is the 25th single by Japanese entertainer

Miho Nakayama was a Japanese singer and actress. She made her debut in the 1985 drama ''Maido Osawagase Shimasu'', where her performance led to instant stardom. Nakayama released her debut single, " C", shortly after, and finished the year with her film deb ...

and a collaboration with the band

Wands A wand is a thin, straight, hand-held stick of wood, ivory, or metal. Wand may also refer to: People *Bruce Wands, an American digital artist and educator *Günter Wand, a German orchestra conductor and composer *Hart Wand, an early white Americ ...

. Written by Show Wesugi, Nakayama, and

Tetsurō Oda is a Japanese composer, record producer, and singer-songwriter. Oda is the third best-selling composer in the history of the Japanese singles chart, with over 40 million units being sold. Biography Between years 1978-1979, he was member of th ...

, the single was released on October 28, 1992, by King Records.

Background and release

"Sekaijū no Dare Yori Kitto" was co-produced by Daiko Nagato, who selected it from a stock of

's compositions.

Takeshi Hayama is a Japanese musical arranger and guitarist under Being Inc. records. Biography In 1978, he debuted with his own blues band under Trio Records. In 1990s he entered to Being recording agency. Takeshi becomes the main arranger of Japanese sing ...

gave it an 8-beat arrangement. The main single has Nakayama on lead vocals with Wands vocalist Show Wesugi on backing vocals. The B-side, "Sekaijū no Dare Yori Kitto (Part II)", was rearranged as a slow ballad with the vocal roles reversed. The song was used as the theme song of the

Fuji TV JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as or , is a Japanese television station that serves the Kantō region as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship station of the Fuji News Network (FNN) and the Fuji Network System (FNS). The station is owned-and- ...

drama series , which also starred Nakayama. It was also used as a hold tone for a line of

Sanyo is a former Japanese electronics manufacturer founded in 1947 by Toshio Iue, the brother-in-law of Kōnosuke Matsushita, the founder of Matsushita Electric Industrial, now known as Panasonic. Iue left Matsushita Electric to start his own bu ...

cordless phones in 1995. "Sekaijū no Dare Yori Kitto" became Nakayama's seventh No. 1 and Wands' second No. 1 on

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that ...

's weekly singles chart. It sold over 1,833,000 copies and was certified Quadruple Platinum by the

RIAJ 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 Association, and adopted its current name in 1969. The RIAJ's activities include prom ...

, making it Nakayama's biggest-selling single of her career. The song was also certified Platinum in Download Sales by the RIAJ in December 2020. Nakayama and Wands performed the song on the 43rd ''

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 1992.

Other versions

Wands re-recorded the song on their 1993 album '' Toki no Tobira'', with a rearrangement by

Masao Akashi was a Japanese music arranger in distributors Being Inc., mainly in their label B-Gram Records. In 1988, he debuted as arranger in debut single '' Dakara Sono Te wo Hanashite'' by Japanese hard-rock band B'z. By 1998, his arrangement work had ...

and backing vocals by Keiko Utoku. A live version of the song is included in the band's 2000 compilation album '' Best of Wands History''. In 2020, the band with new vocalist Daishi Uehara self-covered the song as on their fourth album '' Burn the Secret''.

Track listing

All lyrics are written by Show Wesugi and

; all music is composed by

; all music is arranged by

Charts

Weekly charts Year-end charts

Certification

Awards

* 7th

Japan Gold Disc Award The is an award presented by the Record music Industry Association of Japan in the field of music. The Japan Gold Disc Awards have multiple Grand Prix categories, including: Artist of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year (download and ...

s: Best 5 Single Award * 12th

JASRAC Awards The is a music awards established in 1982, presented by the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC), which is given to songwriters, composers and music publishers who have generated the highest revenue in royal ...

: Gold Award

Noriko Sakai version

"Sekaijū no Dare Yori Kitto" was covered by

Noriko Sakai is a Japanese singer and actress. Under her former stage name , Sakai released her first single, on February 5, 1987, nine days short of her sixteenth birthday. Over 40,000 copies of the single were sold. She is particularly popular in Hong Kong ...

as her 36th single, released by

Victor Entertainment is a subsidiary of JVCKenwood that produces and distributes music, movies and other entertainment products such as anime and television shows in Japan. It is known as JVC Entertainment in countries where Sony Music Entertainment operates the RC ...

on August 22, 2007. The song was used in a series of

Toyota Noah The is a minivan with two rear sliding doors built by Toyota and sold mainly in Asian countries. It is positioned below the Alphard, and above the Sienta. The Noah was also positioned below the Estima until the latter was discontinued in 20 ...

commercials that year. The B-side is a re-recording of her 1995 single " Aoi Usagi", which was also composed by Oda. The single peaked at No. 44 on

's singles chart This was her last single before she and her then-husband Yūichi Takasō were involved in a drug scandal in 2009.

Track listing

All music is composed by

and arranged by Takayuki Hijikata.

Charts

Other cover versions

* Stephanie Lai covered the song in Cantonese first as "敢恨敢愛 (Dare To Hate and Love)" as a single from her 1993 compilation "Remember 無盡至愛". This version peaked at no. 17 at

903 __NOTOC__ Year 903 ( CMIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * King Berengar I of Italy proceeds to issue concessions and privileges to the Lombard nobility and monasteries. He gra ...

charts and no. 13 on

RTHK Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) is the public broadcasting service of Hong Kong. GOW, the predecessor to RTHK, was established in 1928 as the first broadcasting service in Hong Kong. As a government department under the Commerce and Econom ...

. Despite the popularity of Stephanie's version, Andy's version is regarded as classic

cantopop Cantopop (a contraction of "Cantonese pop music") is a genre of pop music sung in Cantonese. Cantopop is also used to refer to the cultural context of its production and consumption. The genre began in the 1970s and became associated with Hon ...

ballad. *

Sammi Cheng Sammi Cheng Sau-man (; born 19 August 1972) is a Hong Kong singer and actress. She is considered one of the most prominent female singers in Hong Kong, with album sales of over 25 million copies throughout the Asia-pacific. Most notably in the 199 ...

covered the song in Cantonese as "衝動點唱 (Impulsive Song Request)" taken from her 1993 album "鄭秀文的快樂迷宮 (Sammi's Happy Maze). *

Andy Hui Andrew Hui Chi On (born 12 August 1967) is a Hong Kong people , Hong Kong singer and actor. Hui is considered one of the most successful Hong Kong singers, with an extensive list of Cantonese and Mandarin hits to his credit. Early life Hui' ...

covered this song in Cantonese as "Only You Are Irreplaceable" (唯獨你是不可取替) in his compilation album "雨後陽光" . This version being the most popular Cantonese cover version. Sammi Cheng sings this version more than she sings her version. *

Ryoko Shiraishi is a Japanese voice actress and singer from Kashiba, Nara. She is affiliated with Aoni Production. Possessing a husky voice, Shiraishi voices young to teenage men as well as young girls and teenage women. However, in a break from tradition, o ...

and Junichi Miyake covered the song on the 2006 drama CD ''Mansuri Moe Chapter 6: Happy! Valentine''. *

Hitomi Shimatani is a Japanese pop singer. Formerly signed to the Avex Trax label for 22 years, Shimatani started her career as an Enka singer with the release of her debut single in 1999, but later decided to get into the dance/ pop style for her music. Shim ...

covered the song on the 2006 various artists cover album ''Beautiful Woman''. *

self-covered the song on his 2006 cover album ''Melodies'' and 2009 cover album ''Songs''. * Cover Lover Project covered the song on the 2007 cover album ''The Best of Bossa Covers: Seishun Pop''. * Milini Khan (

Chaka Khan Yvette Marie Stevens (born March 23, 1953), better known by her stage name Chaka Khan ( ), is an American singer. Known as the " Queen of Funk", her career has spanned more than five decades beginning in the early 1970s as the lead vocalist of ...

's daughter) covered the song in English on the 2008 various artists cover album ''E35: Eigo de Utaou J-pop''. * Osamu Sakata and his daughter Megumi Sakata covered the song on the 2008 various artists cover album ''Kodomo to Utaitai! Family Hit Songs''. * Yasushi Nakanishi covered the song on his 2008 cover album ''Standards 3''. * Junichi Inagaki covered the song with

Keiko Terada is a Japanese rock singer. She was co-founder and lead singer of the successful Japanese female hard rock and heavy metal band Show-Ya from 1982 to 1991, before going solo. On her solo albums she expanded from hard rock and heavy metal to blue ...

on his 2009 duet cover album ''Otoko to Onna 2''. * Eric Martin and

Debbie Gibson Deborah Ann Gibson (born August 31, 1970) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She released her debut album ''Out of the Blue (Debbie Gibson album), Out of the Blue'' (1987) at age 16, writing and largely producing the material. The a ...

covered the song in English in two vocal arrangements; The "Mr. Vocalist Version" was included on Martin's 2010 cover album '' Mr. Vocalist 3'', while the "Ms. Vocalist Version" was featured on Gibson's 2010 cover album '' Ms. Vocalist''. A solo version by Martin was included on the bonus disc of his 2011 compilation album '' Mr. Vocalist Best''. *

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 ...

covered the song on his 2011 compilation album ''Vocalist & Ballade Best''. * jyA-Me covered the song with Jun (Cliff Edge) on her 2013 cover album ''With Me: Duet Cover''. *

Nanase Aikawa is a Japanese singer. She publishes her music under the Motorod label, a division of Avex Group. Biography Early life She was born in Higashiyodogawa-ku, Osaka, Japan on February 16, 1975. Throughout her school years, Nanase had sung and p ...

covered the song on the 2015 tribute album ''Treasure Box: Tetsuro Oda Songs''. * Daigo covered the song on his 2018 cover album ''Deing''. * Mone Kamishiraishi covered the song on her 2021 cover album ''Ano Uta 2''. * Keisuke Yamauchi covered the song on his 2021 album ''Roots''. * J-Cera covered the song in Korean as her 2023 single "Love Fool" (사랑의 바보).

References

External links

;Miho Nakayama and Wands version * * * ;Noriko Sakai version * * {{Authority control 1992 singles 1992 songs 2007 singles Songs in Japanese Japanese television drama theme songs Miho Nakayama songs King Records (Japan) singles Victor Entertainment singles Songs written by Tetsurō Oda Oricon Weekly number-one singles