is the debut single by Japanese singer

Ringo Sheena , known by her stage name , is a Japanese singer, songwriter and musician. She is also the founder and lead vocalist of the band Tokyo Jihen. She describes herself as "". She was ranked number 36 in a list of Japan's top 100 musicians compiled ...

and it was released on May 27, 1998 by

Toshiba EMI , formerly , was one of Japan's leading music companies. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of British music company EMI Group Ltd. on June 30, 2007, after Toshiba sold off its previous 45% stake. Its CEO and president was Kazuhiko Koike. When ...

, East World. Since Sheena suddenly gained popularity, it was decided that this single was resold as a 12 cm single. New edition, including the new song, was re-released with the fourth single " Honnō" on October 27, 1999. The 1999 edition was certified gold by the

RIAJ The is an industry trade group composed of Japanese corporations involved in the music industry. It was founded in 1942 as the Japan Phonogram Record Cultural Association, and adopted its current name in 1969. The RIAJ's activities include prom ...

for 200,000 copies shipped to stores.

Background

"Kōfukuron" and "Suberidai" were produced by Hiroshi Kitashiro, who is an

audio engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproduc ...

and

synthesizer programmer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

, and "Toki ga Bōsō Suru" was produced by Uni Inoue, who is an audio engineer and

multi-instrumentalist A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays two or more musical instruments, often but not exclusively at a professional level of proficiency. Also known as woodwind doubler, doubling, the practice allows greater ensemble flexibility and mor ...

Seiji Kameda is a Japanese music producer, arranger and bass guitarist. He has worked extensively with Ringo Shiina, serving as her producer and touring bassist for many years, including his tenure with their band Tokyo Jihen. Biography He was born in ...

arranged all songs. Sheena wanted to release not "Kōfukuron" but

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

song "Suberidai" as a title tune. However, she gave up on the idea because of opposition from

EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...

staff. Since Sheena was not pleased with the arrangement of "Kōfukuron," the single version was not included in the album. The song was used as the theme song to the TBS

variety show Variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical performances, sketch comedy, magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is normally introduced by a comp� ...

''Ai no Hinadan'', and the "Etsuraku-hen" version featured on ''

Muzai Moratorium , also known as ''Innocence Moratorium'', is the debut studio album by Japanese singer and songwriter Ringo Sheena, released on February 24, 1999, by Toshiba EMI. The album debuted at #2 and has sold over 1,433,000 copies. The album was certified ...

'', in a 1999 commercial for

Suntory (commonly referred to as simply Suntory) is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational brewing and distilling company group. Established in 1899, it is one of the oldest companies in the distribution of alcoholic beverages in Japan, and ...

's ''The Cocktail Bar Cassis & Orange''. The song was covered as a part of a medley by

Rie Tomosaka is a Japanese actress and pop star from Mitaka-shi, Tokyo. She works for Itoh Company. From 1996 to 1997, she has released music under the name . Profile Tomosaka's father is a beautician. In 1998, she majored in International Culture at Tei ...

on the television show ''The Yoru mo Hippare'' on September 9, 2000. It was later covered by

Arashi is a Japanese boy band consisting of five members formed under the Johnny & Associates talent agency. The members are Satoshi Ohno, Sho Sakurai, Masaki Aiba, Kazunari Ninomiya, and Jun Matsumoto. Arashi officially formed on September 15, 199 ...

members

Jun Matsumoto is a Japanese singer, actor, radio host, and model. He is a member of the boy band Arashi, and is Arashi's concert producer as well as production advisor for other groups. He is best known to Japanese television drama audiences for his portraya ...

and

Masaki Aiba (born December 24, 1982) is a Japanese singer, actor, television personality, radio host and dancer. He is a member of the boy band Arashi. Aiba began his career in the entertainment industry when he joined the Japanese talent agency Johnny & ...

on their 2002 concert ''Arashi Storm Concert Tour 2003 "Atarashi Arashi"''.

Track listing

Charts and sales

Sales and certifications

Credits and personnel

Kōfukuron *

Synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

Programming: Hiroshi Kitashiro * **

Vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

: Ringo Sheena **

Electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...

: Susumu Nishikawa **

Electric Bass The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an electric but with a longer neck and scale leng ...

Drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

: Noriyasu "''Kāsuke''" Kawamura Suberidai * Vocals: Ringo Sheena *

Acoustic Guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked, its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

: Susumu Nishikawa *

Contrabass Contrabass (from ) refers to several musical instruments of very low pitch—generally one octave below bass register instruments. While the term most commonly refers to the double bass (which is the bass instrument in the orchestral string family ...

: Hitoshi Watanabe * Synthesizer Programming: Hiroshi Kitashiro Toki ga Bōsō Suru * Vocals,

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

: Ringo Sheena * Drums: Masayuki Muraishi * Synthesizer Programming: Nobuhiko Nakayama

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kofukuron Ringo Sheena songs 1998 songs 1998 debut singles 1999 singles Songs written by Ringo Sheena Song recordings produced by Seiji Kameda