Ever Free

"Ever Free"
Cover of the 2007 re-release.
Single by hide with Spread Beaver
from the album Ja, Zoo
Released	May 27, 1998
Genre	Alternative rock
Label	Universal Victor
Writer(s)	hide
Certification	Triple Platinum
hide with Spread Beaver singles chronology
"Pink Spider" (1998) "Ever Free" (1998) "Hurry Go Round" (1998)

"Ever Free" is the tenth single by Japanese musician hide, the third to bear the hide with Spread Beaver name, released on May 27, 1998. It debuted at number one on the Oricon chart, replacing his previous single "Pink Spider", and was the 23rd best-selling single of the year and certified Triple Platinum by the RIAJ.

On May 2, 2007, the single was re-released.^[1] On December 8, 2010, it was re-released again as part of the third releases in "The Devolution Project", which was a release of hide's original eleven singles on picture disc vinyl.^[2]

Track listing

All songs written and composed by hide.

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Ever Free"	3:39
2.	"Ever Free (Voiceless Version)"	3:51
3.	Untitled (hidden track)	6:10

• The hidden untitled third track begins with 5 minutes and 13 seconds of silence, representing May 13, the date "Pink Spider" was released, before playing a piece of that song.

Personnel

• hide – vocals, guitar, bass
• Joe – drums
• Eric Westfall – mixing engineer, recording engineer (at Sunset Sound)
• S. Husky Höskulds – assistant engineer (Sunset Sound Factory)
• Daiei Matsumoto – recording engineer (at Hitokuchizaka-Studio)
• Kazuhiko Inada – recording engineer
• Hiroshi Nemoto – assistant engineer (Hitokuchizaka-Studio)
• Kevin Dean – assistant engineer (Sunset Sound)

Personnel per Ja, Zoo liner notes.^[3]

Reception

"Ever Free" debuted at number one on the Japanese Oricon weekly charts, replacing his previous single "Pink Spider", with sales of over 516,000 in the initial week.^[4] By the end of the year it sold 842,440 copies and was the 23rd best-selling single of the year,^[5] being certified Triple Platinum by the RIAJ.

Cover versions

The song was covered by Transtic Nerve on the 1999 hide tribute album Tribute Spirits.^[6]

It was also covered live by DJ Ozma at the hide memorial summit on May 3, 2008.^[7]

An instrumental version of the song was included in the soundtrack of the movie Attitude, which was scored by hide's former X bandmate Taij.^[8]

The track was covered by defspiral, which is composed of four of the five former members of Transtic Nerve, for the Tribute II -Visual Spirits- tribute album and by Born for Tribute III -Visual Spirits-, both albums were released on July 3, 2013.^[9]

Yuki Koyanagi recorded a version for Tribute VI -Female Spirits-, released on December 18, 2013.^[10]

References

1. "hideの"誕生会"今年も開催決定!!". barks.jp (in Japanese). Retrieved 2011-06-26.
2. "hide singles on vinyl". tokyohive.com. Retrieved 2011-06-26.
3. Ja, Zoo liner notes, 1998-11-21. Retrieved 2013-01-27
4. "Oricon Weekly Single Charts for the second week of June 1998" (in Japanese). Oricon. Retrieved 2009-12-26.
5. "What's This Year - Music 1998" (in Japanese). interq.or.jp. Retrieved 2004-07-16.
6. "hide TRIBUTE SPIRITS". amazon.co.jp (in Japanese). Retrieved 2012-06-10.
7. "hide Memorial Summit Day 1 - Part A". jame-world.com. Retrieved 2012-06-10.
8. "Attitude Original Soundtrack". cdjapan.co.jp. Retrieved 2013-04-06.
9. "Two hide Tribute Albums to be Released Simultaneously!". musicjapanplus.jp. Retrieved 2013-05-05.
10. "hide Tribute VI -Female SPIRITS-". cdjapan.jp. Retrieved 2013-12-15.