PUFFY released 「これが私の生きる道」 (Kore ga Watashi no Ikiru Michi) on October 7, 1996.
It was their second single, less than five months after 「アジアの純真」 (Asia no Junshin). Written, composed and arranged by Tamio Okuda, it became PUFFY’s first number-one single in Japan and sold around 1.57 million copies.
Okuda built the song around elements associated with early Beatles recordings. Japanese music magazine otonano points to guitar phrases recalling George Harrison, harmonics drawn from “Nowhere Man” and a harmonica tone echoing “Love Me Do.”
But what still defines the song for me is Ami Onuki and Yumi Yoshimura’s relaxed delivery. Thirty years later, the same casualness is there as soon as the song starts. They never seem to push the performance. It sounds relaxed, almost offhand, and yet completely right. That apparent lack of effort became one of PUFFY’s most recognisable traits.
If you have never heard Kore ga Watashi no Ikiru Michi, this anniversary is a good excuse to discover one of the landmarks of 1990s J-POP.