Best of Soulis the second Japanesecompilation albumby South Korean recording artistBoA.This is her first greatest hits album to contain her Japanese songs. The album was released on February 2, 2005, underAvex Trax.
The album contains singles from her debut Japanese album,Listen to My Heart(2002) to her third album,Love & Honesty(2004). It also contains two singles that were released for the album, "Quincy / Kono Yo no Shirushi"and"Meri Kuri".The album was released in two versions; the regular strandedCDversion and a "perfect" version, which was packaged with a DVD that contained a few of hermusic videos.
Best of Soulwas commercially successful in Japan, becoming BoA's fourth album to attain the number one position. It was certified million by theRecording Industry Association of Japan(RIAJ) and became her third album to have been certified million, followingListen to My Heart(2002) andValenti(2003).[1]It has since sold a total of 1,100,000 copies.
Best of Soulwas released nearly one year after her third studio album,Love & Honesty.In order to promote the album BoA released two singles "Quincy / Kono Yo no Shirushi"and"Meri Kuri".The former debuted at number four on theOriconsingle chart while the latter debuted at number five.[2][3]
Best of Soulranked number one of theOricon Albums Chartselling 489,067 copies in its first week.[4]The album later sold 1,003,000 copies in May 2005 which made BoA the only non-Japanese Asian singer to have two albums that sold over a million copies in Japan. The first album to do so was her second studio album,Valentiwhich was released two years prior.[5]
By the end of the year,Best of Soulsold a total of 1,060,039 copies in Japan according to Oricon, making it the ninth best-selling album of 2005.[6]It remained the last album by a foreign artist to have sold over 1 million copies in Japan for 16 years untilBTS, the Bestin 2021, which sold over 1,120,000 copies.[7]
^"2005.03월 – 가요 음반 판매량"[March 2005 Domestic Album Sales]. Recording Industry Association of Korea. 2005. Archived fromthe originalon September 20, 2005.RetrievedNovember 1,2014.
^"2005년 – POP 총결산 음반 판매량"[2005 International Album Sales]. Recording Industry Association of Korea. 2006. Archived fromthe originalon November 12, 2008.RetrievedNovember 1,2014.