BE THERE
| BE THERE | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Single by B'z | ||||
| Released | May 25, 1990 | |||
| Promotions | #1 (Wednesday Super Cast) | |||
| Length | 8:57 | |||
| Label | BMG Rooms | |||
| Producer | Tak Matsumoto | |||
| B'z singles chronology | ||||
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BE THERE is the fourth single by B'z, released on May 25, 1990. It would become the first single by the band to not be released at the same time as an accompanying album, with the pairs of "Dakara Sono Te wo Hanashite" and their debut album, "Kimi no Naka de Odoritai" and OFF THE LOCK, and "LADY-GO-ROUND" and BREAK THROUGH each sharing a release date. "BE THERE" would ultimately become a non-album single, and would go uncollected until the band's first best-of compilation was released in 1998 as B'z The Best "Pleasure". Later, in 2008, it would again be collected with the release of B'z The Best "ULTRA Pleasure" and, most recently, on B'z The Best XXV 1988-1998 in 2013.
In a move that was disadvantageous in the Weekly Oricon Singles chart rankings in its original release, the single was released on a Friday instead of the usual release day of Wednesday. The single finished the week in seventh place with sales of 31,000 copies initially. Later, with the reissue in 2003, it would return to the Top 10 and finish in third place after twelve years and nine months, which would be the longest interval of time between a single's re-entrance to the charts in Japanese history. This would be the last B'z single to be released before they began their historic streak of number one hits beginning with the follow-up, "Taiyou no Komachi Angel".
The title song served as the theme to the TBS variety show "Wednesday Super Cast". The tie-in was mentioned on the cover of the single as well, which marked the first occasion in which this was the case. The song was tied to another first for the band when it became the first song they performed on their debut performance on Music Station on May 4, 1990.
The single was simultaneously remastered and re-released on March 26, 2003 along with nine other of the band's older singles and the then-latest single, "IT'S SHOWTIME!!". On the daily chart at launch, B'z held a monopoly over the chart's top eleven slots, with the new single ranking at the top and the re-issues covering the remaining ten. Ultimately, B'z would set a record that week for holding nine of the Top 10 slots for the week of release, with "BE THERE" coming in third place.
Track listing
- BE THERE
- File:s04 01.ogg The intro to the song alternates between audio channels. Masayuki Nomura, the recording engineer on the song, commented on the difficulty of the feat, saying, "Nowadays, they can do that with ease thanks to computers, but it was really difficult and took some time back then." The song was premiered live during 1990's B'z LIVE-GYM "BREAK THROUGH" as part of the encore. The single would later be the earliest single to be collected on the chronological collection, B'z The Best "ULTRA Pleasure", coming in as the second track. It has been performed a number of times over the years, most recently with a revival during B'z LIVE-GYM 2011 -C'mon-, for which it was added during the dome leg of the tour and was subsequently featured on the home video release.
- Hoshi Furu Yoru ni Sawagou — Let's Get Excited on the Night of Shooting Stars, 星降る夜に騒ごう
- File:s04 02.ogg The song was performed during B'z LIVE-GYM Pleasure'93 "JAP THE RIPPER" along with fellow B-sides "GO! NUDE! GO!" and "KARA･KARA". On the home video release for LIVE RIPPER, however, they were among the seven songs from the setlist cut from the video for length purposes and has not been played again live since. However, in a poll of fan's voting in 2003 for "Songs You Want to Hear During the Final Pleasure" LIVE-GYM, the song finished in twentieth place. Ultimately, the song was overshadowed by better-known songs and was not included.
Personnel
B'z
- Tak Matsumoto: Guitar, Music Composition, Arrangement, Chorus (Track 1)
- Koshi Inaba: Vocals, Lyric Composition
Production
- Masao Akashi: Arrangement
- B+U+M
- Chris Bellman: Remastering (2003 reissue, Bernie Grundman Mastering L.A., U.S.A.)