In preparations for this week's regular Reminiscings of Youth, I found this love-filled ballad by the band Crystal King（クリスタルキング）. Of course, they are known for their official debut single "Dai Tokai"（大都会）.
Well, their 2nd single which was released in April 1980, "Shinkirou" (Mirage), is another soaring song giving vocalist Masayuki Tanaka（田中昌之）another opportunity to let his boomer voice hit the stratosphere. A summer ballad about someone's torrid love, "Shinkirou" was written by Shigeru Amano（天野滋）of the band NSP and composed by Crystal King member Michio Yamashita（山下三智夫）. It's a relaxing and mellow song that I swear has some elements of "A Whiter Shade of Pale" by Procol Harum, some Queen guitar and even some of that "Dai Tokai" magic. Even Tanaka's vocals at the beginning of each verse reminded me of TUBE's Nobuteru Maeda's（前田亘輝）golden voice. Overall, it's the type of song that happily tells you it's Miller Time!🍺
Reaching No. 2 on the Oricon weeklies, "Shinkirou" ended up as the 16th-ranked single for 1980, ultimately selling around 750,000 records. The song would finally make it onto an album via the band's December 1985 "Crystal King The Best".
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