"Forever Love" is the fourteenth single by Japanese heavy metal band

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 ...

, released on July 8, 1996.

Summary

The song was written and composed by

Yoshiki Yoshiki is a masculine Japanese given name. Possible writings Yoshiki can be written using many different combinations of kanji characters. Here are some examples: *義樹, "justice, tree" *義基, "justice, foundation" *義機, "justice, opportu ...

. An acoustic version appears on their album ''

Dahlia Dahlia (, ) is a genus of bushy, tuberous, herbaceous perennial plants native to Mexico and Central America. A member of the Asteraceae (former name: Compositae) family of dicotyledonous plants, its garden relatives thus include the sunflower, ...

''. The single has been reissued several times. On December 18, 1997, following the announcement of the band's breakup, a different mixed version was released with a live version of "

Longing Longing may refer to: Music * ''Longing'' (Bell Witch album) (2012) * ''Longing'' (Dusty Springfield album), an unreleased 1974 album * "Longing" (song), a 1994 song by X Japan * "Longing", a song by Gackt from '' Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantas ...

" (recorded at " The Last Live" concert) as a B-side. The original single was reissued again on July 22, 1998, after the death of guitarist hide. A single containing all previous versions (except original karaoke version), as well as a live recording (also recorded at " The Last Live" concert) of the song was released on July 11, 2001. Also in 2001, the song was used as background music in several commercials for the

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese Liberal Democratic Party. LDP member

Junichiro Koizumi Junichiro Koizumi (; , ''Koizumi Jun'ichirō'' ; born 8 January 1942) is a former Japanese politician who was Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 2001 to 2006. He retired from politics in 2009. He is ...

, at that time the country's

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

has expressed fondness for

's music. "Forever Love" appears on the

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...

of the 1996 animated feature film '' X''. In 2012, "Forever Love" was covered by both Mr. Big singer Eric Martin in ''

Mr. Rock Vocalist ''Mr. Rock Vocalist'' is the tenth studio album by American singer-songwriter Eric Martin (musician), Eric Martin, released on October 10, 2012, exclusively in Japan by Sony Music Entertainment Japan, Sony Music Japan. The album features English-l ...

'' and

Megamasso was a Japanese visual kei rock band. Their sound was lively and upbeat, with a unique mix of punk, piano ballads and pop rock. Formerly signed to NXSIE Records, they are now connected to Avex Group's HPQ label. Since the release of "SWAN SONG", ...

singer Inzargi in ''Visualist: Precious Hits of V-Rock Cover Song'' for their respective cover albums. Awoi covered it for the compilation album ''Counteraction - V-Rock covered Visual Anime songs Compilation-'', which was released on May 23, 2012 and features covers of songs by

visual kei is a movement among Japanese musicians that is characterized by the use of varying levels of make-up, elaborate hair styles and flamboyant costumes, often, but not always, coupled with androgynous aesthetics, similar to Western glam rock. Som ...

bands that were used in

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

Death metal Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking; deep growling vocals; aggressive, powerful drumming, feat ...

band Gyze included a cover of the song on the Japanese edition of their 2019 album ''Asian Chaos''. It was also covered by

Mary's Blood was a Japanese all-female heavy metal band from Tokyo, formed in 2009 by four former members of Destrose. It consisted of vocalist Eye, drummer Mari, guitarist Saki and bassist Rio since 2012. After releasing three EPs as an independent band, ...

for their 2020 cover album ''Re>Animator'', and by

Mayo Suzukaze , known by her stage name is a Japanese actress from Ishinomaki. Suzukaze has also done some voice work as a voice actress, namely as the voice of Himura Kenshin in ''Rurouni Kenshin''. She was previously a Takarazuka Revue stage actress and the ...

for her 2021 album ''Fairy ~A・I~ Ai''. In 2019, the city of

Tateyama, Chiba is a city located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 44,865 in 20,558 households and a population density of 410 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Tateyama is located at the far sou ...

(where Yoshiki and Toshi were born) decided to change the departure signal of trains at Tateyama Station to "Forever Love".

Alternative covers

Image:Foreverlovelastmix.jpg, 1997 reissue Image:X lovere1.jpg, 1998 reissue Image:X loverere.jpg, 2001 reissue

Commercial performance

The single reached number 1 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 ...

charts, and charted for 15 weeks. In 1996, with 509,920 copies sold was the 47th best-selling single of the year, being certified Platinum 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 ...

. The edition released in 1997 reached number 13, and charted for 11 weeks, while those in 1998 and 2001 reached number 18 and 19 respectively, and both charted for 4 weeks.

Track listing

Personnel

*Co-Producer – X Japan *Orchestra arranged by – Yoshiki,

Dick Marx Richard Henry Marx (April 12, 1924 – August 12, 1997) was an American jazz pianist and arranger. He also composed for film, television, and commercials. Personal life Marx and wife Ruth (née Guildoo) had a son, Richard Marx, pop singer, s ...

Shelly Berg Shelton "Shelly" Glen Berg (born August 18, 1955) is an American classical and jazz pianist and music educator. He is the dean of the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida and the school's Patricia L. Frost P ...

*Scored by – Tom Halm *Orchestra –

American Symphony Orchestra The American Symphony Orchestra is a New York-based American orchestra founded in 1962 by Leopold Stokowski whose mission is to demystify orchestral music and make it accessible and affordable for all audiences. Leon Botstein is the orchestra's m ...

*Mixed by – Mike Ging *Recorded by – Mike Ging, Rich Breen, Stan Katayama, Kazuhiko Inada *Assistant engineers – Tal Miller, C.J. Devillar, Dokk Knight, Carl Nappa, Paul Falcone *Mastered by –

Stephen Marcussen Stephen Marcussen is the founder and chief mastering engineer at Marcussen Mastering in Hollywood, California, United States. He has been mastering music since 1979. Biography Marcussen's introduction to music recording happened in 1976 when, at ...

(Precision Studio) *A&R directed by – Osamu Nagashima *Art directed by – Shige#11 *Executive producers – Ryuzo "Jr." Kosugi, Yukitaka Mashimo *Acoustic guitar – Bill Whiteacre ("Forever Love (Last Mix)")

References

{{authority control X Japan songs Songs written by Yoshiki (musician) Oricon Weekly number-one singles Heavy metal ballads 1990s ballads 1996 singles Anime songs Songs written for films 1996 songs Torch songs