Kyoko Koizumi -- Yasashii Ame（優しい雨）

 

It's been a few years since I've put up a Kyoko Koizumi（小泉今日子）song article. Not sure what the former 80s aidoru has been up to since her role in NHK's "Ama-chan"（あまちゃん ）a decade ago.

But I did have my memory jogged when I heard this 34th single of hers from February 1993 once more. "Yasashii Ame" (A Gentle Rain) is a ballad that I remember hearing from time to time although I was still living here in Toronto at the time between Japan stints. I guess that I could have first heard it on rental videos of music shows or perhaps through the TBS J-Drama that it was linked as the theme, "Ai Suru to Iu Koto"（愛するということ...What It Means to Love）. 

The song penned by lyricist Kyon-Kyon herself and composer Shoko Suzuki（鈴木祥子）has that feel of a contemporary pop tune. Its languid pace belies the story of a woman's growing love for someone in the hopes that her potential partner feels it too. There's something about the arrangement by Ryomei Shirai（白井良明）from the Moonriders that kinda reflects the pop/rock music that was coming out in Japan in those 1990s. "Yasashii Ame" managed to hit No. 2 on Oricon and later became the 18th-ranked single of the year. It was also placed as a track on Koizumi's BEST compilation "anytime" from December 1994 which peaked at No. 12, going Double Platinum.

A lot of commercials in the above but at 5:02, there is a playful little promotion for "Ai Suru to Iu Koto" before the more dramatic teaser for the show.