"Love Love Love" (stylized as "LOVE LOVE LOVE") is a song recorded by Japanese band Dreams Come True for their eighth studio album, '' Love Unlimited ∞''. It was released as the album's lead single by

Epic/Sony Records Epic Records Japan is a Japanese record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment Japan. Its founder was Shigeo Maruyama. Between 1978 and 1988 the label operated as a wholly owned subsidiary: Epic/Sony Inc. () was established in August 1978

on July 24, 1995. It is the theme song to the TBS drama series '' Aishiteiru to Itte Kure''. The single's

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 ...

, "Arashi ga Kuru", was also featured throughout the series' twelve episodes. With over two million copies sold, "Love Love Love" is the tenth best-selling Japanese single of all time and remains the band's most successful single.

Composition

"Love Love Love" was written by

Miwa Yoshida is a Japanese musician, and the lead singer for the band Dreams Come True. She is also a founding member with bassist Masato Nakamura and keyboardist Takahiro Nishikawa. Yoshida also fronts a Dreams Come True side-project, Funk the Peanuts, ...

and composed and arranged by

Masato Nakamura is a Japanese musician, bass guitarist, and record producer. He is a member of the J-pop band Dreams Come True, which was formed in 1988 and went on to sell over 50million CDs. He also composed the soundtracks for the video games ''Sonic the H ...

, while the track was co-produced by the band and

Mike Pela Mike Pela (13 January 1950 – 23 July 2022) was a British record producer and mixer. He worked with various artists including Sade, Maxwell, Savage Garden and others, spanning a wide array of genres. Career Pela started his career in the 19 ...

. Nakamura composed the song in his early twenties, before debuting with Dreams Come True, as a

Valentine's Day Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring one or two early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine and, throu ...

present for his then-girlfriend. When the band received the offer to pen the soundtrack to ''Aishiteiru to Itte Kure'', Nakamura and Yoshida re-wrote the song together with the series' protagonist in mind. The song is written in the key of

D-flat major D-flat major (or the key of D-flat) is a major scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B and C. Its key signature has five flats. It is enharmonically equivalent to C-sharp major. The D-flat major scale is: : Its r ...

with a common time tempo of 84 beats per minute. Yoshida's vocals span from G₃ to C₅.

Critical reception

The song was praised for its "iconic" use of

uilleann pipes The uilleann pipes ( or , ) are the characteristic national bagpipe of Ireland. Earlier known in English as "union pipes", their current name is a partial translation of the Irish language terms (literally, "pipes of the elbow"), from their ...

and

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 ...

in the intro, and for the "outstanding" surging mellow beat. CDJournal critics praised Yoshida for her clever lyrics. The song was noted by them for being strikingly reminiscent of

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

sound.

Commercial tie-ins

An English version of the song, subsequently included on the compilation album, '' Love Overflows: Asian Edition'' (2004), was used in television ads for the

Honda Odyssey Honda Odyssey can refer to three motor vehicles manufactured by Honda: * Honda Odyssey (ATV), an all-terrain vehicle (1977—1989) * Honda Odyssey (minivan), a brand of two different Honda minivan models for different markets ** Honda Odyssey (inte ...

in 2003. In 2016, the original version was used in the promotional campaign for the remodeled

Subaru Impreza The is a compact car that has been manufactured by the Japanese automaker Subaru since 1992. It was introduced as a replacement for the Leone, with the predecessor's EA series engines replaced by the new EJ series. It is now in its sixth gen ...

Cover versions

In 1997, the Japanese band Circus were the first to record a cover version of "Love Love Love", included on their album ''Heart''. In 2005,

Hideaki Tokunaga is a Japanese pop singer-songwriter and actor. Although Tokunaga failed to pass the test of ''Star Tanjō!'' in 1982, he debuted as a recording singer in 1986. After he released hit songs such as " Yume o Shinjite" (the first ending theme of t ...

recorded a version for his first cover album, ''Vocalist''. In 2007, Japanese singer Yasushi Nakanishi recorded the second rendition of the song by a male vocalist for his cover album, ''Standards''. That same year, singer

Junko Ohashi is a feminine Japanese given name. Possible writings Junko can be written using different kanji characters and can mean any of the following: *純子, "pure, child" *順子, "order, child" *淳子, "pure, child" *潤子, "rich/favor/wet, child" ...

recorded her own version for the album ''Terra''. In 2009, Akira Fuse recorded a cover of "Love Love Love" for his album ''Ballade II''. In the same year,

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

singer

Hayley Westenra Hayley Dee Westenra (born 10 April 1987) is a New Zealand classical crossover singer and songwriter. Her first internationally released album, ''Pure'', reached number one on the UK classical charts in 2003 and has sold more than two million c ...

recorded an English version from this song for Japanese-themed album "''

Hayley Sings Japanese Songs 2 ''Hayley Sings Japanese Song 2'' is, as the title suggests, the second Japanese-themed album by Christchurch, New Zealand soprano Hayley Westenra. Like its predecessor, the album contains Westenra's interpretations of traditional and popular cont ...

''". In 2010,

Shin Seung Hun Shin Seung-hun (; born 21 March 1966) is a South Korean singer-songwriter who was known in the 1990s as the "Emperor of Ballads." He debuted in 1990 with the hit song, "Reflection of You in Your Smile," and has since released 12 studio albums. B ...

and

Hiromi Iwasaki is a Japanese female singer who debuted in 1975. Her younger sister Yoshimi Iwasaki is also a singer. In 1981 she was awarded the Silver Prize at the Tokyo Music Festival for her song "Koimachigusa". Her representative songs are "" — "Roman ...

both recorded their own versions of the song for their albums, ''My Favorite'' and ''Dear Friends V'', respectively. In 2012,

Maya Sakura is an enka singer and child actress. In 2008, she made her debut with the single at the age of 10. In 2009, she received a "New Artist" award at the 51st Annual Japan Record Awards, becoming the youngest person to do so. She also appeared as a ...

included a cover of "Love Love Love" on her album ''Maya Kara Karaoke Queen Sakura Maya to Utaō!!''. In 2013,

Tsuyoshi Domoto is a Japanese idol, singer, songwriter, actor, and television personality. Along with Koichi Domoto (with whom he has no blood-relation), he is a member of KinKi Kids, which is a Japanese duo under the management of Johnny & Associates and the r ...

and Chris Hart recorded covers of the song for their respective albums ''Kaba'' and ''Heart Song''. In 2014, Miwa recorded a cover of the song for the Dreams Come True tribute album, ''Watashi no Dorikamu'', released in celebration of the band's 25th anniversary. In 2015,

Tomomi Kahara born on August 17, 1974 in Tokyo), is a Japanese pop singer. She is famous for working with Tetsuya Komuro who gave her much success in the 1990s, which led to her deep dip in popularity after 1999, the year in which she released her first no ...

recorded a cover of the song for her third cover album, ''Memories 3: Kahara Back to 1995''. "Love Love Love" has also been covered in English by Eric Martin on his cover album ''

Mr. Vocalist ''Mr. Vocalist'' is the sixth studio album by American singer-songwriter Eric Martin. Released on November 26, 2008 exclusively in Japan by Sony Music Japan, the album features Martin's English-language covers of popular female-oriented Japanese ...

'' (2008), Cargo×Seira on the album ''Flower Shower'' (2010) and The United on the album, ''We Are The United'' (2013).

Chart performance

"Love Love Love" 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 696,880 copies sold in its first week, marking the band's highest first-week sales ever. The single slid to number two the following week, selling 237,300 copies. It stayed at number two for the next two weeks, logging sales of 269,780 copies in its third charting week and 202,730 copies in its fourth week. The single charted in the top five for an additional seven weeks. "Love Love Love" was the best-selling single of 1995, topping the year-end Oricon Singles Chart with 2,351,940 copies sold within the year. The single charted in the top 100 for thirty-two weeks and sold a reported total of 2,488,630 copies during its chart run, making it the tenth best-selling single of all time in Japan.

Track listing

Charts

Certification and sales

References

{{authority control 1995 songs 1995 singles Dreams Come True (band) songs Torch songs Songs used as jingles Japanese television drama theme songs Songs written by Miwa Yoshida Songs written by Masato Nakamura Song recordings produced by Mike Pela Oricon Weekly number-one singles Epic Records singles