DA PUMP -- Crazy Beat Goes On!

Last night entailed the final broadcast of NHK's "Uta Kon"（うたコン）for this year until January 15th, so the theme was the year-end party, although frankly, the show seemed to slightly resemble more like a 45-minute-long commercial for the upcoming Kohaku Utagassen in less than three weeks. Well, Marketing has gotta do what it's gotta do.

In any case, the first guest happened to be one of the confirmed participants in the Red-and-White, DA PUMP. Of course, it'll all be about "U.S.A." when Issa and the gang show up on the Shibuya stage. But for here and now, I'm going back into my nostalgic days...when DA PUMP did these commercials for various products such as the vaunted C.C. Lemon drink.

DA PUMP did a pretty rushed medley of their hits from way back when so the whole thing seemed to sound like one big amorphous dance beat, but my memory engrams did go into gear on seeing the title "Crazy Beat Goes On!". And when I checked the official music video a few minutes ago, my brain went "Natsukashii~!".

Wasn't a huge DA PUMP fan at the time but "Crazy Beat Goes On!" did jog my memory. This was the group's 8th single from June 1999 and was written and composed by rapper/music producer m.c.A・T. Mind you, my memories of the song mostly centered around the commercials and DA PUMP's appearances on shows such as "Music Station", so I was a little surprised while listening to the whole thing that despite it being a dance tune, there was a layer of cool groove beneath all of the crash-and-bang.

"Crazy Beat Goes On!" went Gold, getting as high as No. 5 on Oricon, and ending up as the 127th-ranked single of 1999. It sold about 172,000 copies and was a track on DA PUMP's 2nd album "Higher and Higher!" from July of that year. That album went to No. 2 and became the 54th-ranked album of 1999.