Sandra Hohn/Yuji Ohno & Lupintic Five featuring Yoshie Nakano -- Love Squall（ラヴ・スコール）

 

Hope your weekend is getting off to a great start. Unfortunately, my province has had to be locked down for the next 28 days once more due to skyrocketing cases. Over 3000 and change in each of the past couple of days so I'm hoping that there is some light coming over the horizon eventually. 

On a happier note, it also looks like the blog's "Lupin III"（ルパン三世）file is growing as well. I found one of the ending themes for the second series of the legendary anime which had its run between October 1977 and October 1980. This is "Love Squall" that premiered from the 52nd episode so I'm surmising that this may have been in late 1978. This was sung by Sandra Hohn, which was another alias for Sandii of Sandii & The Sunsetz fame.

Sounding like a jazzy and snazzy accompaniment to a lazy cruise down the Riviera, the whimsical "Love Squall" is just the song that the title character would appreciate playing with a successful wooing of the buxom Fujiko. The horns including the saxophone and the silky strings all enhance the atmosphere of one classy caper somewhere in the south of France. Yuji Ohno（大野雄二）, the master behind the music of "Lupin III" was once again behind the music here with Sanaho Maki（槇小奈帆）providing the lyrics. "Love Squall" also made its presence known on the 1984 "Lupin the 3rd ~ Perfect Collection" album.

In 2011, there was another entry in the "Lupin III" franchise with "Lupin III ~ Chi no Kokuin - Eien no Māmeido"（ルパン三世 血の刻印 〜永遠のMermaid〜...Blood Seal of the Eternal Mermaid）, a TV special that was originally broadcast in December 2011, and with it came a cover of "Love Squall". This time, it was performed by Yoshie Nakano（中納良恵）, vocalist for the jazz/avant-pop group Ego-Wrappin', with Yuji Ohno & Lupintic Five, and although there is a good dollop of jazz in this version, too, the arrangement this time has more of a funky disco sheen, and there's even a repeated riff that has been lifted from Julio Iglesias' Spanish take on Cole Porter's "Begin The Beguine" from 1981.

Nakano and Ohno have collaborated before via "Lupin III". In fact, it was the actual iconic theme.