Handsome Boy (album)

Handsome Boy
Studio album by Yōsui Inoue
Released October 21, 1990
Genre Folk rock, adult contemporary
Length 47:31
Label For Life
Producer Yōsui Inoue
Yōsui Inoue chronology
Negative
(1987)
Handsome Boy
(1990)
The Night Without a Guide
(1992)

Handsome Boy is the 14th studio album by a Japanese singer-songwriter Yōsui Inoue, released in 1990.

The album contains the songs that were already known through the commercial tie-in with television programs or advertisements. Like "Gallery" which was recorded by Yoko Oginome and released as a single in June 1990, some of the materials were previously interpreted by other performers.[1]

Prior to the album, three songs were released as a single; "Yume Ne Mi", "Saigo no News", and "Shounen Jidai" which was co-written by Natsumi Hirai and has been one of his most well-known songs throughout Inoue's longtime career. It was initially featured on the theme song for an award-winning film adaptation of Fujiko Fujio (A)'s manga Childhood Days (based on Hyouzou Kashiwabara's novel Nagai Michi).[2] The song was gradually recognized through the TV ad of Sony Handycam which was aired during the following year. "Shounen Jidai" became his biggest hit single, peaking at #4 on the Japanese chart and selling more than 850,000 copies in total. In 1997, 3-inch CD single of the song was certified quadruple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of Japan, for shipments of over 1 million copies. [3]

Led by the success of a single "Shounen Jidai", the album Handsome Boy itself also gained favorable reaction, peaking at #2 on the Japanese Oricon chart and entering top-100 for over 10 months with sales of about 640,000 copies.

Contents

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Yōsui Inoue, unless otherwise noted

  1. "Pi Po Pa" - 3:55
  2. "Emily (エミリー Emirī?)" - 3:35
  3. "Rival (ライバル Raibaru?)" (Inoue, Yūji Kawashima) - 3:51
  4. "Saigo no News (最後のニュース?)" - 3:55
  5. "Gallery (ギャラリー Gyararī?)" - 5:07
  6. "Shounen Jidai (少年時代?)" (Inoue, Natsumi Hirai) - 3:21
  7. "Fiction (フィクション Fikushon?)" - 3:21
  8. "Tokyo" (Inoue, Hirai) - 3:56
  9. "Yume Ne Mi (夢寝見?)" - 5:03
  10. "Shizen ni Kazararete (自然に飾られて?)" (Inoue, Hirai) - 6:07
  11. "Choujikan no Hikou (長時間の飛行?)" (Inoue, Kawashima) - 4:22

Personnel

Chart positions

Album

Album Chart Position Weeks Sales
Handsome Boy Japanese Oricon Weekly Albums Chart (top 100) 2[4] 44 639,000+

Singles

Single B-Side Chart Position Weeks Sales
"Yume Ne Mi" "Beni Suberi" Japanese Oricon Weekly (top 100)[5] 37 6 23,000
"Saigo no News" "Back Side" 57 6 16,000
"Shounen Jidai" "Ara-Washi no Uta" 4 38 853,000

Release history

Country Date Label Format Catalog number Notes
Japan October 20, 1990 For Life Records CD FLCF-30081
Audio cassette FLTF-26021
May 30, 2001 CD FLCF-3858 Original recording digital remastered
March 25, 2009 For Life Music Entertainment/BMG SHM-CD FLCF-5011

References