put through its paces transporting folks doing the usual daily errands and hobbies. The car may not be sexy or sporty but it'll get you to wherever you need to go and then take you back home safely.
The song peaked at No. 2 and ended up as the 42nd-ranked single of 1995. Those Corolla II ads had been shown throughout 1994 and I didn't get to Japan until November that year, so they must have run for a very long time since I could remember the commercials very well. According to a January 1995 issue of the Asahi Shimbun newspaper via J-Wiki, "Corolla II ni Notte" had initially been seen as simply a commercial jingle so only 5000 copies of the song had been pressed, but the popularity of the ads soared it was released officially as Ozawa's single on January 1st that year. It ended up selling more than 800,000 copies!
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