Jun Miyauchi -- Kimi ni Tadoritsuku Tame ni（君にたどりつくために）

Looks like Akira Terao（寺尾聡）wasn't the only cool actor on a cop show to try his hand at the City Pop genre. A fellow thespian Jun Miyauchi（宮内淳）was on the famous "Taiyo ni Hoero!"（太陽にほえろ！）for about 4 years (1975-1979) as Detective "Bon" Taguchi before his character joined a long list of other detectives to die in the line of duty. Taguchi's departure from this mortal coil can be seen above.

But hey, he's OK. He apparently even had his own jeep (not sure if that was a goodbye present after leaving "Taiyo ni Hoero!") according to the cover of his own single "Tasogare ni Ai wo Mikakete"（たそがれに愛をみかけて...Look for Love in the Twilight）. Not sure when exactly that single came out since it hasn't been listed among the four singles that are given for his discography on J-Wiki, but that particular song and the B-side "Blue na Kimochi de"（ブルーな気持ちで...In a Blue Mood） are tracks on Miyauchi's 2nd album "Kimi ni Tadoritsuku Tame ni" (To Reach You) from 1981.

So, I've decided to cover a few of those songs from the album. First off, "Tasogare ni Ai wo Mikakete" is the first track, and it's a jaunty City Pop number for which I can easily see Miyauchi having a fine evening drive on the highways and byways via that jeep of his. He's got a pretty decent voice, all told, and that bass line and the Fender Rhodes keep things humming. Rui（るい）took care of the lyrics while Yasushi Nakamura（中村泰士）provided the melody according to the JASRAC database.

That B-side, "Blue na Kimochi de", starts off with a crashing guitar and then smooths itself out into a mellow downtown duet at some bar. It's been described as a 16-beat kayo AOR number according to a few sites such as Disk Union, but I think City Pop can also be a good category. As for the woman singing beside Miyauchi, unfortunately I couldn't find out who it was but she sounds somewhat like Rajie. Daiko Nagato（長門大幸）was the composer here while Daimon Nazuki（奈月大門）was the lyricist although I've come across a Twitter feed which intimates that Nagato and Nazuki are one and the same person.

One more that I will cover here is "Heartbreak Highway" with a slight reggae beat. This also strikes me as another pleasant strut on the streets of Shinjuku despite the title. Perhaps the ghost of Bon is having a good time to this one. Singer-songwriter Masa Takagi（高木麻早）provided the lyrics with Hachiro Ito（伊藤八郎）composed the music.

Not sure if "Kimi ni Tadoritsuku Tame ni" is quite on the level of Terao's "Reflections", but from what I've heard so far, I wouldn't mind having the album on the shelves somewhere, provided that it still exists at Tower Records.

September 6 2020: Unfortunately, it was reported at "Sponichi Annex" through Mixi and J-Wiki today that Miyauchi had passed away on August 14 2020 at the age of 70.