I've got to admit...I wasn't quite sure what to make of this B-side to Hi-Fi Set's(ハイ・ファイ・セット)8th single from April 1977, "Kaze no Machi"(風の街). The A-side is the straightforward City Pop driving song that's got the breeze going through the hair and love filtering through the heart.
"Crystal Night", not to be confused with Junko Ohashi's(大橋純子)classic "Crystal City" which came out the same year, is a B-side that had me popping question marks around my head initially. Right from the intro, my ears were hit by a mixture of disco strings and country-loving steel pedal guitar before things settled down into this 1970s peppy City Pop song. And then, the roots rock guitar came crashing in like Superman through a wall. Still, "Crystal Night" overall feels like another hot evening on the town much like its companion "Kaze no Machi". Two of the members of Hi-Fi Set, Shigeru Okawa(大川茂)and Toshihiko Yamamoto(山本俊彦)were responsible for words and music respectively with Ichizo Seo(瀬尾一三)taking care of the arrangement. The song was also a track on the group's 3rd album from February 1977, "Love Collection"(ラブ・コレクション)which not only hit No. 1 on Oricon but it was also the No. 1 album of the year.

It almost sounds contemporary.
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