Handsome Boy is the 14th studio album

Studio album

A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...

 by a Japanese

Japanese people

The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...

 singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...

 Yōsui Inoue

Yosui Inoue

is a Japanese singer, lyricist, composer, guitarist and record producer, who is an important figure in Japanese music. He is renowned for his unique tone, eccentric lyrics, and dark sunglasses which he always wears....

, released in 1990.

The album contains the songs that were already known through the commercial tie-in with television programs or advertisements. Like "Gallery" which was recorded by Yoko Oginome

Yoko Oginome

, real name , is a singer, actress and voice actress. Oginome spent most of her elementary and junior high years living in the town of Ranzan in Saitama Prefecture, though she attended school in the city of Sakura. She graduated from Horikoshi High School in Nakano, Tokyo. She is represented by the...

 and released as a single in June 1990, some of the materials were previously interpreted by other performers.

Prior to the album, three songs were released as a single; "Yume Ne Mi", "Saigo no News", and "Shounen Jidai" which was co-written by Natsumi Hirai and has been one of his most well-known songs throughout Inoue's longtime career. It was initially featured on the theme song for an award-winning film adaptation

Film adaptation

Film adaptation is the transfer of a written work to a feature film. It is a type of derivative work.A common form of film adaptation is the use of a novel as the basis of a feature film, but film adaptation includes the use of non-fiction , autobiography, comic book, scripture, plays, and even...

 of Fujiko Fujio (A)

Fujiko Fujio

was a nom de plume of a manga writing duo formed by two Japanese manga artists. Their real names are and . They formed their partnership in 1951, and used the Fujiko Fujio name from 1954 until dissolution of the partnership in 1987....

's manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

 Childhood Days

Childhood Days

is a 1990 Japanese film directed by Masahiro Shinoda. It was chosen as Best Film at the Japan Academy Prize ceremony.-Synopsis:A story of childhood life during wartime Japan. Takeshi, the intelligent son of a fisherman, is the schoolyard bully. When his cousin comes to stay with his family to avoid...

(based on Hyouzou Kashiwabara's novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 Nagai Michi). The song was gradually recognized through the TV ad of Sony Handycam which was aired during the following year. "Shounen Jidai" became his biggest hit single, peaking at #4 on the Japanese chart and selling more than 850,000 copies in total. In 1997, 3-inch CD single

3-inch CD single

The mini CD single is a mini Compact Disc that measures in diameter, rather than the standard . They are manufactured using the same methods as standard full-size CDs, and can be played in most standard audio CD players and CD-ROM disc drives...

 of the song was certified quadruple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of Japan

Recording Industry Association of Japan

The Recording Industry Association of Japan is an industry trade group composed of Japanese corporations involved the music industry...

, for shipments of over 1 million copies.
Led by the success of a single "Shounen Jidai", the album Handsome Boy itself also gained favorable reaction, peaking at #2 on the Japanese Oricon chart and entering top-100 for over 10 months with sales of about 640,000 copies.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Yōsui Inoue, unless otherwise noted

1. "Pi Po Pa" - 3:55
2. "" - 3:35
3. "" (Inoue, Yūji Kawashima) - 3:51
4. "" - 3:55
5. "" - 5:07
6. "" (Inoue, Natsumi Hirai) - 3:21
7. "" - 3:21
8. "Tokyo" (Inoue, Hirai) - 3:56
9. "" - 5:03
10. "" (Inoue, Hirai) - 6:07
11. "" (Inoue, Kawashima) - 4:22

Personnel

• Yōsui Inoue - Vocals, acoustic guitar
• Hiromi Yasuda - Acoustic guitar
• Kenji Ōmura - Electric guitar
  Electric guitar
  An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
  
  
• Tomotaka Imamichi
  Tomotaka Imamichi
  , is a Japanese music producer, guitarist and songwriter from Tokyo, Japan. He first became active in the Japanese rock scene in 1984 as the guitarist and primary songwriter for the rock band, the Barbee Boys.-1980s:...
  
   - Electric guitar
• Jun Sumida - Electric guitar
• Masaki Matsubara - Electric guitar
• Masayoshi Furukawa - Gut-string guitar
• Hirokazu Ogura - Gut-string guitar
• Masami Satou - Gut-string guitar
• Tsugutoshi Goto - Bass guitar
• Motofumi Hagiwara - Bass guitar
• Chiharu Mikuzuki - Bass guitar
• Vagabond Suzuki - Bass guitar
• Haruomi Hosono
  Haruomi Hosono
  , also known as Harry Hosono, is a Japanese popular musician, best known internationally as a key member of the rock band Happy End and the pioneering electronic music band Yellow Magic Orchestra.-Biography:...
  
   - Bass guitar, synthesizer, percussion
• Tadashi Nanba - Synthesizer
• Akira Inoue - Synthesizer
• Miharu Koshi
  Miharu Koshi
  is a Japanese popular musician. Her career started in the late 1970s performing Japanese new music. By the mid 1980s she was performing music with electronic instruments, with many albums produced by Haruomi Hosono...
  
   - Synthesizer
  Synthesizer
  A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
  
  
• Akira Senju
  Akira Senju
  is a Japanese composer, arranger and conductor. Composition credits include Tales of Vesperia: The First Strike, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Yomigaeri, Fūrin Kazan , Nada Sōsō , Rampo and the soundtrack of Red Garden. Arrangement credits include Hikari. Performance credits include Handsome...
  
   - Synthesizer
• Shinji Kawahara - Piano
• Takao Kisugi
  Takao Kisugi
  , born November 16, 1950 in Tokyo, Japan, is a Japanese singer and composer.After the working with Yosui Inoue's band, Kisugi debuted as a singer-songwriter with single "Asai Yume", released in 1976. He became known by domestic hit in Japan, "My Luxury Night" performed by Hatsumi Shibata, Mainly in...
  
   - Piano
• Yasuharu Nakanishi - Piano
• Yūji Kawashima - Synthesizer, computer programming
• Takeshi Fujii - Computer programming
• Hiroaki Sugawara - Computer programming
• Nobuo Tsuji - Computer programming
• Ma*to - Computer programming
• Yasuo Kimoto - Computer programming
• Motoya Hamaguchi - Percussion
• Eiji Narushima - Percussion
• Masato Hashida - Percussion
• Makoto Kimura - Percussion
• Hinotamao - Percussion
• Hideo Yamaki - Drums
• Eiji Shimamura - Drums
• Yutaka Odawara - Drums
• Junichi Kazezaki - Brasswinds
• Shin Kazuhara - Brasswinds
• Kenichirou Hayashi - Brasswinds
• Masahiro Kobayashi - Brasswinds
• Kenji Nakazawa - Brasswinds
• Kenji Nishiyama - Brasswinds
• Taro Kiyooka - Brasswinds
• Sumiyo Okada - Brasswinds
• Watanabe Katsu - Brasswinds
• Teiko Haruna - Woodwinds
  Woodwind instrument
  A woodwind instrument is a musical instrument which produces sound when the player blows air against a sharp edge or through a reed, causing the air within its resonator to vibrate...
  
  
• Mitsuru Souma - Woodwinds
• Ryūji Hoshikawa - Woodwinds
• Tadashi Togame - Woodwinds
• Masakazu Ishibashi - Woodwinds
• Toshitsugu Inoue - Woodwinds
• Jake H. Conception - Woodwinds
• Hirofumi Kinjou - Woodwinds
• Masaki Takano - Woodwinds
• Hiroyuki Ichihara - Woodwinds
• Hidefumi Toki - Woodwinds
• Aska Kaneko Strings - Strings
• Akiko Yano
  Akiko Yano
  is a Japanese pop and jazz musician and singer. She was born as Akiko Suzuki in Tokyo and raised in Aomori, Aomori, and later began her singing career in the mid-1970s...
  
   - Chorus
• Minako Yoshida - Chorus
• Seri Ishikawa - Chorus

Album

Album	Chart	Position	Weeks	Sales
Handsome Boy	Japanese Oricon Weekly Albums Chart (top 100)	2	44	639,000+

Singles

Single	B-Side	Chart	Position	Weeks	Sales
"Yume Ne Mi"	"Beni Suberi"	Japanese Oricon Weekly (top 100)	37	6	23,000
"Saigo no News"	"Back Side"		57	6	16,000
"Shounen Jidai"	"Ara-Washi no Uta"		4	38	853,000

Release history

Country	Date	Label	Format	Catalog number	Notes
Japan	October 20, 1990	For Life Records	CD	FLCF-30081
			Audio cassette	FLTF-26021
	May 30, 2001		CD	FLCF-3858	Original recording digital remastered
	March 25, 2009	For Life Music Entertainment/BMG	SHM-CD	FLCF-5011