It's been a while since I wrote up an article on SMAP, and at the same time, I heard that Shingo Katori（香取慎吾）, a fellow that I always saw as the adorably goofy member of the group, got married recently, so many congratulations on him and his wife.
"Original Smile" was SMAP's 13th single released in June 1994 and it's one of those many songs that had left my memory, only to come back in once I started exploring YouTube just now. I guess that the above version must be a later and mellower take since I used to remember the main part of "Original Smile" being much more uptempo.
Ahh...now that's the version that I remember. Rooting through the J-Wiki article for "Original Smile", I discovered that the song had originally been meant for just several seconds of ditty in an Oronamin C vitamin drink commercial which starred cool member Takuya Kimura（木村拓哉）, and there were no plans to even place a title or release it as anything. But popular demand through magazines and radio programs lit a fire under lyricist Hiromi Mori（森浩美）and composer Koji Makaino（馬飼野浩二）under his pen name of Mark Davis, and it got its release.
"Original Smile" peaked at No. 2 on Oricon and became the 60th-ranked single for 1994. It's also a part of the album "SMAP 006〜SEXY SIX〜" which was released in July of that year and was another No. 2-hitting release although it finished the year ten points lower at No. 70. The people's say in the formation of the song also helped it in going Platinum and though it took many years, SMAP finally got to sing it at the Kohaku Utagassen of 2011.
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