is a song recorded by Japanese singer

Shizuka Kudo , known by her maiden name , is a Japanese singer, actress and former idol, born in Hamura, Tokyo, Japan. She was a member of Onyanko Club between May 1986 and September 1987 and went on to have a successful solo career with 11 number-one hits. ...

for her fifth studio album, '' Rosette''. It was released by

Pony Canyon , also known by the shorthand form , is a Japanese mass media publishing company founded on October 1, 1966. The company publishes mainly physical home media on compact discs, including music, films and TV shows and video games. It is affiliate ...

as the album's lead single on January 10, 1990. Although it was not officially released on vinyl, a few copies were produced for promotional use. Kudo performed the song on the 41st

Kōhaku Uta Gassen , more commonly known simply as ''Kōhaku'', is an annual New Year's Eve television special produced by Japanese public broadcaster NHK. It is broadcast live simultaneously on television and radio, nationally and internationally by the NHK net ...

, marking her third appearance on the program. In 2015, DAM asked their users to select their favorite Shizuka Kudo songs to sing karaoke to and compiled a top ten list; "Kuchibiru Kara Biyaku" came in at number six.

Background

The song is described as a retro-sounding pop number, reminiscent of

Group Sounds , often abbreviated as GS, is a genre of Japanese rock music which became popular in the mid to late 1960s and initiated the fusion of Japanese ''kayōkyoku'' music and Western rock music. Their music production techniques were regarded as playin ...

. It was written by

Gorō Matsui is a Japanese lyricist born 11 December 1957 in Gifu Prefecture, Japan, though he considers Tokyo to be his hometown. Beginning with participation in the Yamaha Popular Song Contests, he made his debut writing the lyrics for the 1981 Chage and As ...

and composed by

Tsugutoshi Gotō is a Japanese songwriter, bassist and music producer. Gotō broke into the Japanese music industry playing bass on tour for artists like Sadistic Mika Band, Bread & Butter and Shiro Kishibe. He went on to write and produce songs for other artist ...

. Gotō and his Draw4 band members

Satoshi Kadokura , is a Japanese composer, arranger, producer, keyboardist. He graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts. He was a producer of Wink, Noriyuki Makihara, Southern All Stars , also known by the abbreviations and SAS, are a Japanese rock band th ...

, Takeshi Fujī, Hiroaki Sugawara and Noriyasu Murase created the arrangement while Gotō produced the track. It is the first collaboration between Matsui and Gotō since "

Koi Hitoyo is a song recorded by Japanese singer Shizuka Kudo, released on December 28, 1988, by Pony Canyon as the lead single from her third studio album ''Joy'' (1989). Almost a year later to the day, Kudo marked her second appearance on Kōhaku Uta Gasse ...

". Lyrically, the song describes the temptation the protagonist reads on the lips of a potential lover she is being lured by. The opening line of the song is the familiar saying, , which loosely translates to "wait a minute!". Matsui was inspired by Kudo making it her personal catchphrase at the time to write it into the song. Kudo has described Matsui as "observant", stating of her working relationship with him, "we only exchange emails once a year but he always knows exactly the right lyrics to write".

Cover version

In 2017,

Yūichirō Umehara is a Japanese voice actor and singer affiliated with Arts Vision. He is best known for his roles on '' Cautious Hero: The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious'' as Seiya Ryuuguuin, '' Cute High Earth Defense Club Love!'' as En Yufuin, '' Mobi ...

recorded a cover of the song for the Shizuka Kudo-as-sung-by male

voice actors Voice acting is the art of performing voice-overs to present a character or provide information to an audience. Performers are called voice actors/actresses, voice artists, dubbing artists, voice talent, voice-over artists, or voice-over talent ...

tribute album, ''Shizuka Kudo Tribute''.

Chart performance

"Kuchibiru Kara Biyaku" debuted at number-one on the

Oricon Singles Chart The Oricon Singles Chart is the Japanese music industry-standard singles popularity chart issued daily, weekly, monthly and yearly by Oricon. Chart rankings are based on physical singles' sales. Until 2017, Oricon did not track download sales. In J ...

, with 119,000 units sold in its first week. It slid to number two the following week, then to number three, before rising to the top of the chart a second time on its fourth week. The single charted in the top 100 for a total of 18 weeks. The song ranked at number two on the monthly Oricon Singles Chart for the months of January and February 1990, bested first by

Tatsuro Yamashita , occasionally credited as Tatsu Yamashita or Tats Yamashita, is a Japanese singer-songwriter and record producer, who is known for pioneering the style of Japanese adult-oriented rock/soft rock music. His most well-known song is "Christmas E ...

's "Christmas Eve" and then by

Buck-Tick Buck-Tick (stylized as BUCK-TICK) is a Japanese Rock music, rock band, formed in Fujioka, Gunma in 1983. The group has consisted of lead vocalist Atsushi Sakurai, lead guitarist Hisashi Imai, rhythm guitarist Hidehiko Hoshino, bassist Yutaka Hig ...

's "

Aku no Hana is the fifth studio album by the Japanese Rock music, rock band Buck-Tick. It was released on cassette and CD on February 1, 1990, through Victor Entertainment. It peaked at number one on the Oricon charts and is the group's best-selling album ...

". It ranked at number eight on the year-end Oricon Singles Chart.

Track listing

Charts

Certification

References

{{authority control 1990 songs 1990 singles Oricon Weekly number-one singles Songs written by Tsugutoshi Gotō Songs with lyrics by Gorō Matsui Shizuka Kudo songs Pony Canyon singles