Credits

I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.

Saturday, May 4, 2013

hitomi -- by myself




“by myself” is a song by hitomi, a model turned singer that was quite popular in the 90s. It was the last single released prior to her second album “by myself” in 1996.

The song is a beautiful ballad with some very nice orchestra playing in the background (love the flutes). The only flaw, for me, is the absence of an instrumental break with this orchestra (we can hear it better at the end of the song, but it fades very soon), but, other than that, is a great piece of work from Tetsuya Komuro (小室哲哉). hitomi’s voice is not my everyday cup of tea, but at the same time is typical hitomi, so I kinda learned how to appreciate it properly with time.

As for the video, it really transmits this lonely and melancholic feel of staying “by yourself”. It’s a very simple video as most of the time hitomi is just walking thought Tokyo while singing the song. But, although simple, it’s a very good way of portraying the loneliness in a big city. I don’t know how the lyrics are connected with that, though.

Here’s a live version of the song performed in 1999 (Ed. : Unfortunately, the live version has been taken down, so here is the album version instead.)



Oh, and I find “by myself” way better than “CAN YOU CELEBRATE?”, the monster hit ballad released by Namie Amuro (安室奈美恵) in 1997. I’m just saying that because Komuro was responsible for both tracks, and in “by myself” he really showed some inspiration for composing and arranging a ballad.

“by myself” was hitomi’s seventh single. It was released in August 1996 and reached #7 on the weekly Oricon charts, selling around 291,000 copies (source: generasia). The song was later included in the “by myself” album, released one month later in September 1996. The music and arrangement were made by Tetsuya Komuro, while the lyrics were written by hitomi herself.

A funny personal story about this song is that I happened to find a second hand 8cm single of “by myself” here in Brazil. It was really cheap and made me very happy. I listen to it very often, and I must confess that I love the style of the 8cm singles. Here’s some photos of my own copy of the “by myself” single.






4 comments:

  1. Hey, Marcos. Thanks for putting up another member of the Komuro family. I was never a huge fan of hitomi but I remember this song and her debut, "Candy Girl"(?) at around the same time. It was nice seeing some of those old Tokyo landmarks like Odaiba and The Big Eye at Shinjuku Station.

    I used to see and hear the video for "by myself" on "CDTV" but didn't hear the whole song until now. I didn't realize how lush the orchestration got near the end.

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    1. hitomi is hit or miss for me. I enjoy some of her hits, but not the whole discography. I don't care for the pop-rock material that she started releasing after 1997.

      "Candy Girl" is classic Komuro. It was not hitomi's debut, though. Her debut was "Let's Play Winter", an awful track in my opinion. As for "Candy Girl", it was her third single, but first real hit, because the two precedents were flops.

      The orchestration is my favorite element of "by myself". I enjoy listening to the instrumental track on the single as well.

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  3. Thanks Marcos V for this great post on hitomi's 「by myself」. I agree, a lot of her songs were very hit or miss (which seemed to be the case for a lot of the 小室ファミリー). 「Candy Girl」 is an OK song but not one of my favorites. I guess I'm the opposite as I liked her later Rock-flavored hits like 「Japanese Girl」, 「Samurai Drive」, 「キミにKISS」 and 「IS IT YOU?」.

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