Melodies

Melodies is the eighth studio album recorded by Japanese singer-songwriter Tatsuro Yamashita, released in June 1983. It was his first LP issued under the Moon Label which was distributed by Alfa Records at the time.

Unlike his previous albums, where Minako Yoshida wrote most of the lyrics, most of the songs heard on Melodies are penned by Yamashita alone, except for "Blue Midnight" (co-written by Yoshida) and a cover version of "Guess I'm Dumb" (composed by Brian Wilson and Russ Titelman and originally recorded by Glen Campbell in 1966).

Before the album came out, "Koukiatsu Girl" was released as a lead single. It features chorus by Mariya Takeuchi, who married Yamashita in 1982 and then temporarily suspended her recording career. The most well-known song in this album is "Christmas Eve". Since the album was released in June 1983, not during the Christmas season, the song was re-released as a 12-inch colored picture disc single in December 1983. In 1986, it was re-released as a 7-inch single. The song did not receive much attention when it was released on 12-inch single in December 1983, but it was widely recognized through a series of television advertisements by the Central Japan Railway Company aired during the late 1980s and early 1990s. "Christmas Eve" was selected from a pool of 300 songs to serve as the theme song for the commercial. The CD single of "Christmas Eve" reissued in 1986 subsequently became a huge commercial success, topping the chart in December 1989. The song was repeatedly reissued in later years and became a hit throughout the decades, entering the Oricon chart for over 20 consecutive years with sales of more than 1.8 million copies in total.

Because of the massive success "Christmas Eve" gained, the album also enjoyed long-term commercial success. Melodies is Yamashita's best selling studio album, retailing over 992,000 copies during its two first chart runs. In 2013 the 30th anniversary reissue sold 28,000 more copies, pushing the album total to 1 million and 20,000 copies.

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