Favorite J-Pop Singles: Superfly / My Best Of My Life
As recounted many times here, though I was a HUGE J-drama watcher in the mid 90's, it had kind of tapered off by 2001, and by 2007, aside from small dabbling, I wasn’t all that much into J-dramas and even my interest in J-pop had waned. Then the spark that was "Hotaru No Hikari" came onto the scene and I loved it SO MUCH that it got me back into dramas in a BIG way! With a renewed frenzy, Keiko Kitagawa's Mop Girl followed, then Seigi No Mikata, then Nodame Cantabile, Last Friends and Mei-chan No Shitsuji, HOLY CRAP, it suddenly seemed like a replay of my original 90’s drama experience!
By 2009 I was back watching J-dramas on a regular basis and had even begun following new j-music again, and so it was that I came upon a new single by a new group called Superfly with an epic, fully realized piece called “My Best Of My Life”. I found that it was one of two songs the act had done for the new Yuki Amami crime drama “BOSS” (the other being the equally rocking song “Alright”), and couldn’t wait to see how they utilized it in the show! “Alright” was the opening song to BOSS, and this was done right: glitzy, explosive and hard-hitting, but I was irked and disppointed at how they utilized Best of My Life as the ending song... I’d been noticing a trend that I first saw in Seigi No Mikata, where instead of a great ending credits video, they just rolled credits at the bottom of the screen while the show was still on, and just played the music softly in the background. MAN, I didn't like it THEN, and I couldn’t STAND it when they did that in BOSS- people talking right over Best Of My Life! No, the only way to really enjoy it was to get the single myself so I could blast that one to the high heavens in my car without the distractions of talking! I had to have a copy, and in fact, I remember that My Best Of My Life was the very last Japanese physical single I went down to Japanese Store Hakabundo to go and buy! This was kind of significant because not long after that, I would make the switch to ordering all my J-pop through the internet, Hakabundo would stop selling music entirely, and would even eventually move to a new location! The end of so much things!
What IS it about this song that hits me right in the feels? Well first off, the song is VERY “Paul McCartney Long and Winding Road” flavored, but I think the thing that really sells me is its structure. The song begins with a humble, “Bill Withers Lean On Me” piano intro, then Shiho starts singing. Soon, each instrument gets introduced into the mix and builds as the song goes on, and by the time you've reached the last verse, it has become a majestic, ROCKING symphony of LUSH SOUND! A little detail I really love is the little stattaco piano refrain at 4:38 before she sings "Ima Hajimeru Best Of My Life!" and the song launches into its swirly Strawberry Fields Forever sounding outro! I'm telling you, it Knocks Me Out EVERY TIME I hear it!
PS: I call Superfly a “Group”, but just like Izumi Sakai and ZARD back in the day, at some point the lead singer herself “became” Superfly, don’t know quite how that happened, but seeing her on Music Station introducing herself, “Konbanwa Minnasan, Superfly Desu!” sure looks weird to me? I mean, I love Shiho and she rocks, but Ron O’Neal she ain’t!!! LOL Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com
