There are many mysteries in life: the Loch Ness monster, Roswell, how they put the caramel into the Caramilk bar, and why I hadn't written about KUWATA BAND's "Merry X'mas in Summer" any earlier considering that I did provide an article for their "BAN BAN BAN" quite a few years ago. Not a mystery: the Gibbs slap upside my head.
Well, thankfully, J-Xmas song expert Scott was good enough to remind me earlier of the other famous tune from Keisuke Kuwata's（桑田佳祐）music project. Released in July 1986, "Merry X'mas in Summer", despite the title, has that spacey tropical beat which strikes me with alternating feelings of an old-style chindon'ya band and a bit of reggae. As the cover illustrates, even Santa and Frosty need a summer vacation from time to time.
"Merry X'mas in Summer" hit No. 3 on Oricon and ended up as the 15th-ranked single of the year. The song is also included in KUWATA BAND's live album "Rock Concert" which was released in December 1986.
I really like seeing the live videos for some of these songs. That one has to be my favorite so far, mainly because Shigeru Izumiya was one of the stars he called up.
ReplyDeleteMorning, Scott. Yeah, I figured that you would like this one because of Izumiya's appearance. I was surprised by Yuming showing up. The two showed up at the end of one Kohaku perhaps a couple of years ago; I wondered whether Yuming had a bit too much to drink at the time. :)
Delete