is the seventh single by Japanese pop singer Yuki Saito. It was released August 21, 1986, by

Canyon Records Canyon Records of Phoenix, Arizona is a record label that has produced and distributed Native American music for 56 years. History Canyon was founded in 1951 by Ray and Mary Boley, who had opened the first recording studio in Phoenix, Arizona ...

together with . It was ranked #1 on the

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in Nov ...

charts and #3 on

The Best Ten ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

chart, and is the only single from Saito to reach #1 on the Oricon charts. The title song was used in commercials for the Axia brand of cassette tapes from Fujifilm in Japan. Several artists have

covered Cover or covers may refer to: Packaging * Another name for a lid * Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package * Album cover, the front of the packaging * Book cover or magazine cover ** Book design ** Back cover copy, part of co ...

the song.

History

"Aozora no Kakera" was released on August 21, 1986, as a 7-inch vinyl record through

. The single reached #1 on the

charts, and is the only single from Saito to do so. It also reached #3 on

chart. The

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

release was "Yubiwa Monogatari". The title song had lyrics written by Takashi Matsumoto, the music was composed by Toshio Kamei and was arranged by

Satoshi Takebe is a Japanese musician keyboard player, arranger, and producer from Tokyo. He is the composer, keyboardist, arranger and musical producer for artists such as Yo Hitoto, Miki Imai, Tomomi Kahara, JUJU, Yuzu and Ken Hirai is a Japanese ...

. Matsumoto also wrote the lyrics for the B-side, while Kenjiro Sakiya composed the music, and Takebe and Sakiya arranged the music.These individuals are all listed on the album cover as well as the label on the vinyl EP itself. The title single was used in commercials for the Axia brand of

cassette tapes The Compact Cassette or Musicassette (MC), also commonly called the tape cassette, cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Ottens ...

from

Fujifilm , trading as Fujifilm, or simply Fuji, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, operating in the realms of photography, optics, office and medical electronics, biotechnology, and chemicals. The offerings from th ...

in Japan. The original single sold 48,000 copies, and sold a total of 166,000 copies. It was later rereleased as a

mini CD single A CD single (sometimes abbreviated to CDS) is a music single in the form of a compact disc. The standard in the Red Book for the term ''CD single'' is an 8 cm (3-inch) CD (or Mini CD). It now refers to any single recorded onto a CD of any si ...

on April 29, 1988.

Covers

On August 26, 1992, Japanese

techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time (4/4) and often ch ...

band

Long Vacation ''Long Vacation'' (, also known as ) is a Japanese television drama series from Fuji Television, first shown in Japan from 15 April to 24 June 1996. The show's high ratings in Japan made Takuya Kimura popular in the Asia-Pacific region and is k ...

(a spinoff of

Uchoten Uchōten (有頂天 ecstasy) is a Japanese experimental new wave/post punk band, active in the 1980s and early 1990s. They formed in 1982 and disbanded in 1991, after releasing eight studio albums and two live albums. In 2015, after over two deca ...

) released a

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

of "Aozora no Kakera" on their ''Long Vacation's Pop'' album. Singer and actress

Chiemi Hori , better known as , is a Japanese singer, actress, and entertainer represented by Horipro, and later Shochiku Geino is a Japanese talent agency headquartered in Chuo-ku, Osaka. It was founded in 1958 under the conglomerate Shochiku Co., Ltd a ...

performed a cover on her ''80s Idol Songs Collection'', released in both regular and limited edition versions on September 8, 2005. Japanese singer

Asako Toki is a Japanese singer-songwriter and lyricist. Born to jazz saxophonist Hidefumi Toki, she was the lead vocalist for the rock band Cymbals between 1997 and 2003. Following Cymbals' breakup, Toki began her solo career with the release of ''Standards ...

released a cover on her ''Light! CM & Cover Songs'' album released on February 2, 2011.

Chart history

Track listing

Notes

References

{{Authority control 1986 singles Japanese-language songs Yuki Saito (actress) songs Songs with lyrics by Takashi Matsumoto (lyricist)