50% & 50%

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.

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"

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.

Track listing

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

References

References

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