Anri -- Tokimeki（ときめき）

 

Well, for City Pop fans, it's been a banner day for those who've found out in the last 24 hours.

I discovered through City Pop masters Van Paugam and Masa that CNN did a feature on New Year's Eve on the genre itself via veteran singer-songwriter Anri（杏里） (and her YouTube channel has stated the above video will only be up for a limited amount of time). Van Paugam even makes a special guest appearance so many congratulations and o-tsukaresama（お疲れ様）for him.

One piece of information from the segment is that Ms. Kawashima will be celebrating her 45th anniversary since releasing her debut single, "Olivia wo Kikinagara"（オリビアを聴きながら）in November 1978 (so it'll still be several months before actually reaching 45, but I'm just splitting hairs here) as well as her debut album "Apricot Jam". And all this occurred when she was still a high school teenager. As with Van, many congratulations to Anri, too!

To commemorate the occasion, I've got the B-side to her April 1979 2nd single "Chichuukai Dream"（地中海ドリーム）, "Tokimeki" (The Beating of My Heart), a bittersweet song of lost romantic opportunities which was written and composed by Ami Ozaki（尾崎亜美）, the same lady behind the creation of "Olivia wo Kikinagara", with arrangement by Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂）. The final melodic result, though, makes it sound as if enough time has passed that though there is still some regret, there is also that que sera sera feeling and it's simply time to move on with life. Suzuki and Ozaki have concocted a breezy tune which straddles the line between New Music and City Pop/J-AOR with maybe even a bit of 50s love balladry thrown in as well. I gather that "Tokimeki" would be one of those songs to help fans right now to forget the cold weather outside and think of breezier and warmer climes.

As is the case with "Chichuukai Dream", "Tokimeki" can also be found on Anri's 2nd album "Feelin'" from June 1979. Come to think of it, considering all of those veterans who showed up on the Kohaku this time around, maybe NHK can think of having Anri show up for No. 74.