The highlights of the 1994 NHK Red and White Fetival, or Kouhaku, as they call it, were Sakamoto Fuyumi's ikebana styled "Yuzakura Oshichi", Matsuda Seiko's girly-girly "Kagayaita Kistetsu E Tabidatou", X-Japan's rocking "Rusty Nail" Moritaka Chisato dancing on a cake performing "Suteki Na Tanjoubi", and the first-ever performance I ever saw of Johnny's band TOKIO singing their debut single "Love You Only"!At the time, I was all about the Otomejuku Idol girls like CoCo, ribbon and Wink , but there was something irresistably catchy about this TOKIO song! It had such a hook that It made me ignore the fact that these were a bunch of dudes, all dressd up in white costumes trimmed with bird feathers! But what WAS it?
We were to find out that the musician who wrote the music for "Love You Only" was the writer responsible for MANY of our beloved CoCo and ribbon songs, too (I think CoCo's ONEGAI HOLD ME TIGHT was one of them!)! It's like they say...everything's connected, well at least as far as j-pop in the mid-nineties!
This song has ALWAYS been an absolute favorite to sing at karaoke: the better drunk to belt out those catch-and-call choruses...KIMI GA, KIMI GA ATSUI KOISURU NARA!!!!!!
Of coure, TOKIO was just the beginning, and I would go on to love groups like SMAP as well as groups that came along a lot later like ARASHI, V6 and the unstoppable KINKI KIDS!
"One More Time!"
