Today, while revisiting Miho Nakayama’s (中山美穂) early hits, fifth single “Close Up” just started playing, and I thought: “wow, what a lively and summery tune we have here”. In fact, sometimes I almost forget how I much I have always loved that song, and also how it encapsulates the type of singles that aidoru singers usually releases in the summer, or, in this case, a month before its start (in the northern hemisphere, of course).
Originally released in May 1986, it’s a delight to see the
young and fresh Miho Nakayama singing “Close Up” on the Yoru no Hit Studio (夜のヒットスタジオ)
stage amidst all the dancers. Usually, this TV show enhances the arrangement
with a full on orchestra, but in this case it wasn’t so necessary, since the
original recording is also quite rich with all the horns and flourishes, especially during the instrumental break. Speaking of which, it
truly sums up the excitement that we all have come to expect from the summer. In
my opinion, the slightly extended version included in the “Summer Breeze” album
(released in July 1986) is even better, since the horns are given more time to
shine during the beginning and the middle of the song, but I couldn’t find it
on YouTube, unfortunately. Anyway, the single version is already good enough.
“Close Up” reached #4 on the Oricon chart, selling
around 128,000 copies. Lyrics were written by Takashi Matsumoto (松本隆),
while music was composed by Kazuo Zaitsu (財津和夫). As
for the arrangement, Masaaki Ohmura (大村雅朗) was the responsible.
Hi, Marcos. Thanks for this latest entry on Miporin. Actually, hadn't heard it before, and I do like the original recorded version for the horns in there. That trombone especially reminded me of some of the more vigorous American pop from that decade.
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