It's been a little more than 35 years following the death of one of the biggest postwar entertainers, Yujiro Ishihara（石原裕次郎）. He would have been 87 years old this year, but his music and his roles on TV and movies still seem to resonate with folks. I'm pretty sure that even in the karaoke boxes, there are at least seniors who are more than happy to sing some of his old hits.
My information on when this particular song first saw the light of day is a bit sketchy. I could only find a sliver of a statement through the search engine results that "Ai Suredo Kanashiku" (Loving But Sad) had been released in August 1974 but neither his J-Wiki articles nor his website (which isn't working, at least in his discography section) could give confirmation. But at least, I did find out via the JASRAC database that the lyrics were provided by Junko Takabatake（髙畠じゅん子）and the melody was by Hiroyuki Nakagawa（中川博之）.
"Ai Suredo Kanashiku" is a sweet bar-friendly enka ballad about the popular trope of parting is such sweet sorrow. Hearing that plucking guitar and the silky strings almost materialized a tumbler of scotch in my hand, and The Tough Guy's velvety crooning had me thinking about the lit streets of nighttime Akasaka or Ginza in Tokyo. Methinks wherever Ishihara is now, he's probably enjoying that Old Parr in very comfortable surroundings.
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