FOR YOU

Overview

In 1980, Tatsuro Yamashita's single Ride on Time became a hit, as did the album of the same name. Yamashita would hold frequent live concerts throughout 1981 as a result, making it difficult to plan for his next album, but his band continued to improve as they performed. Yamashita said about the success of Ride on Time, "This album finally fulfills my dream from the time of Sugar Babe, I wanted to record as much as I wanted without worrying about budget and time".

When For You released in 1982, it became Yamashita's second hit studio album, peaking at number one on the Oricon LP charts and number two on the CT charts. It was also his last studio album under the AIR/RVC label. Later that year, he married Mariya Takeuchi on April 6. Originally, the song "Morning Glory" was written for Takeuchi's album Miss M. The songs "Sparkle" and "Loveland Island" were used as commercial songs for Suntory beer. Meanwhile, the song "Your Eyes" was used as a commercial song for Nissui starring Bunta Sugawara.

At this time, advances were made in car stereos and Walkman devices that gave portable music devices improved audio quality. The album was produced and promoted with this in mind to reinforce the 'resort pop' feeling, with the slogan "Summer, the sea, Tatsuro!" officially cementing his image as the "Summer Song Guy". Originally, Yamashita was thinking of requesting Hiroshi Nagai to make the album cover, but at that time Nagai had already decided to work on the album cover for Eiichi Ohtaki's album A Long Vacation. Eizin Suzuki instead created For You's cover art.

In the 2002 reissue of the album, four bonus tracks were added. The bonus track "Every Night" was an unpublished cover Yamashita recorded of Mariya Takeuchi's song from her album Miss M. Loveland, Island / Your Eyes was released as a single the same year. The song Loveland, Island was used as the ending theme for the Japanese drama series The Long Love Letter.

Track listing

Credits

Sparkle

Tatsuro Yamashita: Electric Guitar, Electric Piano, Percussion & Background Vocals

Jun Aoyama: Drums

Koki Ito: Bass

Hiroyuki Namba: Acoustic Piano, Synth

Hidefumi Toki: Alto Sax Solo

Minako Yoshida: Background Vocals

Shin Kazuhara: Trumpet

Masahiro Kobayashi: Trumpet

Shigeharu Mukai: Trombone

Tadanori Konakawa: Trombone

Takeru Muraoka: Tenor Sax

Shunzo Sunahara: Baritone Sax

Music Book

Tatsuro Yamashita: Percussion & Background Vocals

Yuichi Togashiki: Drums

Akira Okazawa: Bass

Tsunehide Matsuki: Electric Guitar

Hiroshi Sato: Electric Piano

Motoya Hamaguchi: Percussion

Shigeharu Mukai: Trombone Solo

Minako Yoshida: Background Vocals

Shin Kazuhara: Trumpet