A Ballads

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A Ballads
Compilation album by Ayumi Hamasaki
Released	March 12, 2003
Genre	J-pop
Length	72:03
Label	AVEX Trax
Ayumi Hamasaki chronology
Rainbow (2002) A Ballads (2003) Memorial address (2003)

A Ballads is a ballad compilation album by Ayumi Hamasaki released on March 12, 2003. The initial pressings of the album had four different covers. As of 2007, A BALLADS surpassed the million mark with 1,041,000 copies sold.

[edit] Limited Edition covers

[edit] Songs

"Rainbow" is the title track to her previous album Rainbow, but was not included on the album. As a promotion for both albums, the purchasers of the initial pressings of Rainbow were given a password to a website, where they could download part of instrumental version of the song, and submit their own lyrics. Over 100,000 people accessed the website. The tracklistings of initial pressings of the album Rainbow had track 00 that said "Rainbow", but the song was not included on the album, and was scheduled to be released as a single after partcipation ended.

Both "appears" and "M" were dramatically remixed by HAL to fit in with the ballad image of the album.

"You", "A Song for XX" were rearranged and resung for this album and added rocky and acoustic feel to the songs. These songs display the change in Hamasaki's voice since her debut.

"To be" and "Seasons" were only minimally changed for the album with heavier percussions.

The final track, "Sotsugyou shashin" was originally by Matsutoya Yumi, and is the only cover that Ayumi Hamasaki has done to this date on an album.

The numbers in A Song for XX's title is the date in which it was recorded (YYMMDD)

[edit] Track listing

1. "Rainbow"
2. "Appears" (HAL's Progress)
3. "Key ~eternal tie ver.~"
4. "You" (northern breeze)
5. "To be" (2003 ReBirth mix)
6. "HANABI" (, lit. Fireworks^?)
7. "Ｍ" (HAL's Progress)
8. "Dearest"
9. "Dolls"
10. "Seasons" (2003 ReBirth mix)
11. "Voyage"
12. "A Song for XX" (030213 Session #2)
13. "Who..." (Across the Universe)
14. Sotsugyō Shashin (卒業写真, Graduation Photograph^?)

[edit] Charts

Oricon Sales Chart (Japan)

• Total Sales: 1,041,000 (Japan)
• Total Sales: 2,000,000 (Asia)

[edit] Weekly Oricon Ranks & Charts

[edit] External links

This article contains Japanese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of kanji or kana.

• [1] (Japanese)