Originally formed by Murakami and Kurosawa (along with 4 other members) in 1991 as a group within a college chorus club "Street Corner Symphony" at the
University of Waseda, they recruited 3 new members in order to fill the vacancy (4 members previously left the group due to their job placement activities) for the recording of
The Gospellers, their first major label release in 1994. They spent the next 6 years working towards national recognition, releasing 13 singles and 5 albums, until they finally came up with a hit single "Towa ni", which stayed in the
Oricon chart ranking for 44 consecutive weeks in 2000 and 2001. They became the first a cappella group to be in the top 3 of the chart in Japan with their 16th single, "Hitori". In early 2006, the group made a side-project release,
Gosperats, which featured the members in
blackface and singing with more soul and jazz-like accompaniment, with
Rats & Star members
Masayuki Suzuki,
Nobuyoshi Kuwano and
Yoshio Sato, who originally, along with such a style, established the popularity of
R&B and
Doo-wop in the 1980s in Japan. In the first edition of the Japanese ice show
Fantasy on Ice in 2010, the Gospellers made an appearance as guest artists. They performed together with former
figure skater and figure skating commentator,
Junko Yaginuma, to the song "1, 2, 3 for 5" amongst others. Their single "Sky High" was used as the opening theme for the anime
Nodame Cantabile: Paris. The image song for the Japanese version of
The Wild is called "Prisoner of Love" by the band. ==Discography==