The Hit Parade is the

covers album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records coll ...

Tak Matsumoto is a Japanese musician, songwriter and record producer. He is best known as the guitarist and main composer of the rock duo B'z, the best-selling music act in their native Japan. He also has a successful solo career where, in addition to winn ...

in conjunction with several guest artists. It was released on 26 November 2003 through Vermillion Records.

Background

The album features cover songs, which were popular during 70's and 80's in the Japan music scene from following artist as Momoe Yamaguchi, Candies, Akina Nakamori or Tatsuro Yamashita. The album has been performed by young artist from Giza Studio such as Mai Kuraki or Rina Aiuchi, and veterans artist from 90's such as Keiko Utoku or Koshi Inaba. Originally the 20 songs were recorded, however 17 were included. The recording started in 2002 and end in 2003. The album jacket cover visually resembles to

The London Howlin' Wolf Sessions ''The London Howlin' Wolf Sessions'' is an album by blues musician Howlin' Wolf released in 1971 on Chess Records, and on Rolling Stones Records in Britain. It was one of the first super session blues albums, setting a blues master among famous mu ...

Howlin' Wolf Chester Arthur Burnett (June 10, 1910January 10, 1976), better known by his stage name Howlin' Wolf, was an American blues singer and guitarist. He is regarded as one of the most influential blues musicians of all time. Over a four-decade care ...

. In 2010, after fraud scandal with Azumi Uehara is 2003 album version out of print. However, on 31 December 2018, after fifteen years the album was re-printed, which included limited Kansai version of Koshi Inaba's ''Minano no Yoko, Yokohama, Yokosuka''.

Promotion

Singles

The first promotional cover single was ''Ihoujin'', originally performed by ''Saki Kubota'' and covered by ''

Zard were a Japanese pop rock group, originally with five members, with lead vocalist Izumi Sakai as its only constant member. Zard's work was sold under the record label B-Gram Records, Inc. Their most popular and successful songs are , , and " M ...

''. The single was released on 27 August 2003. The B-side song includes cover of ''Ame no Machi wo'', originally performed by '' Arai Yumi'' and covered by ''Akiko Matsuda'' from Ramjet Pulley. In the media, cover version of Ihoujin was broadcast as an insert theme song for

Fuji TV JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as and colloquially known as CX, is a Japanese television station based in Odaiba, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Owned and operated by the it is the key station of the Fuji News Network (FNN) and the Fuji Network Sys ...

television drama ''Anata no Soba ni Dare ka Iru.'' The single debuted at number three on the Oricon Weekly Single Charts and charted for sixteen weeks. The single has sold over 155,263 copies. The single was announced in 2003 as the 58th biggest selling single of the year. The second promotional cover single was ''Imitation Gold'', originally performed by ''

Momoe Yamaguchi , known by her maiden name , is a Japanese former singer, actress, and idol whose career lasted from 1972 to 1980. Often simply referred to by her given name "Momoe," Yamaguchi is one of the most successful singers in Japanese music, releasing 32 ...

'' and covered by ''

Mai Kuraki (born October 28, 1982) is a Japanese pop and R&B singer-songwriter and record producer. After releasing her US debut single " Baby I Like" in 1999, Kuraki signed with Giza Studio and released her Japanese debut single " Love, Day After Tomorro ...

''. The single was released on 8 October 2003. The B-side song includes cover of ''Watashi wa Kaze'', originally performed by ''Carmen Maki & Oz'' and covered by

Yuri Nakamura is a Japanese actress and former singer. Her real name is or Woori Song (). Biography Nakamura's father was a third-generation Japanese man and her mother was Korean and held citizenship in both South Korea and Japan. Nakamura, like many other ...

from

Garnet Crow Garnet Crow (stylized as GARNET CROW) was a Japanese pop/rock band formed in 1999 and associated with the Giza Studio record label. Members include Yuri Nakamura, Hitoshi Okamoto, Nana Azuki, and Hirohito Furui, with Nakamura leading on vocals. Mus ...

. The length of B-side song is over seven minutes, which makes the longest track from cover album. The single debuted at number one on the Oricon Weekly Single Charts. The single has sold over 75,000 copies.

Charting performance

The album debuted at number two on the Oricon Weekly Albums Chart and sold 225,125 copies in its first week. The album was announced in 2004 as the 27th biggest selling album of the year. The album sold more than 450,000 copies. The album has been rewarded with The Best Pop-Rock album of year by

Japan Gold Disc Award The is an award presented by the Recording Industry Association of Japan 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 Associa ...

in 2004.

Track list

Personnel

Credits adapted from the album booklet.Tak Matsumoto (2003). The Hit Parade (CD Album; Booklet). Tak Matumoto. Japan: Vermillion Records. BMCV-8009. *

: guitar, vocal, arrange *

Hideo Yamaki is a Japanese jazz drummer and percussionist. He is known for being the long time drummer for Toshinori Kondo's band Kondo IMA. He also collaborated with Arto Lindsay, John Zorn, Sakamoto Ryuichi, Hosono Haruomi, Robert Palmer and Bill Laswell ...

: drum *

Akihito Tokunaga (born 22 September 1971) is a Japanese musical composer and arranger under Giza Studio label since 2000. Biography Since college he worked as orchestrator, then start working as a bassist. For artists as Zard, Mai Kuraki, B'z and many others ...

: bass, arrange *

Yoshinobu Ohga is a Japanese musical arranger and guitarist in distributors Being Inc., mainly in their label Giza Studio. In years 2000-2002 he was part of the Japanese soul band ''Nothin' but love'', in years 2004-2009 part of Japanese pop band ''OOM'' and ...

: arrange *

Koshi Inaba (born September 23, 1964 in Tsuyama, Okayama) is a Japanese vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter. He is best known as the singer and lyricist of the rock duo B'z, the best-selling music act in their native Japan. He has also had a su ...

: Blues Harp *Akira Onizuka: acoustic piano, organ

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hit Parade, The (Tak Matsumoto) Covers albums 2003 albums Japanese-language albums Tak Matsumoto albums Being Inc. albums