Hikaru Utada -- Can You Keep A Secret?

I never watched Takuya Kimura's（木村拓哉）original "HERO" but did hear all about it by reputation as the smoldering member of SMAP took on the character of the rebellious but brilliant lawyer, Kohei Kuryu. And my musical image of the show was that proud brass instrumental theme that was featured in all of the promos for the series.

So, I didn't have any idea (or I just plain forgot) that singer-songwriter's Hikaru Utada's（宇多田ヒカル）"Can You Keep A Secret?" was the theme song for "HERO". I always had thought the song and series were on their own separate paths. Another hit show for KimuTaku, another hit song for Hikki. In fact, I kept associating the latter's 7th single more with the music video of the close relationship between her and her robot.

As was the case with just about all of her hits, "Can You Keep A Secret?" was all over the media for weeks on end. It hit No. 1 on the Oricon weeklies easily and later became the No. 1 song for the entire year after its release in February 2001. In fact, according to a web archive featuring an article from "Sponichi Annex", a little over a million copies of the single were shipped out the day before its official release in the stores. A day later, Toshiba EMI had to add another 300,000 copies to keep the fans happy. No doubt, the recording company was probably way beyond happy. The single was also a track on her 2nd album, "Distance" which was released in March 2001, and did the same thing as "Can You Keep A Secret?" by hitting No. 1 for the weeklies and for the year. In fact, it became the 4th-ranking album in Oricon history.

To be honest, "Can You Keep A Secret?" isn't totally a favourite Hikki song for me. I like the main chorus and the nice little Latin touch to it but there are some other Utada hits that still outrank this one. However, it's been a while since I posted up a Hikaru Utada song, and I also wanted to commemorate the fact that just a few days ago, Utada let her fans know on her blog that she has just become a mother to a little boy. Man, time sure flies.