Eien no Tsubasa

Eien no Tsubasa
Single by B'z
from the album ACTION
Released	May 9, 2007
Promotions	#1 (For Those We Love) #2 (Fist of the North Star Film) #2 (Polemelo JOYSOUND CM)
Length	9:58
Label	Vermillion Records
Producer	Tak Matsumoto
B'z singles chronology
"SPLASH!" (2006) "Eien no Tsubasa" (2007) "SUPER LOVE SONG (2007)

Eien no Tsubasa (永遠の翼, Eternal Wings) is the forty-third single by B'z, released on May 9, 2007. At release, the song premiered at the top spot and became the thirty-eighth consecutive single to do so for the band.

The song would become the first film theme that B'z contributed to a work that wasn't part of the Detective Conan franchise when it served as the theme to I Go to Die For You (俺は、君のためにこそ死ににいく, Ore wa, Kimi no Tame ni Koso Shini ni Iku—released internationally as For Those We Love). The film centers around young kamikaze pilots during the second World War. After B'z were requested for the theme song, Tak and Koshi visited the town of Chiran in Kagoshima Prefecture. There, they visited the Chiran Peace Museum for Kamikaze Pilots in order to connect with the source material before constructing the song. B'z would return to visit Chiran during a LIVE-GYM stop in nearby Amami Oshima for LIVE-GYM 2008 "ACTION", which included the song in the setlist.

B'z made several television appearances to promote the single, including filming an interview segment on News Zero which marked their first time appearing on a news program. Following the interview, the band performed "Eien no Tsubasa" in full. Unusually, B'z performed on the television program Music Fighter twice in the span of just one week—once on May 4 to perform the B-side "Lonely Stars" and again on May 11 to perform the single's title song. "Eien no Tsubasa" would be performed an additional two times on television, with the band appearing on both "Music Station" and "CDTV".

Two promotional videos were prepared for the title song: a normal video featuring the band and actors, and another with footage from the film for which the song served as the theme. In addition, another video was shot and aired for the B-side, "Lonely Stars", although it only covered the first half of the song.

First week sales for "Eien no Tsubasa" were confirmed to be in excess of 150,000 copies. The single was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of Japan and ranked as the twenty-seventh highest selling release of 2007.

Track listing

1. Eien no Tsubasa — Eternal Wings, 永遠の翼

   Tak completed the opening and ending first, and only then did he move onto composing the melody. Throughout production, he rewrote the melody several times until he was content with the result. Tak recalled during an interview with News Zero: "When I went to Chiran that day, the sky was really blue—really calm. After seeing that, I really opened up to that image." That image was one that made quite an impression, causing Tak to revisit it on two future occasions. The first came in 2010, when he said he thought back to the band's visit to Chiran when he wrote a semi-sequel to "Eien no Tsubasa" titled "hotalu" for his joint album with Jazz legend Larry Carlton, Take Your Pick. Later, Tak would craft an instrumental version from the original composition for his 2012 solo album Strings Of My Soul.

2. Lonely Stars — ロンリースターズ

   The song was performed on the May 4, 2007 edition of Music Fighter, just four days prior to release. It is one of the few B-sides to have a separate promotional video filmed for broadcast.

Personnel

B'z

• Tak Matsumoto: Guitar, Music Composition, Arrangement
• Koshi Inaba: Vocals, Lyric Composition, Arrangement

Drums

• Josh Freese

Bass

• Shawn Hurley

Production

• TAMA STRINGS: Strings (Track 1)
• Akihito Tokunaga: Arrangement (Track 1)
• Daisuke Ikeda: Arrangement (Track 2)