PAO/Mariko Kurata -- Sunset Kiss（サンセット・キッス）

 

Never heard of "A Little Romance" before but this 1979 overseas cinematic rom-com starred Laurence Olivier and a 13-year-old Diane "Save Martha" Lane. Certainly, the trailer above pretty much screams "MEET CUTE!".

Following its initial release in the United States in April of that year, "A Little Romance" got its Japanese debut in July. As is often the custom, an image song specific to Japanese audiences was created for the movie, and much to my surprise, it turned out that the obscure New Music/City Pop trio PAO recorded one for this movie.

But this time, true to the nature and setting of "A Little Romance", PAO went for some of that sweeping exotic kayo instead of City Pop in the arrangement. It was released as a single with Side A providing the English-language version while Side B had the Japanese-language version. Side B was written by Masami Sugiyama（杉山政美）and composed/arranged by Toshiyuki Kimori（木森敏之）while Side A had PAO member Sabine Marianne Kaneko（サビーネ金子）helping out with the English lyrics.

I've read some rumours that the lead vocalist was Takako Mamiya（間宮貴子）who had been a member of PAO in its very early days. But seeing that name of Sabine featured very prominently in katakana on the lower-right of the cover for the single and remembering that Mamiya had only been involved in PAO's debut single "Say Yes" in 1978, I believe that there is no sign of the mysterious City Pop singer in "Sunset Kiss" although I can understand how many listeners including myself could initially think that Mamiya was behind the microphone. In any case, the above video has the English version while the one below is of the Japanese version.

Later on in November 1979, Mariko Kurata（倉田まり子）would release her debut album "Anata ni Meguri Aete..."（あなたにめぐり逢えて・・・・Encountering You） and it includes her cover version of "Sunset Kiss". With Nobuyuki Shimizu（清水信之）handling the arrangement, the song takes on a much more City Pop flavour with that downtown groove. Sounds as if the setting of the movie had been moved from Italy to Tokyo.