Sorry, Sorry

Recording and production

In July 2008, Super Junior announced the initial preparations for Sorry, Sorry. In November 2008, Kyuhyun wrote in his fancafe stating that he was preparing for the third album "bit by bit". During a press conference in January 2009 for a Super Show encore concert in Seoul, Kang-in stated that the album will be in a style that will make the audience see a different side of Super Junior. He further commented that while their second album Don't Don did well in 2007, activities promoting the album were lacking due to the activities of different subgroups. Therefore, there will be a concentrated effort to increase promotional activities in order to make Sorry, Sorry more successful. On March 2, SM announced the official release date to be on March 12, 2009.

An image teaser of the album was released on March 4, 2009 and a video teaser of the album was released on March 6. "Sorry, Sorry" was released as a digital single through various Korean MP3 sites on March 9.

The album's second promotional single "It's You" was revealed on May 11, 2009. After only five hours of release, the single became the #1 song on Cyworld's Music Charts. A repackaged version of Sorry, Sorry, with four new bonus tracks which included "It's You", was released on May 14, 2009.

Music

Sorry, Sorry contains primarily pop music, with the album having a more mature approach in style in comparison to previous Super Junior albums. It contains more R&B-styled pop songs with lyrics that represent the evolution of "boys to men." Songs are less cheerful; melodic instruments play a huge part in most of the songs, showing maturity. Rap is also less presented in this album, having a majority of the songs dominated by R&B and harmonious vocals. Super Junior explained that this album is more strongly affiliated with Super Junior's own musical style unlike their previous albums, in which their music had been test-productions for various markets. The album shows its strong influence from contemporary dance and R&B. It draws from bubblegum pop to a lesser degree, unlike their previous albums.

The title song "Sorry, Sorry" was written by Yoo Young-jin, who wrote "Don't Don," the title track of Super Junior's second album Don't Don. Yoo reportedly wanted create a song which is both equally fun and easy to listen. The song is a "polished and trendy" dance song, with influences of American funk and contemporary R&B, stimulated with a heavy electronic beat that is the genre of "urban minimal funky", a new style that the group has never tried before. Nick Bass, who has worked with international stars like Usher and Justin Timberlake, choreographed the dance for "Sorry, Sorry" with assistant staff Trent Dickens, showing the single's strong musical prominence. The second promotional single "It's You" was written by E-Tribe, famous for creating hits such as "Gee" and Lee Hyori's "U-Go-Girl". "It's You" similarly draws influences from electronic beats; however, it keeps a heavier emphasis on contemporary R&B.

TVXQ members U-Know and Micky wrote the rap and performed it in "Heartquake" and actress Lee Yeon-hee's vocals are also featured in "Club No.1."

Promotion and reception

The year prior to the album's release was seen as a hiatus year for Super Junior, although sub-unit groups Super Junior-M and Super Junior-Happy had been promoting in both China and Korea for most of 2008. Although members of the group were popular on various Korean variety shows, they were falling behind musically, and the group felt that they should be judged on their musical merits before anything else. Through this album, Super Junior hoped that it would give the group a stronger musical impression in the media, confirming a style that is strictly Super Junior's own style of music. As soon as "Sorry, Sorry" was released via MP3 websites, it topped every music chart, confirming the single's popularity. Super Junior explained that "Sorry, Sorry" was not chosen because of popularity, but because they see the song as their own style.

Super Junior's first comeback performance was on March 13 with the performance of "Sorry, Sorry" and "Why I Like You" on KBS's Music Bank. That following weekend, they performed the same two songs on MBC's Show! Music Core and SBS's Popular Songs, and have been performing "Sorry, Sorry" on the same three programs every weekend until July 2009. "Sorry, Sorry" achieved its first recognition as the #1 song of KBS's Music Bank monthly pop chart on March 27 after only two weeks in the charts. The single won again for the April pop chart, and was the #1 song in its weekly pop chart for the first two weeks of May. In addition to other recognitions, the song won the Mutizen Song award on Popular Songs for three consecutive weeks (Triple Crown) and it also became a song of the week on Mnet's M! Countdown on April 9 and April 23, although Super Junior was not present at the program to receive their awards. "It's You", however, only received two recognitions during its promotional period.

Outside of Korea, Sorry, Sorry was heavily promoted in other Asian communities. Fifty-one subway trains in Taipei were covered with Sorry, Sorry advertisements from April 17 through May 7 to promote the Taiwan release of Sorry, Sorry, which was released on April 17. Amongst one of the trains was the "Super Junior Train", in which the train was entirely covered with Super Junior posters. Taiwan also released an exclusive CD and DVD version of the album on August 14. Sorry, Sorry and its eponymous single was a huge hit in Taiwan, topping all available album and singles chart in the country. It debuted at #2 in Taiwan G-music's Combo chart, #1 in the International chart and #1 in Five Music's Korean chart.

On May 1, Super Junior performed "Sorry, Sorry" and "Why I Like You" for the first time overseas in Beijing, China for Jackie Chan's Bird's Nest concert, simultaneously promoting the Mainland China version of the album's release. Starting June 1, Mnet's sister channel in Japan aired Super Junior documentaries and live performances weekly for seven months. Sorry, Sorry also peaked at #1 on Thailand's international pop charts within two weeks after its release. The album topped Thailand's Channel V Asian Chart for eight consecutive weeks, setting a new record for the chart. Released in the Philippines on September 4, the album topped album charts of Music One that same weekend, outselling albums by Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson. It became the first #1 K-pop in the country, entering the Odyssey album chart one week after its release, and stayed in the charts for over ten consecutive weeks and eventually reached Gold status three months after its release in the country, selling 7,500 units. Both "Sorry, Sorry" and "It's You" became Arirang's Best 10 K-pop songs as #1 and #6 respectively.

Shortly after Super Junior began their promotions on "It's You", the group began preparing for their second Asia-wide tour in the summer of 2009. The tour was officially announced on June 3, 2009, almost three months after the release of Sorry, Sorry. The tour included songs from their previous albums and kicked off with three shows in Seoul, South Korea from July 17 to 19.

Sales and impact

In just days, 150,000 copies of Sorry, Sorry were pre-ordered. The album debuted at #1 on the Hanteo Daily Charts, with approximately 30,000 copies sold, making it the biggest opening day for the group. By the end of the week, 36,000 copies have been sold through Hanteo, debuting at #2 on the Hanteo Weekly charts, selling only 4,000 copies less than Seo Taiji's single, which was released on March 10. Sorry, Sorry debuted at #2 on Hottracks Gayo Best 5 on the second week of March and jumped to #1 on the third week. As of May 15, 2009, over 215,000 units have been sold, being the first Korean-language album to do so in 2009.

Sorry, Sorry and both of its singles topped all of Taiwan's yearly, monthly, weekly, and daily Korean charts, thus becoming the best-selling Korean-language and international album in the country. Its long stay as #1 in Thailand's music charts broke records, and was also certified as a best-selling album. Super Junior was awarded with 'Best Selling Album' at the South Korea's Gaon's 2009 Top 100 albums chart. SM Entertainment announced on December 12, 2009 that the album sold 250,683 copies.

Surprisingly, the album made an appearance on the 99th rank of South Korea's Gaon's 2010 Top 100 albums chart, selling 14,581 copies.

The album currently sold a total of 270,152 copies by 2011.

Charts

Album Chart