Final Distance
- Artist
- Utada Hikaru
- Single
- FINAL DISTANCE
- Released
- 2001.07.25
- Catalog Number
- TOCT-4311
- Price
- ¥1,100
- Tracklist
- FINAL DISTANCE
- DISTANCE -PLANITb Remix-
- DISTANCE -m-flo remix- (produced by TAKU of m-flo)
- DISTANCE
- DISTANCE -Original Karaoke-
- FINAL DISTANCE -Instrumental-
- Information
FINAL DISTANCE is Utada Hikaru's eighth single. FINAL DISTANCE was the DoCoMo M-stage CM song. Though Distance was previously released on Utada's second album, Distance, it was remade into a ballad to commemorate a school shooting that had happened in Japan. This single reached #2 on Oricon charts (under Morning Musume's The Peace!) and charted for 13 weeks. This single became the #24 single of 2001 in Japan. This single, as well as Hikari and SAKURA Drops / Letters, strangely did not chart in the world charts airplay charts or sales charts. The most recent figures (May 26, 2006) show that the singe sold 582,120 units in total.
Song Information
- Lyrics
- Utada Hikaru
- Music
- Utada Hikaru
- Other Information (Distance)
- Production: Miyake Akira and Utada Sking Teruzane
- Arrangement: Kawano Kei and Utada Hikaru
- Keyboards and Programming: Kawano Kei
- Synthesizer Programming: Tsunemi Kazuhide
- Guitar: Kawano Kei
- Horns: Yokan
- All Vocals: Utada Hikaru
- Recording: Ugajin Masaaki and Watanabe Syuichi at Toshiba EMI Studio and Bunkamura Studio
- Mixing and Additional Recording: Goh Hotoda at Bunkamura Studio
- Other Information (FINAL DISTANCE)
- Production: Miyake Akira, Utada Hikaru and Utada Sking Teruzane
- Arrangement: Kawano Kei and Utada Hikaru
- String Arrangement: Saito Neko
- Keyboards and Programming: Kawano Kei
- Synthesizer Programming: Tsunemi Kazuhide
- Acoustic Piano: Kawano Kei
- Strings: Great Eida Strings
- All Vocals: Utada Hikaru
- Recording: Ugajin Masaaki at Studio Terra and Bunkamura Studio (FINAL DISTANCE)
- Mixing: Goh Hotoda at Bunkamura Studio
Distance originally appeared in the Distance album, and was planned to be released as a single. However, Utada heard of a school shooting/rampage in which schoolgirl Yamashita Rena (山下玲奈) had died. Rena had previously won an essay competition; writing about how she wanted to become a singer just like Utada. Utada decided to change the song entirely, creating the song FINAL DISTANCE. FINAL DISTANCE is Distance sung in ballad form. FINAL DISTANCE is the first PV in Kiriya Kazuaki's Kiriya Trilogy of Utada PVs.
Utada Quotes
- (Distance the song and the album) "The title became Distance because...looking back I realised that most of the songs in the album were about interaction between people; the distance between people. Emotion, mentality. Cause, you know, we all wanna get to know each other, and shorten that distance between people we love. That distance is never gonna be nothing. I mean, there's always gonna be a bit of it left, no matter how close you get. We have to love that distance too, if you're gonna love somebody. That's why I titled it that way." --Utada Hikaru
- (FD) "This time I'm working hard on a round of promotion to get the new single heard by as many people as possible, and I...somehow think this song is not something which is supposed to be shown like, 'Okay please get ready to sing - Here it is, FINAL DISTANCE!' after some talks with MCs, appearing a series of TV shows. I do enjoy works of TV appearances, but since I don't want this song shown like that, I've decided to do promotion mainly by radio and magazines." --Utada Hikaru
- (FD) "When I made this song, I remembered, 'Oh! This was the last song on Distance.' However, looking back again, I noticed that the one was the beginning of the 'Deep River' period. After all, if this one were not included in this album, I would feel that this album had no starting song. So this might have gained a pretty good point from me." --Utada Hikaru
- (On the FD PV) "Yeah. That was a crazy looking video! That was kind of when I began working a lot with my husband, and he's the director on the video, and all that is his." -- Utada Hikaru
Disambiguation
There are six versions of Distance and four versions of FINAL DISTANCE to be found in Utada's discography (listed chronologically). These different versions are:
- Distance
- Found on Distance album as track three and FINAL DISTANCE single as track four.
- Distance -PLANITb remix-
- Found on FINAL DISTANCE single as track two. This remix is dance-heavy and upbeat. It was produced and remixed by Russel McNamara for UnderCover Inc., and was coordinated by Michael T. Martin for UnderCover Inc..
- Distance -m-flo remix-
- Found on FINAL DISTANCE single as track three. This remix has a hip-hop theme to it, and was produced by TAKU from m-flo. Due to the remixing techniques used by TAKU, many people contributed to this remix. The remix was co-produced by Nakanishi Ryosuke a.k.a. Studio-R. The strings were played by Kinbara Strings and were arranged by Kouno Shin. The harp sample was played by Asakawa Tomoyuki and the guitar sample was played by Ishinari Masato. The remix contains a sample of Lori Fine's voice from an m-flo intro.
- Distance (Original Karaoke)
- Found on FINAL DISTANCE single as track five. This is just the standard version except without the major singing in it.
- Distance (Budokan Live)
- Found on Utada Hikaru in Budokan 2004 - Hikaru no 5 as track 17. The arrangement has changed slightly to accomodate the instruments present.
- Distance (Harmony Orchestra)
- Found once on the HARMONY~J-pop Meets Classics~for slow life collection, as track #5 of the 3rd CD (Dinner Time) on the second boxed set. This has no vocals, and is performed by The Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra. However, this version is much more reminicent of FINAL DISTANCE's arrangement.
- FINAL DISTANCE
- Found on FINAL DISTANCE single as track one, DEEP RIVER album as track 10 and Utada Hikaru SINGLE COLLECTION VOL.1 as track 10. This is the version set to the PV.
- FINAL DISTANCE (Instrumental)
- Found on FINAL DISTANCE single as track six. This is just the standard version except without any vocals in it.
- FINAL DISTANCE (Unplugged Live)
- Found on Utada Hikaru Unplugged DVD as track nine, making it an impressive final song for the concert.
- FINAL DISTANCE (Utada United Live)
- Found on UTADA UNITED 2006 DVD as track three.
External Links
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
