A Best 2 -Black-

CD+2DVD

CD only

Artist

Hamasaki Ayumi

Album

A BEST 2 -BLACK-

Released

2007.02.28 (Japan)

2007.03.07 (Hong Kong)

2007.03.09 (Taiwan)

2007.03.14 (Singapore)

2007.03.12 (Overseas version)

2007.03.15 (Korea)

2007.04.?? (Malaysia)

Catalog Number

AVCD-23263 (CD+2DVD)

AVCD-23264 (CD only)

Price

¥4,700 (CD+2DVD)

¥3,059 (CD only)

CD Tracklist

1. Dearest
2. CAROLS
3. No way to say
4. HANABI
5. walking proud
6. Free & Easy
7. Endless sorrow
8. Because of You
9. About You
10. GAME
11. is this LOVE?
12. HANABI ~episode II~
13. NEVER EVER
14. HEAVEN
15. part of Me
16. Memorial address (Hidden Track)

DVD1 "A BEST Clips -BLACK-" Tracklist

1. Dearest
2. CAROLS
3. No way to say
4. walking proud
5. Free & Easy
6. Endless sorrow
7. Because of You
8. About You
9. GAME
10. is this LOVE?
11. HANABI ~episode II~
12. NEVER EVER (promotional clip)
13. HEAVEN
14. part of Me
15. H (TV-CM)

DVD2 tracklist

1. Documentary Film of COUNTDOWN LIVE 2006-2007 A (90 min.)

Information

A BEST 2 is the third "best of" compilation by Hamasaki Ayumi. It was released in two versions; BLACK and WHITE. The BLACK version contains painful and dark songs selected from everything since her 20th single "evolution" (2001) up to her 38th single "Bold & Delicious / Pride" (2005) plus one new song that was used in a Panasonic commercial promoting Lumix cameras. The first press of the album included a special black case. All tracks except "part of Me" were re-mastered by Bernie Grundman Mastering in L.A. in order to give a better sound quality to the album. Because the album sold a total of 696,728 copies in 2007, the album became the #7 album of the year. To date, A BEST 2 sold a combined total of 1,423,317 copies.

Credits

Click "Expand" for more details:

Hamasaki Ayumi promoting the single.

• Produced by max matsuura

• Mastered by Brian "Big Bass" Gardner at Bernie Grundman Mastering, Hollywood, CA

• A&R: Kentaro Furusawa (avex trax)
• A&R Direction: Hidetomo Yoneda (avex trax)

• Artist Management: Kouji Hashimoto, Tadashi Urakami (avex entertainment inc.)
• Artist Brand Management: Hideki Endo (avex entertainment inc.)

• Visual Producer: Kiyoshi 'Utsumizm' Utsumi (avex group)
• Making Off-shot Producer: Kazuki 'Mr' Okabe (avex entertainment inc.)
• Media Promotion: Takeshi Mori & All Media Division Promotion Room Staff (avex entertainment inc.)
• Media Promotion Supervisor: Akira Akutsu (avex entertainment inc.)
• Sales Promotion: Jun Yogi, Taishi Nomura & All AMC Staff (avex marketing communications inc.)
• DVD Authoring: Yohei Sato (avex network inc.)
• Contents Coordination: Shunsuke Abe (avex network inc.)
• Web Designer: Yukiko Ito (avex network inc.)
• A&R Desk: Miki Endo (avex entertainment inc.)

• A&R Supervisor: Hiroshi Ishimori, Takashi Okuda (avex trax)
• A&R Executive Supervisor: Jun Harada (avex trax)

• Advisory Producers: Motohiro Abe (avex entertainment inc.), Yoshihisa Nagata (avex live creative inc.)
• General Producers: Shinji Hayashi, Takashi Araki, Ryuhei Chiba (avex group)

• Art Direction & Design: Shinichi Hara
• Art Design: Takuma Noriage (momoya)
• Creative Coordination: Naoki Ueda (avex marketing communications inc.)
• CG Treatment: Makoto Harikae, Hiroko Tanaka, Hiroki Yura (amana)
• Quality Control: Shuichi Takahashi, Toshiyuki Suzuki (avex marketing communications inc.)

• Photographer: Kazuyoshi Shimomura (AVGVST)
• Assistant Photographer: Satoko Mitomi
• Stylist: Kei 'Okei' Ito (ab fab)
• Assistant Stylist: Yuko Honda (ab fab)
• Costume Creator: Akira Noda (Workaholik)
• Nail Artist: Kanako 'Bancho' Miura (Three Peace)
• Assistant Nail Artist: Shingo 'Minazo' Sano
• Hair: Mika Momose (ISM)
• Assistant Hair: So 'Otochan' Tsuchie (ISM)
• Make Up: Jin 'Gori' Kiyota (Rond.)
• Assistant Make Up: Shoichi 'Sho' Nakamura
• Stand in: Takami 'Poroko' Desaki

• Support: Keizo Kuroda, Kazuhisa Kurumizawa (Three Peace), Kazuyoshi Takahashi, Satomi Masubuchi, Kayoko Kishishita, Hiroyuki Kuramoto (ZACC), Takehide Fumimori, Miki Kakinuma, Koji Matsumoto, Stanley Izumi Kim, Luis Hernandez, Ward Secton, Kasutaka 'Numatchi' Numakura (Office Lift), Jun Yoshida (ISM)

• Special Thanks: Junichi 'nonchan' Kamitoku, Mikajohn, Tetsuya 'Hige' Hirakawa, Natsuki, Furu, Yossy, Ryuji, Naokun, Yusuke, Kotaro, Turico, Tomomi, Kyoko, Ai, Ryo, Keiko, Jin, Kumako, Keiichi, my family & my honey, all of you who participated this album... and you❤

Charts

A BEST 2 -BLACK- debuted at #1 in Oricon Charts (Japan) but the other days A BEST 2 -WHITE- was preferred. This is the first time in 36 and a half years that a female artist occupied #1 and #2 in album charts. A BEST 2 -BLACK- outsold the weekly #3 for a large of 437,037 copies and ended being #2 weekly while A BEST 2 -WHITE- was #1 weekly. The A BEST 2 albums have shipped more than 2,000,000 copies in Japan alone.

Oricon Chart Positions

Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Week Rank	Sales
-	1	2	2	2	2	2	2	470,057
2	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	97,534
3	9	9	7	7	7	7	7	44,239
7	15	13	8	8	9	9	10	21,349
9	19	18	14	14	14	11	16	13,265
13	20	20	18	19	19	19	18	8,339
17	-	-	-	20	-	20	23	5,739
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	30	4,337
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	49	3,866
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	43	3,722
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	60	2,217
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	57	2,086
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	113	1,713
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	102	1,514
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	127	1,329
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	124	1,268
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	134	1,191
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	144	1,478
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	162	1,114
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	141	1,196
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	135	1,318
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	171	1,167
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	177	948
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	196	926
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	168	1,044
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	186	1,010
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	240	795
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	245	740
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	235	712
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	266	695
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	out for thirteen weeks
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	235	913
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	277	950
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	167	2,593
-	-	-	-	-	-	-
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	159	990
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	219	721

• Sales in 2007: 698,591 (#7 album of the year)
• Sales in 2008: 4,304

Charts Positions

Country	Chart	Weeks
		1	2	3	4
All	Global Chart	2	13	-	-
Hong Kong	Japanese Chart	2	5	x	x
	Global Chart	34	-	-	-
	Asian Chart	8	16
Taiwan	Global Chart	3	4	5	7
	Japanese Chart	2	1	2	2

G-Music Japanese Chart Positions

	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5	Week 6	Week 7	Week 8	Week 9	Week 10	Week 11	Week 12	Week 13	Week 14	Week 15	Week 16	Week 17
Position	2	1	2	2	2	2	4	7	9	11	12	12	15	15	15	-	14
Percentage	23.81%	13%	11.95%	8.94%	7%	5.36%	2.28%	2.38%	1.22%	1.07%	1.06%	1.03%	0.62%	0.87%	0.51%	-	0.56%

External Links

• Oricon Profile: CD+2DVD | CD Only
• A BEST 2 Official Website (Archive/Japanese)
• "A BEST 2 -BLACK-" TRACK LIST LIVE