is the debut single by Japanese singer Ringo Sheena and it was released on May 27, 1998 by

Toshiba EMI , formerly , was one of Japan's leading music companies. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of British music company EMI Group Ltd. on June 30, 2007, after Toshiba sold off its previous 45% stake. Its CEO and president was Kazuhiko Koike. Whe ...

, East World. Since Sheena suddenly gained popularity, it was decided that this single was resold as a 12 cm single. New edition, including the new song, was re-released with the fourth single " Honnō" on October 27, 1999. The 1999 edition was certified gold by the

RIAJ The is an industry trade group composed of Japanese corporations involved in the music industry. It was founded in 1942 as the Japan Phonogram Record Cultural Association, and adopted its current name in 1969. The RIAJ's activities include p ...

for 200,000 copies shipped to stores.

Background

"Kōfukuron" and "Suberidai" were produced by Hiroshi Kitashiro, who is an

audio engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproduction, ...

and

synthesizer programmer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and f ...

, and "Toki ga Bōsō Suru" was produced by Uni Inoue, who is an audio engineer and multi-instrumentalist. Seiji Kameda arranged all songs. Sheena wanted to release not "Kōfukuron" but

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 ...

song "Suberidai" as a title tune. However, she gave up on the idea because of opposition from

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

staff. Since Sheena was not pleased with the arrangement of "Kōfukuron," the single version was not included in the album. The song was used as the theme song to the TBS

variety show Variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical theatre, musical performances, sketch comedy, magic (illusion), magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is ...

''Ai no Hinadan'', and the "Etsuraku-hen" version featured on ''

Muzai Moratorium , also known as ''Innocence Moratorium'', is the debut studio album by Japanese singer and songwriter Ringo Sheena, released on February 24, 1999 by Toshiba EMI. The album debuted at #2 and has sold over 1,433,000 copies. The album was certified t ...

'', in a 1999 commercial for

Suntory (commonly referred to as simply Suntory) is a Japanese multinational brewing and distilling company group. Established in 1899, it is one of the oldest companies in the distribution of alcoholic beverages in Japan, and makes Japanese whisky. Its ...

's ''The Cocktail Bar Cassis & Orange''. The song was covered as a part of a medley by

Rie Tomosaka is a Japanese actress and pop star from Mitaka-shi, Tokyo. She works for Itoh Company. From 1996 to 1997, she has also released music under the name . Profile Tomosaka's father is a beautician. In 1998, she majored in International Culture a ...

on the television show ''The Yoru mo Hippare'' on September 9, 2000. It was later covered by

Arashi is a Japanese boy band consisting of five members formed under the Johnny & Associates talent agency. The members are Satoshi Ohno, Sho Sakurai, Masaki Aiba, Kazunari Ninomiya, and Jun Matsumoto. Arashi officially formed on September 15, 1999 ...

members Jun Matsumoto and

Masaki Aiba (born December 24, 1982) is a Japanese singer, actor, television personality, radio host and dancer. He is a member of the boy band Arashi. Aiba began his career in the entertainment industry when he joined the Japanese talent agency Johnny & A ...

on their 2002 concert ''Arashi Storm Concert Tour 2003 "Atarashi Arashi"''.

Track listing

Chart rankings

Sales and certifications

Credits and personnel

Kōfukuron *

Synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

Programming: Hiroshi Kitashiro * **

Vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

: Ringo Sheena **

Electric Guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

Susumu Nishikawa ''Diamond Head'' was a Japanese band formed of session musicians and producers. They first gained notability as the backing and touring band for Hitomi Yaida. History Working as a band in their own right they wrote and performed the song "le ...

** Electric Bass: Seiji Kameda **

Drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

: Noriyasu "''Kāsuke''" Kawamura Suberidai * Vocals: Ringo Sheena *

Acoustic Guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

: Susumu Nishikawa *

Contrabass Contrabass (from it, contrabbasso) refers to several musical instruments of very low pitch—generally one octave below bass register instruments. While the term most commonly refers to the double bass (which is the bass instrument in the orchest ...

: Hitoshi Watanabe * Synthesizer Programming: Hiroshi Kitashiro Toki ga Bōsō Suru * Vocals,

Piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

: Ringo Sheena * Drums: Masayuki Muraishi * Synthesizer Programming: Nobuhiko Nakayama

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kofukuron Ringo Sheena songs 1998 songs 1998 debut singles 1999 singles Songs written by Ringo Sheena Song recordings produced by Seiji Kameda