Trivia / Yellow Magic Orchestra (Album)

• Approval of God: Martin Denny sent Haruomi Hosono a thank-you note for covering "Firecracker", later sending a congratulatory telegram when YMO's rendition became a hit on the R&B charts.
• Better Export for You: While the US release drops "Acrobat" from the tracklist, it compensates by restoring Minako Yoshida's vocals on "Yellow Magic (Tong Poo)" and featuring improved equalization over the Japanese release.
• Black Sheep Hit:
  • The album was intended to be a one-off project of Haruomi Hosono's to parody exotica music; while Hosono had been no stranger to incorporating exotica influences on his work, they tended to be more of a trimming for his jazz fusion-centric direction at the time, rather than being the main focus. The album ended up becoming such a big hit, however, that Hosono decided to turn it into a full-time music act.
  • Even after YMO went full-time, the debut album stands as a noticeable deviation from their later work, with its overt parodying of exotica being a sharp contrast to the more earnest use of traditional Japanese influences and lyrical examination of Asian-ness on their following albums.
• Creator-Driven Successor: To Haruomi Hosono's solo album Paraiso, which featured Ryuichi Sakamoto and Yukihiro Takahashi as session musicians as part of the one-off "Yellow Magic Band". Like Paraiso, Yellow Magic Orchestra features a mix of electronica and exotica, though trades out the jazz fusion elements in favor of Synth-Pop influenced by both Classical Music and disco.
• Feelies: Promotional LP copies of the US mix came on translucent yellow vinyl, tying in with the band name; retail copies would be on standard black vinyl, but the idea was later carried over to initial copies of Solid State Survivor and Service.
• Late Export for You:
  • The international release took an extra six months to come out, owing to the fact that it took that long for A&M to discover the band, deem them viable for a western audience, and remix the album for overseas buyers.
  • For decades, it was impossible to get the Japanese version unless you either lived in/traveled to Japan or had access to an import copy. All official international releases were based around the 1979 remix created for the US market, despite the fact that Alfa Records had no problem keeping both the Japanese and American versions of the album available for Japanese audiences (even if it took an extra 8 years for the Japanese mix to get a CD release). The Japanese mix eventually saw a belated international release in 2003, via Epic Records' full-backlog reissues in the UK, Canada, and continental Europe; specifically, they included both versions of the album in a single double-CD package, with one CD for the Japanese mix and one CD for the US one. This configuration of the release would later be re-released in 2015, also in Europe, by Music on CD, as well as in a double-LP package by Music on Vinyl. US shoppers though are still limited to import copies.
• Rarely Performed Song: "Mad Pierrot" was taken out of the band's setlist following their earliest performances in 1978, due to the song's fast pace and dense arrangement making it difficult to consistently replicate.
• Recursive Import: Alfa Records released the US mix in Japan shortly after its American release; both it and the Japanese mix remain in circulation in Japan to this day, with the 2003 remaster even packaging the two together as a Distinct Double Album.
• Referenced by...:
  • The Cowboy Bebop episode "Pierrot le Fou" features a villainous clown character named Mad Pierrot, who was previously given the codename "Tongpu". This choice of reference is somewhat leftfield for the series, given that it typically gives nods to western musicians, but it still fits with the show's emphasis on musical references as a thematic motif.
  • The SiIvaGunner rip 6 PM - Animal Crossing is a Cover Version of "Simoon" themed after the 6 PM theme from the original Animal Crossing (which itself is similar in melody to the YMO song).
  • A brief cover of "Simoon" by Metaroom can be heard during the credits of the ENA episode "Temptation Stairway".
• Remade for the Export: The "Special DJ Copy" of "Tong Poo" included a vocal part by City Pop singer and Alfa labelmate Minako Yoshida, which was axed on the final release of the song in Japan; her contribution was later restored on A&M's US mix of the album.

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