trf -- Xmas dance wiz U

 

Did not know this one by song-and-dance group trf. For the longest time, when it came to Christmas and trf, I'd always thought "Samui Yoru dakara"（寒い夜だから）although I gather that perhaps it had always been more of a winter song in general.

It appears, though, that Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）already had jingle bells and holly racing about in his head when it came to his first big group in the big Komuro Boom of the mid-1990s since he came up with "Xmas dance wiz U", the coupling song to the group's 3rd single "Ai ga Mou Sukoshi Hoshii yo"（愛がもう少し欲しいよ...Wanna Little More Love） released in November 1993. Things must have been hopping for him and trf since on the same day as that release, their 4th single "Silver and Gold Dance" (have yet to cover that one) got out, and then the next month was "Samui Yoru dakara".

As for "Xmas dance wiz U", not only does it sound more Yuletide-y than "Samui Yoru dakara", it also comes across as the perfect mix of Xmas and Komuro who of course wrote and composed it. Lyrically, it strikes me as that "Absence makes the heart grow fonder" moment with a couple happily reunited and looking forward to sharing the Holidays together...perhaps at Wild Blue Yokohama because the song was used to advertise the indoor pool complex on TV. Nothing says Christmas more than taking a dip into a heated body of water, after all.

The original single made it up to No. 29 on Oricon while "Xmas dance wiz U" was included in trf's 6th album, "BRAND NEW TOMORROW" which hit the shelves in December 1995. That album peaked at No. 2, going Triple Platinum. Good days for the band back then.