Precious is the debut English-language album by Cubic U released in Japan on January 28, 1998 by Toshiba EMI. It was recorded at Sony Music Studios in New York City in 1996. Cubic U is both Hikaru Utada's former stage name and the name of their R&B backing band. The album was never released commercially in the United States due to internal problems with the label EMI, and was only available to music industry insiders. Although it failed to chart on the Oricon charts at the time of its release, the album was re-released on March 31, 1999 after the huge success of Utada's First Love, reaching number two with 702,060 copies sold.
Track listing
Note: Several promo copies of the album have the track "Here and There and Back Again" as track 5. This was not released physically.
Release history Country Date Version Label Japan January 28, 1998 Original Toshiba-EMI March 31, 1999 Re-release
Singles DateTitleJanuary 28, 1997"Close to You"
Charts Precious - Oricon sales chart (Japan) ReleaseChartPeak positionSales totalMarch 31, 1999(re-release)Oricon Weekly Albums Chart2 702,060Oricon Yearly Albums Chart35
References