Hide & Rosanna -- Ai wa Kizutsukiyasuku（愛は傷つきやすく）

 

In the most recent ROY article that I've written, I noted that I didn't bother profiling the Top 3 songs on the August 3rd 1970 Oricon chart (yep, exactly 53 years ago) because I had yet to write about any of them. Well, that's now down to two songs.

That is correct since I'm now covering the kayo kyoku that hit No. 1 on that day, Hide & Rosanna's（ヒデとロザンナ） May 1970 5th single "Ai wa Kizutsukiyasuku" (Love is Fragile). Despite the direct translation that I've provided, the record cover has the official English title as "Love is Free". 

It's a little surprising that it's taken this long to cover "Ai wa Kizutsukiyasuku" since I did write about their "Ai no Kiseki"（愛の奇跡）here several years ago and the melody is familiar to me as one that has probably been performed on music shows such as "Uta Con"（うたコン）. Written by Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）and composed by Taiji Nakamura（中村泰士）, the opening verses show a vocal give-and-take between Hide and Rosanna about their love along with an uncertainty in the melody before it gives way to a key shift into something happier and more hopeful with the two singing together.

I love the triumphant trumpet, by the way. The song not only hit No. 1 on August 3rd 1970 but it stayed there for the rest of the month. "Ai wa Kizutsukiyasuku" eventually ended up as the No. 7 single of the year, and it became a million-seller with it also leading to Hide & Rosanna getting invited onto the Kohaku Utagassen for the very first time that year. They would make one more appearance on the annual NHK special the following year.