Da Capo -- Kekkon Surutte Honto desu ka（結婚するって本当ですか）

 

Once again under the new Jme regime, "Uta Con"（うたコン）was back on at 7 am EDT but the good news is that there are reruns of it at 4:15 and 9:05 pm. Still, that last time won't mean much because it's Major League Baseball season here and we're not gonna miss that in prime time. Anyways, enough about the logistics. This week's episode was focused on all those hits from 1974 and the ones that were covered are probably included in the above video by LydzzxX.

But one which wasn't covered although it had been listed on one of the flip cards held by one of the guests on "Uta Con" was folk duo Da Capo's（ダ・カーポ）"Kekkon Surutte Honto desu ka" (Is It True You're Getting Married?). With a title like that, it's pretty plain that the lyrics by vocalist Hiroko Kubota（久保田広子）are about still pining for that former flame although she's about to be betrothed to another. Kubota's partner in music and then later in life (as of 1980), Masatoshi Sakakibara（榊原政敏）, was responsible for the melody which has been beautifully arranged by Takasuke Kida（木田高介）and Takahiko Ishikawa（石川鷹彦）. The piano, strings, guitar and the vocal harmonies are simply wonderful. And would you take a gander at that cover above with Hiroko and Masatoshi in the 70s threads? Brings back memories of my time in bell bottoms and jean jackets...yes, indeed I was alive at that time.

And I should mention that "Kekkon Surutte Honto desu ka" was released as Da Capo's 4th single in June 1974. It peaked at No. 8 and then became the 35th-ranked single of that year. Scoring sales of over 300,000 records, this became the duo's biggest hit. According to the J-Wiki article on the song, the initial title had been "Ameagari no Asa"（雨上がりの朝...The Morning After the Rain） but at the recommendation of a director at Nippon Columbia, it was switched over to the one that is now known. Incidentally, if I heard the narration in the video below correctly, that is the Sakakibaras' daughter playing the flute alongside her parents.