Masashi Sada -- Ame Yadori（雨やどり）

 

Last week at the beginning of the weekly episode of "Uta Con"（うたコン）, there was a reprise of Sayuri Ishikawa's（石川さゆり）famous 1977 "Tsugaru Kaikyo Fuyu Geshiki"（津軽海峡・冬景色）, and listening to the narration, I was led to believe that the show was perhaps going to do a theme on the hits of that particular year. But as it turned out, such was not the case. However, the thought triggered me to wonder if I had overlooked any of the Top 10 Singles from 1977, so I went over to that particular KKP article, and realized that I had already covered nine of the ten songs listed. There was still the remaining one, though.

At No. 6 was singer-songwriter Masashi Sada's（さだまさし）"Ame Yadori" (Rain Shelter). Released in March 1977, I guess that in a way, this could have been the prequel song to his 1979 hit "Kanpaku Sengen"（関白宣言）which was Sada's mild-mannered and tongue-in-cheek declaration of how a household in Showa Era Japan should be run. "Ame Yadori", which was written and composed by the singer in his characteristically sweet, calm and mellow way, is his version of a stand-up routine in which a man and a woman who meet by chance sheltering from the rain end up falling in love after which come the inevitable encounter with the future in-laws before the proposal. 

"Ame Yadori" was Sada's 2nd single following his departure from his band Grape and his first Oricon No. 1 single (stayed up top for almost a month) as a solo performer. It sold approximately 830,000 records and was also a track on his June 1979 compilation album "Sada Masashi Best 16"（さだまさしベスト16）which peaked at No. 2.