The Ultimate Morning Musume Single Ranking PART I

I spent a very nostalgic day watching old Morning Musume PVs in preparation for this. I cried a lot. Tears of love <3 That's just how much I love Morning Musume. And now I realise that I have to rank all 42 of these songs, which is a major problem. You see, with Morning Musume, the thing that sets them apart from other artists is that every single one of their songs means something special to me. Their songs don't have to be unique, or special or catchy for me to love them, because they're being sung by a group of girls that I adore. I guess the best way to explain it is that say if you were a parent, even some random piece of crap that your child made at school would seem special to you. It's sort of like that. I wonder if that's the way everyone feels about their favourite group? I'm guessing it's not like that for Kishiko

Because there are 42 songs (I'm not including Ai no Tane, that's going in the b-side ranking if I ever do one of them) I've split this into two parts. This is part I, or the 21 songs that I love a lot. Part II will be the songs that I love a lot a lot and make me cry every time I listen to them. Something like that. And just be warned, there will be A LOT of reminiscing in this ranking. Sorry about that ^^; And if it seems like I’m bashing a song, that’s just because I can’t be bothered spazzing out over every single song and it’ll be more interesting for you if I’m more mean. In fact, think of this more as a collection of personal anecdotes rather than my actual reasoning for why I’ve ranked these songs the way I have. Now, onto the ranking.

42. Manatsu no Kousen

Frankly speaking, it doesn’t mean as much to me as any other Morning Musume single. I don’t think I ever really paid any attention to it until I watched Gaki’s solo during the Single Daizenshuu concert (my fist ever MM concert, back when Gaki was my favourite ^^)

41. Memory Seishun no Hikari

A similar case. I LOOOOOOVE it when Reina sings it though.

40. Summer Night Town

Same thing again. It’s not like these songs mean NOTHING to me, and I am very familiar with all the old school members and their songs, but I think we all know that Momusu only REALLY got going when Maki joined. Gocchin is love.

39. Daite HOLD ON ME!

I just gotta say, I LUUUUURVE the chorus. But a good chorus isn’t everything when it comes to Morning Musume…

38. Morning Coffee

Received a boost from being Rika’s #2 Momusu song of all time xD Oh but how can anyone not LOVE Morning Coffee?

37. Mr. Moonlight ~Ai no Big Band~

I have NO IDEA how this one got all the way down here. I used to LOVE this song, back when I was a big Yossie fan, but hey, I’m not now and she was a MAJOR line hog here. Tell me, why is it that people won’t stop complaining about Airi taking ‘all’ the lines in C-ute and some people have even taken the liberty of bashing on Furusato after the SHOCK! incident, but no one EVER mentions Mr. Moonlight? It’s because everyone worships Yossie, isn’t it?!?

36. Morning Musume no Hyokkori Hyoutanjima

I have fond memories of this song. If you have been following my fandom history closely, you will be aware that I was a Studio Ghibli fan immediately before I became a fan of Hello! Project. And if you are familiar with the Studio Ghibli film “Only Yesterday”, you will know that THIS SONG IS IN IT YO. So I can say that when I heard Morning Musume’s version I had actually already heard the original, and I even had it on my iPod, which makes me a proud chap.

35. Onna ga Medatte Naze Ikenai

Ohoho. My appreciation for this song has been numbed a bit by the fact that it was unfortunate enough to be released around the same time period as Otakebi Boy WAO!

34. Do It! Now

Yo yo, have Musume, can rap. O.O
Interesting fact: I own two copies of this CD.

33. Chokkan 2 ~Nogashita Sakana wa Ookiizo!~

Well, it’s a remake, you can’t expect it to rank too highly. This is one of my favourite MM line-ups though. I luviis me the gold group (That is, Ai, Miki and Eri)

32. Egao YES Nude

There was a time when the SEXY 8 BEAT era was my favourite of all MM eras, and yeah I was once MAJORLY into this song. I still do think of it fondly <3

31. Kanashimi Twilight

See above ^^ Oh but this was obviously a huge treat back when I was a Yossie fan This is another one that I own two copies of, but at least they’re two different editions. For Do It! Now it’s two CDs that are EXACTLY THE SAME.

30. Shouganai Yume Oibito

The not-so-great melody lets it down. Which is a shame because everthing else about this single is fantastic!

29. Furusato

Oh diddums. I don’t know what to say about Furusato. There are so many different versions it’s ridiculous, but my personal favourite is the Gaki version (remembering that she used to be my favourite member )

28. Koko ni Iruzee!

This song never had as big an impact on me as it seemed to on other people, but those lonely boys and girls gotta get to you sometime.

27. Koi no Dance Site

What did you guys vote for on the ‘sexy…’ poll on H!O? I voted for boy. Shows why this song’s stuck down here while Sexy Boy hasn’t shown up yet…

26. Namida ga Tomaranai Houkago

It seems to have had trouble working its charms on the majority of people, but I was sucked in easily xD Something about having 4 of my favourite MM members of all time singing a ridiculously adorable song is just so loveable. Sure it’s terribly cheesy, but that’s what’s so great about it. One of the few songs I can sing off by heart ^^

25. Onna ni Sachi Are

A sparkly song if I ever heard one. It could almost be Korean, and I love it for that. I also love Junjun :3

24. LOVE Machine

*gasps* HEY, just because it’s popular doesn’t mean I have to love it! Oh and I do freaking love it by the way! There are no problems here. Moving on.

23. Pepper Keibu

-flags as underappreciated- Just because it’s a cover song doesn’t mean it’s crap, people! Personally, an important single to me as it is the first that was released after I became a fan. I waited months and months because I had awful timing and became aware of Momusu JUST after Resonant Blue was released. Although I guess it gave me time to familiarise myself with Momusu’s past stuff, and I was totally addicted by the time this single was announced. And I tell you, it’s AWESOME. I was completely obsessed after one listen.

22. Renai Revolution 21

Again, with the popular songs in the bottom half of the ranking! But honestly, I don’t have many memories of when I first heard this song. Actually, I think I didn’t really like it when I first heard it. A few more listens changed that of course but it’s enough to warrant this falling to #22.

Aaaaand… that’s it for now! I want to end with something clever but I can’t think of anything except for ‘Look forward to Part II!’