Takao Kisugi

Takao Kisugi (来生 たかお, Kisugi Takao), born November 16, 1950, in Tokyo, Japan, is a Japanese singer and songwriter. In 1974, he debuted as a songwriter and in 1976 made his solo debut as a singer. He often collaborates on songs with his sister, Etsuko Kisugi, who is a lyricist.^[2] In 1982, on the third Japan Composition Award, he received the "Best Composer" music award for the song Second Love.^[3][4] In his career, spanning over 45 years, he composed over 400 songs.^[3]

Kisugi started work with Yosui Inoue's band in 1972. He debuted as a singer-songwriter with the single Asai Yume, released in 1976.^[5] His popularity and fame increased in 1979 after the release of a domestic hit, My Luxury Night, performed by Hatsumi Shibata.^[5] In the 1980s, he produced many hits of the kayōkyoku genre, including "Second Love", "Silhouette Romance", and "Goodbye Day".^[5] His best known song as a performer, Yume no Tochu (夢の途中),^[6][7] was covered by teen-age idol Hiroko Yakushimaru as Sailor Fuku to Kikanju (セーラー服と機関銃) for the movie of the same name, and became a huge success. He recorded the first ending song of Maison Ikkoku, "Ashita Hareru ka". In 1991, he wrote and recorded the song "What a Way (To Show I Love You)" with Gilbert O'Sullivan. Another song on which they collaborated, "Can't Think Straight", was featured on the Japanese edition of O'Sullivan's studio album Sound of the Loop.^[8]

He said that his own songwriting had been deeply influenced by The Beatles and Gilbert O'Sullivan from western music and by Hiroshi Inoue from eastern music.^[8][2] Other influences include Francis Ray, Henry Mancini, and Burt Bacharach.^{[9][circular reference]}

Notes: "Can't Think Straight" was featured only on the Japanese edition of the album. For the worldwide issue, its guest vocal was replaced by Peggy Lee.

• Takao Kisugi at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• Takao Kisugi at IMDb
• Takao Kisugi's Official Website (Japanese)