Indeed, I'm fully cognizant that Christmas has been over for well over a month or that we're still more than 11 months away from the next Yuletide season. However, I've had this hanging in the backlog for a long time now, and in an even longer period of time, the last time I wrote about Kai Band（甲斐バンド）was over ten years ago for their one and only "Hero". I felt that I had to rectify this situation.
Now, Kai Band's "Anna" doesn't sound automatically like a typical Christmas tune although it does have that folksy lilt. But lyricist and vocalist Yoshihiro Kai（甲斐よしひろ）who also came up with the melody weaves up a story about a couple separated by circumstances at around Christmas time and the guy has been getting some serious wishes to get back together with the titular Anna.
"Anna" made its debut as Kai Band's 13th single in October 1979 and it's their third single to hit the Top 10 of Oricon. According to an interview in the journal "Shunkan Bunshun"（週刊文春）via J-Wiki, the song was created in a couple of bars with the first verse written up on the back of a coaster in a Hakodate, Hokkaido watering hole while the second verse was completed in a similar place in Shibuya, Tokyo. In addition, that same J-Wiki article mentions that Shogo Hamada（浜田省吾）was responsible for the guitar intro since he dropped into the recording studio occasionally and so the band simply asked for his help.
The song hit No. 4 on Oricon and by the end of the year, "Anna" was the 79th-ranked single for 1979, but the same time the following year, the song went even higher, finishing at No. 52. "Anna" wouldn't end up on an album for several years, though, when it finally got onto Kai Band's 2nd compilation of best hits, "Here We Come the (3→)4 Sounds" in September 1985. It peaked at No. 11.
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