"Stay Gold" is a
pop song
Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom.S. Frith, W. Straw, and J. Street, eds, '' The Cambridge Companion to Pop and Rock'' (Cambridge: Cambridg ...
by
Japanese American
are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian Americans, Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 United States census, 2000 census, they have declined in ...
musician
Hikaru Utada
, also known mononymously as Utada, is a Japanese and American singer, songwriter, and producer. She is considered to be one of the most influential and best-selling musical artists in Japan. She is best known by international audiences for w ...
. Used in a high-profile campaign for
Kao Corporation
is a Japanese global chemical and cosmetics company headquartered in Nihonbashi-Kayabacho, Chūō, Tokyo, Japan.
History
Kao was established in 1882 by Tomiro Nagase as a manufacturer of domestic toiletry soap. Until 1954, they were known a ...
's Asience shampoo commercials in 2007, the song was released as a double A-side single with Utada's song "
Heart Station
''Heart Station'' is the seventh studio and fifth Japanese-language album by Japanese–American recording artist Hikaru Utada. It was released on March 19, 2008, by EMI Music Japan sublabel Eastworld, and globally on March 26, 2008. It is Utada ...
" on February 20, 2008.
Background and development
In February 2007, Utada released "
Flavor of Life
"Flavor of Life" is Hikaru Utada's 18th Japanese single (25th single overall). The physical single was officially released on February 28, 2007.
Compared to the preceding singles following "Colors (Hikaru Utada song), Colors", "Flavor of Life" g ...
", the theme song for the drama ''
Hana Yori Dango Returns
is a Japanese television drama series broadcast on Tokyo Broadcasting System, TBS in 2007 Japanese television dramas, 2007. It is the sequel to the 2005 TV series ''Boys Over Flowers (2005 TV series), Boys Over Flowers'' based on Boys Over Fl ...
'', which became one of her most commercially successful singles, selling over eight million downloads and becoming the second most digitally successful song of 2007 globally. This was followed by a second single in 2007, featuring the songs "
Beautiful World", the theme song for the animated film ''
Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone'', and "
Kiss & Cry", a song used to promote
Nissin Foods
is a Japanese food company. Founded in 1948 by Momofuku Ando in Izumiōtsu, Osaka, it owns Nissin Food Products, Nissin Chilled Foods, Nissin Frozen Foods, and Myojo Foods. It is known for development of the world's first marketed brand of i ...
'
Cup Noodles
A cup noodle is an instant ramen product in a disposable cup, first developed in 1971 and manufactured by the Japanese food company Nissin Foods. The product was first introduced in the United States as "Cup O' Noodles" in 1972, before being ren ...
.
On December 7 to celebrate the start of her 10th year since her debut, her song "
Automatic
Automatic may refer to:
Music Bands
* Automatic (Australian band), Australian rock band
* Automatic (American band), American rock band
* The Automatic, a Welsh alternative rock band
Albums
* ''Automatic'' (Jack Bruce album), a 1983 el ...
" (1998) was released as a free ringtone for four days. At the same time, it was announced that Utada was working on her fifth Japanese studio album, to be released in spring 2008.
Promotion and release
The song was first announced and used in Asience commercials in October 2007, and released as a ringtone on December 7.
After a single month, the song's ringtones had been downloaded more than 250,000 times.
After the song was released to radio stations on January 7, it was heavily played on FM radio stations across Japan. It managed to reach number one on the newly established ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
''
Japan Hot 100
The ''Billboard Japan'' Hot 100 is a record chart in Japan for songs. It has been compiled by ''Billboard Japan'' and Hanshin Contents Link since February 2008. The chart is updated every Wednesday at Billboard-japan.com ( JST) and every Thursday ...
chart in mid January, despite having no purchasable release at the time.
In February, Utada was featured in many music and fashion magazines in Japan to promote the single, including issues of ''Pia'', ''Patipati'', ''CD Data'', ''What's In?'' and ''Pop Teen''. On February 28, Utada performed the song live on ''
Utaban
was a Japanese music variety show, broadcast weekly from October 15, 1996 until March 23, 2010 on TBS. The name of the show is an abbreviation of , meaning "music program". A special version of the show, running for two hours, was occasionally a ...
''. It has been part of two of Utada's concert setlists: her international tour
Utada: In the Flesh 2010 and her two date concert series
Wild Life in December 2010.
Critical reception
''CDJournal'' reviewers felt the song was simultaneously painful and warm, and praised the song's passionate lyrics and inflected vocals. They described the song's piano as having an "extremely pure" sound, like skipping stones on a surface of water, and felt the lyric "''shūshoku mo kimatte, asonde bakkari iranai ne''" ("You've got a job, so you can't just play all the time anymore") was particularly gripping. Takayuki Saito of ''Hot Express'' described the song as being as minimalist as possible, and noted it was rare of Utada to use feminine lyrics in the way she does in "Stay Gold", and praised the song's "high level of perfection".
Listen.jp reviewer Shigefumi Koike praised how the song showed off Utada's "adventurous spirit" while remaining an easily listenable pop song. He felt that "Stay Gold" displayed an effective use of the acoustic piano, and praised the song's emotion. Koike felt that both "Stay Gold" and "Heart Station" were a "magnificent" display of Utada's "futuristic" abilities as a sound creator, and that both songs showed off the emotive qualities of Utada's vocals and had great "ambient sound arrangements".
Covers
In 2014, Ohashi Trio recorded a cover of "Stay Gold" for ''Utada Hikaru no Uta'', a tribute album celebrating 15 years since Utada's debut.
Track listings
Personnel
Personnel details were sourced from "Heart Station" / "Stay Gold"'s liner notes booklet.
* Goetz B. for 365 Artists – mixing
* Atsushi Matsui – recording
* Akira Miyake – production
* Yuzuru Tomita – acoustic piano, additional programming
* Hikaru Utada – acoustic piano, all vocals, arrangement, keyboards, production, programming, writing
Chart rankings
Sales and certifications
Release history
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stay Gold
2008 singles
2008 songs
EMI Music Japan singles
Hikaru Utada songs
Billboard Japan Hot 100 number-one singles
Songs in Japanese
Songs used as jingles
Songs written by Hikaru Utada