Tetsuji Hayashi & C.C. Girls -- Sekai de Ichiban Setsunai Yoru ni（世界で一番せつない夜に）

 

To be honest, the first time that I had ever heard of the 1990s incarnation of the girl group C.C. Girls（C.C.ガールズ）was actually on an episode of "Crayon Shin-chan"（クレヨンしんちゃん）when the title character (the kid's probably only around 4 or 5 years of age) openly lusted for the members of the group. C.C. Girls was first formed in 1991 from a quartet consisting of Noriko Aota（青田典子）, Noriko Harada（原田徳子）, Rie Fujiwara（藤原理恵）and Yuko Fujimori（藤森夕子）, all winners of the Japan Beauty Awards held the previous year, and their first appearance was in an issue of Japan's "Playboy" magazine. They became popular through their appearances on variety shows and behind the mike as singers. As for the derivation of their name, although they first started out being known as the D.D. Gaps for their first three singles, they switched over to C.C. Girls in 1992 with those first two letters standing for cool and classy.

Of course, it was a given that the ladies would also do their fair share of commercials.

Their 6th single from April 1993 was "Sekai de Ichiban Setsunai Yoru ni" (On The World's Most Painful Night) which was basically a duet between composer Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）and C.C. Girl Fujiwara while the other three ladies backed them up. I was a little surprised that the song was done in a 1990s City Pop style but I shouldn't have been so since after all, C.C. Girls gave off that image of the downtown party-hearty set. And of course, Hayashi was the music maker and arranger here while Mami Takubo（田久保真見）took care of the lyrics. As for the somewhat apocalyptic title, it seems as if one or both friends suffered romantic failures with one suggesting that they throw caution to the wind and enjoy some sophisticated debauchery in Tokyo for one night. I have a feeling that there will be some charred credit cards by the end.

It doesn't happen all that often, so savor the fact that Hayashi is seen up with C.C. Girls performing on the stage here. "Sekai de Ichiban Setsunai Yoru ni" was also a track on the group's third album under the C.C. Girls name, "Woman From Tokyo" released in July 1993. Under both the D.D. Gaps and C.C. Girls names, the original group put out ten singles and eight original albums.

However, beginning in 1995, there was a gradual change in the lineup with Harada and Fujiwara leaving the group first. By 1998, C.C. Girls was a totally changed quartet known as the second generation that lasted until 2003. In 2019, the group was revived under the name C.C. Girls 3 with a current lineup of five different women.