Hitomi Tohyama -- Sangurasu wo Hazushite（サングラスを外して）

 

When I first saw the heading for this particular track from Hitomi Tohyama's（当山ひとみ）February 1983 fourth album, "Next Door", I humourously thought that "Take Off Your Sunglass" was referring to a particularly kakkoii version of that cyclopean Minion. After all, it's supposed to be sunglasses, and not sunglass.

But as it turns out, the original English subtitle for "Sangurasu wo Hazushite" is actually written out on the album as "Take Off Your Sunglass" and Tohyama actually sings it in that way, so who am I to judge? Anyways, it's the music that we're here for, and "Sangurasu wo Hazushite" is one of the mellower mid-tempo tracks tempered by the piano along with a horn section. The melody was provided by saxophonist Mitsuhiro Sonoyama（園山光博）, who would later participate in the Far East Club Band which backed up Kazumasa Oda（小田和正）on the high-energy "FAR EAST CLUB BAND SONG" on his BEST album "Oh! Yeah!" several years later.

The lyrics by Chinfa Kan（康珍化）speak on a cool and mysterious man (and not a Minion) who is peering at a woman from afar. However, it's hinted that the woman knows who exactly Mr. Kakkoii is and is more than happy to have him focusing on her since it's possible that she's undergone quite the makeover. In fact, she's daring him to drop the pretension and just take off those darn sunglasses. The setting might sound rather dark-alleyish but the music is quite uptempo. Speaking of "Next Door", I've covered a couple of other tracks from the album: the tropical "High-Heel Dancer" and the Burt Bacharach-penned "Our Lovely Days".