“Chiisa na koi no uta” by MONGOL800 (2001)
“Chiisa na Koi no Uta” (A small love song) by MONGOL800 was one of the lead tracks from the album Message, released on September 16, 2001. Despite not being released as a stand alone single, the song shot up the karaoke rankings and continues to rank in near the top of annual karaoke charts to this day. It was a hit all over Asia. It’s been covered by a laundry list of artists and is used in commercials and dramas all the time to conjure up the perfect wistful mood. You can search on YouTube and find dozens and dozens of versions with hundreds of millions of hits like this cover by Vocaloid singer Amatsuki. In short, this song is legendary.
MONGOL800 are a (still active) punk band from Okinawa. They formed as a three piece band in 1998 when they were still in high school and started out covering popular mainstream punk acts like the Blue Hearts before trying to write their own material. After graduating, they released their first album in 2000 which took the Okinawa indies scene by storm and got the attention of the mainland. But nobody could have predicted the response to Message, their second album, which sold more than 300,000 copies on their indie label. “Mon Pachi” (as they are affectionately known by fans) had made it.
Although guitarist Gima Takashi retired in 2019 after activities for their 20th anniversary were finished, bassist Uezu Kiyosaku and drummer Takazato Satoshi are still going strong and the band will presumably still be active with touring and so on after the pandemic restrictions are lifted.
MONGOL800 may be in their 40s now but they come out of an early 2000s genre called Seishun Punk (青春パンク or “Youth Punk”, also sometimes called Melodic Hardcore). There isn’t really an equivalent genre in English rock but these were bands in their teens and early 20s writing to kids their own age. The result was songs with big sing-along choruses with lyrics that still make you (or maybe just me) feel like you’re 17 with a giant crush and on summer vacation before your last year of high school. Songs like HI-STANDARD’s “Stay Gold” or B-DASH’s “Heiwa Shima”... and the big hit: “Chiisa na Koi no Uta.”
“Chiisa na Koi no Uta” itself is pretty simple. Drums, guitar, bass, a basic punk chord progression, and earnest vocals from Uezu. But when that chorus hits… oh when that chorus hits… just goosebumps. It’s magic. The melody and lyrics melding together perfectly, rising and falling like a summer breeze on a sweaty August evening:
One out everybody in the universe
In the wide world on a blue planet
Thoughts of a small love arrived
To you on a small island
I met you
The song cemented its legendary status in 2007 when it was featured in the (excellent) romantic drama called Proposal Daisakusen starring the super popular Johnny’s & Associates idol Yamashita Tomohisa and has basically just never left the popular consciousness since then. This is another one to impress your Japanese friends with at karaoke, so dial up MONGOL800, grab your beer, and sing like it’s 2001 and you’re in love for the first time.