Chage and Aska

History

Chage and Aska came together in the late 1970s after the Yamaha Music Foundation’s A&R team suggested they form a duo. Their first major hit, “(Banri no Kawa),” arrived in 1980, and they followed it with sporadic successes through the rest of the decade.

During the period from 1989 to 1997, Chage ran a side project called MULTIMAX, a band that included guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Keisuke Murakami (formerly of The Alpha) and singer Hiromi Asai. That group put out seven singles, seven albums, two videos, and went on several tours. Aska, meanwhile, had been working on his own solo career since 1987.

Their biggest wave of popularity came in the early 1990s, thanks in large part to Aska’s solo hit “(Hajimari wa Itsumo Ame)” from 1991 and a string of strong TV tie-ups. During that period they released five singles that each sold over a million copies: “Say Yes” and “if,” “YAH YAH YAH/(YAH YAH YAH/Yume no Bannin),” “HEART/NATURAL/On Your Mark,” and “(Meguriai).” Both “Say Yes” and “YAH YAH YAH” moved more than two million units each. “Say Yes,” which came out in 1991, remains the sixth best-selling single in Japanese Oricon chart history and served as the opening theme for the 1991 TV drama “(101st Proposal).” Their album Tree earned a triple-million certification from the RIAJ, while the two albums that followed, Guys (1992) and Red Hill (1993), each reached the million mark.

In 1994, the duo contributed the song “Something There” to the Street Fighter soundtrack. That same year they asked Studio Ghibli to create an animated promotional music video for their track “On Your Mark.” The collaboration produced a short film of the same name, which the duo used and which later had a theatrical release alongside the film Whisper of the Heart in 1995.

During the 1990s, Chage and Aska tried to expand their reach internationally, especially in the United Kingdom. EMI put out a tribute compilation called One Voice the Songs of Chage & Aska, featuring Western artists such as Maxi Priest with Shaggy, Lisa Stansfield, Chaka Khan, Michael Hutchence of INXS, Alejandro Sanz, Cathy Dennis, Apache Indian, Boy George, Richard Marx, Londonbeat, Marianne Faithfull, and Wendy Matthews. They also performed live at MTV concerts in 1996.