50% & 50%
| "50% & 50%" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by hide | ||||
| from the album Hide Your Face | ||||
| Released | August 5, 1993 | |||
| Format | Mini CD | |||
| Genre | Alternative rock, hard rock | |||
| Label | MCA Victor | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Yukinojo Mori, hide | |||
| hide singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"50% & 50%" is the second single by Japanese musician hide, released on August 5, 1993. It reached number 6 on the Oricon chart.[1] His first single "Eyes Love You" was released on the same day. Both singles' covers are identical except; "50% & 50%" is red, whereas "Eyes Love You" is green. They form a 3D picture when they are placed side by side.
The single was re-released on December 12, 2007, with a new cover.[2] On April 28, 2010, it was re-released again as part of the first releases in "The Devolution Project", which was a release of hide's original eleven singles on picture disc vinyl.[3]
Background
hide embarked on a solo career in 1993 due to the downtime in X Japan. Initially wanting to hire several different vocalists because he was unsure of his own voice, he eventually began taking vocal lessons from Toshi's coach and sang the material himself.[4]
Wanting to contrast something unusual with a pop background, hide hired Yukinojo Mori to pen the lyrics to his first two A-sides. As a kid, hide was fond of Bow Wow's 1982 album Warning from Stardust, where the A-side songs had lyrics in English and the B-side in Japanese. Liking the Japanese lyrics better, hide only realized Mori was their author afterwards. "50% & 50%" was written after the A-side and B-side on "Eyes Love You"[4]
An acoustic rendition of the song, referred to as the "Crystal Lake Version", appears on hide's first studio album Hide Your Face.
Track listing
| No. | Title | Lyrics | Music | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "50% & 50%" | Yukinojo Mori | hide | 4:41 |
| 2. | "Doubt" | hide | hide | 4:46 |
Cover versions
hide's latter band Zilch recorded an English version of "Doubt" for their 1998 album 3.2.1.. The song was then covered by Buck-Tick on the 1999 hide tribute album Tribute Spirits,[5] they have performed the cover live at their concerts. It was also covered live by the Underneath at the hide memorial summit on May 4, 2008.[6] defspiral, which is composed of four of the five former members of the Underneath, covered it for their hide tribute maxi single "Reply -Tribute to hide-" in 2011.[7] The title track was covered by Mix Speaker's,Inc. on the Tribute II -Visual Spirits- tribute album, while "Doubt" was covered by Machine (duo of Spread Beaver's Kiyoshi and Penicillin's Hakuei) on it and by D=Out on Tribute III -Visual Spirits-, both albums were released on July 3, 2013.[8] For Tribute VII -Rock Spirits-, released on December 18, 2013, "Doubt" was covered by The Novembers.[9]
References
- ↑ "hideのシングル売り上げランキング" (in Japanese). oricon.co.jp. Retrieved 2012-07-08.
- ↑ "hideの8cmシングル12cm化シリーズ第３弾、ついにリリース！". barks.jp (in Japanese). Retrieved 2011-06-26.
- ↑ "hide singles on vinyl". tokyohive.com. Retrieved 2010-09-27.
- 1 2 Ichikawa, Tetsushi (December 1993). "Interview with hide". 音楽と人 [Ongaku to Hito]. Shinko Music Entertainment Co., Ltd.
- ↑ "hide TRIBUTE SPIRITS". amazon.co.jp (in Japanese). Retrieved 2012-06-10.
- ↑ "hide Memorial Summit Day 2 - Part B". jame-world.com. Retrieved 2012-06-10.
- ↑ "Reply -tribute to hide-". cdjapan.co.jp. Retrieved 2011-12-09.
- ↑ "Two hide Tribute Albums to be Released Simultaneously!". musicjapanplus.jp. Retrieved 2013-05-05.
- ↑ "hide Tribute VII -Rock SPIRITS-". cdjapan.jp. Retrieved 2013-12-15.