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. ...

. It is the theme song for the CX television series ''Nandara Mandara'', which starred Kudo herself. It was released as a single through

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 ...

on October 23, 1991. "Metamorphose" made its first album appearance on the compilation album, ''

Intimate Intimate may refer to: * Intimate examination, a physical examination for medical purposes that includes examination of the breasts, genitalia, or rectum of a patient * Intimate ion pair, the interactions between a cation, anion and surrounding sol ...

''. Kudo performed the song on her fourth appearance on

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 ...

. In 2015, DAM asked their users to select their favorite Shizuka Kudo songs to sing karaoke to and compiled a top ten list; "Metamorphose" was one of the top vote-getters, rounding up the list at number ten.

Background

The song 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 ...

, 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 ...

and arranged by Gotō and

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 ...

. The title is the

german German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

word for "metamorphosis". Lyrically, it describes a restless protagonist going through the thrills of falling in love. The "funky" track, musically 160 BPM, is noted for being unusually uptempo for Kudo's repertoire. Gotō was praised for creating a "groovy" sound with the use of organic instruments.

Chart performance

"Metamorphose" debuted at number two 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 ...

, moving 121,000 units in its first week. It spent a total of 16 weeks in the top 100. With 260,000 copies sold in 1991, it ranked at number 59 on the year-end Oricon Singles Chart.

Track listing

Charts

Certification

References

{{authority control 1991 songs 1991 singles Songs with lyrics by Gorō Matsui Songs written by Tsugutoshi Gotō Japanese television drama theme songs Shizuka Kudo songs Pony Canyon singles