Toshiyuki Nishida -- Ii Yume Miro yo（いい夢見ろよ）

By Toshiyuki Imai via Wikimedia Commons

It's been close to about a couple of years since the passing of actor and singer Toshiyuki Nishida（西田敏行）. I will always remember him for his biggest hit "Moshimo Piano ga Hiketanara"（もしもピアノが弾けたなら）from April 1981 , and it'll probably be difficult for his fans to prevent anything flowing from the eyes whenever the telly shows him singing this one.

Well, out of curiosity, I had been wondering what was on the B-side of Nishida's famed single. I've said it only recently but it's often been the case that a quiet A-side would beget a more upbeat B-side and vice versa. As it turns out, "Ii Yume Mire yo" (Sweet Dreams) is just as adorable and perhaps a bit more tenderhearted. Not surprisingly for a song with that title, it has a kayo lullaby-type melody and rhythm as if Nishida himself were singing softly to his own little children back in the day. The same songwriters for the A-side were behind the B-side: lyricist Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composer/arranger Koichi Sakata（坂田晃一）.