Marlene with Seawind -- Let Yourself Go

I see that title and I get hungry for that old Pizza Hut pizza. It was always the Super Supreme for me and back in my university days, my buddies and I would hit a branch near U of T. They always had those $5 Thursdays deals where every 5~10 minutes or so, the server would offer various slices of pizza. Indeed we let ourselves go to Pizza Hut, and after absorbing all that fat and calories, I definitely let myself go.

Once again, I use a desperate segue to bring us all to another cool urban contemporary number for tonight, "Let Yourself Go", a track from "Summer Nights", the July 1982 album featuring the collaboration between singer Marlene and fusion band Seawind. Usually the main vocalist for Seawind was Pauline Wilson, a name that is known here at "Kayo Kyoku Plus" because of her own collaborations with Yutaka Yamakawa（山川豊）on songs such as "Say You Do".

I was delighted to also find out that along with Wilson, Seawind also had saxophonist Larry Williams and trumpeter Jerry Hey, both of whom have worked with other Japanese singers. Hey is someone that I've especially seen in a number of liner notes on other albums, notably the ones for Anri（杏里）, so whenever I see his name in the list, I know that I'm going to get some fine horns. Certainly, I'm receiving those as I listen to "Let Yourself Go". My internal City Pop meter threw out a big PING when I heard this one for the first time.

When I searched at the JASRAC database about the songwriters behind "Let Yourself Go", I found out that it was a creation by Richard J. Rudolph and Leon Ware. If it is indeed the same Richard J. Rudolph, he's the songwriter and musician who was married to the late great Minnie Riperton of "Lovin' You" fame and later married retired singer Kimiko Kasai（笠井紀美子）. He also happens to be the father of actress/comedian Maya Rudolph, formerly of "Saturday Night Live".