Today’s song of the day is a Japanese classic by an artist who lived a little too much. You can either find it on an ultra-expensive compilation album or just simply get the single for it. The song was so good that a songwriter even ripped it off for an Aaron Kwok song several months later (more later). It’s still a big hit at Japanese Karaoke, and it’s been covered by many Japanese artists (two of which will be included in this entry). In fact, the Utada Hikaru cover was how I discovered this song in the first place. It’s Yutaka Ozaki’s “I Love You.”

Why? It’s just one of those catchy pop ballads you can’t resist. Who expected something this tender from a guy who died getting drunk?

The live version

The Utada Hikaru version (without the blunder from her first attempt that’s in the concert DVD)

The Mika Nakashima cover on her latest album (honestly, I thought it was a pretty weak cover)

And the controversial rip-off by songwriter Chan Fong-Lu (not credited in the video) and sung by Aaron Kwok from 1991 (one can find it on this compilation) AFTER the release of the Ozaki single.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 10th, 2007 at 8:55 pm and is filed under The Song of the Day. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.