Automatic / Time Will Tell

Automatic / time will tell is Utada Hikaru's first official single in the Japanese market, though there have been prior releases under the name "U3" as part of a family unit and Cubic U. Automatic was used as the ending theme song to the Fuji TV show Warau Inu no Seikatsu -YARANEVA!!- and used as the Honda Life CM song. Whereas time will tell was used as the ending theme song to the Fuji TV show Gokigenyou. There were two versions of this released: an 8cm single as well as a standard 12cm single.

Originally, different versions of the same product were given different placings on Oricon charts. This meant that the single reached #2 (the 12cm version) and #4 (the 8cm version) on Oricon charts. The #1 spot went to KinKi Kids' Happy Happy Greeting / Cinderella Christmas. The most recent figures (May 26, 2006) show that the 12cm version sold 1,290,700 units and the 8cm version sold 772,080 copies in Japan. Both versions charted for 22 weeks. The 12cm version placed #5 on the 'top singles of 1999' chart, while the 6cm version placed at #22. However, if the sales were combined then the single would have gained 2,062,780 sales and ranked as the #2 single for the year of 1999. A peculiar thing about this single's Oricon rankings is that despite KinKi Kids' Happy Happy Greeting / Cinderella Christmas beating it in initial Oricon charts, that single did not even appear on the list of top singles for the year. This single reached #20 on World Charts for single airplay, and reached #4 for sales.

Categories: J-R&B (releases) | J-Pop (releases) | Debut Single | 1998 Singles | 1998 Songs | 1,000,000 Plus Single Sales | 1999 Oricon Top 20 Singles | 1999 Oricon Top 50 Singles