m-flo loves BoA -- the Love Bug

Spoke about "Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2" in my last article and one of the big guest stars in there was Kurt Russell as Ego, The Living Planet.

However, I first knew about Russell when he was acting in all those crazy Disney comedy movies of the 1970s...titles like "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes" and "The Strongest Man in the World".

Speaking of Walt Disney, another oft-seen movie series from the Mouse House on Sunday nights on TV was the "Love Bug" series starring Dean Jones with a seemingly sentient Volkswagen Beetle called Herbie. I enjoyed plenty of hilarity as a little kid watching all these movies on NBC.

So you can imagine several decades later my surprise when I heard that there was a song with that title "the Love Bug" by m-flo and BoA. Not sure whether VERBAL and company had been giving a shout out to the Disney character but then again, the guys did pay some tribute to another American TV chestnut "Star Trek".

As part of the "m-flo loves..." series, this was released in March 2004 although no VW Beetles were involved. I've featured some of the other songs from the series such as "Summer Time Love" with Emi Hinouchi and Ryohei, and they all follow the similar formula of a pretty upbeat arrangement with the guest singers putting in their part while VERBAL floats in and out like a takekoputa (inside joke) plus provides some mid-song rap. "the Love Bug" is apparently the second in the series and I remember it best for BoA giving her "hip hop" patter.

The song was m-flo's 16th single which went Gold as it peaked at No. 8 on Oricon. It also appeared on the group's 3rd album "ASTROMANTIC" from May 2004. That album hit No. 2 and ended up as the 42nd-ranked release of the year, going Double Platinum.

BoA -- MeriKuri (メリクリ)

Recently, JTM was kind enough to send me a recording of a radio broadcast that comes on regularly in which a couple of professionals in the music industry discuss about Japanese music whether it be kayo kyoku or J-Pop through various themes. The theme for this episode was on the lyricist Chinfa Kan（康珍化）. Now anyone who knows a lot about Japanese pop music from the 1980s should know about this fellow since he notably wrote songs for Anri（杏里）. And I was actually surprised to find out from the broadcast that his first laying down of the words came on Ann Lewis' "Shampoo" which I had only written about late last month. And that song was all the way back in 1979.

Well, Kan was still laying down the words into the 21st century. He provided the lyrics for Korean singer BoA's "MeriKuri" (Merry Christmas), a gentle ballad composed by Kazuhiro Hara（原一博）almost as a country-pop song. Highlighting the Japanese attitude toward Xmas as a 2nd Valentine's Day, BoA sings about a couple falling in love as the snowflakes come down. There's some of this song which reminds me about another Xmas song that I had written about earlier this month, Hikaru Utada's（宇多田ヒカル）"Can't Wait Til Christmas".

Released in December 2004, this was BoA's 15th single which was also a track on her "BEST OF SOUL", a BEST album released in February 2005. The album hit the top of the charts and became the 9th-ranked album of the year. Meanwhile "MeriKuri" itself peaked at No. 5 while becoming the 74th-ranked single for 2005.

Should try to get some more of BoA since this is just the 2nd article I've attributed to her so far on the blog. For her other entry, take a look here.

Mondo Grosso featuring BoA -- Everything Needs Love

I would love to see the video again on Super High Resolution. I did catch it a decade or so ago on the music video channel and almost immediately went on a search-and-purchase mission to get the CD single. And getting back to the present, I think I ought to consider getting a BEST compilation by Mondo Grosso;I've loved the songs that I've heard so far that have been crafted by this DJ/producer. He's been able to mix in the groove, the nightclub and some Latin, often collaborating with Bird.

No Latin in "Everything Needs Love" and no Bird here. Instead, there's some urgent groove and Korean singer, BoA, for Mondo Grosso's October 2002 single. According to the lyrics and the video, this could be just the perfect cool song for a superhero whose motif is....flowers. Well, the X-Men did have Sunfire on its roster briefly; why not a heroine by the name of Sakura? (pink eyebeams, razor-sharp blossoms...defeats overaggressive drunk salarymen during the O-hanami season...could work...or not)

As for BoA, she started her career in South Korea in 1998 but her debut in Japan came around a few years later in May 2001 with "ID; Peace B" but I think most of us got to know her very well with the arrival of her 6th single, "VALENTI" in August 2002. When I saw the video, I just thought, "Wow! The Korean Janet Jackson". She's got the voice, looks and the moves. Since that point in time, her popularity soared. And this was still a year or two away from the huge first wave of Korean culture that was sparked by the broadcast of the drama "Winter Sonata" on NHK before the second wave of Korean boy bands and girl groups crashed onto Japanese shores later in the decade.

In any case, I gotta do that search-and-purchase for Mondo Grosso now. And amen to the title...especially to the ailing Toronto Maple Leafs.