Let’s turn back the hands of time as we look back at the songs that made the Japanese music industry what it was on the Oricon Weekly Chart. This week we look back at the second week of February for both 2010 and 2015, where the mega-popular girl group AKB48 and Japanese boy group SMAP reigned supreme with “Sakura no Shiori” and “Karei Naru Gyakushu / Humor Shichau yo” respectively. But just what exactly made these songs so great?

AKB48 [桜の栞]

By 2010, AKB48 had been around for a while but this was the year where AKB48 really took off and started a reign that they maintain to this day. “Sakura no Shiori” is the second song the group ever had chart at number one. Their previous release, “River” was the first song that hit number one and every song released since has claimed that #1 spot. “Sakura no Shiori” is the fifteenth single released by AKB48, composed by Hiroshi Uesugi, and written by Yasushi Akimoto. “Sakura no Shiori” is a slowing number with the band coming together to sound like a choir rather than an idol group. The track has excellent harmonization and uses vocal talent to help push the melody straight to the front. It managed to rack up 318,000 sales for its first week making it take the number one spot.

SMAP [華麗なる逆襲/ユーモアしちゃうよ]

By this time in 2015, SMAP had been in the industry since 1991 and was wrapping an amazing career. SMAP is a five-member boy band that debuted in 1991 and disbanded in 2016. “Karei Naru Gyakushu / Humor Shichau yo” is the second to last single the group ever released. “Karei Naru Gyakushu” was composed by Shina Ringo and arranged by Youichi Murata while “Humor Shicahu yo” was written by Gonpachi Hiroshi, and composed by both Yoshiyasu Ichikawa and Machiko Tatsuro. SMAP shows years of fine-tuning and honing their craft for both tracks which are fun upbeat numbers that are expertly sung with excellent harmonization. “Karei Naru Gyakushu / Humor Shichau yo” managed to pull in 184,000 on this week of March 2015 securing it the number one spot.

Latest Articles