Endless Rain

"Endless Rain" is the fourth single released by Japanese heavy metal band X Japan (then named X) on December 1, 1989. It is their second single on a major record label and reached number 3 on the Oricon chart. Summary The title track is taken from the group's breakthrough album Blue Blood, and is their first ballad released as a single. The B-side is a live version of the song "X", recorded on June 10, 1989 at Hibiya Yagai Ongaku. Yoshiki said that "Endless Rain" is the first ballad he ever wrote, previously he was only writing heavy music and thrash metal. He explained that after members of Sony saw him play a composition by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky on piano while X was waiting to play at a club, they asked him to write a ballad. The resulting song was "Endless Rain". Yoshiki said the song became a hit and was a shock to their fans, but they eventually came to like it and it became "X Japan's theme song." Rolling Stone referred to the song as "November Rain, minus the bullshit" and called it X's first big chart hit.