is the 24th single by Japanese entertainer

Akina Nakamori is a Japanese singer and actress. She is one of the most popular and best-selling artists in Japan. Akina achieved national recognition after winning the 1981 season of the talent show ''Star Tanjō!''. Her debut single "Slow Motion" was relea ...

. Written by Mayumi Itō and Kazuya Izumi, the single was released on July 17, 1990, by

Warner Pioneer Warner Music Group Corp. ( d.b.a. Warner Music Group, commonly abbreviated as WMG) is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the " big three" recording companies and th ...

through the

Reprise In music, a reprise ( , ; from the verb 'to resume') is the repetition or reiteration of the opening material later in a composition as occurs in the recapitulation of sonata form, though—originally in the 18th century—was simply any repe ...

label. It was also the lead single from her fifth compilation album '' Best III''.

Background

"Dear Friend" marked Nakamori's return to the music charts one year after her suicide attempt. According to Warner Pioneer chief producer Katsumi Fujikura, the song was selected as Nakamori's next single because it "gives courage, energy, and makes people who listen to it brighter." Nakamori recorded the song at

The Hit Factory The Hit Factory is a recording studio in New York City owned and operated by Troy Germano. History On March 6, 1975, Edward Germano, a singer, record producer, and one of the principal owners of the Record Plant Studios New York, purchased the ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. At the same time, she traveled to the

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the ar ...

to shoot the music video, as well as have photographs taken for her photo book ''My Life 1990: A-K-I-N-A Nakamori''.

Chart performance

"Dear Friend" became Nakamori's 21st No. 1 on

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 ...

's weekly singles chart and sold over 547,900 copies. It was also certified Platinum by the RIAJ.

Track listing

Charts

Certification

Release history

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dear Friend 1990 singles 1990 songs Akina Nakamori songs Japanese-language songs Warner Music Japan singles Reprise Records singles Oricon Weekly number-one singles