Every Little Thing

Overview

Every Little Thing (known to fans as ELT) is a Japanese male-female pop/soft rock duo formed in 1996. They are managed by Avex Management and release music on the avex trax label; their official fan club is called "ciao." They rose to become one of the defining groups of the late 1990s, and their second album, Time to Destination, sold about 3.52 million copies, the biggest hit of their career and the 10th best-selling album of all time in Japan. As of 2013 they had sold over 23 million singles and albums in Japan, and they appeared on NHK's Kohaku Uta Gassen eight years in a row (1997-2004).

The name comes from the Beatles song "Every Little Thing." Ichiro Ito has joked that Igarashi was the "Every," Mochida the "Little," and himself the "Thing," adding that with one member gone, the balance has had to be readjusted.

Career

Formation

In 1995, Kaori Mochida, a former child idol, visited Avex with her mother, saying she wanted to become like TRF. Avex executive Masato Matsuura felt her voice resembled ZARD's Izumi Sakai and had Mitsuru Igarashi, then working as a studio receptionist, write songs for her. Though hitmakers Tetsuya Komuro and Tetsuro Oda passed on the material, Matsuura took on production himself. Igarashi felt the Eurobeat-style sound lacked an accent and called for a guitar, bringing in his college band friend Ichiro Ito, and the trio ELT was born.

Mochida had made her debut as a baby in a diaper commercial and, in 1991 at age 13, joined the eight-member girl group The Kuro Buta All-Stars. Ito began playing in local bands around Yokota Air Base in Fussa, Tokyo.

Debut and breakthrough (1996-1999)

ELT debuted on August 7, 1996 with the single "Feel My Heart," with Mochida on vocals and lyrics, Ito on guitar, and Igarashi as leader, keyboardist and sound producer. It peaked at No. 24 on the Oricon chart with about 100,000 copies sold.

In January 1997, the third single "Dear My Friend" gave them their first top-10 hit, selling 490,000 copies. The debut album Everlasting (April 1997) reached No. 1 and sold 1.92 million copies, and the fourth single "For the Moment" gave them their first No. 1 single. At the end of the year they made their first Kohaku appearance with "Shapes of Love."

In February 1998, the eighth single "Time Goes By" became their first million-seller (nearly 1.15 million copies), and the April album Time to Destination sold over 3.5 million. Igarashi's synthesizer-driven world, together with Mochida's voice and fashion, won over teens and twenty-somethings. The first best-of, Every Best Single +3 (March 1999), sold 2.25 million copies, after which the group went quiet, with no releases or tours, so that Igarashi could secure time for production.

Igarashi's departure and the duo era (2000s)

After "Pray/Get Into A Groove" (January 2000), "sure" (February) and the third album Eternity (March), Igarashi left in March to concentrate on producing, and from April ELT became a duo of Mochida and Ito. Ito later said the decision came without warning, just before a tour, forcing a change in sound. The pair toured acoustically for about two years to find their footing and gained more creative freedom. "Rescue me" (June 2000) was the last single Igarashi took part in, and the 16th single "Ai no Kakera" (October 2000) formally launched the two-person era.

The 17th single "Fragile" (January 1, 2001), the theme of Fuji TV's Ainori, returned them to No. 1 and sold about 830,000 copies, their second-biggest single. It topped the Oricon annual karaoke chart that year, and they stayed in the annual top 10 for three consecutive years; its coupling song "Jirenma" was used in the anime Initial D Third Stage. Their fourth album, 4 Force (March 22, 2001), was the first not to hit No. 1 but still sold over a million copies and won Album of the Year at the Japan Gold Disc Awards.

Steady hits followed, including "Untitled 4 ballads" (2002), "Mata Ashita" (2003) and "Koibumi/good night" (2004), the last of which charted surprisingly well. The fifth album Many Pieces (2003) topped the Oricon chart; its run-up included "Jump," Mochida's first attempt at composing, and "Grip!," an opening theme of the anime InuYasha. In 2005 they released the acoustic compilation Acoustic: Latte.

During the 2004-2005 Commonplace Tour, the largest in their history, Mochida developed acute bronchitis; at the Kumamoto show her voice gave out during "Fragile," and some dates were postponed. The seventh album Crispy Park followed on August 9, 2006, their tenth anniversary day, and the single "Swimmy" (October 2006) was the theme of the drama Kekkon Dekinai Otoko. They had marked the anniversary with two live shows at the Nippon Budokan on March 6-7, 2006, and the album Door (March 5, 2008) peaked at No. 2 on Oricon.

In 2009, Igarashi supplied music for the first time in nine years with "Dream Goes On," followed by "Tsumetai Ame" (November 2009), "Change" (February 2010) and the tenth album Change (March 2010), on which he again handled lyrics, composition or arrangement for several songs. The 2009-2010 "MEET" tour was their first not built around a new album, a best-hits tour.

2010s

Releases of this period include "Landscape" (2011), "ON AND ON" and "Harinezumi no Koi" (2013), the album FUN-FARE (February 2014), "ANATA TO" (2015), "KIRA KIRA / AKARI" (2015) and the album Tabitabi (September 2015). ELT celebrated its 20th anniversary on August 7, 2016 with a concert at Yoyogi National Gymnasium's Second Gymnasium, and in December released the live albums Opening Collection and Ending Collection. Afterward, the two focused on solo activities while continuing to perform live, and on August 28, 2019 they held the solo concert Every Little Thing 23rd Anniversary Concert.

2020s

Since winter 2020, Mochida, Ito and writer Tomoko Kawakami have run "Kamiawase," a regularly released fan-club-only radio program. The group put out SUMMER SELECTION and AUTUMN SELECTION in 2022 and WINTER SELECTION in 2024, and held a fan-club-only talk event in 2024. In 2025, ahead of their 30th anniversary, they announced a project to reissue all 48 single title tracks on limited 7-inch analog records, organized into 24 titles across six phases. Phase 1 came out on November 1, phase 2 on December 6, and phase 3 on April 22, 2026.

Musical style

From debut through "Pray/Get Into A Groove" in 2000, Igarashi wrote and arranged almost everything, favoring synthesizers and programming. Since his departure, Mochida writes most lyrics, while music has mainly come from composers such as Kazuhito Kikuchi, Kunio Tago and HIKARI, with Mochida and Ito occasionally composing; arrangements are often credited to Every Little Thing.

At first the duo continued in Igarashi's mold, but from "Jump" in 2001 they moved toward band sound, and from "Mata Ashita" in 2003 toward acoustic, soft-rock leaning songs with more live instrumentation. Around 2007 they began making songs built on accompaniment other than guitar, and after reuniting with Igarashi in 2009 synthesizer- and programming-based tracks returned. From about 2014 they also received songs from overseas artists, and have explored country, black contemporary, disco and jazz styles. Mochida's vocal style has shifted slightly with each album, from a clear, soothing voice to a higher, cuter one.