Hello! Café Morning Coffee tasting

Welcome to Hello! Café! You've come just in time for our special Morning Coffee tasting event. We have seven delicious blends and you're welcome to as many tastes as you can handle!

1. Original Blend
"Morning Coffee" (モーニングコーヒー)
Morning Musume
Morning Coffee (1998.01.28)



Our original blend began with seeds of love cast off from the Asayan Sharam Q plantation. With a little morning sunshine the seedlings held on and showed their light of youth.

But seriously, "Morning Coffee" is a great track. The harmonies, the structure, the lyrics: all perfect. The PV isn't the best thing to come out of Hello! Project—the editing is super awkward—but the shots are dynamic and the girls, especially Kaori, look adorable.

2. Hokkaido Café au Lait
"Morning Gyuunyuu" (モーニング牛乳)
Country Musume
Futari no Hokkaido (1999.07.23)



"Morning Gyuunyuu" is wacky "country" version of "Morning Coffee" released as the B-side on Country Musume's debut single. This song is pretty goofy with the mooing cows and raps, but it really shows off the girls' vocals in the melodic sections.

3. British Funk Roast
"Morning Coffee"
Shakatak
Cover Morning Musume! ~Various Artist Covers "MORNING MUSUME"!~ (2001.12.19)



You might not have heard this track before because the album is pretty uncommon. It was sort of a bizarre concept for an album anyway: mostly American artists making R&B covers of Morning Musume and shuffle unit songs in English. This track was a little different. It's a mostly instrumental song by the British jazz-funk group Shakatak. It's sort of relaxing and groovy but a little long and repetitive.

4. Robusta ALIVE
"Morning Coffee (2002version)" (モーニングコーヒー(2002version))
Morning Musume
Souda! We're ALIVE (2002.02.20)



The 2002version of "Morning Coffee" takes the song from 5nin to 5th gen. The instrumentals are a little harder and the vocals are a little fuller, but it still has the sweet, smooth sound of the original release. I think 4th-gen and Konkon sound a little rough here, but everyone one else sounds great.

5. Hawaiian Medley
"Morning Coffee"
Takagi Boo, Iida Kaori, Abe Natsumi
Hawaiian de Kiku Morning Musume Single Collection (2002.07.10)



Just a cute little "Hawaiian" version of "Morning Coffee." This song sounds great with three people! Nacchi, Kaorin, and Yuuko also performed a great 3nin version at the Elder Club graduation concert.

6. Be Flat Arabica
"Morning Coffee (Unreleased"B♭"Version)" (モーニングコーヒー(Unreleased"B♭"Version))
Morning Musume
Morning Musume Early Single Box (2004.12.15)



The B♭ version isn't too different from the original, but I think the vocals are a little stronger. Maybe it's just my imagination.

7. Chinese Frappé
"Zǎoān Kāfēi" (早安咖啡)
Ice Creamusume
1st Zuì Bàng! (2009.01.09)



The other two Morning Musume covers on this mini-album just use the original instrumentals, but we got a whole new backing track on this song. I really love this new version, too. That little falling synth lick is really cute ^__^

Thanks for stopping in at Hello! Café. We hope you will join us next time for a Tea Break!