is the solo debut

J-pop J-pop ( ja, ジェイポップ, ''jeipoppu''; often stylized as J-POP; an abbreviated form of "Japanese popular music"), natively also known simply as , is the name for a form of popular music that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the ...

single from Sayuri Kokushō (though it was billed on the cover as "Sayuri Kokushō with

Onyanko Club was a large all-girl Japanese pop Japanese idol, idol group in the 1980s. Some members of the group participated in spin-off groups, such as Nyangilas, Ushiroyubi Sasaregumi and Ushirogami Hikaretai. Many of the latter two groups' songs were us ...

") released on February 1, 1986 by

CBS Sony , often abbreviated as SMEJ or simply SME, and also known as Sony Music Japan for short (stylized as ''SonyMusic''), is a Japanese music arm for Sony. Founded in 1968 as CBS/Sony, SMEJ is directly owned by Sony, Sony Group Corporation and is ...

in Japan. Kokushō was the eighth member of Onyanko Club. The B-side song was . The single ranked at number 2 on the

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in ...

charts, and was rated fourth most popular on music program '' The Best Ten'' on TBS. It was also awarded the Japan Gold Disc Award for Best Single of the Year. While the title of the song is "Valentine Kiss", due to the often repeated chorus line of "Valentine Day kiss", the song is often called "Valentine Day Kiss". "Valentine Kiss" was reproduced by Kokushō and resold in 2008 by Sony Music Direct. This remake reached number 135 on the Oricon charts.

History

"Valentine Kiss" was the ending theme song for the '' Monday Drama Land'' series on

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 S ...

in 1986. The single reached number 2 on the

charts, number 1 on the Music Lab and Music Research charts, and number 4 on '' The Best Ten'' music program on TBS. The single also won the Japan Gold Disc Award for Best Single of the Year. The song has become associated with

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, thr ...

in Japan, and is regularly used in television programs and commercials which occur around that time. In a 2006 survey of people between 10 and 49 years of age in Japan,

Oricon Style , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in Nov ...

found ''Valentine Kiss'' to be the most popular Valentine's Day song, while it only sold 317,000 copies. The singles it beat in the ranking were number one selling "Love Love Love" from Dreams Come True (2,488,630 copies), "Valentine's Radio" from

Yumi Matsutoya , nicknamed , is a Japanese singer, composer, lyricist and pianist. Generally the writer of both the lyrics and the music in her songs, she is renowned for her idiosyncratic voice and live performances, and is one of the most prominent figures ...

(1,606,780 copies), "Happy Happy Greeting" from the

Kinki Kids is a Japanese duo consisting of Koichi Domoto and Tsuyoshi Domoto under the talent agency Johnny & Associates. KinKi Kids was formed in 1993 and officially debuted on July 21, 1997. With more than 30 million physical copies sold, they are one of ...

(608,790 copies). The final song in the top five was " My Funny Valentine" by

Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of musi ...

. The makeup and hair styling featured in the cover image for the single were done by Kokushō herself. "Valentine Kiss" was sung in 1986 as a feature of the "Today is special..." segment of the ''Yūyake Nyan Nyan'' variety show hosted by

. The song was used in the February 14, 2009 "Valentine After School" episode of '' Chūgakusei Nikki'' as the opening theme, and Kokushō sang it as the ending theme song as well.

Tracks

The album was a 45rpm

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl ...

single with one song on each side: # (3:34, lyrics by

Yasushi Akimoto is a Japanese record producer, lyricist, and television writer, best known for creating and producing some of Japan's top idol groups, Onyanko Club and the AKB48 franchise. Total sales of the singles he has written exceed 100 million copies, maki ...

, composed by Hiroaki Sei, arranged by Jun Satō) # (lyrics by Yasushi Akimoto, composed by Hideya Nakazaki, arranged by Jun Satō)

Covers

Watarirouka Hashiritai

"Valentine Kiss" was recorded in 2011 by

AKB48 AKB48 (pronounced ''A.K.B. Forty-Eight'') is a Japanese idol girl group named after the Akihabara (''Akiba'' for short) area in Tokyo, where the group's theater is located. AKB48's producer, Yasushi Akimoto, wanted to form a girl group with ...

sub-unit Watarirouka Hashiritai, under the name Watarirouka Hashiritai 7. The single debuted at number 2 on the

weekly charts selling around 95,000 copies in its first week. Watarirouka Hashiritai 7's cover of the song is also the first to enter the top 10 and matched the original's ranking.

Other covers

"Valentine Kiss" has been

covered Cover or covers may refer to: Packaging * Another name for a lid * Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package * Album cover, the front of the packaging * Book cover or magazine cover ** Book design ** Back cover copy, part of co ...

many times since its release. The all-girl

ska Ska (; ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a walki ...

band The Kitchen Gorilla released an Onyanko Club cover album titled "Onyanko Punk Love" in November 2003 which featured a cover of "Valentine Kiss". The song was covered as an ending theme song for the May 27, 2007 episode of the

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

series '' Lucky Star'', sung by the characters Tsukasa (

Kaori Fukuhara is a Japanese voice actress and singer. She worked on the music group Bohemian Quarter's album "Blister Pack Voices". She and Emiri Kato were in a duo music group called Kato*Fuku, which sang theme songs for ''When Supernatural Battles Became ...

) and Konata (

Aya Hirano is a Japanese actress and singer associated with the voice acting agency Grick. Beginning in the entertainment industry as a child actor in television commercials, she appeared in her first voice acting role in the anime television series ''An ...

). It was also covered multiple times by multiple characters in the anime series ''

The Prince of Tennis is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Takeshi Konomi. The manga was serialized in Shueisha's ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from July 1999 to March 2008, with its chapters collected in forty-two ''tankōbon'' volumes. ...

''. From February 2004 through January 2013, a total of 13 different versions were released (seven individually, two together, another two together, and the final two alone), then continued well into the Reiwa era for a total of 21 different covers. The first one, featuring the character

Keigo Atobe ''The Prince of Tennis'' manga and anime series has a large cast of Character (arts), fictional characters created by Takeshi Konomi; many have appeared in the musical and film adaptations. The cast of the series is largely made up of the membe ...

(voiced by

Junichi Suwabe is a Japanese voice actor and singer from Tokyo. He is affiliated with Haikyō. His popular roles include Omega Zero in Megaman Zero 3 , Keigo Atobe in '' The Prince of Tennis'', Victor Nikiforov in '' Yuri!!! on ICE'', Grimmjow Jaegerjaque ...

) reached number 14 on the Oricon charts.

References

{{Authority control Songs about kissing 1986 singles Songs with lyrics by Yasushi Akimoto Japanese television drama theme songs J-pop songs