''Number One'' is the first full-length studio album released by the British singer
Billie Godfrey, in 2001. Godfrey sings entirely in Japanese despite not being a native Japanese speaker - something no other western artist has so far achieved. It was released in Japan but also sold in the UK and US as an import.
Discogs - Billie Godfrey
/ref> The concept for the album was conceived and produced by Mark Summers
Mark Summers is the English CEO, sound engineer and music producer of Scorccio, a music production company founded in the UK in 1996. A London DJ since 1979, he is a guest lecturer and masterclass presenter on sample replay production, sound e ...
for his music label Scorccio Records (now known as Scorccio Sample Replays). His vision was to produce Pop and R&B songs for the Japanese market, to be sung in Japanese - but sung by a native English vocalist. The English written songs were all translated into Japanese by musician Emiko Kawakami, following this Summers and Godfrey booked 5 days at a West London studio to record all the vocals for the album. Within the first hour of recording, it soon became apparent how difficult it was for anyone non-Japanese to read the translated text and sing it fluently. Mark Summers then quickly devised a phonetic technique for Billie Godfrey - to be able to sing as if she was fluent in Japanese, which most listeners in Japan believed she truly was.
Track listing
# "Number One"
# "Day By Day"
# "I'm - Lovin' You"
# "Sweet Dreaming"
# "Something I Can Keep"
# "Liberar Vida"
# "When U Were With Me"
# "Who Knows"
# "Always"
# "Intergroove"
# "Heaven & Earth"
# "Intergroove # 2"
# "Number One" - Scorccio Remix
# "I'm - Lovin' You" (Reprise)
References
External links
*http://www.billiegodfrey.com/
{{Authority control
2001 albums
Japanese-language albums