is the third studio album by Japanese singer-songwriter

Yōsui Inoue is a Japanese singer, lyricist, composer, guitarist and record producer, who is an important figure in Japanese music. "Hailed as the Bob Dylan of Japan .. He is renowned for his unique tone, eccentric lyrics, and dark sunglasses which he alway ...

, released in December 1973.

Overview and song information

''Kōri no Sekai'' was recorded after a single "Yume No Naka e" (夢の中へ) became a smash hit. Part of the recording took place at the

Trident A trident is a three- pronged spear. It is used for spear fishing and historically as a polearm. The trident is the weapon of Poseidon, or Neptune, the God of the Sea in classical mythology. The trident may occasionally be held by other marine ...

and Advision studios in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, with musicians including two former members of the band

Quatermass Professor Bernard Quatermass is a fictional scientist, originally created by the writer Nigel Kneale for BBC Television. An intelligent and highly moral British scientist, Quatermass is a pioneer of the British space programme, heading the Brit ...

, John Gustafson and Pete Robinson. Three of them including title track were co-arranged by Nicky Harrison. Harrison was also the strings arranger for

The Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically d ...

' ''

Goats Head Soup ''Goats Head Soup'' is the 11th British and 13th American studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones. It was released on 31 August 1973 by Rolling Stones Records. Like its predecessor ''Exile on Main St.'', the band composed and r ...

'' album, which topped the chart in the U.S. and UK in Autumn 1973. A song "Kokoro Moyou" was released as a lead single in September 1973 and became his first top-ten charting hit consequently, peaking at #7 on the Oricon. It was originally titled "Futsū Yūbin" and written for the folk duo Betsy & Chris, but the pair refused to record his song. A

pop idol ''Pop Idol'' is a British music competition television series created by Simon Fuller which ran on ITV from 2001 to 2003. The aim of the show was to decide the best new young pop singer (or "pop idol") in the UK based on viewer voting and par ...

Saori Minami (Real Name: Akemi Shinoyama (篠山明美), née, Akemi Uchima (内間明美); Religious name, Christian Name: Cynthia) is a Japanese retired J-pop singer-songwriter. She was born in United States Civil Administration of the Ryukyu Islands, Oki ...

covered "Kokoro Moyou" on her album ''Natsu no Kanjou'' released in a following year.

Ayaka Hirahara is a Japanese pop singer. She was affiliated with the Dreamusic label until 2013 when she moved to Universal Music Japan. Biography Hirahara comes from a musical family; her father, Makoto Hirahara, is a saxophone player, her grandfather, Tsut ...

and

Akina Nakamori is a Japanese Singing, singer and Actor, 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 M ...

also recorded the song in later years. Flip side of a single "Kokoro Moyou" was "Kaerenai Futari", a ballad Inoue and Kiyoshirō Imawano wrote together. Reportedly, then-unknown co-writer eked out a living by the income of the song, until he became popular as a frontman of the band

RC Succession was an influential Japanese rock band from Tokyo, formed in 1968. One of Japan's longest-running bands, it went through many line-up changes over the years with front man Kiyoshiro Imawano and bassist Kazuo Kobayashi the only constant members, b ...

in the 1980s. Imawano joined the songwriting on "Machibouke" too, and occasionally collaborated with Inoue in later years. The lead-off track of the album was initially written by Inoue alone, and it was previously issued on his live album ''Modori Michi''. The studio recording version of "Akazu no Fumikiri" heard on ''Kōri no Sekai'' is completely different song, which features renewed composition by the arranger Katz Hoshi.

Commercial success

Yōsui Inoue's ''Kōri no Sekai'' album marked unprecedented success for the Japanese music industry at the time, becoming the first

long-playing record The LP (from "long playing" or "long play") is an analog sound storage medium, a phonograph record format characterized by: a speed of rpm; a 12- or 10-inch (30- or 25-cm) diameter; use of the "microgroove" groove specification; and a ...

that has retailed more than a million copies in Japan alone.

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...

stated that the vinyl release of ''Kori no Sekai'' was sold more than 1.35 million copies. Comprising other formats such as audio cassette and compact disc, the album has sold over 1.45 million copies to date. In the history of the Oricon Albums chart started in 1970, ''Kōri no Sekai'' has been the album with the most weeks at number-one. About two weeks after the release, the album topped the Japanese Oricon Weekly LP chart for the first time, and stayed there for 13 consecutive weeks. Since then, it continuously remained on the top-ten of the chart for 113 weeks, and returned to the number-one spot again and again, while Inoue himself subsequently released some albums. Eventually ''Kōri no Sekai'' entered the Oricon for 150 weeks, spending 35 weeks in total at the top.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Yōsui Inoue (except where indicated)

Side one

All songs arranged by Katz Hoshi (except "Chie-Chan" and "Kōri no Sekai" co-arranged by Nick Harrison) #"" (Inoue/Katz Hoshi) - 2:34 #"" - 0:35 #"" (Inoue/ Kiyoshirō Imawano) - 4:20 #"" - 2:43 #"" - 4:11 #"" (Inoue/

Kei Ogura Kei Ogura (Ogura Kei, 小椋佳, born January 18, 1944, in Ueno, Taito, Tokyo, Japan) is a Japanese singer, songwriter and composer. He was also a bank clerk of Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank, after graduation from the University of Tokyo. His musical care ...

) - 2:27 #"" - 2:38

Side two

All songs arranged by Katz Hoshi (except "Fun" co-arranged by Nick Harrison) #"" - 3:25 #"" (Inoue/Imawano) - 2:41 #"" (Inoue/Kunio Nagatani) - 3:05 #"Fun" - 2:40 #"" - 3:07 #"" - 2:51

Personnel

*Barry DeSouza - Drums *Tatsuo Hayashi - Drums *

Shuichi Murakami (January 1, 1951 – March 9, 2021) was a Japanese jazz drummer and session musician. Career Murakami was born in Nishinomiya. He first learned to play French horn, but switched to classical percussion as a teenager before settling on the ...

- Drums *Tadaaki Misago - Drums *

Peter Robinson Peter Robinson may refer to: Entertainment * Peter Robinson (sideshow artist) (1873–1947), American actor and sideshow performer, known for his appearance in film ''Freaks'' (1932) * J. Peter Robinson (born 1945), British musician and film score ...

- Piano,

mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which pushes a length of magnetic tape against a capstan, which pulls it across a playback head. A ...

harpsichord A harpsichord ( it, clavicembalo; french: clavecin; german: Cembalo; es, clavecín; pt, cravo; nl, klavecimbel; pl, klawesyn) is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. This activates a row of levers that turn a trigger mechanism ...

*Ann Odell - Piano *

Jun Fukamachi was a Japanese jazz fusion composer, arranger, and keyboardist. He played with The Brecker Brothers and Steve Gadd and released albums for Polydor Records, Polydor and Toshiba Records, Toshiba in the 1970s. Early life and career At the age of ...

- Piano, synthesizer, Mellotron *Naoya Matsuoka - Piano * John Gustafson - Electric bass *

Haruomi Hosono , sometimes credited as Harry Hosono, is a Japanese musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. He is considered to be one of the most influential musicians in Japanese pop music history, credited with shaping the sound of Japanese pop for ...

- Electric bass *Takao Yamamura - Electric bass *Masayoshi Takanaka - Electric guitar. Bass guitar *Joe Gammer - Electric guitar *

Mark Warner Mark Robert Warner (born December 15, 1954) is an American businessman and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Virginia, a seat he has held since 2009. A member of the Democratic Party, Warner served as the 69th governo ...

- Electric guitar *

Ray Fenwick Raymond John Fenwick (18 July 1946 – 30 April 2022) was an English guitarist and session musician, best known for his work in The Syndicats and in The Spencer Davis Group in the 1960s, and as the lead guitarist of Ian Gillan's post-Deep Purpl ...

- Acoustic guitar *Hiromi Yasuda - Acoustic guitar, flat mandolin *Yosui Inoue - Vocals, acoustic guitar, blues harp *Judd Mcniven - Blues harp *Toshiyui Ōe - Steel guitar *Toshio Tanioka - Violin *Arrival - Chorus *Katz Hoshi - Chorus

Overview and song information

Commercial success

Track listing

Side one

Side two

Personnel

Awards

Chart positions

Album

Single

Release history

External links

References