Daisuke Inoue

Born in Tokyo, Inoue started his musical career in 1960 as a Jackey Yoshikawa and His Blue Comets member, serving as a multi-instrumentist, vocalist, and often also a composer. Among other things, he penned the group’s major hit “Blue Chateau” (ブルー・シャトウ, “Burū shatō”), which won a Japan Record Award and sold over one million copies. After the group disbanded, Inoue became a solo singer and composer for other artists, notably Finger 5 and Hiromi Go. 

In 1981, he adopted the stage name Daisuke Inoue to mark a fresh start to his career. Among his major hits is “Ai Senshi”, the theme song of the Mobile Suit Gundam film trilogy. He also composed music for commercials, notably the famous tune “I Feel Coke” for a series of 1980s-1990s Coca-Cola commercials.

Suffering from a retinal detachment that was not resolved by a recent surgery and with his wife seriously ill, Inoue committed suicide by hanging on 30 May 2000 at the age of 58. His wife hanged herself one year later.