The Tigers -- Boku no Mary（僕のマリー）

By Srikaanth Sekar via Wikimedia Commons

 

According to a book on Group Sounds band The Tigers（ザ・タイガース）published in 2013, this single by the band led by Kenji Sawada（沢田研二）wasn't a huge hit. Of course, the best was yet to come for these guys, as they say.

And yet, I remember this song's melody very well since I probably heard it on a number of TV retrospectives on GS bands over the years. This happens to be The Tigers' debut single "Boku no Mary" (My Mary) which was released in February 1967, and it's notable for its mournful lyrics about a fateful encounter with the titular Mary and the breeziness of the strings. Perhaps it was the melancholy nature of the song that dampened sales but I don't think it did too badly by scoring a No. 12 on the rankings by the journal "Young Music"; the Oricon chart was still a year or several months away from coming into being. Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）and Koichi Sugiyama（すぎやまこういち）were in charge of lyrics and music respectively.

Man, that is some precious footage of The Tigers performing "Boku no Mary". Well, anyways, I figure since I've got their 2nd and 3rd singles up on KKP, it was time to post their very first single as well.