Nogizaka46 -- Out of the Blue

 

I've just discovered that the expression "out of the blue" had been popular enough in the television zeitgeist that several shows around the world used it for their title. Well, my "Out of the Blue" was a very short-lived 1979 sitcom involving an angel who decides to live with a family. According to its Wikipedia article, there's been a hopefully good-natured debate among those who can remember the old sitcom days on network TV on whether "Out of the Blue" was a mere weird crossover or an actual spinoff of the famous "Happy Days". 

To be honest, I barely remember watching the pilot episode of "Out of the Blue" in which Mork from Ork (Robin Williams) popped in for some quicksilver-witted banter with Random the angel. Since "Mork & Mindy" was a direct spinoff of "Happy Days", I always considered "Out of the Blue" as a "Happy Days" spinoff twice removed. I remember even less about the fact that Random even did a cameo on a "Happy Days" episode.

All that preamble ramble about old and obscure American sitcoms is just to introduce "Out of the Blue", a coupling song for Nogizaka46's（乃木坂46）Type-D CD of "Boku wa Boku o Suki ni Naru"（僕は僕を好きになる...I am Starting to Like Myself）, the aidoru group's 26th single from January 2021. I hadn't heard this one before, but a couple of days ago, NHK's morning variety show "Asaichi"（あさイチ...Morning Market） spent most of its air time on folks' own cheer-up songs and apparently "Out of the Blue" passed muster with a lot of music-loving citizens.

And why not? The disco already grabbed me from the start. Yup, that's cheerful for me, I thought. A song about how one fateful encounter can change a person's outlook on life, I can understand why a lot of people have listened to this one to get out of the doldrums. Written by Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）as usual, "Out of the Blue" was composed by youth case. The official music video has the group partaking in one of the rites of Japanese youth: the school field trip.