Favorite J-Pop Singles: Minako Honda "Kono Uta O For You"

Minako Honda

In a nostalgic mood, I had dug out one of my old J-pop compilations from 1995 to listen to as I walked through my old neighborhood that afternoon. Lots of now-classics like "Knocking on Your Door" by L-R and "Kimi Ga Itakara", but just as the sun was beginning to set and the sky turns that dreamy orange color, Minako Honda's beautiful song "Kono Uta wo For You" began.

Such a gentle and sweet little song, it suddenly made me all melancholy as I walked thru the park, with Minako's voice singing the song for us, telling us that for all the strife and trouble you have, to keep singing in your heart.

And then when the song ended with Minako whispering the final lines, "Kono Uta o...for me...and...for you", I just broke out in goosebumps. Somehow, I had such a sombre feeling after that, and then I remembered that Minako had passed away in 2005 from Leukemia and I cannot tell you how freaking MELANCHOLY I was after that...

Funny thing about those J-pop mixes- My co-worker Dave had made them for me, and though he was good about putting the latest singles that were out, he'd sometimes throw on a random song that was from an album, simply because he liked it (like Miho Nakayama's "Title" which I wrote about here) and Seiko Matsuda's "Do You Wanna Dance"

And so it was with Minako Honda's latest (at the time) single, a ballad called "Lullaby",and though ti was a decent song, the tune that captured his ear was the B-side to it, and that song was, of course, "Kono Uta Wo For For". Sometimes I think about the fact that if he hadn't put that song on my mix I might never have heard it and fell in love with it. Or maybe I would have learned about it anyway, maybe I was fated to discover this song and love it.  Ah, don't mind me, I'm just in a wistful mood.

Wiping away tears even as I write this....