is the first album from the

J-pop J-pop ( ja, ジェイポップ, ''jeipoppu''; often stylized as J-POP; an abbreviated form of "Japanese popular music"), natively also known simply as , is the name for a form of popular music that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1 ...

idol girl group

Morning Musume , formerly simply and colloquially referred to as , are a Japanese girl group, holding the second highest overall single sales (of a female group) on the Oricon charts as of February 2012, with the Oricon record of most top ten singles with an ...

, consisting of only the 1st and 2nd generation members.

Overview

It was released on July 8, 1998 and sold 310,290 copies. It had ten of their top selling songs from the beginning of their career, including "

Ai no Tane is the unofficial debut single of Japanese pop idol group Morning Musume, released under a defunct Up-Front Group-affiliated independent label on November 3, 1997. It is sometimes called the "zeroth single"— being the "first single" and so ...

" and " Morning Coffee".

Track listing

Personnel

Natsumi Abe is a Japanese singer and actress, a former member of Morning Musume, and currently a member of Dream Morning Musume. Biography Career She was born in Muroran, Hokkaidō, Japan. On August 13, 2003, she released her first single, "22 Sai no Wat ...

– vocals *

Asuka Fukuda (born December 17, 1984) is a Japanese pop singer, and she was a member of Japanese girl group Morning Musume from 1997 until April 18, 1999. Her only album with the group is the 1998 release ''First Time (Morning Musume album), First Time''. ...

– vocals *

Aya Ishiguro , formerly simply and colloquially referred to as , are a Japanese girl group, holding the second highest overall single sales (of a female group) on the Oricon charts as of February 2012, with the Oricon record of most top ten singles with an ...

– vocals *

Yuko Nakazawa is a Japanese pop and enka singer, and actress, best known as one of the original members of the all-female J-pop group Morning Musume. She is also a member of Japanese pop group Dream Morning Musume. Biography Yuko Nakazawa was born in Kyo ...

– vocals *

Kaori Iida is a Japanese pop singer and actress, associated with Hello! Project and best known as a founding member of the girl band Morning Musume. She has also recorded with the Morning Musume side project band Tanpopo and is currently a solo artist. Dur ...

– vocals *

Mari Yaguchi is a Japanese singer, actress, and television personality. She joined the girl group Morning Musume in 1998 as a second generation member and was the leader of subgroups within Hello! Project, such as Mini-Moni, Morning Musume Sakuragumi, and ZY ...

– vocals (except on "Morning Coffee" and "Ai No Tane") *

Sayaka Ichii is a Japanese pop singer and former member for Japanese girl group Morning Musume. She is now a TV talent and planning to debut as an actress. History Morning Musume and Hello Project Joined the girl group Morning Musume in 1998. She, along wit ...

– vocals (except on "Morning Coffee" and "Ai No Tane") *

Kei Yasuda is a Japanese singer, musician and actress under the Hello! Project. She was a member and co-leader of the Japanese girl group Morning Musume. Yasuda, along with Mari Yaguchi and Sayaka Ichii, were the second generation of singers to be recru ...

– vocals (except on "Morning Coffee" and "Ai No Tane") *

Tsunku , known professionally as , is a Japanese singer, record producer, and songwriter. He is the lead singer of the rock band Sharam Q. As a songwriter, Tsunku is the primary producer for Morning Musume and other Hello! Project acts, such as Coconut ...

– songwriting (except on Track 6), tambourine (Track 9), backing vocal (Track 10) *Masahiro Inaba – electric guitar (Tracks 1,2,3,5,8) *Yasuaki Maejima – acoustic piano (Tracks 1,5,10), keyboards (Tracks 1,2,5), MIDI and drum machine programming (Tracks 1,2,3,5), bongo and wind chime (Track 5), Fender Rhodes piano (Track 9) *Gen Ogimi – percussion (Track 2) *Mansaku Kimura – drums (Track 3) *Masafumi Yokoyama – bass (Track 3) *Shiro Sasaki – trumpet (Track 3), flugelhorn (Track 5) *Futoshi Kobayashi – trumpet (Track 3) *Wakaba Kawai – trombone (Track 3) *Kan Nishida – bass trombone (Track 3) *Nobuyuki Mori – tenor sax (Track 3) *Yuichi Takahashi – 12-string guitar (Track 4), acoustic guitar (Tracks 4, 5), MIDI and drum machine programming (Tracks 3, 9) *Kiyoshi Tsuchiya – electric guitar (Track 4) *Shin Kōno – acoustic piano, keyboards (Track 4,6) *Tetsutaro Sakurai – MIDI and drum programming (Track 4), backing vocals (Track 6) *Satoshi Sano – trombone (Track 5) *Kinbara Group – strings (Track 5) *Yuji Yokozeni – drums (Track 6, 7) *Masahiko Rokukawa – bass (Track 6) *Kiyoshi Tsuchiya – electric guitar (Track 6) *Hitoshi Watanabe – bass (Track 7) *Shunsuke Kurō – electric guitar, MIDI and drum machine programming (Track 7) *Ryuosuke Imai – MIDI and drum programming, turntable (Track 8) *Noriyasu Kawamura – drums (Track 9) *Chiharu Mikuzuki – bass (Track 9) *Takahashi Masuzaki – electric and acoustic guitars (Track 9)

Production

*Engineers: Kazumi Matsui, Taakahisa Yuzawa, Takeshi Yanagisawa, Takahiro Suzuki, Yoshihide Mikami, Takeshi Inaba, Akimi Tani *Assistant Engineers: Ryo Wakizaka, Shinosuki Kobayahi, Hiroyuki Akita, Tomoyuki Niitsu, Kentaro Kikuchi, Hisashi Nagayama *Mastering Engineer: Mitsuo Koike

External links

First Time
entry on the Up-Front Works official website {{Authority control Morning Musume albums Zetima albums 1998 debut albums