I was watching Friday's edition of NHK's morning talk show "Asaichi"（あさイチ...Morning Market）, and none other than Chisato Moritaka（森高千里）was performing an old favourite "La La Sunshine"（ララサンシャイン）on location in Fukuoka. Found out that the eternal techno-idol reached the half-century mark on Thursday so many birthday wishes to her.
Therefore in tribute, I'm putting up my first Chisato article in several months with an oldie but a goodie, "The Stress". However, I ought to start things off with the original song itself which was simply titled "Stress" without the definite article. A track from the singer-songwriter's November 1988 3rd studio album "Mite"（見て...Look）, "Stress" was heavier on the Eurobeat and speed, and it's the one that I've heard for the first time ever just within the last few hours. The song was written by Moritaka and composed/arranged by Hideo Saito（斉藤英夫）, and probably had everyone (including myself) who has ever worked in the service industries in their younger years feeling a lot of sympathy and...stress about the not-so-happy aspects of the job. The album itself peaked at No. 5 on the charts.
However, the one version that I've been familiar with all these years is "The Stress" with the added tag of "Stress ~ Chuukintou Version"（ストレス 中近東バージョン...Stress ~ Near Middle East Version）. This was released as a single in February 1989 and has that memorable video showing Moritaka in that waitress get-up getting treated shabbily before she gets a small measure of vengeance. The song has been slowed down slightly with some of those exotic notes and even some more nightmarish sound effects added. Some of the arrangement even reminded me of a certain Frankie Goes To Hollywood song.
The single ranked in at No. 19 and was also included on Moritaka's second compilation of hits, "The Best Selection of First Moritaka 1987-1993". That album got all the way up to No. 6 on Oricon.
From one generation of aidoru to another. Natsumi Abe（安倍なつみ）, one of the original Morning Musume（モーニング娘。）from the 1990s, has had her solo singing career since 2003. In June 2006, she released her 7th single which was a cover version of "The Stress". The arrangement seems to take on more of an early Latin electro-swing beat here, and Abe's delivery has a slightly more high-falutin' elegance. Her take on the Moritaka classic peaked at No. 14 and was placed on Abe's own BEST compilation, "Abe Natsumi~Best Selection~Juu-go Shoku no Nigaoe-tachi"（安倍なつみ 〜Best Selection〜 15色の似顔絵たち...Portraits of 15 Colours）. That got as high as No. 40.
