When a single is chosen to be the beginning or ending theme to a drama, movie or commercial, the tune is usually shortened in consideration of the timeframe (which usually consists of a couple of minutes) that it takes to “roll the credits” or hawk some new product.
There are a couple of ways they “fit” the song in- one is to simply play the single and just “fade it out” at the appropriate moment, but for me, the other, more pleasing option is to actually go in and edit the song down to a new, customized version that will fit in the allotted timeslot!
Since you are usually LEARNING the song from the drama, the shortened version is the one you grow to love, especially when they have added great visuals to go along with the tune you are listening to each week! This is all fine and dandy until you go out and actually try to buy the single- and find the “real” song (i.e.: un-edited version) is QUITE different from the one you’ve known! Such was the case with “Girls, Be Ambitious”, the groovin’ single from R&B j-pop outfit TRUE KISS DESTINATION that was the theme song for the drama “NAOMI~ Three Teachers and Students Less than Ordinary”.
The show was about super-teacher Norika Fujiwara as one of the three titular heroines as she dealt and solved the various student problems much like those Kinpachi Sensei dramas, only with a lot more sex appeal and sass! At the end of each happy resolution, the credits would kick in with a shot of Norika’s calm and collected face, and then this airy, beautiful voice began singing “Did you like the style like this?” as the song started and the camera slowly began pulling back, revealing more of Norika, then her whole body and the people next to her, then all the way out until the entire class was in the screen as the song ended. This was a haunting, thoughtful song that really seemed to end the show on a great note each week, and after a few episodes, I needed to have it!
When I picked it up and threw it into the CD player, part of me knew it was going to be longer than the version I learned from the TV, but I was still taken off guard when the song began not with vocalist Asami’s singing, but some obnoxious RAPPING that totally went against the “feel” of the song I felt during the show! WTF! Fortunately, once the song got “on track”, it turned into the song I knew and loved, but wasn’t there a version WITHOUT this opening?
I remember desperately heading to the J-pop boards, asking if ANYONE knew ANYTHING about a different (non-rap opening) version, perhaps a drama version from a soundtrack or OST? But I got no replies and eventually realized that no one either knew or cared about this TKD song OR my dilemma! AHAHAHAHAHA!
In time I got used to the song with the Rap opening and accepted that this was the only version of the song I was ever gonna hear, so imagine my surprise, when years later, I saw a live performance of True Kiss Destination doing Girls Be Ambitious… and it began like the NAOMI version!! D’oh!
