山下達郎

Tatsurō Yamashita (occasionally credited to Tatsu Yamashita or Tats Yamashita, born February 4, 1953) is a Japanese singer-songwriter, and record producer. He has been known by his musical style deeply influenced from 1960s American pop and rock music.

In 1973, Yamashita formed the band Sugar Babe with the musicians including Taeko Onuki and Kunio Muramatsu, and released their sole album Songs two years later. After the group disbanded in 1976, Yamashita signed to RCA and launched his own career, with release of the solo album Circus Town. Following 1979 award-winning album Moonglow gained moderate success, Yamashita rose to fame. In 1980, his song "Ride on Time" peaked at #3 on the Japanese Oricon, and the same-titled album topped the chart subsequently.

Yamashita is best known for the song "Christmas Eve", which was initially appeared on his album Melodies in 1983 and later became a hit throughout the decades. It is considered one of the standard Japanese Christmas songs, winning the Special Prize at the 45th Japan Record Awards 20 years after its release.

As a solo artist, Yamashita has released 17 studio albums, 2 live albums, multiple compilations and over 40 singles. He has been one of the most commercially successful Japanese male solo recording artists in history of the Japanese album chart, selling approximately 9 million copies albums in total. He also composed for films or television commercials, and worked on the records by other artists. Particularly, he is successful as a musical collaborator for Mariya Takeuchi, who married him in 1982 and had a daughter.