Masahiro Hatta -- Kanashiki Sherry（悲しき恋人）

 

Several months ago, I wrote about a very obscure and short-lived pop duo by the name of SKY and one song by them called "Last Ballad"（ラスト・バラッド）from 1981. 

One of the two members of SKY was named Eizo Kitazawa（北沢英三）but once the duo broke up, Kitazawa changed to another name, Masahiro Hatta（八田雅弘）, and pursued a solo career. The result led to four singles and three albums between 1984 and 1986; it was quite the volume in a short period of time.

His second single was "Kanashiki Sherry" released in January 1985 thanks to the furigana although reading the literal kanji will show that it can be directly translated into "Sad Lover". However, the katakana furigana could be read "Sherry" or "Cherie" but just for kicks, I'm going to go with the former reading. In any case, just from the cover of the single, I gather that Hatta wanted to put in a bit more cool dude oomph into his music as a solo artist. And "Kanashiki Sherry" does feel like that AOR rock roadster hitting the big city with a loud horn. Written by Ken Takahashi（高橋研）, composed by Hatta and arranged by Jun Sato（佐藤準）, it definitely has some distinctive keyboard work, too.