About

Simple and Clean is a song by Utada Hikaru and is best known as the opening song for the original Kingdom Hearts video game. In the years since the game's 2002 release, it has been used in numerous memes and remixes by fans of the game. Additionally, the song's opening lyric, "When you walk away, you don't hear me say 'Please, oh baby don't go'" has been used as a copypasta by fans expressing their love of the game.

Origin

On March 20th, 2002, Utada Hikaru released the song "Hikari"^[1] (shown below, left). They later re-recorded an English version of the song, re-titled "Simple and Clean," for the promotion of Kingdom Hearts (shown below, right). In the game's opening cinematic, a remixed version of the song by PlanitB plays.^[2]

Spread

In the years following the release of Kingdom Hearts, "Simple and Clean" has become an iconic song for fans of the game, who will often reference it in posts expressing their love of the game. For example, on July 23rd, 2015, ProZD posted a Vine about watching the Kingdom Hearts III trailer dismissively but immediately breaking into singing "Simple and Clean" (shown below, left). Similarly, on July 15th, 2017, Tumblr user xcutelittleartx^[3] posted art of themselves watching the Kingdom Hearts III trailer and bursting into the song (shown below, right).

The song has also been widely parodied. For example, on September 23rd, 2018, YouTuber Scrubadub dubs posted a parody in which Donald Duck sings the song, gaining over 2.5 million views (shown below, left). Similarly, on November 18th, 2019, YouTuber Jordan Sweeto LIVE posted a parody in which Goofy sings the song, gaining over 67,000 views (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References