Kingo Hamada -- Lonely Wind

 

Back in November 2019, I posted an article from Mariya Takeuchi's（竹内まりや）March 1980 album "Love Songs" regarding one of its tracks, "Lonely Wind", which has been noted in one of the comments underneath its YouTube video as sounding like an unrevealed "Grease" track. I can't deny that...it does have that 1950s or early 1960s romantic doo-wop feeling.

What I didn't know at the time was that Takeuchi's "Lonely Wind" which had been composed by Kingo Hamada（濱田金吾）and written by Kazuko Kobayashi（小林和子）was actually a cover of Hamada's original version. Mind you, it was only by a few months since his debut album of "Manhattan in the Rain" had come out in January 1980. It was also added as the B-side to the singer-songwriter's 2nd single "Hotel Surf-Rider" in June of that year. 

Although Hamada's original "Lonely Wind" also retains that old-fashioned mid-20th-century flavour that would have Richie and Lori Beth swooning on the porch on that cool summer night (and was also a trope of Mariya's music back in the early days), his version seems to also possess some jazz and blues with an intro that's reminiscent of a Carpenters song. Overall, and this isn't to put down Mariya's cover (and how I could ever do that?), the original sounds a bit more mature and refined, for the lack of a better word.