"Eyes Love You" is the debut single by Japanese musician hide, released on August 5, 1993. It reached number 3 on the

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in Nov ...

chart. His second single " 50% & 50%" was released on the same day. Both singles' covers are identical except; "Eyes Love You" is green, whereas "50% & 50%" is red. They form a 3D picture when they are placed side by side. It was certified gold upon release by

RIAJ The is an industry trade group composed of Japanese corporations involved in the music industry. It was founded in 1942 as the Japan Phonogram Record Cultural Association, and adopted its current name in 1969. The RIAJ's activities include p ...

Background

hide embarked on a solo career in 1993 due to the downtime in

X Japan was a Japanese rock band from Chiba, formed in 1982 by drummer and pianist Yoshiki and lead vocalist Toshi. Starting as a predominantly power/speed metal band with heavy symphonic elements, they later gravitated towards a progressive soun ...

. 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. 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. In a notable August 11, 1993 performance of the song on the

NHK , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestr ...

television show ''Pop Jam'', hide was backed by his future Spread Beaver bandmate I.N.A. and

Jennifer Finch Jennifer Finch (born August 5, 1966) is an American musician, designer, and photographer most notable for being the primary bass player of the punk rock band L7. Active in L7 from 1986 to 1996, Finch also wrote music and performed with her band ...

and Demetra "Dee" Plakas of American all-girl grunge band L7. The music video for "Eyes Love You" won the

1994 MTV Video Music Awards The 1994 MTV Video Music Awards aired live on September 8, 1994, honoring the best music videos from June 16, 1993, to June 15, 1994. The show was hosted by Roseanne Barr at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, and this would be the last time ...

' Japan Prize.

Releases

"Eyes Love You" and " 50% & 50%" were both released on August 5, 1993 by MCA Victor, as hide's first solo works. Although he previously collaborated with J and

Inoran , better known exclusively by his stage name Inoran, is a Japanese musician, singer and songwriter. He is best known as the rhythm guitarist and co-founder of the rock band Luna Sea since 1986. He started his solo career in 1997. Luna Sea disba ...

to contribute the song "Frozen Bug" to the ''Dance 2 Noise 004'' compilation under the group name "M*A*S*S". A slightly different version of "Eyes Love You" subtitled "T.T. Version" appears on his first studio album, ''

Hide Your Face ''Hide Your Face'' is the debut album by Japanese musician hide, released on February 23, 1994. It reached number 1 on the Oricon Albums Chart and was certified Double Platinum by the RIAJ for sales over 500,000 copies. It was named one of the ...

''. A remix appears as the B-side to his third single "

Dice Dice (singular die or dice) are small, throwable objects with marked sides that can rest in multiple positions. They are used for generating random values, commonly as part of tabletop games, including dice games, board games, role-playing g ...

". On December 12, 2007, the single was re-released with a new cover. 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 Picture discs are gramophone (phonograph) records that show images on their playing surface, rather than being of plain black or colored vinyl. Collectors traditionally reserve the term picture disc for records with graphics that extend at lea ...

vinyl.

Track listing

Cover versions

The song was covered by,

K.A.Z , known exclusively by his stage name K.A.Z, is a Japanese musician and songwriter. He is known for his work with Oblivion Dust, hide with Spread Beaver and Vamps. Career K.A.Z originally wanted to be a drummer, but drums were too expensive. H ...

and I.N.A.'s band, Sonic Storage feat. Kōshi from Flow, on the 2006 Yukinojo Mori tribute album ''Words of Yukinojo''. The title track was covered by A on the ''Tribute III -Visual Spirits-'' tribute album, while "Oblaat" was covered by GotchaRocka on ''Tribute II -Visual Spirits-'', both released on July 3, 2013. For ''Tribute VII -Rock Spirits-'', released on December 18, 2013, it was covered by Yukinojo Mori, who wrote the lyrics to the song back in 1993, with Buck-Tick guitarist

Imai Hisashi is a Japanese musician and songwriter. He is known as lead guitarist of the rock band Buck-Tick since 1983. He has also performed in musical side-projects such as Schaft (1991–1994, 2015), Schwein (2001), and more recently Lucy (2004). Car ...

and titled "Eyes Love You~Ver.2013". "Eyes Love You" was covered by Breakerz for the June 6, 2018 ''Tribute Impulse'' album.

References

External links

* {{authority control Hide (musician) songs 1993 debut singles 1993 songs Torch songs Songs written by hide (musician) Songs written by Yukinojo Mori