Ringo no Uta (Ringo Sheena song)

 is a single by Japanese musician Ringo Sheena, released on November 25, 2003. Described as a "turning point single" by Sheena, it was her final release as a solo artist before joining the band Tokyo Jihen in 2004, and her final single featuring her signature mole. The song was used in a stop-motion work created for NHK's "Minna no Uta" series of short animations.
Background and development.
In 2003 after a period of inactivity, Sheena released the album "Kalk Samen Kuri no Hana" led by the single "Stem". She performed a special concert, "Baishō Ecstasy" on the day of the album's release, February 23, 2003, and performed an 11 date tour in September 2003, "Sugoroku Ecstasy". This tour featured a backing band that would become Tokyo Jihen, her main musical unit, until 2012. It had been Sheena's intention to release music in a band since before she debuted in 1998.
Writing and production.
The song was first written in May 2003, and was recorded along with "La salle de bain" in July. As the song was created for "Minna no Uta", Sheena rendered the song's lyrics entirely in simple hiragana, including her and arranger Takayuki Hattori's names. The release was described as a during promotions, a title given to her "Electric Mole" DVD as well. The single's release date, November 25, 2003, was Sheena's 25th birthday. On this day, she recorded a song called "Kokoro" as a present to other people, which was released on her band's single "Sōnan" 11 months later.
The B-side "La salle de bain" is a classically re-arranged version of Sheena's song "Yokushitsu" from her album "Shōso Strip" (2000), arranged by Neko Saito and featuring English lyrics translated by Robbie Clark. The song was originally released three months prior to the single, on the "Seiteki Healing: Sono San" DVD, which featured a Shuichi Banba-directed video of the song.
The final B-side "Ringo Catalogue (Kuroko Jidai Saihen-san)" is a new song created by compiling sounds from Sheena's first three albums by recording engineer Uni Inoue. The project was created after Inoue wondered if sound could be woven to create a story, like images are for films. The song's lyrics are based on B-sides from Sheena's previously released singles. The work took three weeks for Inoue to complete.
Promotion and release.
The song was used for NHK's "Minna no Uta", an interstitial program featuring songs accompanied by usually animated family-friendly videos. The "Minna no Uta" video was stop-motion, featuring a 3D apple puppet called "Ringo-chan", designed by Hiroko Saito and animated by Enjin Productions.
A series of massive promotional posters were displayed in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya, as well as advertisements in "GBM", "The Television" and "Spa" magazines, and record stores. These featured scenes from Sheena's music video "Ringo no Uta", in which she dressed up as past versions of herself. However, the posters did not feature Sheena herself, but celebrities impersonating her. "Honnō" featured actress Yasuko Tomita, "Gips" featured actress Kumiko Asō and "Stem" featured kabuki actor Nakamura Shichinosuke II.
Sheena performed the song during the final concert of her "Sugoroku Ecstasy" tour on September 27, 2003 at the Nippon Budokan, as the final song. She performed the song as a solo artist during her "Dai Ikkai Ringohan Taikai: Adult Only" concerts in December 2005, as well as the B-side "La salle de bain".
The song was covered by on her piano cover album "Pianism in J pop "II Hi Tabidachi"" (2004).
Tokyo Jihen version.
The song was self-covered by Sheena's band Tokyo Jihen and is featured on their debut album "Kyōiku" (2004). This version's title was re-written as , a mix of kanji and hiragana as opposed to the original's solely hiragana title. It was recorded along with the other 16 "Kyōiku" era songs over a period of four days.
The band performed their new version during the band's first three performances at festivals in July 2004, and on the music program Music Station on November 26. It was a part of the band's set-list for their first national tour, "Dynamite", in early 2005. The final performance of the song by the band was at their "Countdown Japan" performance in December 2006. The band performed the B-side "La salle de bain" during their Fuji Rock Festival and SunSet Live festival performances in July and September 2004. The song was added to "Kyōiku" to make it easier for fans of Sheena's solo era to accept her transition into becoming a member of Tokyo Jihen.
Music video.
A music video was filmed for the song, directed by Shuichi Banba. It features Sheena re-performing scenes from music videos in her earlier career using outfits and cosmetics, while singing "Ringo no Uta". Sheena dressed as the characters from "Kōfukuron" (1998), "Kabukichō no Joō" (1998), "Koko de Kiss Shite." (1999), "Honnō" (1999), "Tsumi to Batsu" (2000), "Gips" (2000) and "Yattsuke Shigoto" (2000). During the song's instrumental, the kimono-wearing character from "Tsumiki Asobi" (1999) appears, and each previous character stands on a black line. The camera flies along the line and through each character's cheek mole. The next scenes feature Sheena as the character from "Mayonaka wa Junketsu" (2001), however this time in live action, unlike the animated original. After Sheena as the geisha from "Stem" (2003) appears, the scene fades to a simple, grey-haired shot of Sheena as her mole disappears.
Critical reception.
CDJournal reviewers called the song addictive, praising Sheena's lyricism and the "jazz taste sound". They described the song as "jazz kayō", and noted the melody was distinctly Sheena-like. They described the B-side "La salle de bain" as a "spectacle tune" from a fantastic film, and praised how the sound interacted with Sheena's vocals, noting how over-orchestration did not drown out the song. They noted progressive rock-like qualities in the song. The final B-side "Ringo Catalogue" was described as a "pop-rock tune", and the compilation not being simply stitched together was praised. However, reviewers found the bonus content on the DVD as unnecessary.
Commercial reception.
As the song was released on an irregular date, it debuted at number 8 on Oricon's single's chart after charting for a single day, selling 22,000 copies. In its second week, 49,000 copies were sold, making the release the number two single of that week, underneath Mr. Children's "Tenohira/Kurumi". Eventually, the release charted for thirteen weeks in the top 200 singles.
Personnel.
Personnel details were sourced from "Ringo no Uta"'s liner notes booklet.
Visuals and imagery
Technical and production
Performers and musicians
Tokyo Jihen edition.
Personnel details were sourced from "Kyōiku"'s liner notes booklet.