"Tears" is the ninth single by the Japanese rock band

X Japan is a Japanese Rock music, rock band from Chiba Prefecture, Chiba, formed in 1982 by drummer and pianist Yoshiki (musician), Yoshiki and lead vocalist Toshi (musician), Toshi. Starting as a predominantly power metal, power/speed metal band with ...

, released on November 10, 1993.

Overview

The song was debuted/first performed on December 31, 1992, on a broadcast of NHK's Kouhaku Uta Gassen. It is the band's first single to be released under the name X Japan and the first to feature

Heath A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and is characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a coole ...

on bass. The ballad was written and composed solely by

Yoshiki Yoshiki is a masculine Japanese given name. Written forms 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, opportuni ...

about the death of his father, but he co-credited it to the alias because he was concerned how fans would react to a softer song from the band. It would later appear on the album ''

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'' and was also used as the theme song for the Japanese TV drama . The B-side is the lyric-less classical version of the song, which was previously on Yoshiki's solo album '' Eternal Melody''. It was produced, arranged and conducted by famed music producer

George Martin Sir George Henry Martin (3 January 1926 – 8 March 2016) was an English record producer, arranger, composer, conductor, and musician. He was commonly referred to as the "fifth Beatle" because of his extensive involvement in each of the Beatle ...

and performed by the

London Philharmonic Orchestra The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is a British orchestra based in London. One of five permanent symphony orchestras in London, the LPO was founded by the conductors Thomas Beecham, Sir Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent in 1932 as a riv ...

. A live performance of "Tears" was included as the B-side to their 1996 single "

". Yoshiki's MySpace streams a different version of the song entitled "Tears (Unreleased Version)". A new version of "Tears" was reportedly recorded for X Japan's unreleased studio album, before it was decided to create entirely new material instead. The title song was covered by South Korean rock band TRAX, as a b-side on the Japanese version of their " Scorpio" single, which was produced by Yoshiki. They also covered it in

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...

on the Korean version of their aforementioned single. The song was also covered by

MC the Max M.C The MAX () is a South Korean rock band. They debuted in 2000 as a 4-member band under the name Moon Child. After the departure of member Heo Jung-min, members Lee Soo, Jeon Min-hyuk and J. Yoon regrouped in 2002 as M.C the MAX. They were in ...

in 2002, titled ''Goodbye for Now'' (잠시만 안녕). In 2004, "Tears" was used as the theme song for the film ''

Windstruck ''Windstruck'' (; "Let me introduce (you to) my girlfriend") is a 2004 South Korean romantic drama film written and directed by Kwak Jae-yong, starring Jun Ji-hyun and Jang Hyuk. The film held its premiere in Hong Kong, attended by Jang and Jun, o ...

'', becoming the first Japanese song to be featured in a Korean film after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Commercial performance

The song reached number 2 on the

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that ...

charts, and charted for 16 weeks. In 1993, with 380,150 copies sold was the 77th best-selling single of the year, and in 1994, with 456,790 copies sold was the 50th best-selling single. By July 1996, it was certified as double 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 prom ...

, making it the band's best-selling single.

Track listing

Personnel

;X Japan * Toshi – vocals * Pata – guitar *

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– guitar *

– bass *

– drums, piano, synthesizer ;Other *Co-producer – X Japan *Strings arranger, conductor –

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 ...

*Strings performer – Y&D Orchestra *Engineers – Rob Jacobs, Rich Breen, Mike Ging *Assistant engineers – Mike Stock, Tal Miller *Mixing –

Mike Shipley Michael Shipley (7 October 1956 – 25 July 2013) was an Australian mixing engineer, audio engineer, and record producer. Shipley's music career spanned more than 30 years – mostly working in Los Angeles. At the Grammy Awards of 2012 he ...

*Mastering –

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(Precision Studio)

References

X Japan songs Commemoration songs Songs written by Yoshiki (musician) Japanese television drama theme songs Heavy metal ballads 1990s ballads 1993 singles Torch songs 1993 songs {{1990s-Japan-single-stub