| Caramel Milk: The Best of Chara | ||||
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| Greatest hits album by Chara | ||||
| Released | November 11, 2000 | |||
| Recorded | 1996-2000 | |||
| Genre | Trip hop, downtempo, alternative pop | |||
| Length | 1:05:01 | |||
| Label | Sony Music Japan | |||
| Chara chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Caramel Milk | ||||
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Caramel Milk: The Best of Chara(キャラメル・ミルク・ザ・ベスト・オブ・チャラKyarameru Miruku za Besuto obu Chara) is the second greatest hits album of Chara, which was released on November 11, 2000. [1] It features material from her most commercially successful studio albums: Montage, Junior Sweet and Strange Fruits. It debuted at #2 on the Japanese Oricon album charts, and charted in the top 200 for 12 weeks. [2] It eventually sold a total of 520,000 copies.
Miwa Watabiki, better known by her stage name Chara, is a Japanese singer, actress and video jockey. She debuted in 1991 with the single Heaven. She is most well known for her song "Swallowtail Butterfly ", the theme song for the 1996 Shunji Iwai film Swallowtail Butterfly, her 1997 hit single "Yasashii Kimochi", and her collaboration with Judy and Mary vocalist Yuki, "Ai no Hi Mittsu Orange". Chara later formed a band with Yuki, called Mean Machine.
Montage is the concept album by Yen Town Band, fictional music group from the 1996 motion picture Swallowtail directed by Shunji Iwai. The album was actually recorded by a Japanese singer-songwriter Chara who played the starring role in the film. It was released by the Sony Music Entertainment Japan in September 1996.
Junior Sweet is the sixth studio album by Chara, which was released on September 21, 1997. It debuted at #1 on the Japanese Oricon album charts for two weeks, and charted in the top 200 for 26 weeks. The album is Chara's most popular, and eventually sold 1,055,000 units in Japan.
Contents
Two singles were released prior to the album. Tsuki to Amai Namida (月と甘い涙The Moon and Sweet Tears), the first, was used as the theme song for the drama Limit: Moshimo, Wagako ga... (リミット もしも、わが子が...). This was the first time that Chara was offered to perform the theme song for a drama. Taisetsu o Kizuku Mono (大切をきずくものThings That Make You Mean More to Me) was used in a Kirin commercial advertising black tea drinks. The music video and the booklet illustrations were done in collaboration with Chara's then husband, Tadanobu Asano. [3]
Tadanobu Satō, better known by his stage name Tadanobu Asano, is a Japanese actor and musician.
The album features all of Chara's solo singles released in the 1996-2000 period, however, it does not feature Chara's collaboration song with Yuki of the band Judy and Mary, Ai no Hi Mittsu Orange (愛の火 3つ オレンジFire of Love, Three, Orange). This single was extremely successful, selling over 200,000 units in 1999 and 2000.
Judy and Mary was a Japanese rock band formed in 1991 in Japan by bassist Yoshihito Onda and vocalist Yuki, with drummer Kohta Igarashi and guitarist Taiji Fujimoto completing the lineup in 1992. Guitarist Takuya replaced Taiji the following year. The band is known for their innovative punk, rock, and pop meldings of noisy but melodic music in the 1990s.
Ai no Hi Mittsu Orange is a special collaboration song between solo artist Chara and Judy and Mary vocalist Yuki. The song was used in a Sapporo Beer commercial for their Fuyu Monogatari campaign.
A song titled Caramel Milk would later appear on Chara's forthcoming 2001 studio album, Madrigal.
Madrigal is the eighth studio album by Chara, which was released on July 18, 2001. It debuted at #8 on the Japanese Oricon album charts, and charted in the top 300 for 8 weeks.
