Melodies is the studio album

Studio album

A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...

 recorded by a Japanese

Japanese people

The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...

 singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...

 Tatsuro Yamashita

Tatsuro Yamashita

is a Japanese singer-songwriter, and record producer. He has been known by his musical style deeply influenced from 1960s American pop and rock music....

, released in June 1983. It was his first LP issued under the Moon Label which was distributed by the Alfa Records

Alfa Records

, originally Alfa Music, was established in 1969 by composer and record producer Kunihiko Murai. It was formed into an independent record label known as Alfa Records in 1977.- History :The company faced much hardship in the 1990s...

 at the time.

Unlike his previous albums that Minako Yoshida mostly wrote lyrics, majority of the songs heard on Melodies are penned by Yamashita alone, except for "Blue Midnight" (co-written by Yoshida) and a cover version of "Guess I'm Dumb" (composed by Brian Wilson

Brian Wilson

Brian Douglas Wilson is an American musician, best known as the leader and chief songwriter of the group The Beach Boys. Within the band, Wilson played bass and keyboards, also providing part-time lead vocals and, more often, backing vocals, harmonizing in falsetto with the group...

 and Russ Titelman

Russ Titelman

Russ Titelman is an American record producer and songwriter. He has to date won three Grammy Awards. He earned his first producing the Steve Winwood song "Higher Love", and his second and third for Eric Clapton's Journeyman and Unplugged albums...

 and originally recorded by Glen Campbell

Glen Campbell

Glen Travis Campbell is an American country music singer, guitarist, television host and occasional actor. He is best known for a series of hits in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as for hosting a variety show called The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour on CBS television.During his 50 years in show...

 in 1966).

Before the album came out, "Koukiatsu Girl" was released as a lead single. It features chorus by Mariya Takeuchi, who married Yamashita in 1982 and then temporarily suspended her recording career. The most well-known song appeared on Melodies is "Christmas Eve". The song was not gained attention when it was released on 12-inch single in December 1983, but it was widely recognized through a television advertisement by the Central Japan Railway Company

Central Japan Railway Company

The is the main railway company operating in the Chūbu region of central Japan. It is officially abbreviated in English as JR Central and in Japanese as . Its headquarters are located in the JR Central Towers in Nakamura-ku, Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture.The company's operational hub is Nagoya Station...

 aired during the late 1980s. CD single of "Christmas Eve" reissued in 1986 gained huge commercial success, topping the chart in December 1989. The song was repeatedly reissued in later years and became a hit throughout the decades, entering the Oricon chart for over 20 consecutive years with sales of more than 1.8 million copies in total.

Because of the massive success "Christmas Eve" gained, the album also enjoyed the long-term commercial success. Melodies has been the best-selling studio album for Yamashita, retailing over 800,000 copies to date.

Side one

All songs arranged by Tatsuro Yamashita

1. "" – 3:50
2. "" – 4:20
3. "" – 4:23
4. "Guess I'm Dumb" (Brian Wilson
   Brian Wilson
   Brian Douglas Wilson is an American musician, best known as the leader and chief songwriter of the group The Beach Boys. Within the band, Wilson played bass and keyboards, also providing part-time lead vocals and, more often, backing vocals, harmonizing in falsetto with the group...
   
   , Russ Titelman
   Russ Titelman
   Russ Titelman is an American record producer and songwriter. He has to date won three Grammy Awards. He earned his first producing the Steve Winwood song "Higher Love", and his second and third for Eric Clapton's Journeyman and Unplugged albums...
   
   ) – 3:12
5. "" – 4:00

Side two

All songs arranged by Tatsuro Yamashita

1. "" - 6:18
2. "Blue Midnight" (Tatsuro Yamashita, Minako Yoshida) – 4:15
3. "" - 3:54
4. "" - 1:30
5. "" - 4:15

Personnel

• Tatsuro Yamashita: Drums, bass guitar, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, 12-string guitar, electric sitar, celesta, electric piano, acoustic piano, vibe, Hammond organ, glocken, timpani, percussion, echoes, background vocals
• Kohki Itoh - Bass guitar
• Tsunehide Matsuki - Electric guitar
• Hiroyuki Namba - Electric piano, acoustic piano, Hammond organ
• Motoya Hamaguchi - Percussion
• Jun Aoyama - Drums
• Satoshi Nakamura - OBX-a
• Hidefumi Toki - Alto sax
• Susumu Kazuhara - Trumpet
• Masahiro Kobayashi - Trumpet
• Shigeharu Mukai - Trombone
• Tadanori Konakawa - Trombone
• Daisuke Inoue: Tenor sax
• Takeru Muraoka - Tenor sax
• Shunzo Sunahara - Baritone sax
• Ohno Group - Strings
• Keiko Yamakawa - Harp
• Mariya Takeuchi - Chorus (credited to the Kokiatsu-Girls)
• Kumi Sano - Chorus (credited to the Kokiatsu-Girls)
• Manaho Mori - Chorus (credited to the Kokiatsu-Girls)
• Kazuhito Murata - Chorus (credited to a Kokiatsu-Boy)

Production

• Produced and arranged by Tatsuro Yamashita (for Smile Co.)
• Mixed and Remixed by Tamotsu Yoshida
• Associate producer: Nobumasa Uchida
• Assistant engineer: Masato Ohmori
• Recorded at CBS/Sony Roppongi Studio A & B
• Remixed at CBS/Sony Roppongi Studio B
• Mastering studio: CBS/Sony Shinanomachi Mastering Studio
• CD Mastering Engineer: Teppei Kasai
• Management office: Wild Honey
• Assistant management: Kentaro Hattori, Masayuki Matsumoto & Kimmy Satoh
• Copyright management: Kenichi Nomura
• Masterright Owned by Smile Co.
• Executive producer: Ryuzo "Junior" Kosugi
• Art direction: Hiroshi Takahara
• Design: Hiroshi Takahara, Akira Utsumi, Mayumi Oka
• Photographer: Kaoru Iijima
• Illustration for inner sleeve: Midori Murakami
• Lettering: Tadashi Yokoshi

Chart positions

Year	Album	Country	Chart	Position	Weeks	Sales
1983	Melodies	Japan	Oricon Weekly LP Albums Chart (top 100)	1	33	367,000
1992			Oricon Weekly Albums Chart (top 100)	8	39	477,000

Awards

Japan Record Awards
Year	Title	Category	Winner
1983 (25th)	Melodies	Best 10 Albums	Tatsuro Yamashita

Release history

Country	Date	Label	Format	Catalog number
Japan	June 8, 1983	Alfa/Moon	LP LP album The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...	MOON-28008
	November 28, 1983		CD Compact Disc The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...	38XM1
	December 21, 1986			32XM27
	November 10, 1992	MMG/Moon		AMCM-4150
	June 2, 1999	Warner/Moon		WPCV-10020