MR.VOCALIST

After his years with TMG, Eric Martin had put his family first and stepped away from music. In 2008, about to return, he asked his Japanese staff what he could do for his fans in Japan, and they proposed that he sing the hits those fans had listened to in the Mr. Big years together with Japanese hits from the years he had been away. According to BARKS, all eleven songs chosen were by women, centred on the period from Mr. Big's formation in 1989 to TMG in 2004, with later hits added. Martin later recalled being a little unsure at first whether he, as a man, could sing such well-loved songs by Japanese women, and in English at that. The originals are Miki Imai's "PRIDE", a 2004 ballad by Yo Hitoto, Yuki Koyanagi's 1999 single subtitled "You were mine", Misia's "Everything", Every Little Thing's "Time Goes By", Princess Princess's "M", Ayaka's "I believe", a 2003 ballad by Mika Nakashima and Dreams Come True's "LOVE LOVE LOVE", while Ayaka Hirahara's "Jupiter" became the English-language "The Voice". The English lyrics were written by several different writers. Martin produced the album with keyboard player and programmer Tatoo, recording in Tokyo and San Francisco, and Marty Friedman plays the guitar solo on "Precious". Sony Music Japan International released the album in Japan as SICP-2091, priced at 2,730 yen including tax, with Japanese liner notes by Yuichi Masuda. It reached No. 12 on Oricon's weekly album chart and stayed on it for 25 weeks; according to the label it reached No. 7 overall and No. 1 among international releases on Oricon's daily chart and sold more than 100,000 copies. "Everything" topped the USEN international chart dated 24 December 2008, and from January 2009 "PRIDE" was the closing theme of a Fuji TV programme. At a special show at Shibuya duo on 4 March 2009, the day its sequel MR.VOCALIST 2 came out, Ayaka, who had sung the original "I believe", joined him on stage to sing it.