Senri Oe -- Dear

 

Much as singer-songwriter and actor Gen Hoshino（星野源）has been doing for the past several years, a few decades ago, Senri Oe（大江千里）was the guy making merry with the hook-laden Japanese pop songs. One can almost taste the Oe style in his songs whether they be for some other artist such as Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里）or for himself. The songs are so upbeat in an 80s West Coast AOR sort of way.

Case in point: the track "Dear" on his 9th album "Apollo" from September 1990 (well, the song was also his 20th single which had come out a few months earlier). It had been a long time since I listened to an Oe tune but listening to this one had me snapping my fingers and going "Yep...it's an Oe!". 

I can just see him standing at the piano while pounding those keys as I listen to "Dear". He may be hitting the black-and-whites very cheerfully but the melody is just like me after a satisfying trip to the buffet table: smooth and content and happy. Helping out Oe on words and music was Nobuyuki Shimizu（清水信之）who arranged everything. By the way, "Apollo" hit No. 1 on Oricon.

Young Mr. Oe was quite the popular guy in commercials, I see. Wasn't aware of that. In the above video, his "Dear" was used to sell the Suzuki Cultus at 2:41.