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First Love (Utada Hikaru song)

8cm CD Cover
12cm CD Cover
Artist
Utada Hikaru
Single
First Love
Released
1999.04.28
Catalog Number
TODT-5300 (8cm CD)
TOCT-4150 (12cm CD)
Price
¥1,020
Tracklist
  • 8cm CD
  1. First Love
  2. First Love (Strings Mix)
  3. First Love (Original Karaoke)
  4. First Love (John Luongo Remix)
  • 12cm CD
  1. First Love
  2. First Love (featuring David Sanborn)
  3. First Love (Strings Mix)
  4. First Love (John Luongo Remix)


Information

"First Love" is the third single released by Utada Hikaru. It was released in two formats: an 8cm mini CD and 12cm standard CD both featuring different mixes. The single is a re-cut from her best selling debut album also called First Love. The song was used as the theme for the dorama series Majo no Jouken.

When "First Love" was released the different versions charted separately on the weekly Oricon chart. The 12cm standard CD single reached #2 on weekly Oricon chart, while the mini 8cm CD version reached #6. Both versions stayed in the charts for 13 weeks. The 12cm CD sold 500,890 units and was the #42 single of 1999, while the 8cm version sold 303,430 units and was the #72 single of the year. Combining the sales of both versions, the single had 804,320 sales, which would have made it the #18 single for 1999. The single reached #26 on World Charts for single airplay, and reached #20 for sales. It was Utada's first single to not sell a million copies, but was still highly successful for being an album-cut song.

In 2016, "First Love" started to appear within the top 100 download song chart on Recochoku after the release of Utada's sixth Japanese studio album Fantome. At this time, several other Utada staples started appearing on the chart.

Song Information

Lyrics
Utada Hikaru
Music
Utada Hikaru
Other Information
Arrangement & Strings Arrangement: Kawano Kei
Keyboards & Programming: Kawano Kei
Synthesizer Programming: Momo Masayuki, Iida Takahiro
Guitar: Akiyama Hironori
Strings: Goto Yuichiro strings

Concert Performances

Disambiguation

There are four versions of "First Love" to be found in Utada's discography . These different versions are:

First Love
Found on both "First Love" singles as track #1 and on First Love and on Utada Hikaru SINGLE COLLECTION VOL.1 as track #4.
First Love (Original Karaoke)
Found on the 8cm "First Love" single as track #3. It is the standard version of the song, except without Utada's vocals.
First Love (Strings Mix)
Found on the "First Love" 8cm single as track #2 and on the 12cm single as track #3. It is similar to the standard version of the song, except that Utada's vocals are replaced by strings.
First Love (John Luongo Remix)
Found on both "First Love" singles as track #4. This is an upbeat dance remix of "First Love".

External Links