Tegami (Haikei Jūgo no Kimi e)

"Tegami (Haikei Jūgo no Kimi e) (手紙 ~拝啓 十五の君へ~?, Letter ~Greetings to a 15 Year Old~)"
Single by Angela Aki
from the album Answer
Released September 17, 2008 (Japan)
Format CD single
Genre J-pop
Length 19:24
Label Sony Music Japan
Angela Aki singles chronology
"Tashika ni"
(2007)
"Tegami (Haikei Jūgo no Kimi e)"
(2008)
"Ai no Kisetsu"
(2009)

"Tegami (Haikei Jūgo no Kimi e)" (手紙 ~拝啓 十五の君へ~?, "Letter ~Greetings to a 15 Year Old~") is the eighth Japanese single by Angela Aki and was released on September 17, 2008. It was broadcast in a music program Minna no Uta in August 2008 with some re-runs. The song reached number three on the Oricon Weekly Charts, selling more than 200,000 copies.

The song was ranked at 25 on "Billboard Japan Hot 100 Songs" chart.[1]

The B-side "Still Fighting It" is a Japanese language cover of Ben Folds' song of the same name. Aki herself wrote the Japanese version's lyrics. Folds himself, by chance, heard Aki cover the song at the 2008 Fuji Rock Festival. He was impressed, and met with Aki. Due to this, they collaborated on the song "Black Glasses", on Aki's next album, Answer.[2]

Contents

Choir versions

The song is the self-cover of the choir song Angela originally wrote by a request of NHK, the national public broadcaster, as the compulsory song in the 75th NHK National School Music Contest in 2008, Junior High School (12–15 years old) Division.[3] Arranged by Hiroaki Takaha, the girls' and mixed demonstration choirs were broadcast in March 2008.[4]

Track listing

No. Title Length
1. "Tegami (Haikei Jūgo no Kimi e) (手紙 ~拝啓 十五の君へ~?, Letter ~Greetings to a 15 Year Old~)"   5:15
2. "Final Destination"   4:40
3. "Still Fighting It"   4:20
4. "Tegami (Haikei Jūgo no Kimi e) (Strings Version)"   5:09

Charts (Japan)

Release Oricon Albums Chart Peak Position Debut Sales (copies) Sales Total (copies) Chart Run
September 17, 2008 Daily Chart (first day) #3 4,308 235,782* 69 weeks
Weekly Chart #3 31,419
Monthly Chart (October) #9 68,769
Yearly Chart (2008) #45 139,755
Yearly Chart (2009) #71 83,270

Chart procession and succession

Preceded by
"Hanabi" by Mr. Children
Billboard Japan Hot 100 number one single
September 29, 2008
Succeeded by
"The Birthday (Ti Amo)" by Exile

Cover Versions

This song has also been sung by Taiwanese singer René Liu under the title Strive On: To My Fifteen Year Old Self (Chinese: 繼續~給十五歲的自己~), Chinese singer Chen Ming (陈明) under the title Letter (), and Hong Kong singer Sherman Chung under the title Letter to Myself (給自己的信).

References

External links