Friday, November 10, 2023

Masamichi Sugi -- Saigo no Merry Christmas(最後のメリー・クリスマス)

 

Just for the record, the official Christmas season on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" won't start until November 25th in a couple of weeks. However, this particular song's entry on the Yutaka Kimura Speaks file is coming up really quickly as No. 32 next Friday, so I ought to give it my thoughts before letting Mr. Kimura take the helm.

Now, truth be told, I don't think Masamichi Sugi's(杉真理)"Saigo no Merry Christmas" (Last Merry Christmas) hits me as a City Pop Yuletide tune but when it comes to the feelings of the Holidays, no problems there. Sugi took care of everything: lyrics, music and arrangement for this contemporary take on the merry season although from the title, I gather that not everything is merry in the romance department. The melody has nice hints of soul in there and I wonder who's on the chorus besides Sugi...Mariya Takeuchi(竹内まりや)perhaps?

"Saigo no Merry Christmas" was originally a track on Sugi's compilation album "Winter Lounge" from November 1986. Sugi invited a whole bunch of artists on his album for his take on a Christmas party and so we have folks such as PSY-S, Yoshitaka Minami(南佳孝)and Hi-Fi Set(ハイファイセット). It was also released as his 13th single on the same day as the album.

December 9th 2023: The band Quruli has a namesake song although it is a completely different animal.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Feel free to provide any comments (pro or con). Just be civil about it.