A-side Romance no Kamisama Recorded 1993 Length 17:38 | B-side na na na... Genre J-pop | |
Released December 1, 1993 (1993-12-01) | ||
"Romance no Kamisama" (ロマンスの神様, Romansu no Kamisama) is the third single by Japanese pop singer-songwriter Kohmi Hirose. Originally released on December 1, 1993, the song, translated as "The Cupid of Romance", is Hirose's most successful to date, selling over one million copies in Japan. It was also the first of Hirose's songs to be used by the Alpen company, a Japanese winter sports store, in their winter advertisements, resulting in the Japanese public affectionately calling her the "Queen of Winter" (冬の女王, Fuyu no Joō).
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Charting and sales
While on the Oricon charts for 21 weeks, the song hit number 1 for the week of December 27, 1993, its third week on the charts, selling 138,670 copies. "Romance no Kamisama" remained in the number one spot through the week of January 17, 1994, before losing the spot to Dreams Come True's "Winter Song" for a week before returning to number 1 on January 31, 1994. The Oricon also recognized it as the number 1 song of January 1994, the number 1 song for the first half of 1994, and the number 2 song for the whole of 1994, just behind Mr. Children's "Innocent World".
"Romance no Kamisama" ultimately sold 1.75 million copies. In an October 16, 2010, Ustream.tv recording of her Hirose Kohmi Radio de Follow Me radio show (later broadcast by JOLF on October 21), Hirose stated that before the song was released the Victor Entertainment president jokingly promised that if the single sold a million copies, he would take the entire recording staff to Disney World in Florida. Once it sold 1.7 million copies, the president followed through on his promise and sent 10 staff members to Florida for nine days.
Appearances
Although the song was initially included on her third album Success Story, "Romance no Kamisama" has also been featured on her compilation albums The Best "Love Winters" (which has sold 2.4 million copies), Alpen Best, and Tie-Up Collection: Hirose Kohmi no Terebi de Kiita Ano Kyokutachi. The Alpen Best album also featured a "Hajiki Utai Version" (弾き歌いVersion) which was a piano only arrangement; this was later featured on her 2008 studio album Making My Life Better.
Covers
Several artists have covered "Romance no Kamisama", including the Exit Trance DJ Starving Trancer featuring "MAKI" on vocals, Haruko Momoi on her more & more quality RED ~Anime song cover~ album, Marty Friedman on his Tokyo Jukebox album, and Italian vocalist Judy Crystal recorded an English language cover titled "God of Romance" for the Dance Dance Revolution video game series, more specifically Dance Dance Revolution 5th Mix.
Track listing
All tracks written by Kohmi Hirose, arranged by Takao Konishi.