Stay Gold (Utada Hikaru song)

"Stay Gold" is a song by Japanese musician Utada Hikaru. Used in a high-profile campaign for Kao Corporation's Asience shampoo commercials in 2007, the song was released as a double A-side single with Utada's song "Heart Station" on February 20, 2008.[1]

"Stay Gold"
"Heart Station" / "Stay Gold" cover
Single by Utada Hikaru
from the album Heart Station
ReleasedFebruary 20, 2008 (2008-02-20)
Recorded2007
GenrePop
Length5:15
LabelEMI Music Japan
Songwriter(s)Utada Hikaru
Producer(s)Utada Hikaru, Akira Miyake, Teruzane Utada
Utada Hikaru singles chronology
"Do You"
(2007)		 "Stay Gold"
(2008)		 "Heart Station"
(2008)

Background and development

In February 2007, Utada released "Flavor of Life", the theme song for the drama Hana Yori Dango Returns, which became one of her most commercially successful singles, selling over eight million downloads and becoming the second most digitally successful song of 2007 globally.[2][3] This was followed by a second single in 2007, featuring the songs "Beautiful World", the theme song for the animated film Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone, and "Kiss & Cry", a song used to promote Nissin Foods' Cup Noodles.[4]

On December 7 to celebrate the start of her 10th year since her debut, her song "Automatic" (1998) was released as a free ringtone for four days. At the same time, it was announced that Utada was working on her fifth Japanese studio album, to be released in spring 2008.[5]

Promotion and release

The song was first announced and used in Asience commercials in October 2007, and released as a ringtone on December 7.[5][6] After a single month, the song's ringtones had been downloaded more than 250,000 times.[7]

After the song was released to radio stations on January 7, it was heavily played on FM radio stations across Japan. It managed to reach number one on the newly established Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart in mid January, despite having no purchasable release at the time.[7][8]

In February, Utada was featured in many music and fashion magazines in Japan to promote the single, including issues of Pia, Patipati, CD Data, What's In? and Pop Teen.[9] On February 28, Utada performed the song live on Utaban.[10] It has been part of two of Utada's concert setlists: her international tour Utada: In the Flesh 2010 and her two date concert series Wild Life in December 2010.[11][12]

Critical reception

CDJournal reviewers felt the song was simultaneously painful and warm, and praised the song's passionate lyrics and inflected vocals. They described the song's piano as having an "extremely pure" sound, like skipping stones on a surface of water, and felt the lyric "shūshoku mo kimatte, asonde bakkari iranai ne" ("You've got a job, so you can't just play all the time anymore") was particularly gripping.[13][14] Takayuki Saito of Hot Express described the song as being as minimalist as possible, and noted it was rare of Utada to use feminine lyrics in the way she does in "Stay Gold", and praised the song's "high level of perfection".[15]

Listen.jp reviewer Shigefumi Koike praised how the song showed off Utada's "adventurous spirit" while remaining an easily listenable pop song. He felt that "Stay Gold" displayed an effective use of the acoustic piano, and praised the song's emotion. Koike felt that both "Stay Gold" and "Heart Station" were a "magnificent" display of Utada's "futuristic" abilities as a sound creator, and that both songs showed off the emotive qualities of Utada's vocals and had great "ambient sound arrangements".[16]

Covers

In 2014, Ohashi Trio recorded a cover of "Stay Gold" for Utada Hikaru no Uta, a tribute album celebrating 15 years since Utada's debut.[17]

Track listings

All tracks are written by Hikaru Utada.

"Heart Station" / "Stay Gold" single
No.TitleLength
1."Heart Station"4:37
2."Stay Gold"5:15
3."Heart Station (Original Karaoke)"4:38
4."Stay Gold (Original Karaoke)"5:15
Total length:19:45

Personnel

Personnel details were sourced from "Heart Station" / "Stay Gold"'s liner notes booklet.[18]

  • Goetz B. for 365 Artists – mixing
  • Atsushi Matsui – recording
  • Akira Miyake – production
  • Yuzuru Tomita – acoustic piano, additional programming
  • Hikaru Utada – acoustic piano, all vocals, arrangement, keyboards, production, programming, writing

Chart rankings
Charts (2008) Peak
position
Japan Billboard Japan Hot 100[8] 1
Japan Oricon weekly singles[19]
  • "Heart Station" / "Stay Gold"
 3
Japan RIAJ Reco-kyō ringtones Top 100[20] 4

Sales and certifications
Chart Amount
Oricon physical sales[21]
  • "Heart Station" / "Stay Gold"
 77,000
RIAJ ringtone certification[22] 2× Platinum (500,000)
RIAJ cellphone download certification[23] Gold (100,000)
RIAJ physical certification[24]
  • "Heart Station" / "Stay Gold"
 Gold (100,000)

Release history
Region Date Format Distributing Label Catalog codes
Japan December 17, 2007 (2007-12-17)[22] ringtone EMI Music Japan
January 7, 2008 (2008-01-07)[25] radio debut
February 20, 2008 (2008-02-20)[1][26][27] CD single, digital download TOCT-40200
South Korea Digital download Universal Music Korea
Taiwan August 31, 2007 (2007-08-31)[28] CD single Gold Typhoon 5099920619220

References
  1. "HEART STATION / Stay Gold Single, Maxi". Amazon.co.jp. Retrieved January 1, 2015.
  2. AFP (January 24, 2008). "Online music sales grow 40 percent in 2007: IFPI" (in Japanese). Google. Archived from the original on April 19, 2008. Retrieved August 29, 2014.
  3. 宇多田ヒカル、デビュー以来全アルバムがミリオン達成 [Hikaru Utada has her first digitally million album] (in Japanese). Barks. March 13, 2008. Archived from the original on August 29, 2014. Retrieved August 29, 2014.
  4. "Beautiful World / Kiss & Cry". Amazon.co.jp. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  5. 宇多田ヒカルが「Automatic」無料配信＆新曲発売 [Hikaru Utada releases "Automatic" digitally for free, announces new song] (in Japanese). Natalie. December 7, 2007. Retrieved January 2, 2015.
  6. 新曲『Stay Gold』花王ヘアケアブランド「アジエンス」新TVCFタイアップ決定！ (in Japanese). EMI Music Japan. October 4, 2007. Archived from the original on February 29, 2008. Retrieved December 31, 2014.
  7. 宇多田ヒカルの新曲「Stay Gold」試聴スタート [Trial listening starts for Hikaru Utada's new song "Stay Gold"] (in Japanese). Natalie. January 7, 2008. Retrieved January 2, 2015.
  8. "Japan Billboard Hot 100". Billboard (in Japanese). January 15, 2008. Retrieved August 28, 2014.
  9. 「HEART STATION / Stay Gold」記事掲載メディア一覧 (in Japanese). EMI Music Japan. February 20, 2008. Archived from the original on February 29, 2008. Retrieved December 31, 2014.
  10. "Utaban". (in Japanese). February 28, 2008. Tokyo Broadcasting System. Missing or empty |series= (help)
  11. 宇多田ヒカル、“Utada”全米ツアー＜In The Flesh 2010＞映像＆過去全ライブビデオをiTunesで一挙配信 (in Japanese). EMI Music Japan. December 9, 2013. Retrieved January 2, 2015.
  12. "宇多田ヒカル一時休止前ラスト公演で感涙＆Ust新記録樹立" (in Japanese). Natalie. December 13, 2010. Retrieved December 17, 2010.
  13. "宇多田ヒカル / HEART STATION / Stay Gold" (in Japanese). CDJournal. Retrieved December 30, 2014.
  14. "宇多田ヒカル / HEART STATION" (in Japanese). CDJournal. Retrieved December 30, 2014.
  15. Takayuki Saito. "HEART STATION / Stay Gold" (in Japanese). Hot Express. Retrieved January 12, 2015.
  16. 新作レビュー ＨＥＡＲＴ　ＳＴＡＴＩＯＮ／Ｓｔａｙ　Ｇｏｌｄ (in Japanese). Listen.jp. Archived from the original on March 21, 2008. Retrieved February 19, 2015.
  17. "『宇多田ヒカルのうた』全貌明らかに。井上陽水、椎名林檎、浜崎あゆみ、吉井和哉ら参加アーティストコメント" [All details revealed for Utada Hikar no Uta, comments from contributing artists such as Yosui Inoue, Ringo Sheena, Ayumi Hamasaki and Kazuya Yoshii.] (in Japanese). Barks. December 3, 2014. Retrieved December 3, 2014.
  18. Heart Station / Stay Gold (Media notes) (in Japanese). Hikaru Utada. Tokyo, Japan: EMI Music Japan. 2008.CS1 maint: others (link)
  19. "HEART STATION/Stay Gold" (in Japanese). Oricon. Retrieved January 1, 2015.
  20. "レコード協会調べ　12月度有料音楽配信チャート（「着うた（R）」）＜略称：12月度レコ協チャート（「着うた（R）」）＞" (in Japanese). RIAJ. 2008-01-20. Retrieved 2010-09-17.
  21. "オリコンランキング情報サービス「you大樹」" [Oricon Ranking Information Service 'You Big Tree']. Oricon. Retrieved January 1, 2015.
  22. レコード協会調べ　4月度有料音楽配信認定 [Record Association Investigation: April Digital Music Download Certifications] (in Japanese). Recording Industry Association of Japan. May 20, 2008. Retrieved January 23, 2014.
  23. "レコード協会調べ　3月度有料音楽配信認定" [Record Association Investigation: March Digital Music Download Certifications] (in Japanese). Recording Industry Association of Japan. April 20, 2008. Retrieved December 13, 2013.
  24. ゴールド等認定作品一覧　2008年2月 [Works Receiving Certifications List (Gold, etc) (February 2008)] (in Japanese). Recording Industry Association of Japan. March 10, 2008. Retrieved January 24, 2014.
  25. 「Stay Gold」（花王「アジエンス」新CMソング） 2008年1月7日O.Aスタート！ (in Japanese). EMI Music Japan. January 7, 2008. Archived from the original on February 29, 2008. Retrieved December 31, 2014.
  26. 「Stay Gold」着うたフル・PC配信スタート！ (in Japanese). EMI Music Japan. February 20, 2007. Archived from the original on February 29, 2008. Retrieved December 31, 2014.
  27. "Heart Station" (in Korean). Bugs. Retrieved January 1, 2015.
  28. "宇多田 / HEART STATION/Stay Gold". Books.co.tw. Retrieved January 1, 2015.
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