| Precious | |
| Type: | Studio album |
| Artist: | Cubic U |
| Cover: | CubicUPrecious.jpg |
| Released: | January 28, 1998 |
| Recorded: | August 5–20, 1996 |
| Studio: | Sony Music Studios |
| Length: | 54:42 |
| Label: | Toshiba EMI |
| Producer: | Hikaru Utada, Teruzane Utada, Fuji Keiko, Michael C. Warner, Booker T. Jones, Bert Price |
| Chronology: | Hikaru Utada |
| Next Title: | First Love |
| Next Year: | 1999 |
Precious is the debut English-language album by Cubic U released in Japan on January 28, 1998 by Toshiba EMI. It was recorded at Sony Music Studios in New York City in 1996.[1] Cubic U is both Hikaru Utada's former stage name and the name of her R&B backing band. The album was never released commercially in the United States, due to internal problems with the label EMI, and was only available to music industry insiders. Although it failed to chart on the Oricon charts at the time of its release, the album was re-released on March 31, 1999 after the huge success of Utada's First Love, reaching number two with 702,060 copies sold.
Note: Several promo copies of the album have the track "Here and There and Back Again" as track 5. This was not released physically.
| Country | Date | Version | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| Japan | January 28, 1998 | Original | Toshiba-EMI |
| March 31, 1999 | Re-release |
Precious - Oricon sales chart (Japan)
| Release | Chart | Peak position | Sales total |
|---|---|---|---|
| March 31, 1999 (re-release) | |||
| Oricon Weekly Albums Chart | 2 | 702,060 | |
| Oricon Yearly Albums Chart | 35 |