| Game | Genre |  |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TDM (US) |  | ★1 78 | ★1 140 | ★2 226 | ★2 226 | - |
| TDM (JP) | | ★1 78 | ★1 140 | ★2 226 | ★2 282 | - |
| TDM (US) (2P) | | - | - | - | ★2 183/165 | - |
105
ag (American Girls)It's kinda silly how we dodged the OG American Taiko release by definition when the United States' Independence Day rolled around SotW shores in the past, so I guess that the third time HAS to be the charm!
American Girls is one of the shared licenses across the Japanese and English versions of Taiko Drum Master, the second track from 2002's Hard Candy studio album with backing vocals by Sheryl Suzanne Crow. This was one of the more popular 'radio songs' from Californian roots/pop rock Counting Crows, founded in 1991 and named after the popular British nursery rhyhme 'One for Sorrow', linking future divination with the counting of wild magpies (also in the same family of crows). This Berkley-based band was founded in San Francisco as an acoustic duo gig consisting of producer/guitarist David Bryson and Adam Duritz, former vocalist frontman of the San Francisco act The Himalayans, eventually filling the ranks for bassist/drummer seats with a number of different performers across the years. Counting Crows is still active to this day, with their latest studio album based on a series of 2024 EPs -Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets!- datng as back as May 2025!
The highest charting peaks bolstered by American Girls are to be found in Ireland (47th at IRMA), Scotland and England singles (38th and 33rd, for their respective OCC charts) and the United States, climbing to the peak of Billboard's Adult Alternative Airplay charts and storing a respectable 24th place for the US Adult Pop Airplay one. Not too shabby, for one of the Academy Awards contenders for 2004's Best Original Song in movies!
The treatment of American Girls Across Taiko Drum Master(s) was the same as some of the other shared licenses: Muzukashii and Oni sharing the same charts for the English release, while Japan got its unique, backbeat-based Oni challenge for a more engaging solo drum-through. One thing the Land of the Rising Sun didn't get with this song,however, was an exclusive 2-players charting job on Oni!
