Fukumimi -- Hoshi no Kakera wo Sagashi ni Ikou Again（星のかけらを探しに行こう Again）/Kyoko -- Hoshi no Kakera wo Sagashi ni Ikou（星のかけらを探しに行こう）

 

I remember the special music group Fukumimi（福耳）when they came out with the single "Hoshi no Kakera wo Sagashi ni Ikou Again" (Let's Look for Pieces of a Star Again) back in July 1999.

I also remember the black-and-white music video for the song. Basically what stood out to me was the main vocalist for this special group, Kyoko（杏子）, since she was one of the lead singers for the 80s rock band Barbee Boys. So, I was a tad surprised to see her after so many years handling a pop love song. But she got together with singer-songwriters Masayoshi Yamazaki（山崎まさよし）and Shikao Suga（スガシカオ）to form the initial trio for Fukumimi in 1998, and "Hoshi no Kakera wo Sagashi ni Ikou Again" was the debut single for a string of singles that have been released years apart. In addition, the members for the group have kept on rotating and rising like The Avengers. Acts including Sukima Switch（スキマスイッチ）and Chitose Hajime（元ちとせ）have also joined over the years.

From J-Wiki

As for the meaning behind the naming of the group, Fukumimi actually refers to the old Japanese saying of having big ears to be able to gather a lot of wealth (a number of the Japanese gods have big ears). According to a radio program interview, the members said that the president of the Office Augusta record label, Yoshinobu Morikawa（森川欣信）, had wanted to place the word fukumimi onto Yamazaki's and then Suga's albums, but both artists gave a hard NO to that, so it ended up becoming the name of this special music unit.

Getting back to the song, "Hoshi no Kakera wo Sagashi ni Ikou Again" peaked at No. 8 on Oricon and later became the 82nd-ranked single for 1999. It would get its appearance on an album for the first time on Fukumimi's "Fukumimi The Best Works" which came out in September 2006 and peaked at No. 3.

What I hadn't known until today was that there was an original version of the song simply titled "Hoshi no Kakera wo Sagashi ni Ikou" which came out in stores in February 1995 as Kyoko's 4th single. The tempo is quicker and there's even a bit of a reggae beat in there, compared to its more elegant cousin. Kyoko was responsible for the lyrics while Kazuyoshi Baba（馬場一嘉）was the composer. The original song ranked in at No. 90.