Covers of old H!P songs to go on sale soon on iTunes

According to the H!O twitter, a new project titled "Hello Cover" will be underway soon. Hello! Project members will release covers of old Hello! Project songs for sale via iTunes. We've already seen something like this before, but this seems that it will be more widespread throughout the whole company.

Starting on December 8th, Kamei Eri will release covers of nine songs of Hello! Project's illustrious past that she hand picked. The songs are as follows:

• Memory Seishun no Hikari  (Morning Musume)
• Furusato (Morning Musume)
• Koi wo Shichaimashita (Tanpopo)
• Seinaru Kane ga Hibiku Yoru (Tanpopo)
• Egao ni Namida ~Thank You! Dear My Friends~ (Matsuura Aya)
• Love Namida Iro (Matsuura Aya)
• Koi no Hana (Abe Natsumi)
• Onegai Miwaku no Target (Melon Kinenbi)
• Kousui (Melon Kinenbi)

I've actually never heard of a couple of those songs (never got into soloists nor Melon Kinenbi much), so half of the songs will be a completely new experience to me. The other half are songs I know pretty well and look forward to hearing Eri's interpretation. It will certainly be interesting to compare her version of Love Namida Iro with Chisato's (and Ayaya's of course).

However that is what I expect the major problem with this will be. I fear far too many will get caught up in arguing who sang what better, instead of just enjoying some pretty cheap (assuming they follow the $0.99 pattern) songs. You'll only be paying $8.91 for what is basically a mini-album -- something that would normally cost foreign fans upwards of $20 to enjoy.

Also, apparently more Hello! Project members will follow in Eri's footsteps and release nine covers of songs of their choosing. While I would love to see some more Airi or Takahashi solos, I think this is a great chance to have some of the girls who don't normally get a lot of lines in singles to shine. Linlin, Yurina, and Hagiwara, I'm looking at you.

Out of the songs she chose, I think Memory Seishun no Hikari and Kousui are the two songs to look out (listen out?) for.

Reina did a really awesome cover of Memory Seishun no Hikari a couple of years ago on one of those Morning Musume Best Shot FC DVDs. Reina did an amazing job on that song, especially when you consider her age at the time it was filmed. I'll be really looking forward to hearing how Eri handles a Morning Musume classic like that.

Kousui is just a song that I expect Eri to sound great in. It just seems like a song that will fit her voice well.

Lately, Hello! Project has been taking all of my money and it looks like they've did it again.

Short video announcement:



Quick edit: apparently it's Manatsu no Kousen and not Memory Seishun no Hikari. Oh well.