Amaoto wa Chopin no Shirabe (雨音はショパンの調べ) by Asami Kobayashi: The Rainy-Day Song from Italy

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Many Japanese songs were born in Japan. This one was born in Italy, and then it found a new life in the rain.

A quiet cafe window on a rainy day, with flowers, a plant and a painting — A quiet rainy afternoon, seen through a cafe window. Photo: Segaijin

The song

“Amaoto wa Chopin no Shirabe” (雨音はショパンの調べ, “The Sound of Rain Is Chopin’s Melody”) by Asami Kobayashi (小林麻美) was released on April 21, 1984. It reached number one on the Oricon weekly chart for three weeks in a row, and it was the 12th best-selling single of the year, with about 520,000 copies sold. It was Kobayashi’s first number-one hit.

At that time, Kobayashi was known mostly as a model and for her lifestyle image in women’s fashion magazines. Her singing career had not been easy, but she had become more famous through a Shiseido commercial. This song changed everything for her.

A song from Italy

The original song is “I Like Chopin” by Gazebo, an Italian singer. It came out in 1983 and became a big hit in Europe. It is one of the most famous songs of “Italo disco,” a style of dance music that was popular in Italy in the early 1980s.

For the Japanese version, the lyrics were newly written in Japanese by Yumi Matsutoya (松任谷由実, also known as Yuming), who was an old friend of Kobayashi. So the melody came from Italy, but the words and the feeling became very Japanese. Since then, many singers have recorded the song, and Yumi Matsutoya herself sang it on her 2003 album Yuming Compositions: FACES.

Why I chose it

I chose this song because it has been rainy lately. In September 2026, it really rained every single day. On days like this, I like to put on a song that fits the sound of the rain.

What I remember

When I was a child, I remember thinking, “What a grown-up title!” Chopin’s melody, and the sound of rain. Even as a child, I felt that a rainy day could be deep, and that sinking into the sound of the rain was somehow cool. I remember thinking, “This is a song for grown-ups.”

Many years later, while looking into the song, I learned that Yumi Matsutoya (Yuming) had written the lyrics, and that the original was an Italian song. It was a lovely surprise to find out the story behind a song I had loved since I was a child.