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Summer Night Town (サマーナイトタウン) is Morning Musume's second single. It was released on May 27, 1998 as an 8cm CD.

This single was the debut of the second generation members Yasuda Kei, Yaguchi Mari, and Ichii Sayaka. It sold a total of 417,330 copies and ranked as the #58 single for 1998.

It was re-released in 2004 as part of the Morning Musume Early Single Box, a limited edition box set containing Morning Musume's first eight singles reissued on 12cm CDs. In 2005, the singles were released individually, and first press editions came with a photo card.

Tracklist[]

Original Edition[]

  1. Summer Night Town
  2. A MEMORY OF SUMMER '98
  3. Summer Night Town (Instrumental)

Re-release Edition[]

  1. Summer Night Town
  2. A MEMORY OF SUMMER '98
  3. Summer Night Town (Instrumental)
  4. Summer Night Town (First Live Version)

Featured Members[]

Single Information[]

Summer Night Town
A MEMORY OF SUMMER '98

Performances[]

TV Performances[]

Summer Night Town
A MEMORY OF SUMMER '98

Concert Performances[]

Summer Night Town

Event Performances[]

Summer Night Town
A MEMORY OF SUMMER '98

Oricon Chart Positions[]

Single[]

Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Week Rank Sales
- - - - - - - 4 86,670
- - - - - - - 7 49,560
- - - - - - - 4 51,620
- - - - - - - 4 44,020
- - - - - - - 6 37,200
- - - - - - - 11 36,470
- - - - - - - 14 30,060
- - - - - - - 17 22,260
- - - - - - - 32 14,890
- - - - - - - 36 8,630
- - - - - - - 42 7,490
- - - - - - - 41 6,820
- - - - - - - 49 5,300
- - - - - - - 70 3,720
- - - - - - - 72 3,010
- - - - - - - 82 2,730
- - - - - - - 74 3,320
- - - - - - - 83 3,560

Total Reported Sales: 417,330

Cover Versions[]

Trivia[]

  • Abe Natsumi commented on the single in a series of Youtube videos counting up to Morning Musume's 50th single.[2]
  • This is the first Morning Musume single to be released under the zetima label.
  • Track #4 in the re-release was recorded at a live venue held at Shibuya Kohkaido Hall on July 12, 1998. Nowadays, the sound system for the concert is largely supported by a hard disk based system, but back then, live background bands were still the main source. Even though this version is a rough cut, the imperfection of the sound enhances the liveliness of the members, matched by the raw instrumental sound. When you listen to this version, you feel like you're actually at the concert. This is the first time this version was released on CD.
  • The center for this single is Abe Natsumi.
  • Summer Night Town was used as an audition song during the Morning Musume 2nd Tsuika Audition, which was used to determine the members of Morning Musume's third generation.
  • In the music video, Iida Kaori says she held her hand in a weird way over her belly, and re-watching the music video she doesn't like it. She did it because she had ate a hamburger, spilled it on her dress, and was told to cover it up.[3]

Interviews[]

Interviews
;1998 Interview with the Morning Musume members

Interviewer: What was difficult or challenging [with this track]?

Abe: It was the sexy sigh that I had to do after ‘Daikirai, Daikirai, Daikirai, Daisuki’. I felt a bit embarrassed, but I tried my best so I would sound sexy. lol.

Fukuda: Hitting the high note was challenging for me.

Iida: I had to hit a very high note to create the harmony, and I found that quite challenging.

Nakazawa: There was a specific part where I could never follow the right rhythm. Tsunku told me hopelessly, “I cannot understand why you can’t keep up with this rhythm.”

Yaguchi: It was the same for me. I was unable to follow the rhythm and ended up singing too fast.

Ichii: For me, the chorus with other 2 girls was challenging.

2000 Interview with Tsunku

Interviewer: And by the release of "Summer Night Town", there were 8 girls in the unit.

Tsunku: Originally, I wanted to add 5 more girls, but I could only find 3. And that’s when I decided to change the image of the unit too. PV and wardrobe went through a major transformation.

Interviewer: I remember the change was a huge deal to general public.

Tsunku: Yes, I remember that. Without this major change, Morning Musume wouldn’t have survived till this day. I’m really glad that I came up with the idea at the right time and I had enough courage to do so, even though most feedbacks I received were negative. Lol. The serious followers of the unit had the solid image of the unit until then, so they didn’t like how I broke their image as a unit of 5 girls. I seriously feel threatened by those hard-core fans; I thought they were going to come after me and attack me on streets. lol. And the main reason is, and I’ve been telling staff and members all the time, that never let anyone call them ‘cute’

When we do the photo shoot, when we select wardrobe, or when we decide choreography, make sure it’s not ‘cute’. Make sure it’s ‘cool’. Maintaining the cool image is the key. We must shed everything that makes the unit ‘cute’. And this main philosophy was created at the release of “Summer Night Town”.

They’ve got pretty faces naturally, so that’s awesome, but never do anything to force the ‘cuteness’ with wardrobe and choreography, otherwise, they won’t land higher than the 6th position on the pop chart.

Videos[]

Morning Musume - Summer Night Town (MV)

References[]

External Links[]

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