As I’ve recounted many times on this blog, the first time I laid eyes on Ms. Lovely Legs Moritaka Chisato [森高千里] was on the 1995 KOHAKU UTA GASSEN, performing a wonderful song called “Futari Wa Koibito”, which I’d only recently learned off a j-pop cassette mix a friend had made for me. This love led to the purchasing of her latest album, which was, happily enough, a GREATEST HITS of sorts called DO THE BEST.
That love of that incredible Chisato album led to a desire to hear even MORE of her music, which led to MORE Chisato viewing, with either borrowed tapes of past Kohakus and Record Taishos or renting old Music Station and Sound Arena shows. It was then that the j-pop buyer in town brought in the entire back-catalog of Chisato’s concerts, and I have to say that the impressive sight of seeing all those imported VHS tapes lined up in the j-pop section is what made me decide the time was right to start looking into her VIDEO releases!
The interest in purchasing some of those concerts started there, but being a LASERDSIC man rather than a VHS person (gack, VHS, bleh), I opted to wait and special order my own copies of the concerts in Laser, and the first one I chose was the mighty LIVE ROCK ALIVE Concert. And as I’ve written in an earlier blog, that concert ROCKED MY WORLD and made me a MORITAKA CHISATO FAN 4 LIFE!
From there was the rabid fan collecting of all her Albums, Singles and Laserdiscs, both Concert and Video Clips, each one reinforcing my love of Chisato and her music and propelling her to become one of my top five favorite J-pop acts of all time! To this day I still consider Chisato my own personal possession (as MOST rabid fans will) though I’ve shared the excitement of the Chisato experience with many other fans.
At some point a few of us got together and drew up these nifty “Top 40” Lists, and of course one of the artists we just HAD to showcase was Ms. Moritaka herself, and I present it to you now for your perusal, a true “For What It’s Worth” submission. Like the other lists before, this is purely for fun, and as usual, though it is a list of ranking, in the end, the best I can do is give a sort of "general" placement of the songs in the list. By that I mean that a song ranked at, say, #11 isn't necessarily more loved than a song at #13, but probably more beloved than a song at #33 or so…
Z's 森高千里 TOP 40 SONG RANKING!!
1 Kibun Sokai
2
3
4 Watashi ga Obasan ni Nattemo
5
6
7
8
9
10
11 Michi
12
13
14
15 I Love You
16 Sayonara Watashi no Koi
17 Wakarimashita
18
19 Suteki na Tanjoubi
20 Itsumademo
21 Yowasetteyo Konya Dake
22 Funky Monkey Baby
23 Natsu no Umi
24 Ame (Rock Version)
25 Concert no Yoru
26 Rock Alive
27 17-sai
28 Tooi Mukashi
29 Seishun
30 Furusato no Sora
31 Rhythm to Bass
32 Kono Machi
33 Teriyaki Burger
34 Kowai Yume
35 Alone
36 Uchi ni Kagitte Sonna Koto wa Naihazu
37 Kusaimono ni wa Futa wo Shiro!!
38 Oni Taiji
39 Umi Made 5-fun
40 Miracle Light
41 So Blue
42 Daibouken
43 Yasumi no Gogo
44 Writer Shibou
45 Mite