SMAP -- $10

Well, I took this shot of a baby-faced SMAP from the ancient pages of Myojo recently, so I decided to see if I could dig up an appropriately "young" song from the boys' discography. And by the way, that is indeed former member Katsuyuki Mori （森且行）at the upper-left there who had his time with the group from 1988 to 1996.

At the time I saw SMAP perform "$10" on the 1993 Kohaku Utagassen, I couldn't really tell the various Johnny's Entertainment groups apart beyond the top group of the 1980s, Hikaru Genji. So, I just saw the group as "Unknown Johnny's Group" singing about currency. Obviously, things got a whole lot better for Nakai-kun, KimuTaku and the rest of the unit since then. As it was though, I was able to remember the refrain from "$10" as the guys gave the multiple-choice question of prices for love.

"$10" was written and composed as the guys' 10th single (November 1993) by singer-songwriter Kenji Hayashida （林田健司）with Hiromi Mori（森浩美）, who helped out on a lot of SMAP's other tunes, also giving her contributions on the lyrics. It peaked at No. 5 on Oricon and a remix version was included on their 5th album from February 1994, "SMAP 005", which got as high as No. 2.

Check out Hayashida's version of "$10"!