Tatsuro Yamashita -- Kokiatsu Girl （高気圧ガール）

Summer officially entered our fair city at 1:04 a.m. this morning. And right now, we've got a sunny day out there with a temperature of 26 degrees C with a bit of mugginess. In other words, a good start to the season. What better way in the J-Pop world to celebrate it than with a Tatsuro song? "Kokiatsu Girl" (High-Pressure Girl) is just the thing.

I realize that Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎） brought us "Christmas Eve" in a small fit of pique since we fans had always thought of him as "the summer song guy". But when a song as fun and summery as "Kokiatsu Girl" hits our ears, what are we to do? Think frostbite and icicles? Hell, no! Right from the rapid acapella scat intro to the audio equivalent of a tropical island fly-by, the song can only make us make those reservations for Honolulu and hit the waves.

Or, perhaps I should say Okinawa since Tats' 10th single was used as the campaign tune for ANA Okinawa when it was released in April 1983. I could imagine that the company may have gotten rather busy once the commercials got out. If you listen carefully, you can also hear Mrs. Yamashita (aka Mariya Takeuchi...竹内まりや) contribute a bit of her vocals although at the time she was in the middle of a long break from singing. "Kokiatsu Girl" made it as high as No. 17 on Oricon, and was also a track on Yamashita's 7th album, "Melodies", released in June 1983.