50% & 50%

"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. It was certified gold upon release by RIAJ.[2]

"50% & 50%"
Single by hide
from the album Hide Your Face
ReleasedAugust 5, 1993
GenreAlternative rock, hard rock
LabelMCA Victor
Songwriter(s)Yukinojo Mori, hide
Hide singles chronology
"Eyes Love You"
(1993)		 "50% & 50%"
(1993)		 "Dice"
(1994)

The single was re-released on December 12, 2007, with a new cover.[3] 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.[4]

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.[5]

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"[5]

An acoustic rendition of the song, referred to as "50% & 50% (Crystal Lake Version)", appears on hide's first studio album Hide Your Face.

In a promotional video for "Doubt", hide is backed by his future Spread Beaver bandmate I.N.A. and Jennifer Finch and Demetra "Dee" Plakas of American all-girl grunge band L7.[6]

Track listing
No.TitleLyricsMusicLength
1."50% & 50%"Yukinojo Morihide4:41
2."Doubt"hidehide4:46

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,[7] 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.[8] 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.[9] 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.[10] For Tribute VII -Rock Spirits-, released on December 18, 2013, "Doubt" was covered by The Novembers.[11] "Doubt" was covered by Hisashi and Yow-Row (Gari) for the June 6, 2018 Tribute Impulse album.[12]

References
  1. "hideのシングル売り上げランキング" (in Japanese). oricon.co.jp. Retrieved 2012-07-08.
  2. "月次認定作品 認定年月：1993年 8月" (in Japanese). RIAJ. Retrieved 2018-02-18.
  3. "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.
  4. "hide singles on vinyl". tokyohive.com. Retrieved 2010-09-27.
  5. Ichikawa, Tetsushi (December 1993). "Interview with hide". 音楽と人 [Ongaku to Hito]. Shinko Music Entertainment Co., Ltd.
  6. As seen on the 1994 A Souvenir home video release.
  7. "hide TRIBUTE SPIRITS". amazon.co.jp (in Japanese). Retrieved 2012-06-10.
  8. "hide Memorial Summit Day 2 - Part B". jame-world.com. Retrieved 2012-06-10.
  9. "Reply -tribute to hide-". cdjapan.co.jp. Retrieved 2011-12-09.
  10. "Two hide Tribute Albums to be Released Simultaneously!". musicjapanplus.jp. Retrieved 2013-05-05.
  11. "hide Tribute VII -Rock SPIRITS-". cdjapan.jp. Retrieved 2013-12-15.
  12. "hide最新トリビュート盤にHISASHI × YOW-ROW、西川貴教、MIYAVI、GRANRODEOら" (in Japanese). Barks. 2018-04-14. Retrieved 2018-04-14.
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