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'Do You Remember Love?' Composer Kazuhiko Katoh Found Hanged (Updated)

Kazuhiko Katoh, the co-founder of two musical bands and the composer of the main theme songs for The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love? and Windaria, was found hanged in his hotel room in Nagano Prefecture on Saturday. He was 62. The local authorities believe he had committed suicide, due to two copies of a last will that he reportedly had left in his room.

Katoh made his musical debut with his college band The Folk Crusaders, which performed the hit songs "Kaette Kita Yopparai" and "Imujingawa." After The Folk Crusaders disbanded, he co-established The Sadistic Mika Band, a group that would break up and reunite several times over the years. The band became the first Japanese group to tour Great Britain when it opened for Roxy Music in 1975.

On his own, he composed music for several projects, including Mari Iijima's "Do You Remember Love?" ("Ai , Oboeteimasu ka?") theme song for The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love? and Akino Arai's "Yakusoku" for Windaria. "Do You Remember Love?" proved to be mainstream hit when it landed at #7 on Oricon's weekly singles chart and #38 on the yearly chart for 1984. As part of The Sadistic Mika Band, he also wrote and performed the theme songs for Maruboshi Mabo-chan.

SourcE: Kyodo News, Yomiuri Shimbun.

Image ©1984 Big West

Update: The NHK public broadcaster broke the news of Katoh's passing on Saturday afternoon, just hours before the first of two Macross Crossover Live concerts with Iijima and four other Macross singers.