Lip's -- Splendid Love (in December)

 

Earlier today, I'd chatted with Scott from "Holly Jolly X'masu" and said that most likely, I wouldn't be putting up anything to do with Christmas today since I wanted to space out the Yuletide stuff over the coming 25 days. Well, that thought went out the window pretty quickly after hearing the following. Ah, by the way, say hello to Kayo above again.

A couple of years back, I posted an article involving the song "Ai no Maryoku"（愛の魔力）, the debut single by the early 1990s aidoru group Lip's which had its time between 1990 and 1993 and was one of the last such groups before the years of the Aidoru Winter took hold in the middle of the decade. 

Well, for some reason, in that same year of 1990, a decision was made to superficially merge Lip's and another aidoru trio called Rakutenshi（楽天使...Happy Angels） along with the aidoru Rumi Shishido（宍戸留美）to form the unit Nanatsuboshi（ななつ星...Seven Stars）. With the catchphrase for them being "The idol invasion strategy is to brighten up the world with fun songs and cute smiles" (which doesn't strike me as being particularly innovative considering the nature of aidoru), Nanatsuboshi never appeared on TV, radio or any events and even with one single by the larger group "Ribbon Musubi no Waku Waku"（リボン結びのWAKU WAKU...Ribbon-Tying Excitement） being released in November, at least a couple of the members have stated that they never recalled the entire group of seven assembling together during recording, so the individual units did their parts separately and then let the magic of music editing take place. The only time they all got together was for photography of the jacket cover. I'm just speculating here, but perhaps the higher-ups for Rakutenshi, Lip's and Shishido backed out of the deal in whole or in part but kept up pretenses for the minimum time and maximum face needed.

Regardless, right after the single "Ribbon Musubi no Waku Waku", an Xmas-themed album was released in December 1990 titled "Seiya Nanatsuboshi"（聖夜七つ星...Holy Night Seven Stars）. It was an album whose tracks were sung by the individual groups and Shishido, and even individual members, except for "Ribbon Musubi no Waku Waku" which was included as the final track. 

However, one track that got my attention was "Splendid Love in December" which was performed by Lip's. It had some big names behind the production: lyricist Yumi Yoshimoto（吉本由美）, composer Masayuki Kishi（岸正之）and arranger Nobuyuki Shimizu（清水信之）. The attention-getting part was this aidoru track which brings together the feeling of the sophisticated pop of Swingout Sister and even some House dance beats for a tune about celebrating the Yuletide. It wasn't only caviar and champagne but also about hitting the nightclub floor. 

The thing is that "Splendid Love in December" is a self-cover of sorts of Lip's' 2nd single simply titled "Splendid Love" which came out in June 1990.