From '' Medley: What Is Love / Big In Japan ''
Label: Beat Box -- BB 8020
Format: Vinyl, 12\", 45 RPM
Country: Sweden
Released: 05 Sep 1984
Tracklist
A What Is Love / Big In Japan
B What Is Love / Big In Japan (Instrumental)
Mastered By [Cut] -- Peter Dahl
PD-POLAR : (Peter Dahl at Polar), PD-CR : (Peter Dahl at Cutting Room)
Producer -- Conrad Thorn
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What Is Love?
\"What Is Love?\" was the second single by musician Howard Jones.
Released in November 1983, from the album Human's Lib, it reached number 2 in the UK Singles Chart, becoming the singer's highest chart placing to date. In the US, \"What Is Love\" peaked at #33 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart during the summer of 1984.
The song can be heard in the 1984 film, Supergirl.
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Big In Japan
\"Big in Japan\" is the debut single of the band Alphaville.
It is from their 1984 album Forever Young.
The title comes from a phrase Big in Japan, which was used to describe Western bands who are popular with Japanese audiences while garnering little attention in their home country.
The single was a great success in many countries, including Switzerland, Germany, and Sweden.
The song also reached #1 on Hot Dance Club Play in December 1984.
The video was directed by Yello's Dieter Meier.
Other Alphaville versions and releases
The original 7\" version was also made available on Alphaville's First Harvest 1984-92 best-of release.
Two newly-remixed versions were made available in 1988's Alphaville: The Singles Collection.
In 1999 Alphaville released Dreamscapes, which included an early demo version of this song as well as the \"FFF Time Warp\" mix.
2001's Forever Pop contained 2 more newly remixed versions (the \"Roland Spremberg\" and \"Eiffel 65\" mixes).
Cover versions
\"Big in Japan\" was released by German singer Sandra in 1984 as a single.
She sang the song in German, as \"Japan ist weit\".
The song was produced by her future husband Michael Cretu and was Sandra's first try as a solo artist after she separated from the trio Arabesque.
The song was not successful, as only 125 copies were sold.
A dance cover of the song was recorded by band Kim Ono in 1995.
The voice belongs to singer Lianne Morgan who was a member of the Spice Girls at the beginning.
Swedish melodic black metal Band Embraced did a cover of \"Big in Japan\" on their 1998 album Amorous Anathema.
The song was covered by the group Demimonde on their album Equalterms.
In 2000, Guano Apes also covered the song in their second full-length album, Don't Give Me Names (#9 GER, #19 AT, #24 CH, #82 NL, #5 IT).
Spanish singer Jose Galisteo, a contestant in the fifth season of the Spanish reality television series Operación Triunfo, covered the song for his 2007 debut album Remember.
In 2008, Norwegian singer Ane Brun has done her very own version of the song \"Big in Japan\".
The song was recorded to be part of the soundtrack for the Swedish TV-documentary \"Stor i Japan\" on TV6.
In 2009, German synth-pop band And One included live cover version of \"Big in Japan\" to their album Bodypop 1½.
In 2010 László Szarka, a contestant on Hungarian talent show Megasztár became an internet sensation by singing the song with mispronounced English lyrics. See also: Bikicsunáj
