"Sakura Drops/Letters" (Sakuraドロップス／Letters, Sakura Doroppusu / Letters?) is Hikaru Utada's 11th Japanese-language single (13th overall) and also the last single on the Deep River album. It was released on 9 May 2002 and debuted at #1 on the Oricon charts, selling 400,390 in its first week (her highest first-week sales for the year). To date it has sold 687,000 copies.
Sakura Drops was used as the theme song to the drama First Love, while Letters was used as the Docomo Foma CM song. Letters features a number of guitarists, including Char, Hisashi from Glay and her own father Teruzane Utada. The PV for Sakura Drops was directed by Utada's ex-husband, Kazuaki Kiriya, and is the third and final of the famous Kiriya Trilogy of Utada promotional videos. There was no PV for Letters. This single reached #1 on the Oricon charts and charted for 10 weeks. The single became the #6 single of 2002 in Japan. This single, as well as Final Distance and Hikari, strangely did not chart in the world charts in either airplay or sales. The most recent figures (as of May 26, 2006) show that the single sold 686,720 units in total.
A slightly remixed version (sung mainly in English, but with a verse in Japanese) was used in the Disney on Ice tour, when Minnie Mouse visits Japan. The song is simply referred to as Sakura. Disney did not ask Utada Hikaru for permission to use the song.
Utada performed Sakura Drops on her 2010 tour, Utada: In The Flesh 2010.
Both songs were performed during Utada's two date concert series Wild Life in December 2010.
Read more about Sakura Drops/Letters: Track Listing, Charts
Famous quotes containing the words drops and/or letters:
“Year chases year, decay pursues decay,
Still drops some joy from with’ring life away;
New forms arise, and diff’rent views engage,”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“It is hard to believe that England is so near as from your letters it appears; and that this identical piece of paper has lately come all the way from there hither, begrimed with the English dust which made you hesitate to use it; from England, which is only historical fairyland to me, to America, which I have put my spade into, and about which there is no doubt.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)